VIA PRESS RELEASE | On October 30th The Who will release a new version of last year’s album WHO featuring an updated version of “Beads On One String” newly remixed by Pete Townshend and acoustic tracks from the band’s only live shows of 2020. WHO was originally released November 22, 2019 and debuted at #2 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album chart. The songs on the deluxe version of WHO were recorded in Kingston earlier this year 50 years to the day from The Who’s seminal show at Leeds which became the infamous live album Live At Leeds.
The deluxe version of WHO is preceded on October 5th by “Beads On One String (Yaggerdang Remix).” Of this new version of the song Pete Townshend says “This is a cowrite with Josh Hunsacker who I met on Soundcloud. He wrote the music, I wrote the lyric and vocal melody. In 1932 on a visit to London the spiritual master Meher Baba said that he had come to draw all the religions of the world together like beads on one string. We wait in hope, with love.”
The Who are one of the top three greatest rock legacies in music history with 9 US & 10 UK top ten albums and 14 UK top ten singles. They have played over well over 2000 gigs in a career spanning over 50 years including venues such as Woodstock, Monterey Pop, Glastonbury (twice), Hyde Park (four times), The Isle Of Wight (three times), the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, Desert Trip, Shea Stadium, The Superbowl half time show and Live Aid to name but a very few.
The band is in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the UK Music Hall Of Fame, and has lifetime achievement awards from The Brits and The Grammys and in 2008 were the first rock band ever to be awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. Emerging in the mid-1960s as a new and incendiary force in rock n’ roll, their brash style and poignant storytelling garnered them one of music’s most passionate followings, with the legendary foursome blazing a searing new template for rock, punk, and everything after.
Inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990, the band has placed 27 top-forty singles in the United States and United Kingdom and earning 17 Top Ten albums, including the 1969 groundbreaking rock opera Tommy, 1971’s pummeling Live At Leeds, 1973’s Quadrophenia, and 1978’s Who Are You. The Who debuted in 1964 with a trio of anthems “I Can’t Explain,” “The Kids Are Alright,” and “My Generation.” Since then they have delivered to the world hits such as “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Pinball Wizard,” Who Are You,” and,” You Better You Bet.”
In 2008, they became the first rock band ever to be awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. The Who has performed all over the world including global music events for the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show in 2010 and closing the Summer Olympics in 2012. The Who continued their charity work by playing a concert in January 2011 to raise money for trials of a new cancer treatment called PDT. In December 2012 they performed at the Hurricane Sandy Benefit in New York.
Alongside his groundbreaking work with the Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK, in November 2012 Daltrey, with Townshend at his side, launched Teen Cancer America, $1 from each ticket sold for the 2019 MOVING ON! TOUR which each night features a full orchestra benefited Teen Cancer America.
With both Roger and Pete delivering their own memoirs in recent years (Pete’s Who I Am was released to much acclaim in 2012, and Roger’s autobiography, Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite; My Story, was embraced by critics in 2018) it’s fitting that the two remaining WHO members have shared their incredible legacy in literary fashion, for few bands have had a more lasting impact on the rock era and the reverberating pop culture than The Who.
