Roger Daltrey

Early life and education

Roger Harry Daltrey was born on 1 March 1944, in Hammersmith Hospital, East Acton, west London, England, one of three children of Irene and Harry Daltrey. Daltrey's father fought in World War II at the time, and came home a few years later. He was brought up in Acton, the same working class suburban district that produced fellow Who members Pete Townshend, and John Entwistle.

Daltrey attended Victoria Primary School and then Acton County Grammar School along with Townshend and Entwistle. He showed academic promise in the English state school system, ranking at the top of his class on the eleven-plus examination that led to his enrolment at the Acton County Grammar School. His parents hoped that he would eventually continue on to study at university, but Daltrey turned out to be a self-described "school rebel" and developed a dedicated interest in the emerging rock and roll music scene instead.

He made his first guitar from a block of wood, a cherry red Stratocaster replica, and joined a skiffle band called the Detours in need of a lead singer. They told him that he had to bring a guitar, and within a few weeks he showed up with it, and he could play it too. When his father bought him an Epiphone guitar in 1959, he became the lead guitarist for the band; soon afterwards he was expelled from school for tobacco smoking. Describing the post-war times, Townshend wrote in his autobiography, "until he was expelled Roger had been a good pupil."

Daltrey became a sheet metal worker during the day, while practising, and performing nights with the band at weddings, pubs, and working men's clubs. He invited schoolmate Entwistle to play bass guitar in the band, and on the advice of Entwistle, invited Townshend to play guitar. At that time, the band also had Doug Sandom on drums and Colin Dawson on lead vocals. After Dawson left the band, Daltrey switched to lead vocals, and played harmonica as well, while Townshend became the lead guitarist. In 1964, drummer Sandom left the band, eventually being replaced by Keith Moon.

Early on, Daltrey was the band's leader, earning a reputation for using his fists to exercise control when needed, despite his small stature (his height is reportedly 1.65 metres (5 ft 5 in)). According to Townshend, Daltrey "ran things the way he wanted. If you argued with him, you usually got a bunch of fives" (slaps or punches). He generally selected the music that they performed, including songs by the Beatles, various Motown artists, James Brown, and rock standards.

In 1964, the band discovered another band performing as the Detours and discussed changing their name. Townshend suggested "the Hair" and Townshend's roommate Richard Barnes suggested "the Who." The next morning, Daltrey made the decision for the band, saying "It's the Who, innit?"

During 1964, band manager Peter Meaden renamed the band to "the High Numbers" as part of a move to establish the band as Mod favourites. The name was a reference to the T-shirts with "numbers" that the Mods used at the time. Peter Meaden composed Mod songs for them (in fact, the songs were almost copies of Mod hits at the time, with changed lyrics) and they released one single, "I'm the Face/Zoot Suit", on Fontana Records. The single proved to be commercially unsuccessful.

After Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp discovered the High Numbers at the Railway Hotel, the band changed their name back to The Who.

Career with the Who

With the band's first hit single ("I Can't Explain") and record deal in early 1965, Townshend began writing original material and Daltrey's dominance of the band began to decrease.

The other members of the Who expelled Daltrey from the band in late 1965 after he beat up their drummer Keith Moon for supplying illegal drugs to Townshend and Entwistle, causing him to re-examine his methods of dealing with people. A week later, Daltrey was admitted back to the band, but was told he'd be on probation. He promised that there would be no more violent outbursts or assaults. Daltrey recalled, "I thought if I lost the band I was dead. If I didn't stick with the Who, I would be a sheet metal worker for the rest of my life."

The band's second single, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", was the only song on which Daltrey and Townshend collaborated, and Daltrey only wrote two other songs for the band during these years. As Townshend developed into one of rock's most accomplished composers, Daltrey's vocals became the vehicle through which Townshend's visions were expressed, and he gained an equally vaunted reputation as a powerful singer and riveting front-man. The Who's stage act was highly energetic, and Daltrey's habit of swinging the microphone around by its cord on stage became his signature move.

