Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend Biography

Birth of Who guitarist Pete Townshend.

Birth of Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend

Joins The Detours after Entwistle recommends him.

Pete Townshend and his school friend from Acton County Grammar School John Entwistle found their first band, The Confederates, a Dixieland duet featuring Townshend on banjo and Entwistle on horns

Townshend & Entwistle join The Detours, a skiffle/rock and roll band fronted by Roger Daltrey, another former schoolmate

Peter Meaden manages The Who briefly as The High Numbers.

The Who line-up is completed after Keith Moon replaces Doug Sandom.

Writes My Generation for The Who.

The Who release Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, credited to Townshend and Daltrey.

The Who release I Can't Explain, produced by Shel Talmy.

Release My Generation as a defining mod-era single.

Release the debut album My Generation.

The Who release A Quick One.

A Quick One includes the mini-opera A Quick One While He's Away.

Release Substitute as a major British single.

Release The Kids Are Alright as a single.

Release Happy Jack as a single.

Release the album A Quick One.

The Who reach the U.S. top ten with I Can See for Miles.

The Who Sell Out includes the mini-opera Rael.

The Who release The Who Sell Out, a concept album styled as an offshore radio broadcast.

Rael includes musical ideas later developed for Tommy.

Release Pictures of Lily.

Smashes his guitar during the Monterey performance.

Release I Can See for Miles.

Release The Who Sell Out.

The Rolling Stones film the Rock and Roll Circus, with guests Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Jethro Tulll and the Who

Townshend helps assemble a band called Thunderclap Newman consisting of three musicians he knew including Pianist Andy Newman (an old art school friend)

Develops Tommy as a full rock opera.

Release Magic Bus as a single.

Life Magazine says of Tommy, "...for sheer power, invention and brilliance of performance, Tommy outstrips anything which has ever come out of a recording studio". Between 1969 and 1971 Townshend, along with other devotees to Meher Baba, recorded a trio of albums devoted to his teachings: Happy Birthday, I Am, and With Love

The Who perform material from Tommy at Woodstock.

Release Pinball Wizard from Tommy.

Release Tommy as a double album.

The Who release the rock opera Tommy.

Upon Brian Jones death, Pete Townshend writes a poem titled "A Normal Day For Brian, A Man Who Died Every Day" (printed in The Times)

Pete Townshend founds Eel Pie Records

"Lifehouse" is never completed in its intended form, although it is reconstructed as a radio play for the BBC in 2000, and most of the material was released on a 6-CD album from Pete Townshends website

The Who record Live at Leeds at the University of Leeds.

Release Live at Leeds.

Tommy is performed at New York's Lincoln Center.

The Who reach the U.S. charts with See Me, Feel Me from Tommy.

The Who hit #12 in the US with See Me, Feel Me from Tommy

The Lifehouse project is abandoned as a completed multimedia work.

The Who release Who's Next from available Lifehouse material.

Release Won't Get Fooled Again.

Release Who's Next with Baba O'Riley.

Release the album Who's Next.

Release Behind Blue Eyes as a single.

Release Join Together as a single.

"Quadrophenia", a work in the rock opera vein, which can also be seen as something of an autobiographical or social history piece about early 1960s adolescent life and conflict in London

Release 5:15 from Quadrophenia.

Release Quadrophenia as a double album.

The Who release Quadrophenia.

The Who release Squeeze Box from The Who by Numbers.

The Who release The Who by Numbers.

A movie version of Tommy is released, directed by Ken Russell, starring Roger Daltrey in the title role and earning Pete Townshend an academy award nomination for Best Original Score

Release The Who by Numbers.

Release Squeeze Box as a single.

The Who's Charlton Athletic concert is measured at 126 decibels.

Townshend founds Eel Pie Publishing, which specialized in childrens titles, music books, and several Meher Baba-related publications

Townshend founds Eel Pie Publishing, which specialized in childrens titles, music books, and several Meher Baba-related publications

Pete Townshend collaborates with The Faces bassist and fellow Meher Baba devotee Ronnie Lane on a duet album (1977s Rough Mix)

The Who release Who Are You.

Release Who Are You as a single.

Release the album Who Are You.

Townshend became the first major rock musician to donate his services to the human rights organisation Amnesty International when he performed three songs for its benefit show The Secret Policemans Ball

Townshend became the first major rock musician to donate his services to the human rights organisation Amnesty International when he performed three songs for its benefit show The Secret Policemans Ball

A 1979 Rock Against Racism benefit concert, organized to raise money to pay the legal costs of those arrested in a London area anti-racism demonstration

The Who release the documentary The Kids Are Alright.

Townshends solo breakthrough, following the death of Who drummer Keith Moon, was the 1980 release Empty Glass, which included a top-10 single, "Let My Love Open the Door", with long-time friend and guitarist, David Gilmour

The Who release Face Dances.

Rock Against Unemployment benefit concert, part of the Peoples March For Jobs campaign

Release You Better You Bet.

Release Face Dances with Kenney Jones on drums.

The Who launch a publicised farewell tour before later reunions.

The Who release It's Hard.

Release It's Hard.

Release Eminence Front from It's Hard.

Keith Moon died in 1978, after which the band released two more studio albums, the top five Face Dances (1981) and the top ten Its Hard (1982), with drummer Kenney Jones, before officially disbanding in 1983

Publishes a collection of short stories entitled "Horses Neck"

Publishes a collection of short stories entitled "Horses Neck"

Dave Gilmour releases his second solo album, "About Face", co-written with Pete Townshend

Members of The Who reunite for Live Aid at Wembley Stadium.

The Who are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff write and direct the Broadway adaptation of the Who album Tommy

Tommy is successfully adapted to the Broadway stage in 1993, with Townshends blessing and involvement, and wins five Tony awards

The London Tommy stage production wins Olivier awards.

The Who are honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Release the compilation Then and Now.

Release Real Good Looking Boy as new material.

The Who perform at Live 8 in London.

The Who release Endless Wire, their first studio album in twenty-four years.

The Who receive the Freddie Mercury Lifetime Achievement Award in live music.

Release Wire and Glass before Endless Wire.

Release Endless Wire, their first album since 1982.

The Who perform the Super Bowl XLIV halftime show.

Release The Who Hits 50 compilation.

Release WHO, their first studio album since Endless Wire.