![]() The Irish influence in the book stems loosely from his mother’s (slightly psychic) family from Co Cork and his occasional sailing visits to Duncannon. It's about the responsibility, as much as the afflictions of the artist." Irish influence They're virtuosos, and they don't make any fuss about it. "In Ireland, you go to pubs and you see not just good musicians playing together, but supremely good musicians playing together, and it's a shock that they're not making millions of quid filling Wembley Stadium. “The thesis is, whether you’re a writer, artist, dancer, musician, film-maker, do we have to open ourselves up in some way psychically or intellectually to the needs of our prospective audience? Who are we working for? But no, the thesis that I wanted to pitch was not autobiographical,” he says. “As a celebrity author, people are going to be wanting to find me in it. Lest we think it, there’s no Townshend in disguise among these characters. ![]() Louis, the narrator, is an art dealer looking to get rich from his paintings, and Frank Lovelace is a music manager, getting rich from Walter. Then there’s Nikolai, a former musical idol of Walter’s, who “lost his marbles” and turns into an Outsider Artist. Around him are women enamoured: his Waterford-born wife Siobhán Collins, her fiery sister Selina with a clairvoyant mind and a murderous past, her friend Floss, and Rain, his beloved friend from childhood. Walter is a rock star in his prime, whose life shifts direction when he begins hallucinating sounds. It follows a group of London “arty farty types” as they impact each other’s lives, for better or worse. Yet The Age of Anxiety is more than a book it’s a libretto that informs a still-to-be-completed rock opera, art installation and album. Today, he’s come from his home in Richmond, where he lives with his second wife Rachel Fuller, proverbially wearing his author hat. Mostly, he’s remarkably calm for someone taking on a year’s worth of work in one season. In the annals of a private club in Chelsea, he’s looking dapper in a grey cashmere coat whose well-fitted sleeves cover the heavyweight watch that’s peeping out it doesn’t feel like his style to have it on display. This autumn, The Who’s guitarist and songwriter is releasing their new album, simply called Who, promoting it with key shows, and unveiling his first fiction novel, The Age of Anxiety. Now 74, Townshend focuses on his creative output before rock’n’roll adventures. Townshend lets out a hearty laugh – 40 years later, it’s less of a brush with death and more of an anecdote from his wild days – one of the many in his artillery. I was in a club with Paul Weller and Phil Lynott, and it was the only time in my life I was ever going to overdose, and nobody knew!” Do you know what my big disappointment was? That I wasn’t on the front page of the newspaper the next day. I woke up with a needle in my arm and Phil standing there, looking at me passed out. “We had a great night out in Steve Strange’s Club for Heroes in London once, with people like Paul Weller and Chrissy Wood, Ronnie Wood’s ex-wife. ![]() He'd work at my studio in Isleworth, and when he played, he kind of caught fire. ![]() But as soon as he started to play music, light would happen, like a shaman. "He reminded me a lot of Jimi Hendrix, who, in the flesh, had no light. "Phil Lynott was a good friend, but he was a heroin addict when I knew him," Pete Townshend recalls. ![]()
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