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Pete. How does it feel right now, about one hour after the final encore?
PT:– I’m happy. A little tired, maybe. Everyone played on the edge and I sincerly hope we’ll be able to play it again soon.
Pete. Why did you want to rearrange this rock opera into music performed by traditional opera singers and a symphony orchestra?
PT:– I asked Rachel Fuller to give me an orchestral rendering of the music from the Who album, and this was intended for a folio to be stored for the future. I have commissioned a few of these ‘folios’, and in all cases I want full orchestral arrangements. I have my three Mini-Operas almost ready, and I am currently reviewing how to go about dealing with “Tommy”.
– Rachel made very fine computer demos of each song from Q, and did one test session with the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra and these were heard by the President of Deutsche Grammophon who commissioned the recording with the RPO suggested singer Alfie Boe.
Pete. What classical composers have inspired you to explore a new musical landscape?
PT:– I’ve listened to a wide range of classical music throughout my life. Most Who fans will know that my mentor Kit Lambert introduced me to the English composer Henry Purcell, I was just 19 years old. I was greatly inspired by Purcell. Later I intrigued by Wagner. He found a new way of presenting music on stage, and telling stories (which often had wide-ranging mythical and spiritual function).
– I think artists like Bjork and Kanye West are experimenting with taking their music to the level of art installation. So I would like to help create a show of some kind that worked like that. In the past I’ve tried to develop new technologies on my own, bringing The Who in only at the last moment. For this to work in the modern world I would need to work quite selflessly I think, in a large team of creative people many of whom may well be much, much younger than myself.
Rachel. You orchestrated "Classical Quadrophenia". Did you have any doubts about it in the first place?
RF:– Happily I didn’t have any doubts – I was excited from the very beginning to be taking on such an immense work and I felt very supported throughout the whole process because I was able to confer.
Pete. Are there any contemporary rock/pop/soul artist that you like and inspire you?
PT: – I like a lot of new music. I think I am alone in that for a man of my age! I was probably listening to Avicii before Madonna because I found him on a YouTube video talking about the music software he uses, and I liked his music. I have recently discovered Luke Thompson from New Zealand. Like me he wrote a song called ‘Water’, which is how I found him. He’s wonderful, a little like Ben Howard. But in R&B I love the complex studio production techniques used by younger producers. I also like a lot of Electronica. It is where most real innovation is happening. I do like to go into a studio and just play a song, recording it to an old fashioned tape machine, but people have been doing this for so long – it’s hard to do anything that sounds new.
Pete. You are still playing with the Who, big shows, even though there are only two original members left. Is it as fun as it used to be? What is the challenge playing songs like “The kids are alright” or “My generation”?
PT:– It was never ‘fun’, not to me. It is not fun now either. What I enjoy is that this is a job I can do, I do it well, and I find it very easy. There is absolutely no challenge in it for me at all. I don’t have to jump around if I don’t want to, and I don’t even have to pretend to be a windmill (but of course I do. It’s such an easy way to make the audience cheer!)
Pete. My favorite Who song from the sixties is “Substitute”. Which one would you pick?
PT:– “I Can See For Miles”. I worked so hard on the song and for the period it was probably Kit Lambert’s best production.
Pete. Did you ever think that you at the age of 70 still would play songs like" Happy Jack" or" Pictures of Lily”?
PT:– I’m not joking when I say that if I had thought I would still be playing all this stuff when I was 70 I’d probably have killed myself. What I would not have known was that I would be reaching new, younger people with the same songs. In Paris the standing part of the venue was filled with fans who were generally younger than 30 years old. Some were young teenagers. This doesn’t make me young. It doesn’t make me feel young. But it makes me feel the music is still relevant.
– Most of what I’ve written (and most Who recordings) qualify as heavy rock or prog-rock. But the early stuff featured a lot of light-hearted pop, but often with quite serious hidden themes.” Pictures of Lily” is not only about pornography (which is a modern internet addiction for many young men, and for young women too as ‘selfie’ subjects) but about a young man who through his father’s advice ends up preferring sexual fantasy to real love. It sounds like a silly song, but it’s a profoundly serious subject. The same is true of “I’m a boy”, about transsexual issues for young men.
Rachel.You orchestrated the whole piece. Is there any musical difference between orchestrated and arranged?
RH:– I think orchestrated is specific meaning “arranged for orchestra” whereas arranged is a more general term – a piece of rock music could be “arranged” as a jazz trio – a brass band – a piano and cello duet etc.
Will this rock/symphony-musical conquer the world. Or is it taylormade for Great Britain?
RH:– Haha – I don’t think it will conquer the world – but I like to think it will be accepted and enjoyed in may different countries – there is a “britishness” in the arranging I guess – but I think all music is universal.
How many years have you worked on this project? Would you do it again?
RH:– Honestly – I worked on this project for two years – but this was not consistent – there were many breaks so it was little stop start -
Rachel. Pete was a mod in the sixties. Were you a mod or a rocker in the 80s?
– That’s a brilliant question because at the start of the 80s I was 7 years old and I’m pretty sure I was wearing dungarees, climbing trees and wishing I was a boy – but I would have been a mod. I would have had lots of rocker friends though!
Rachel. I understand that you are a couple since many years. How has it been to work, arrange and write music together?
– It been lovely – easy – and fulfilling
Will there be more music for the company Townshend/Fuller? More small pieces or another opera?
– Im sure there will be. I enjoy working with Pete and his compositions, we’re already talking about another project. Watch this space. Thank you for taking your time.