Today, The Who have officially announced a North America tour. The 29-city “Moving On! Tour” will see Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend accompanied by a local symphony.
The first leg of The Who’s “Moving On! Tour” will kick off on May 7th at Grand Rapids, MI’s Van Angel Arena, and take the band to Buffalo, NY’s KeyBank Center (5/9), Bristow, VA’s Jiffy Lube Live (5/11), NYC’s Madison Square Garden (5/13), Nashville, TN’s Bridgestone Arena (5/16), Noblesville, IN’s Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center (5/18), Chicago, IL’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre (5/21), St. Louis, MO’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre St. Louis (5/23), Philadelphia, PA’s Citizens Bank Park (5/25), Detroit, MI’s Little Caesars Arena (5/28), Pittsburgh, PA’s PPG Paints Arena (5/30) and Toronto, ON’s Scotiabank Arena (6/1).
The second leg of The Who’s “Moving On! Tour” will kick off on September 6th at St. Paul, MN’s Xcel Energy Center, and move on to Alpine Valley, WI’s Alpine Valley Music Theatre (9/8), Cuyahoga Falls, OH’s Blossom Music Center (9/10), Boston, MA’s Fenway Park (9/13), Wantagh, NY’s Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater (9/15), Atlanta, GA’s State Farm Arena (9/18), Ft. Lauderdale, FL’s BB&T Center (9/20), Tampa, FL’s Amalie Arena (9/22), Houston, TX’s Toyota Center (9/25), Dallas, TX’s American Airlines Center (9/27), Denver, CO’s Pepsi Center, two nights at Los Angeles, CA’s Hollywood Bowl (10/11 & 10/13), San Diego, CA’s Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl (10/16), Seattle, WA’s T-Mobile Park (10/19), Vancouver, BC’s Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena (10/21), and Edmonton, AB’s Rogers Place (10/23).
In an interview with Rolling Stone that released last week, bandmates Daltrey and Townshend stressed that this tour is not being billed as a “farewell”, though Daltrey goes on to say that this will possibly be his “last tour”. He continues, “I’m just being realistic about going through the 75th year of my life. I have to be realistic that this is the age I am and voices start to go after a while. I don’t want to be not as good as I was two years ago.”
The tour is in support of the band’s forthcoming 13th studio album, marking their first release since 2006’s Endless Wire. According to guitarist/singer/songwriter Pete Townshend, he initially refused the offer to tour with The Who unless there was an album paired with it. “I said I was not going to sign any contracts unless we have new material,” Townshend told Rolling Stone in an extended feature about their 2019 plans. “This has nothing to do with wanting a hit album. It has nothing to do with the fact that The Who need a new album. It’s purely personal. It’s about my pride, my sense of self-worth and self-dignity as a writer.”
As of now, the new material is only in demo form—as Townshend hopes Roger Daltrey will record vocals later this year to meet the goal of a 2019 release. Townshend described the new material as “dark ballads, heavy rock stuff, experimental electronica, sampled stuff and cliched Who-ish tunes that began with a guitar that goes yanga-dang”, though the new songs were met with silence from Roger, who told RS: “They’re all great songs…. But sometimes I hear them and I think, ‘I can’t add anything to this to make my job as singer worthy of doing anything better than what Pete has already done.’ There’s at least five or six I can lay into and I’m sure they’ll come out incredible.” Daltrey continues, “Now that I’m healed up, I’m going to spend time getting into them. Okay, so I didn’t get back to him quickly at first. It doesn’t mean anything! I was deaf for about three weeks. It wasn’t even possible for me to bloody hear what was in them!”
Townshend and Daltrey have both admitted their problems in communicating with each other, which is seemingly already making the process of recording an album difficult. Deciding what material to play, agreeing on new songs, and working with a timeline for a Father’s Day release are just a few of the problems they have cited.
“If they can’t get it by Father’s Day, they don’t care when they’re getting it,” Townshend explained. “And so it might wind up being September or October.” As for Daltrey, he’s less amused. “If it takes us until next fuckin’ Father’s Day, so be it,” he said. “I loathe that part of the business. I just hate it. That’s why they’re working in an office and we’re on the stage.” Read the full feature on The Who’s upcoming tour and album here.
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