Roger Daltrey has just announced a 12-date full-band UK tour, dubbed, “Who Was I,” featuring, “an evening of Who classics, rarities, solo hits, and fan Q&A.”
An announcement on TheWho.com revealed the fall tour will comprise a unique mix of music and conversation, and is “built around Roger’s musical journey and encompasses nearly every style imaginable — including blues, rock, country, soul, and metal.” Daltrey will touch upon and play music from all facets of his career. The gigs promise “a plethora of songs with some questions answered and rock n' roll stories along the way.”
Roger Daltrey was quoted in the announcement saying:
The truth is singers need to sing. Use it or lose it. Throughout my life I have sung with so many great musicians, from the heavy rock of the Who and Wilko Jonson, to the Irish lilt of the Chieftains. On this tour I want to take the audience on a musical journey through my career as a singer, with a show of songs and sounds that explores and surprises. I look forward to having closer contact with my audience than festivals and arenas allow. Leaving time to chat.
It’s important to get our road crew working again, without these guys the halls would go silent. It’s also clear that live music is an important part of all our lives, something to free us from the groundhog days that life has become. This pandemic has brought home to me what an important part of me singing is and it’s made me determined to get back onstage asap. See you soon!
Although Roger Daltrey does tip his foot into his solo career during his solo shows, he told us that he's often faced criticism for performing Who material without Pete Townshend: “Y'know, people say, 'Ah, well, y'know, why are you doing Who songs?' And I think, well, they're my songs, it's my history, it's my voice that gave them birth. I mean, Pete wrote them, but it's my voice that brought them out to the public.”
In his most recent solo shows, Roger Daltrey has taken to playing a solo ukulele version of the band's 1975 Townshend-sung The Who By Numbers standout “Blue, Red, & Grey” giving fans the opportunity for the first time to hear any member of the Who perform it live: “'Blue, Red, & Grey' I love, because it’s a song we never, ever did onstage, that I used to plead with Pete to play. It’s the song that John (Entwistle) did the brass arrangements for, which we now can replicated on keyboards, of course — which, y’know, give me memories of my days that I grew up with working class societies and communities that had all those bands; the coal mine bands, the steel mill bands, shipyard bands. It just evolves a memory of a past that we lost, y’know?”
JUST ANNOUNCED: Roger Daltrey UK tour dates (subject to change):
November 7 – Birmingham, England – Symphony Hall
November 9 – Manchester, England – O2 Apollo
November 11 – Nottingham, England – Royal Concert Hall
November 15 – London, England – LondonPalladium
November 17 – Brighton, England – Brighton Centre
November 19 – Southend-on-Sea, England – Cliffs Pavilion
November 21 – Oxford, England – New Theatre Oxford
November 24 – Glasgow, Scotland – SEC Armadillo
November 26 – Newcastle, England – O2 City Hall
November 29 – Liverpool, England – Empire Theatre
December 1 – Portsmouth, England – Guildhall
December 2 – Bournemouth, England – International Centre