1- Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend was born on May 19, 1945 in Chiswick, London, England
2- In 1994, he received the Grammy Award for the category of ‘Best Musical Show Album’ for ‘The Who’s Tommy’.
3- His grandmother bought him his first guitar in 1956
4- Pete started his first band when he was 12, a skiffle group called the Confederates. John Entwistle was in the band on trumpet and Pete enjoyed his sense of humor.
5- Pete Townshend is the main songwriter for the Who, having written well over 100 songs for the band’s 11 studio albums
6- His father Clive was a saxophonist with The Squadronaires Royal Air Force dance band.
7- In 1983, he received the ‘Life Achievement Award’ at the BRIT Awards ceremony.
8- He had plans to become a graphic artist before his music career took off
9- He was ranked No. 10 in Gibson.com’s list of the top 50 guitarists
10- In 2008 he was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
11- He was ranked No. 3 in Dave Marsh’s list of Best Guitarists in The New Book of Rock Lists
12- When The Who appeared on Simpsons(1989) in 2000, Townshend was actually played by his brother, Paul.
13-His solo album, ‘Empty Glass’, was ranked at number 57 on the ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine’s list of ‘100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s’.
14- Although known for his musical compositions and musicianship, Townshend has been extensively involved in the literary world for more than three decades, writing newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts.
15- He was ranked No. 10 again in Rolling Stone‘s updated 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time
16- He was awarded the 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Outstanding Musical Production of 1996 for Tommy performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre with John Entwistle.
17- His daughter Emma sang on his 1985 song “Face the Face”, the first single off his “White City” album. She also appeared in the video.
18- In 1984 Townshend contributed lyrics to two songs (“Love on the Air” and “All Lovers are Deranged”) on David Gilmour’s solo album About Face.
19-Townshend suffers from partial deafness and tinnitus, believed to be the result of noise-induced hearing loss from his extensive exposure to loud music.
20- Pete’s dad wrote “Unchained Melody,” which was not a hit but was covered multiple times by other successful bands
21- He and Roger Daltrey received The George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA on 21 May 2016
22- He established the Meher Baba Oceanic in London, for Baba followers. The organisation had film editing and dubbing facilities along with economic stay. He also contributed to the Avatar Meher Baba Trust in India.
23- Throughout his solo career and his career with the Who, Townshend has played a large variety of guitars – mostly various Gibson and Fender and Rickenbacker models
24- He has guest appeared as lead guitarist on recordings of Elton John, David Bowie and Mick Jagger among others.
25- Regarding his professional relationship with Pete Townshend, Daltrey noted to AARP The Magazine, “He’s a totally different animal than I am. He’s earth; I’m water. Between the two of us, we make things grow.”
ads