The Lifehouse demos included are: "Pure and Easy," edited from its original length of 8:35; " Let's See Action"; and (with minor overdubs added) "Time Is Passing." Of these, only "Let's See Action" had seen prior release, as a single by the Who in 1971. [7] The Who's versions of the remaining two Lifehouse songs were eventually released on Odds & Sods (1974) and its reissued version. [8] [9] All of Townshend's Lifehouse demos were eventually released on Lifehouse Chronicles in 2000.

I have to confess here that our insurance company here in the U.K., our agent as it were, Robertson Taylor, is a kind of friend. [ Laughs] We’ve been working with him since the very beginning. I’ve got no sympathy with the insurance companies, but there you go. I’m happy that they paid us, but one of the stipulations is that when we travel, we’re not allowed to leave our hotel rooms. We have to travel in a very small bubble. And when we’re at the show, we’re not allowed to leave our dressing rooms.With the orchestra, it’s a similar effect. It’s almost like I could stand there for a good 50 percent of the show and play nothing at all. What’s interesting about that is that it gives me a chance to make sure what I do play, what I do do, where I look, how I behave on the stage, is more connected with the people around me, with the audience, and with, I suppose, to get prosaic about it, an inner sense. In other words, I don’t lose myself the way I did when I used to jump around, have a big adrenaline rush, and then come off the stage and someone would say, “Great show,” or someone would say, “Terrible show,” and I wouldn’t really know what I had done, to be honest, since I was like someone running a marathon. So the orchestra gives me space. In some cases, we need musicians of the Joni Mitchell and Neil Young era, the Stones, the Beatles, the Who, and everybody to remember that there are loads of people that just haven’t heard anything that they’ve done. They are buzzword names. They don’t know.

Opening up the overture with the report that Tommy’s father has been killed in action and will not be returning home from war, ‘1921’ sets the scene of the protagonist’s everyday life, with his mother finding a new man and feeling optimistic about the next year. Although Townshend might sound strained while hitting the high notes of the mother’s dialogue, there’s a sense of innocence to his words, knowing that she can brave any bad weather as long as her significant other is beside her. We live in a very polarized society. As musicians, we really sincerely hope that music brings the two sides together. If we can do that, that would be great. If we can’t, so be it. With respect for new music for the Who, one of the issues is that when we did … this is quite touchy stuff, so I don’t want to be unkind to anybody. But when I said to Roger, “I’m not going to go on tour with you until you get in bed with me and we make a new album,” we were given a million dollars by Universal/Polydor to make it. How will Covid impact the way you tour? I know that Elton John and the Rolling Stones have been forced to basically create a traveling Covid bubble. Will you be doing something similar?Being set in the future where everyone lives in different robotic suits, Townshend penned this song as an ode to the travelling lifestyle, painting the picture of a commune where he and his friends all drive around together in a mobile unit. In the context of the story, this would be some innocent fun to break up the story of Bobby as he tries to find some salvation through a single musical note. So there’s lots of stuff going on. We’re really looking at the way the pandemic has hit the country. And in the U.K., we’ve also had the effect of Brexit, the political upheavals, and all kinds of stuff. But the big news in the U.K. at the moment, and I’m sure you’re conscious of it in America even though you’re farther away, is what’s going to happen in Russia and Ukraine. I’ve been enjoying working with other musicians, and we’ve been doing that work in my studios. I’ve got two studios in the U.K. I’ve kept myself busy musically. So we thought, well, we’re gonna get slaughtered if he goes on before us. Because that’s our whole show, done. So Pete and Jimi flipped a coin and Pete won and we chose to go on first.

I’m pretty sure we’ve seen the end of Covid-19. I’m pretty sure that it’s behind us now. And the other thing, without getting into deep politics, this is something I’m sure you guys as journalists know far more than I do, but what we’re dealing with now is rising inflation. You go onto Bloomberg and you watch them, all they talk about is what’s happening with inflation, what the Fed are going to do, what they’re not going to do. You know, I think I laughed when you asked that first question because I knew it was going to be the first thing you’d say. I am looking forward to it, but I don’t like touring. I have to be honest with people. I’m not going to bark at people I meet. I like what happens when we tour. I like the whole feeling of it. I’m somebody that if someone says, “Do you want to go to a party? There are going to be a lot of your friends there,” my first response will be to say, “No.” [ Laughs.] READ MORE: The Who – ‘WHO’ review: 13 years since their last album, this stands up alongside their classics

You turn 80 in about three years. Do you still want to be onstage then, or do you view that as a time when you might step aside? We were intending to do a U.K tour after our last tour in America with the orchestra. And we hope we will reach new people with it. And listen, two years of pandemic have kind of aged me, I think. I was getting old anyway. I feel that working with the orchestra is a good way to work. Yes, I did. It was a real buzz. I remember being very moved by it and very honored. It was a dark comedy show with deep, swinging connotations about performance and education and all the things I’m talking about. The uses were very, very smart. In a sense, it redeemed and gave credence to the fact that I’ve always felt the worst person … Let’s get into real trouble here. The worst person to have control of Neil Young’s catalog is Neil Young. [ Laughs] Give it to me. I just think there’s so much stuff there that could be just turned into joy. He’s such an incredible writer, and so much of his stuff is just unknown, partly because he keeps it tied so tight to his chest. We have no choice, unfortunately. The insurers are the ones making these dictates. This is not the Rolling Stones or Elton John [making these calls]. This is the insurers. They are insisting that they won’t pay out if you cancel because of Covid. That’s the first thing. And secondly, if they do pay out, they only pay out 85 percent. And thirdly, they up their charges from 2.5 percent to 5 percent and now to 8 percent of the gross income on a tour. It’s absolutely brutal.