“was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images,”
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Figure timeline
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend is an English musician and songwriter. He is the co-founder, guitarist, keyboardist, second lead vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. His aggressive playing style, poetic songwriting techniques and authorship of two rock operas with the Who, as well as other projects, have earned him critical…
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culture · English musician and songwriter (born 1945) · singer-songwriter · guitarist · singer · composer · banjoist · mandolinist · screenwriter · autobiographer · author · publisher · also Pete Townshend, Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend, Peter Townshend, Townshend
Born 19 May 1945 · Q26933
120 published statements · 0 followers
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Pete Townsend BBC Radio4 Front Row 26 Dec 2012 b01pg54v
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2026· 12 entries
“If I had had a gun, I would have shot myself.”
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“I think it [court] would have destroyed me.”
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“On this particular topic, you have to read the book, I accepted a caution from the police which led to me being labelled a sex offender but I did nothing wrong.”
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“I got a letter from a policeman three or four days ago who headed up the investigation who said,”
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“So, I was charged, cautioned and put on the sex offenders register as a signal.”
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“t trying to play beautiful music. I was confronting my audience with the awful, visceral sound of what we all knew was the single absolute of our frail existence—one day an aeroplane would carry the bomb that would destroy us all in a flash. It could happen at any time. Although he grew up in a household with jazz musicians, Townshend absorbed many of his ideas about performance and rock music themes during art school. Townshend”
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“t know who really did feedback first; it just sort of happened. I don”
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TicketNews: Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival Returns With Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Pete Townshend and More
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Far Out Magazine: “Utterly bizarre”: The 1967 song too creative for Pete Townshend to comprehend
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MusicRadar: How Pete Townshend’s drunken night with two Sex Pistols inspired The Who’s last classic song with Keith Moon: “I used to go to clubs and get insulted. Just stand there and endure these snotty little kids saying, ‘Boring old fart!’”
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Far Out Magazine: The 1990s grunge legend Pete Townshend was “desperately sad” to lose
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2025· 6 entries
Yahoo: Pete Townshend names his five favourite Pete Townshend songs
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American Songwriter: Why Pete Townshend Never Saw The Beatles as a Rock and Roll Band
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Ultimate Classic Rock: Is This Why Pete Townshend Used to Smash His Guitars?
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Rolling Stone: Pete Townshend on the Who’s Split With Zak Starkey: ‘It’s Been a Mess’
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Snopes rated the claim “Musician Pete Townshend said of singer Bruce Springsteen: "He's a bit overrated to begin with."” Labeled Satire.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
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The Guardian: Pete Townshend remakes Quadrophenia for a new generation: ‘The world is a dangerous place at the moment’
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2024· 5 entries
Yahoo: Pete Townshend: “Someone Needs to Occasionally Slap Rick Rubin”
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American Songwriter: The Who’s Pete Townshend to Reissue Final Two Solo Albums as Half-Speed-Mastered Vinyl LPs
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Released album “Live in Concert 1985–2001”.
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- #release
- #work
People: Queen's Brian May Says The Who's Pete Townshend 'Basically Invented' Rock Guitar: 'My Playing Owes So Much to Him'
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Townshend contributed guitar to a re-release of Mark Knopfler's "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust
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2020· 1 entry
The Guardian: The U-WHO: why Pete Townshend glued together his smashed guitars
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2019· 1 entry
The Guardian: The Who's Pete Townshend announces debut novel, The Age of Anxiety
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2016· 1 entry
Released album “Face the Face”.
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2015· 2 entries
Released album “Truancy: The Very Best of Pete Townshend”.
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Released album “Who Am I: A Conversation”.
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2012· 1 entry
The Who announced they would tour the rock opera Quadrophenia
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2011· 1 entry
Released album “The Who's Tommy”.
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2010· 2 entries
Townshend stated that he is concerned that his tinnitus has grown to such a point that he might be forced to discontinue performing with the band altogether
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Purchased a lease of part of the National Trust property Ashdown House in Oxfordshire
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2007· 1 entry
Released album “The Definitive Collection”.
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2006· 1 entry
Townshend opened a website for implementation of The Lifehouse Method based on his 1971 Lifehouse concept
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2005· 3 entries
Released album “Gold”.
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Released album “Anthology”.
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Townshend performed at New York's Gotham Hall for Samsung's Four Seasons of Hope, an annual children's charity fundraiser
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2004· 1 entry
Released album “Twenty (Scoop 4)”.
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2003· 4 entries
Released album “The Awakening”.
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Released album “Live: BAM 1993”.
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After admitting he had used his credit card to access a child sexual abuse images website
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Released album “The Genuine Scoop”.
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2002· 2 entries
Released album “Scooped”.
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Released album “Music From Lifehouse”.
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2001· 9 entries
Released album “Scoop 3”.
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Released album “Live: La Jolla Playhouse 23/06/01”.
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Released album “Live: La Jolla Playhouse 22/06/01”.
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Released album “The Oceanic Concerts”.
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Released album “Jai Baba”.
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Received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of the Who; and in 2008 he received Kennedy Center Honors
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The 2004 Isle of Wight Festival, Live 8 in 2005, and the 2007 and 2015 Glastonbury Festival
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And "A Different Bomb", an indictment of the child pornography industry, the following year
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Released ep “O’Parvardigar”.
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2000· 8 entries
Released album “Live > The Empire 1998”.
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Released album “Live: Sadler's Wells 2000”.
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Released album “Lifehouse Elements”.
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Released album “Lifehouse Chronicles”.
