Book Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend is the English guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the Who and wrote the bulk of its catalogue, standing beside singer Roger Daltrey since the 1960s. Born in May 1945 in Chiswick, West London, he became one of rock's defining writers of the 1960s and 1970s, credited with the band's two rock operas, Tommy (1969) and Quadrophenia (1973), and with much of Who's Next (1971), whose songs remain classic-rock radio fixtures. Over his career he has penned the core of twelve Who studio albums plus a deep catalogue for his own solo records. He is self-taught on a long list of instruments, from keyboards and banjo to mandolin, violin and drums, and his windmill guitar attack became a stage move countless guitarists have copied. Honours include a Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Who in 1990, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 and Kennedy Center Honors in 2008. He continues to write and perform with the Who.