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Credit: Far Out \/ Harry Chase \/ UCLA Library<\/p>\n
Mon 3 August 2026 4:00, UK <\/p>\n
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it is difficult to imagine The Who\u2019s Pete Townshend<\/a> having many regrets about the way his career has panned out, at least in a musical sense. <\/p>\n Emerging from the underground nightclubs and modernist hangouts of 1960s London, The Who wasted absolutely no time in establishing themselves among the premier rock and roll hitmakers of London\u2019s most swinging of eras. More impressive, though, was the fact that Townshend\u2019s artistic appetite kept The Who moving and evolving through the years, refusing to remain in one avenue of expression for too long, and generating a litany of seminal, groundbreaking albums, rock operas, and legendary live performances. <\/p>\n Among those innovations, The Who can truthfully stake a claim to having invented arena rock. Admittedly, the group were far from being the first band to perform<\/a> in those colossal venues, or to reach the level of stardom which demands a tour of such magnitude, but they were certainly among the first to tailor their output to that arena environment. <\/p>\n Who\u2019s Next is a prime example<\/a> of that arena-focused sound, adopting a far grander, more expansive output destined to be performed to thousands at once, rather than a couple of hundred speed-addled mods in the R&B nightclubs of Soho.\u00a0<\/p>\n Townshend himself has never made any effort to dispute the idea that he was among the first to establish arena rock, telling Rolling Stone, \u201cWith songs like \u2018Won\u2019t Get Fooled Again\u2019 and \u2018Baba O\u2019Riley,\u2019 I fuckin\u2019 nailed it. There\u2019s no question\u201d. <\/p>\n However, with the ever-evolving sound of The Who, Townshend and the gang soon moved on from that distinctive, pioneering sound, allowing the mantle to be taken up by a multitude of future arena acts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI gave that instrument away,\u201d the songwriter added. \u201cBut it would be wrong to say that I regret it, because I don\u2019t. I have to look back and say, \u2018Well, what is, is.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n In the years that followed that 1971 album, arena rock became far more commonplace, while The Who\u2019s journey continued to dart off in different directions. If there was any aspect of that which Townshend did regret, though, it was the lost revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhere it really bit for us all was financially,\u201d he affirmed. \u201cBecause that moment was one where, instead of playing places like the Fillmore and the occasional arena, the big acts were playing consistently huge venues.\u201d <\/p>\n While The Who could hardly be described as being rooted to small, grassroots venues during the 1970s, they could perhaps have been playing to many more arenas and stadiums had they pursued that \u2018Baba O\u2019Riley\u2019 sound even further<\/a>. <\/p>\n In terms of regrets, though, wishing for a few more bums in seats back in the mid-1970s is pretty minor. After all, The Who have managed to rectify that mistake tenfold by continuing to tour arenas and stadiums across the globe well into their twilight years, multiple decades on from their first \u2018farewell\u2019 tour, in fact. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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