Daltrey's Townshend-inspired stuttering expression of youthful anger, frustration, and arrogance in the band's breakthrough single, "My Generation", captured the revolutionary feeling of the 1960s for many young people around the world and became the band's trademark. Later, his scream near the end of "Won't Get Fooled Again" became a defining moment in rock and roll.

By 1973, Daltrey was experiencing considerable success with his solo projects and acting roles. While other members of the band worked on recording the music for Quadrophenia, Daltrey used some of this time to check the Who's books. He found they had fallen into disarray under the management of Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Lambert was also Pete Townshend's artistic mentor, and challenging him led to renewed tension within the band. During a filming session (in an incident that Daltrey claimed was overblown) Townshend and Daltrey argued over the schedule. Townshend hit Daltrey over the head with his guitar, and Daltrey responded by knocking Townshend unconscious, again with a single blow.

With each of the Who's milestone achievements, Tommy, Who's Next, and Quadrophenia, Daltrey was the face and voice of the band as they defined themselves as the ultimate rebels in a generation of change. When Ken Russell's adaptation of Tommy appeared as a feature film in 1975, Daltrey played the lead role, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture" and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine on 10 April 1975. Afterward, Daltrey worked with Russell again, starring as Franz Liszt in Lisztomania. He worked with Rick Wakeman on the soundtrack to this film, writing the lyrics to three songs and also performing these, as well as others.

The Who continued after the death of their drummer Keith Moon in 1978, but tension continued to rise as Daltrey felt that new drummer Kenney Jones was the wrong choice for the Who. In 1980, Daltrey completed a drama film called McVicar about British bank robber John McVicar. Daltrey produced and starred in the film, and completed a soundtrack with other members of the band. This success, along with other stresses, contributed to a deterioration of relations with Townshend, and the Who retired from active touring in 1982 when Townshend felt that he was no longer able to write for the band. The band continued to work together sporadically, reuniting for the Live Aid concert, and recording songs for Daltrey's solo album Under a Raging Moon, and Townshend's solo album The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend.

Daltrey turned to working as an actor, with roles in projects such as The Beggar's Opera and The Comedy of Errors for the BBC. He appeared in several film, television, and stage productions during this period, including Mike Batt's The Hunting of the Snark (1987), The Little Match Girl (1987), Buddy's Song (1992), which he also produced, and Mack the Knife (1990). In 1991, he received a Grammy Award with the Chieftains for An Irish Evening: Live at the Grand Opera House, Belfast. In 1993 Daltrey starred in an episode of Tales From The Crypt.

The Who returned in 1989 with their 25th Anniversary Tour, which was also the 20th anniversary of their rock opera Tommy. The tour featured a large backing band, and guest appearances by Steve Winwood, Patti LaBelle, Phil Collins, Elton John, and Billy Idol. In spite of an abdominal hemangioma (later removed by surgery), Daltrey managed to complete the tour. He continued to work on stage and screen, completing projects such as The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True (1995) appearing as the Tin Woodman alongside Nathan Lane, Joel Grey, Natalie Cole, and Jewel as Dorothy. During this time, he also began to appear in US television shows.

In 1994, Daltrey celebrated his 50th birthday by performing a two-night spectacular at Carnegie Hall titled A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who, which is popularly also known as Daltrey Sings Townshend. The Who's music was arranged for orchestra by Michael Kamen, who conducted the Juilliard Orchestra for the event. Bob Ezrin, who produced Pink Floyd's The Wall album, among other famous albums, produced the live album. Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Eddie Vedder (who performed a special acoustic tribute), Sinéad O'Connor, Lou Reed, David Sanborn, Alice Cooper, Linda Perry, the Chieftains, and others performed as special guests. Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed the telecast, which was aired on satellite TV. The concert, at the time, was the fastest sell-out in the famed venue's history.The event was co-produced by Richard Flanzer, his manager at the time. The event was followed by a major tour financed by Daltrey and including John Entwistle on bass, Zak Starkey on drums, and Simon Townshend on guitar. Although the tour was considered an artistic success, it failed to make any profit due to the expense of providing extraordinary musicians and orchestras in every city to replicate the Carnegie Hall event. Significantly, the tour did attract attention to songs from the Who's rock opera Quadrophenia and gathered support for a staging and major tour of the rock opera in 1996–97.

