The Who’s Pete Townshend launches first novel

After penning best-selling albums such as “Tommy” and soundtracks like “Quadrophenia” with legendary rock band The Who, guitarist Pete Townshend has now written his first novel, which he says draws on his own experiences with drugs.

At the London launch on Thursday of his debut work of fiction, Townshend, 74, said the book — entitled “The Age of Anxiety” — contained “a lot of autobiographical stuff.”


“I observed a lot of things,” he said, evoking his relationship with drugs, as well as his abandonment as a child by his parents.

The novel’s cast of characters include a former rock star turned hermit who paints apocalyptic scenes, and an art dealer with drug-induced demonic visions.

Townshend, The Who’s main songwriter, said he had waited until now to become a novelist because “I don’t think I felt qualified”.

But he already has plans to turn the book into a rock opera, which he hopes to stage in 2021.


“I wrote the book just so that I could write a libretto!” he said.

“My dream as an art student was to combine all these fantastic courses that I had.”

With its four members, Townshend, singer Roger Daltrey, bass player John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon, The Who ran up scores of hits in the late 1960s and 1970s, including “Pinball Wizard” and “My Generation”.

Moon died of a drug overdose in 1978 and Entwistle from a heart attack in 2002.

The band, still fronted by Daltrey and Townshend, will release its first album in 13 years, entitled simply “WHO”, on December 6. NVG

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Former Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King dies at age 68

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ed King, a former guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd who helped write several of the group’s hits including “Sweet Home Alabama”, has died in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a family friend. He was 68.

Scott Coopwood said King died Wednesday due to cancer. Funeral arrangements had not yet been announced Thursday.

King joined the band in 1972 and was part of its first three albums with its distinct three-guitar sound.


He is credited on several of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s songs, including “Saturday Night Special” and “Workin’ for MCA”, and his voice can be heard providing the opening count on “Sweet Home Alabama”. The song was a response to Neil Young’s songs “Southern Man” and “Alabama”, which focused on the Southern white man’s rise on the back of slavery. The song is now considered a Southern anthem played often at sporting events and was used for a time on Alabama license plates.

“Ed was our brother, and a great songwriter and guitar player,” said Gary Rossington, a founding member of the band. “I know he will be reunited with the rest of the boys in Rock and Roll Heaven”.

King left the band two years before a plane crash killed singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines in 1977. He rejoined the group 10 years later when it reunited with Johnny Van Zant taking his brother’s place and played with the band until he retired in 1996 due to heart problems. He had a heart transplant in 2011.

King was also an original member of the California psychedelic group Strawberry Alarm Clock, which had a hit that King co-wrote called “Incense and Peppermints” in 1967. CC

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Eric Clapton struggles to play guitar due to nerve damage

One of the most iconic guitarists of all time, Eric Clapton, now can hardly play the instrument that launched his rise to superstardom.

The 71-year old “Tears in Heaven” singer has been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, a type of nerve damage that can cause muscle weakness, tingling and numbness in a person’s arms and legs.

Clapton detailed his ongoing battle with the nervous system ailment, which has reportedly made it difficult  for him to even hold a guitar.

“I’ve had quite a lot of pain over the last year. It started with lower back pain, and turned into what they call peripheral neuropathy–which is where you feel like you have electric shocks going down your leg,” he was quoted as saying in an article in the Telegraph. “And I’ve had to figure out how to deal with some other things from getting old.’’

Despite being hampered by health concerns, Clapton released his 23rd studio album entitled “Still Do” last month, but has quit touring since it “has become quite unbearable.”

“[It’s] hard work to play the guitar and I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that it will not improve,” he said.

“What I’ll allow myself to do, within reason, is carry on recording in the studio. I don’t want to go off the boil to the point where I’m embarrassing myself.”

Clapton, whose career started alongside John Mayall, Cream and the first “super-group” Blind Faith, admitted living the typical rock star life during his heyday until it has taken a toll on his body.

“Because I’m in recovery from alcoholism and addiction to substances, I consider it a great thing to be alive at all. By rights I should have kicked the bucket a long time ago,” he was quoted as saying.

“For some reason I was plucked from the jaws of hell and given another chance,” he added.

Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine’s greatest guitarists of all time and is the only person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times.

His most notable songs include “Tears in Heaven,” which was written after the death of his son in 1991, while “Layla” was recorded in 1970 with his band Derek and the Dominos. Khristian Ibarrola

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Johnny Winter, legendary blues guitarist, dies at 70 during European tour

GENEVA — Texas blues icon Johnny Winter, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and ‘70s for his energetic performances and musical collaborations including with childhood hero Muddy Waters, has died. He was 70.

His representative, Carla Parisi, confirmed Thursday that Winter died in a hotel room in Zurich a day earlier. The statement said his wife, family and bandmates were all saddened by the loss of one of the world’s finest guitarists.

He had been on an extensive tour this year that brought him to Europe. His last performance came Saturday at the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Austria.


Winter was one of the most popular live acts of the early 1970s, when his signature fast blues guitar solos attracted a wide following.

His career received a big boost early on when Rolling Stone magazine singled him out as one of the best blues guitarists on the Texas scene. This helped secure a substantial recording contract from Columbia Records and gave him a wide following among college students and young blues fans.



 The magazine later named him one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Winter, who was instantly recognizable for his long white hair, worked with some of the greatest bluesmen, producing several albums for Waters and recording with John Lee Hooker. He paid homage to Waters on “Tribute to Muddy,” a song from his 1969 release “The Progressive Blues Experiment.”
FILE PHOTO Paul Natkin/WireImage Winter is pictured during a Feb. 1984 stop in Chicago.

Among the blues classics that Winter played from that era were “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” “Bad Luck and Trouble” and “Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl.” He also teamed up with his brother Edgar for their 1976 live album “Together.”

source: nydailynews.com