THE WHO - TOWNSHEND PLANNING MUSICAL FLOSS

TOWNSHEND PLANNING MUSICAL FLOSS

THE WHO's PETE TOWNSHEND has started work on a new musical, called FLOSS.
In a post on his Twitter.com blog, the rocker insists the project is intended for "outdoor performance, or arenas" and will debut in New York in 2011.
He explains, "It's an ambitious new project for me, in the style of TOMMY and QUADROPHENIA. In this case the songs are interspersed with surround-sound 'soundscapes' featuring complex sound-effects and musical montages. Several of the more conventional songs from FLOSS will be featured on a forthcoming Who recording for release in 2010.
"FLOSS will be heard in concert for the first time in 2011, at a venue and date yet to be established. I am already having talks with producers in New York."
Townshend goes on to reveal the plot surrounds a married couple whose relationship "gets into difficulty".
He adds, "Walter, a straight-cut pub rock musician, is able to retire when one of his songs becomes the TV anthem of a big car company. He becomes a house-husband while his wife Floss devotes herself to a riding stables and stud.
"When he tries to return to music after a fifteen year hiatus, he finds that what he hears and what he composes evoke the ecologically rooted, apocalyptic mindset of his generation. Shaken by this and torn by personal difficulties, he and Floss become estranged. A series of dramatic events in a hospital emergency ward bring them both to their senses."
The guitarist hopes to focus on his musical while The Who bandmate Roger Daltrey "exercises his ageing vocal chords" on a two-month solo tour, adding, "As a 19 year old - with My Generation - I wrote the most explicitly ageist song in rock. At 64, I now want to take on ageing and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock 'n' roll."