'Rock music singers have never been this age before'

The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey is the perfect example of the "use it or lose it" idiom – in his case, it's his voice, and use it he will, tonight in Marlay Park, writes BRIAN BOYD

IF YOU’RE WONDERING why, at the grand old age of 67, Roger Daltrey will be screaming his lungs out in Marlay Park tonight, it’s because he has no medical choice.

“Rock music lead singers have never been this age before,” he says. “So we’re like the guinea pigs – we really don’t know what’s going to happen to us. In my case, I have to keep singing.

“Two years ago I had a pre-cancerous growth removed from my throat and what happens there is, unless you keep singing, the voice slowly deteriorates until it just disappears. So at my age, I have to keep doing this to preserve my voice. It’s also all I know how to do. I’ve been doing this for 50 years now and it still touches something inside of me.”

Daltrey is bringing the first ever rock-opera Tommyto Dublin. Only himself and Pete Townshend remain from the band who first recorded the album in 1969 but the guitarist is unable to join the singer.

“Pete is having problems with his hearing [Townshend has partial deafness and serious tinnitus problems from years of live gigging] but as he said to me, he’ll be at each of the gigs in spirit and in his place I have his younger brother, Simon, on lead guitar.”

One of music's most iconic works and a rare example of an album (as opposed to an act) being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "its historical, artistic and significant value", it's a surprise to hear Daltrey explain that The Who never actually played Tommylive – it has been a film, a stage musical and a real opera.

“We did play it live just after it was released but we never played it as it was on the album – we would leave out whole chunks of it and change the running order. This is the first time it’s been done as per the album,” he says.

Daltrey curates the annual Teenage Cancer benefit shows at the Royal Albert Hall every March and, when he couldn't get a certain act this year and had a free Albert Hall to fill one night, he got a band together and decided to do the whole of Tommy.

“We only had time for one rehearsal and then we had a sold-out Albert Hall so I was a bit terrified – especially because this album particularly means so much to fans. But the very fact that the gig had sold out really encouraged me,” he says.

Racing through highlights such as Pinball Wizard, I'm Freeand See Me, Feel Me, the story of the "deaf, dumb and blind kid" was given a whole new lease of life under Daltrey's direction.

“You know, I never liked the film [in which he had the starring role], I think it worked better as a Ken Russell [who was the director] piece than anything else.

"And I certainly didn't like the stage version that came out later – I think it completely missed the point. Personally, I found it vacuous. The TommyI'm doing now is very much for today's audience and it's from a different perspective than previous versions."

Forty years on, has Dartrey managed to figure out what it's about? "Ha, ha – that's the thing about Tommy, it can mean whatever you want it to mean," he says.

“I suppose, at its core, is the fact that all the different characters in it represent different parts of the human condition. It always was a very challenging piece of work and it was certainly a very advanced work when we first released it,” he adds.

"If you look at it on the surface it's about this kid who lives his life through vibration – as he's 'deaf, dumb and blind'. The beginning of Tommy, musically, was Pete's belief that pop music was such a potent force that it could be more important than just a three-minute single – hence the rock-opera idea.

“There’s a political message to it – George Orwell would have been an influence on the writing. There are bits in there about the building of empire and the building of ego. I suppose the best way to describe it is as being a spiritual journey [Townshend wrote it after reading the works of the Indian mystic Meher Baba]. But it was never really understood at the time – so much so that the BBC actually banned it. They just didn’t know what sort of ‘messages’ it contained.

“We were thrilled when it was banned – because in those days, and I suppose still now, if you’re banned by the BBC it means you will have a hit on your hands. I remember some of the reviews at the time saying, ‘this is sick’, but they didn’t really explain what they found ‘sick’ about it.”

He's bringing his own psychedelic light-show to Dublin to work as a visual counterpoint to the music. "What I enjoy most about the show is that Tommyalways makes more sense live than it does on record – you can convey the journey better," he says.

“The other really great thing is that for the first time ever – and thanks to the wonders of modern technology – I can actually hear what I’m singing. And that hasn’t happened in a long time. They have these new in-ear monitor systems and the difference for me is incredible. I don’t think I’ve heard myself on stage for the last 40 odd years . . .”

Roger Daltrey and band play Tommyin its entirety at Marlay Park tonight