Who Are You - Its rhythm grows strong, it's so new and so strange

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As many of you will know the Special Deluxe Edition, all singing and all dancing box set edition of The Who's eighth studio album hits the shelves in 2 weeks time.

I was fortunate enough to have been asked to work on this release by the team at Universal Records, alongside old buddies Jon Astley and Richard Evans. I've worked with both of these two for over 30 years now and I couldn't ask to work with anyone better. Sometimes a team just clicks.

I probably was first involved with both on the 30 Years Maximum R&B box set, just providing some memorabilia. I still have a letter from Richard from that period discussing the project. In the booklet for the box Chris Charlesworth and Jon Astley thanked a few people who contributed, including myself, saying that all of us deserved 'free life membership to the Hundred Faces', a nod to the group of original fans that followed The Who. Since then I've been regularly involved in the band's reissue programme and also their solo work.

With regards the Special Deluxe Editions though my involvement has been limited though. I was a supplier of memorabilia and nothing more until the last release, the Who's Next / Life House box. My involvement then was down to Pete Townshend and the work we had done before together on Life House - the Chronicles box set and Pete's website. My involvement on that grew to writing the Life House back story, working closely with Pete, really for the first time in many years. Universal Records nominated that piece of writing for an industry award...before realising that you needed to be a US citizen to qualify. Needless to say, I didn't win.

Although the Life House essay didn't win, Universal was obviously happy enough to ask me to work the next SDE release in calendar - Who Are You. My friend, Andy Neill, who usually leads on the SDE reissues was busy on other projects so I was asked to be the the main 'consultant' on this one. Since there are obvious links to the Life House project I was more than happy to do it.

I had kept in touch with both Richard and Jon over the years, they are friends, so the chance of working with them again was too good to pass up but, I have to admit that going into the project, which first started about 18 months ago, I didn't think we'd end up with the wealth of material that we have. Universal asked me to scope out a potential set and I thought that perhaps 4 CDs worth, including live material. Once we started delving into the archive though the set list began growing. To be honest, we could have ended up with more discs than we have. What we have compiled though I think, as a fan, is stunning.

Myself and Jon had discussions early on about what was available and we bounced ideas off each other as to what we'd wish to see. I wasn't sure the Glyn Johns mix of the album, which was rejected by the band in 1978, existed in the archive but we both agreed that if it was there it was important to include to flesh out the story. Luckily, most of it was there. I also wanted to see the tracks that lead to blows between Roger and Glyn included without the strings and synths. We got those too. There sessions for the album were quite laborious, even though the recordings themselves took relatively little time. There were studio issues, Moon's condition was a big concern too and the change in the production team all added up to stretch out the process. In terms of the box set though these issues, along with the fact that the band was working on the Kid's Are Alright movie, all added up to providing additional material which fitted right in with the period of the recording. There really are some gems in the Kid's Are Alright rehearsal recordings from July 1977, the highlight for me was the band's run through of the 1966 track 'Run, Run Run'. This came as a complete surprise as we had it listed in the Anyway Anyhow Anywhere book as 'Run, Baby, Run'. Another highlight was the introduction of John 'Rabbit' Bundrick on the 1979 tour rehearsals. Listening to his keys on the album track 'Music Must Change' show just what a contribution he brought to the band. There really are so many things on the box set that I enjoyed listening to and working with Jon to uncover. I won't say too much more about the music so as not to add in any more spoilers other than to say that I hope you are excited about the music as I am. I've lived with the tracks for about a year now but I'm keen to know what you think when you first listen to it. Obviously the music is tinged with sadness, as this period saw the last recordings of Keith Moon with the band. His death, in my view, did overshadow the album's release and the press concentrated on the Moon The Loon side of his personality, often overlooking his genius on the drums. I think this collection of songs on the box set does give an opportunity to reassess the album on its merits. The band was changing. Let's face it the whole music scene was changing and this was The Who's response to that. It was The Who, the prototype punk band of the 60s trying to find its place in the new musical landscape. However, given the musical attitudes at the time it is a surprising album in many ways. The evolution of the band during this period was polarising to even the band members during this stage of their career, causing fights over strings and synths, when, as Roger told me, he could have done those parts on harmonica!

In terms of the 100 page book that comes with the big set, I have to say that I think Richard Evans has done a fantastic job. It is a really clean and crisp design. I was pleased to contribute another essay to the book. I thought it would be difficult to write a really long piece on the making of the album but I was proved pleasantly wrong. I wanted to get Roger's view on the making of the album, as I think his side has been overlooked in the past. I asked Roger for an interview and, although it took much chasing, I got to spend a nice few hours with him talking about the recording and catching up on some general reminiscing. It was a fresh and honest take from Roger on what was happening with the band at that time and I'm so pleased that he agreed to be interviewed. I found it quite a task piecing together the story of what was really happening during the period. Life House compared to this was a piece of cake! I've written previously that I'm not one of the world's naturally gifted writers, I really have to work at it, but I love writing. One of the reasons I started this blog was to help me through a period of bad mental health, I find the process of writing, especially when I don't have to think about deadlines etc, cathartic and it does help me.

In the end I wrote about 12,000 words on the 1976 - 1979 (and a bit on the subsequent tours) period. Although the link to the Life House project is touched upon, I think there is more to write on that, going back to the releases subsequent to Who's Next of 'Let's See Action', 'Join Together' and 'Relay', which weren't touched on it any great detail in the Who's Next / Life House box. I'd like to link the Life House story up with Who Are You and that will probably form the basis of my next blog...maybe.

The final word on Who Are You SDE. I hope I haven't said to much - I did annoy Universal for saying too much, too soon on Paul Bearman's excellent 'Talkin' bout The Who' podcast - but it was a joy to work on and to rediscover a much underrated album. That's to Pete and Roger for trusting me to work on it, to Steve Hammonds and Johnny Chandler at Universal for commissioning me, to Richard and Jon for being great to work with. Thanks also to Julian Stockton and Lee Jenson, who are dealing with the PR. I haven't see a physical copy of the box yet, just the digital files. Haven't heard the 5.1 mixes or the ATMOS so there are still things for me to discover as well when it is released. It's released on Halloween at a price that isn't so scary and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have over the past 18 months.