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To benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK, which raised several million pounds
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With all profits going to the Avatar Meher Baba Trust in India, which provided funds to a dispensary, school, hospital and pilgrimage centre
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Gave Townshend another outlet for literary work
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Released album “Live: The Fillmore 1996”.
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1999· 1 entry
Released album “Pete Townshend Live: A Benefit for Maryville Academy”.
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1998· 2 entries
Released album “Odds ’n’ Sods, Volume II”.
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Townshend was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the UK Labour Party
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1997· 3 entries
Townshend established a relationship with Maryville Academy, a Chicago area children's charity
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Released album “Wild Action”.
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Townshend signed a deal with Little, Brown and Company publishing to write his autobiography, reportedly titled Pete Townshend: Who He
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1996· 1 entry
Released album “The Best of Pete Townshend: CoolWalkingSmoothTalkingStraightSmokingFireStoking”.
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1994· 3 entries
Released album “Tommy: Highlights: Original Cast Recording”.
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Townshend and his wife separated in 1994.
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- #life
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“I did an interview about it, saying that”
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1993· 5 entries
Awarded Tony Award for Best Original Score for The Who's Tommy (1993).
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And Des McAnuff wrote and directed the Broadway adaptation of the Who album Tommy, as well as a less successful stage musical based on his solo album The Iron Man, based upon the book by Ted Hughes
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Released album “Pete Townshend Live”.
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Townshend authored another book, The Who's Tommy, a chronicle of the development of the award-winning Broadway version of his rock opera
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Released album “Music Must Change”.
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1992· 2 entries
Released album “Alone & Together Live in Concert 1986”.
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Released album “Psychoderelict”.
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1989· 4 entries
Released album “The Iron Man”.
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Townshend began work on a novel titled Ray High & The Glass Household, a draft of which was later submitted to his editor
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Townshend gave the initial funding to allow the formation of the non-profit hearing advocacy group H
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Released ep “A Friend Is a Friend”.
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1988· 1 entry
Released album “Superstar Concert Series”.
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1987· 1 entry
Released album “Another Scoop”.
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1986· 4 entries
Released album “Deep End Live!”.
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Released album “1986-01-29 Cannes”.
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Told Rolling Stone magazine: "I saw The Secret Policeman's Ball and it became a part of me
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Released album “Rarities”.
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1985· 2 entries
Released album “White City: A Novel”.
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“Radical experimentation really is worth pursuing. Because even though it might feel stupid and pretentious, if you do discover something new, it's your property, and you're identified with it forever.”
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- #undated
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1984· 1 entry
Townshend contributed lyrics to the track "I'm the Answer" on his brother Simon's debut solo album, Sweet Sound
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1983· 2 entries
Townshend received the Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 1990 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who
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Released album “Scoop”.
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1982· 2 entries
Released album “All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes”.
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By All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, which included the popular radio track "Slit Skirts"
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1980· 1 entry
Released album “Empty Glass”.
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1979· 2 entries
Townshend donated his services to the human rights organisation Amnesty International when he performed three songs for its benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball—performances that were released on record and seen in t
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Townshend produced and performed guitar on the novelty single "Peppermint Lump" by Angie on Stiff Records, featuring 11-year-old Angela Porter on lead vocals
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1978· 1 entry
Townshend wrote a script for Fish Shop, a play commissioned but not completed by London Weekend Television, and in mid-1984 he wrote a script for White City: A Novel which led to a short film
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1977· 2 entries
Released album “Rough Mix”.
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Townshend founded Eel Pie Publishing, which specialised in children's titles, music books, and several Meher Baba-related publications
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1976· 1 entry
Released album “With Love”.
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1972· 2 entries
Released album “Who Came First”.
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Released album “I Am”.
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1971· 1 entry
Townshend, along with Keith Moon and Ronnie Lane, backed Mike Heron (of the Incredible String Band) on one song "Warm Heart Pastry" from Heron's first solo LP, Smiling Men with Bad Reputations
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1970· 3 entries
Released album “Happy Birthday”.
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And stating that following Baba's teachings, he was opposed to the use of all psychedelic drugs, making him one of the first rock stars with counterculture credibility to turn against their use
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The Who released Live at Leeds, which several music critics cite as the best live album of all time
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1969· 2 entries
And 1972, Townshend produced two limited-release albums, Happy Birthday and I Am, for the London-based Baba association
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And 1970, as well as the Live at Leeds performance in 1970
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1968· 3 entries
Townshend helped assemble a band called Thunderclap Newman consisting of three musicians he knew: pianist Andy Newman (an old art school friend), drummer John "Speedy" Keen (who had written "Armenia City in the Sky" for
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When Townshend donated the use of his former Wardour Street apartment to the Meher Baba Association
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“s disciple. At about this time, Townshend, who had been searching the past two years for a basis for a rock opera, created a story inspired by the teachings of Baba and other writings and expressing the enlightenment he believed that he had received from them, which ultimately became Tommy. In interviews Townshend was more open about his beliefs, penning an article on Baba for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970 and stating that following Baba”
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1967· 2 entries
Townshend had begun to explore spirituality
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Townshend used a Vox Cheetah guitar, which he only used for that performance; the guitar was destroyed by Townshend and Moon's drum explosion
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1963· 1 entry
Townshend's father arranged an amateur recording of "It Was You", the first song his son ever wrote
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1962· 1 entry
After arguing too much with Daltrey, who subsequently became lead vocalist
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1961· 1 entry
While in art school, Townshend joined the Young Communist League and was a prominent figure in their 1966 "Trend" recruitment campaign
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1945· 2 entries
Born 1945-05-19.
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“lead vocalist, Mick Jagger. Child sexual abuse images and sex offenders”
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- #quote