{"id":339006,"date":"2025-08-12T17:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T17:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/339006\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T17:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T17:33:15","slug":"the-short-lived-band-pete-townshend-still-mourns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/339006\/","title":{"rendered":"The short-lived band Pete Townshend still mourns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pete<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n

Tue 12 August 2025 15:30, UK <\/p>\n

Pete Townshend<\/a> has been windmilling his way through rock history since back in the 1960s, but he has spent the vast majority of that time tethered to The Who, leaving him with limited time to immerse himself in the various side projects and collaborationswhich have arisen over the years. <\/p>\n

From the moment The Who broke into the mainstream with the smash-hit success of their debut single \u2018I Can\u2019t Explain\u2019 in late 1964, Townshend and the band worked tirelessly to uphold that level of success. However, the songwriter has never been solely driven by revenue. <\/p>\n

Townshend was, at heart, an art school student, and his artistic aims for The Who became increasingly prevalent throughout the 1960s, with experimental, postmodern efforts like The Who Sell Out<\/a> and the subsequent rock opera Tommy being perhaps the most overt examples of that fact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As with any artist worth their salt, though, Townshend craved a sense of variety that The Who\u2019s distinctive sound didn\u2019t always afford him. What\u2019s more, being stuck on a tour bus with the same three blokes for years on end is bound to cause tensions eventually. So, as the 1960s drew to a close, Townshend looked outside of the mod rock icons to scratch that insatiable itch for artistic expression. This creative journey resulted from the woefully short-lived group, Thunderclap Newman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Townshend, along with The Who\u2019s manager, Kit Lambert<\/a>, originally set up the group in an effort to establish the songwriting skills of John \u2018Speedy\u2019 Keen, who wrote \u2018Armenia City in the Sky\u2019 from The Who Sell Out. Jimmy McCulloch, who would later find fame as the guitarist in Wings, was also a part of the line-up, and it was Townshend\u2019s art school mate, Andy \u2018Thunderclap\u2019 Newman, who gave this newfound outfit their band name. <\/p>\n

You will notice that Townshend is absent from the band\u2019s line-up, but his presence on their recordings is undeniable. Not only did Townshend aid in the recording and production of all the band\u2019s material, often from his home studio, but he also performed bass guitar for the band under the pseudonym Bijou Drains, presumably in an effort to distance the project from The Who. <\/p>\n

Similarly to The Who, though, Thunderclap Newman landed a colossal hit with their debut single, when \u2018Something in the Air\u2019 spent three weeks at the top of the singles chart in 1969. However, the subsequent album release, Hollywood Dream, didn\u2019t fare quite as well. After that sole album and a handful of tours, the group eventually folded in 1971, something which has been a constant source of regret for Townshend. <\/p>\n

In the book Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story, the guitarist declared, \u201cThe tragedy is simply that there was only one Thunderclap Newman album.\u201d He continued, \u201cThe beautiful Hollywood Dream, recorded entirely in my home studio, which was in a room meant to be a small bathroom. The saddest part of it all is that they don\u2019t exist today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thunderclap Newman\u2019s legacy has certainly outlasted the band itself, with Tom Petty famously covering \u2018Something in the Air\u2019, and the project still clearly meaning a lot to Pete Townshend. Although the guitarist has had various other side projects outside The Who over the years, including a pretty lacklustre solo career, he affirms, \u201cI learn more from working with other artists than I do working alone,\u201d and Thunderclap Newman certainly taught him a lot with regard to production and collaboration. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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