In 1996, Pete Townshend was approached to produce Quadrophenia for the Prince's Trust concert at Hyde Park, London. He at first planned to perform the opera as a solo acoustic piece using parts of the film on the screens, but after receiving offers of financing decided on a full-out production. When he first contacted Daltrey to request a collaboration, Daltrey refused, but after some discussion, he agreed to help produce a one-off performance. The opera was performed with a large backing band, including John Entwistle on bass, Pete Townshend on acoustic guitar, and vocals, Zak Starkey on drums, John "Rabbit" Bundrick, and Jon Carin on keyboards, Simon Townshend on guitar, and special guests including David Gilmour, Ade Edmondson, Trevor McDonald, and Gary Glitter. A horn section and backing vocalists were added, along with other actors. On the night before the show, Daltrey was struck in the face by a microphone stand swung by Gary Glitter. The accident fractured his eye socket and caused considerable concern that he might not be able to perform safely, but Daltrey donned an eye-patch to cover the bruises and completed the show as scheduled. Afterward, Townshend decided to take the production on tour in 1996–97 as the Who.

After their Quadrophenia tour was successful, the band returned as the Who in a stripped-down, five-piece line-up for tours in 1999–2000. The band continued to work together, making a major impact at the Concert for New York City. After Entwistle's death in June 2002, both Daltrey and Townshend decided to continue with an already planned tour as the Who. Bass player Pino Palladino was chosen to fill Entwistle's place. The band also completed a brief tour in 2004. In 2006, they released their first studio album of new material in twenty-four years, Endless Wire, leading some fans and critics to say that the highly acclaimed artistic tension within the Who lay between the two principals Daltrey and Townshend. The band completed a world tour in 2006–07 to support this album.

In February 2010, Townshend and Daltrey, headlining as the Who, performed the half-time show at Super Bowl XLIV in front of 105.97 million viewers across the globe. In March 2010, Townshend and Daltrey, along with an extensive backing band, performed Quadrophenia at the Royal Albert Hall in London as a tenth anniversary charity benefit for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam sang the part of the Godfather, and Tom Meighan of Kasabian sang the part of Aceface, and Tom Norris, London Symphony Orchestra Co-Principal Second Violin, played violin for the production.

Daltrey's songs for the Who

Daltrey contributed a handful of songs to the band's catalogue during their early career:

Daltrey also wrote a song titled "Crossroads Now" for the Who which grew out of an onstage jam session in 1999 after the song "My Generation." Another Daltrey song, entitled "Certified Rose", was rehearsed by the Who shortly before the death of John Entwistle. The band had planned on playing it (as well as Townshend's "Real Good Looking Boy") during their 2002 tour, but plans were halted after Entwistle's death. Although it was rumoured that a studio version was recorded during the Endless Wire sessions (and may have featured Entwistle's basslines from 2002), Townshend later stated that no such recording was made.

"Early Morning Cold Taxi", is a song recorded during The Who Sell Out's recording sessions in 1967, and was released in 1994 on the Thirty Years of Maximum R&B box set, which is credited to Roger Daltrey and Who roadie Dave "Cyrano" Langston. Some sources report that the song was solely written by Langston. At the time Daltrey and Langston were planning to form a writing partnership, in which all songs written by either of them would be credited as Daltrey/Langston. The partnership produced only one other song—an unreleased demo titled "Blue Caravan." Langston went on to play guitar on John Entwistle's debut solo album, Smash Your Head Against the Wall, in 1971.

