A Band with Built-In Hate

Exploring the explosion of the Who onto the international music scene, this heavily illustrated book looks at this furious band as an embodiment of pop art.

This book is a biography of the Who unlike any other. From their inception as the Detours in the mid-sixties, to the late seventies, post-Quadrophenia, the Who are pictured through the prism of pop art and the radical leveling of high and low culture that it brought about a drama that was consciously and aggressively performed by the band. Peter Stanfield lays down a path through the British pop revolution, its attitude and style, as it was uniquely embodied by the band: first, under the mentorship of arch-mod Peter Meaden, as they learned their trade in the pubs and halls of suburban London; and then with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, two aspiring filmmakers, at the very center of things in Soho.

Guided by the concerns of contemporary commentators among them George Melly, Lawrence Alloway, and, most conspicuously, Nik Cohn Stanfield tells the story of a band driven by fury, and of what happened when Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle moved from backroom stages to international arenas, from explosive 45s to expansive concept albums. Above all, he tells of how the Who confronted their lost youth as it was echoed in punk.

About the Author

Peter Stanfield is Emeritus Professor of Film at the University of Kent. His books include Maximum Movies - Pulp Fictions: Film Culture and the Worlds of Samuel Fuller and Hoodlum Movies: Seriality and the Outlaw Biker Film Cycle, 1966-1972. Popular music is a key theme of all of his work, be it the blue yodel of a singing cowboy, or the chug 'n' churn of a greasy biker soundtrack.