Solo career

Daltrey has released eight solo studio albums. The first was the self-titled Daltrey in 1973, the album was recorded during a hiatus time in the Who's touring schedule. The best-selling single from the album, "Giving It All Away", peaked at No. 5 in the UK and the album, which introduced Leo Sayer as a songwriter, made the Top 50 in the United States. The inner sleeve photography showed a trompe-l'œil in reference to the Narcissus myth, as Daltrey's reflection in the water differs from his real appearance. He also released a single in 1973, "Thinking" with "There is Love" as the B-side. Ironically, the British release, with considerable airplay of "Giving It All Away" (first lines "I paid all my dues so I picked up my shoes, I got up and walked away") coincided with news reports of the Who being sued for unpaid damage to their hotel on a recent tour, including a TV set being thrown out of the window.

Daltrey's second solo album, Ride a Rock Horse, was released in 1975, and is his second most commercially successful solo album. Its cover was photographed by Daltrey's cousin Graham Hughes, which is remarkable for depicting the singer as a rampant centaur.

When Sayer launched his own career as a solo artist, Daltrey called on a widening group of friends to write for and perform on his albums. Paul McCartney contributed the new song "Giddy" to One of the Boys, where the band included Hank Marvin, Alvin Lee, and Mick Ronson. On this album cover, another visual trick is played with Daltrey's mirror image, with reference to René Magritte's famous painting Not to be Reproduced.

McVicar was billed as a soundtrack album for the film of the same name, in which Daltrey starred and also co-produced. It featured all the other members of the Who at the time (Townshend, Entwistle, and Kenney Jones). McVicar included two hit singles, "Free Me", and "Without Your Love", which is Daltrey's best-selling solo recording.

On release, Parting Should Be Painless received negative critical reviews, and was Daltrey's poorest selling studio album up to that point. The album was a concerted effort on Daltrey's part to vent his frustrations in the wake of the Who's breakup by assembling a set of roughly autobiographical songs. These included a track contributed by Bryan Ferry ("Going Strong"), and one contributed by Eurythmics ("Somebody Told Me"). Musically, according to Daltrey the album covered areas that he had wanted the Who to pursue.

The title track to Under a Raging Moon was a tribute to the former Who drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978, at the premature age of 32. On his next album Rocks in the Head, Daltrey's voice ranges from a powerful bluesy growl à la Howlin' Wolf to the tender vocals shared with his daughter Willow on the ballad "Everything a Heart Could Ever Want". This was his first major effort as a songwriter for his own solo career.

In 1992, Daltrey appeared in the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, singing the hard rock Queen song "I Want It All", to pay homage to his friend Freddie Mercury, who died the previous year one day after a public announcement that he suffered from AIDS.

Daltrey celebrated his 50th birthday in 1994 by performing at Carnegie Hall in two shows (23 and 24 February), later issued on CD and video called A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who, sometimes called Daltrey Sings Townshend, accompanied by the Juilliard Orchestra, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Irish dancers and other special guests. The success of these two shows led to a US tour by the same name, featuring Pete Townshend's brother Simon on lead guitar with Phil Spalding taking bass duties for the first half of each show, and John Entwistle playing for the second half. An Australian leg was considered but eventually scrapped.

Daltrey took on a number of other solo projects, including a tour with the British Rock Symphony in 1998, and the Night of the Proms in 2005. Daltrey also worked with the Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp, raising money for many charities during the final concert. In 2005, Daltrey had a short weekly series on BBC Radio 2, presenting a personal choice of rock 'n' roll favourites.

Daltrey embarked on a solo tour of the US and Canada on 10 October 2009, officially called the "Use It or Lose It" tour with a new touring band he called "No Plan B" on the Alan Titchmarsh Show. The band included Simon Townshend on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Frank Simes on lead guitar, Jon Button on bass guitar, Loren Gold on keyboards, and Scott Devours on drums. Eddie Vedder made a guest appearance at the Seattle show on 12 October. In 2010, Daltrey and No Plan B appeared for several dates with