Sir Roger Daltrey: ‘I think music is one of our last great freedoms’

A truly iconic voice in rock music for more than 60 years, Roger Daltrey has been the lead singer of The Who since the legendary band’s inception in 1964, as well as a successful solo artist.

Known for his powerful, multi-octave vocal range, golden curls and flamboyant stage presence, Daltrey laid the template for other ‘pseudo-messianic’ rock frontmen such as Jim Morrison and Robert Plant to follow.

Joining this bona fide rock god at Audley End House and Gardens on 1 August (part of the Heritage Live series of concerts that take place at various stately homes around the UK) will be Britpop favourites Ocean Colour Scene and Cast.

Roger, 81, spoke to the Cambridge Independent from his own ‘country pile’ in East Sussex.

“Still alive!,” he laughs when I enquire into his wellbeing.

“I’ve just finished a tour with the band that I’m doing these [upcoming shows] with,” he continues. “We did a 10-day tour of Britain, right up to Scotland and back, which was sold out, which was fantastic.

“It’s a fabulous band, and it’s a band of musicians that I’ve admired for a long time for their talent.

“I’ve fitted them all together to try and give musicians some work; I mean the only work left that pays musicians these days is in the live arena…

“I’ve got nine people in the band and it’s just fantastic to be able to do different kinds of arrangements for familiar songs, explore them with different instruments and everything. It’s been a wonderful experience.”

Roger notes that as a solo artist, he mainly tours the USA.

“I’ve only ever done one here [in the UK] before on my own. That was when I did [Who album and rock opera] Tommy with another band,” he explains.

“But this time around I’m finding I can explore more of my own solo stuff and some of the stuff I did with Wilko Johnson…

“I don’t know how to describe the show because I’ve never been out front! All I know is I’m having the time of my life.

“And by the reaction I’m getting from audiences, they seem to love it so I’m happy with that.”

Throughout his long career, Roger has released 10 solo studio albums, the first of which was 1973’s Daltrey, which included the top five single Giving It All Away.

His fourth solo effort was the soundtrack to the film McVicar, a hard-hitting drama from 1980 in which he also starred. Roger is an accomplished actor with a number of film credits to his name.

Does he include any songs from this, one of his finest film roles, in his current live show?

“I do a couple of songs from that, yeah,” he replies. “I kind of change the set every night – that’s the joy of not being in a band with as big of an audience as The Who, is that you can be much more loose with the setlist.

“I don’t have to have a setlist; if I fancy singing something, I’ll just start singing it! And it leads to a lot of fun.

“I’m trying to give people a good night out, for a reasonable price, keep a load of musicians in work, because music’s been very good to me and it’s great to give a bit back.”

Roger says his favourite film he has been involved in was the movie version of Tommy, from 1975, which also featured the likes of Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Elton John and Tina Turner, as he was working “with someone I loved to work with” in director Ken Russell.

He adds: “He was completely nuts but great fun and never boring – and always willing to take a chance. So much of the stuff that I see today, and why I stopped acting, was that I just felt like a talking piece of furniture…

“Due to budget restraints and everything else, and the way the film industry was changing into a lot of blue screen stuff, it just became dull to me.

“It’s very hard to make a character really live and breathe in a blank set with a blue screen.”

Asked if he’s ever played, or visited, Audley End before, the affable musician says: “I can’t remember! I mean I’ve played that whole area – we used to play a lot in Suffolk and Essex in those early days…

“Probably have – I don’t think we’ve ever been kicked out, let’s put it that way!”

One of the support acts at Roger’s Audley End show, Cast, have previously been compared to the explosive force of nature that were The Who in their pomp, with some even calling them ‘The Who of the 90s’.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” admits Roger, who reveals that he listens to a meditation tape of his “good friend Paul McKenna” before each gig.

“All I do know is they’re both great bands. Ocean Colour Scene are a good band… so it should make a good afternoon out.

“Like I say, music is one of our last great freedoms; we’ve got to keep going, we can’t let that be totally controlled and wiped out, because AI is playing havoc with our business.”

As well as wearing his shirt open to the navel, another of Roger’s on-stage trademarks is his habit of swinging the microphone by its cable around his head and over the audience.

“No, I don’t do much of that!,” he laughs when I ask if he’ll be doing it at Audley End. “Come on, give an old boy a break!”

The towering presence of Roger Daltrey, windmilling guitarist and songwriter-in-chief Pete Townshend, stoic bass player extraordinaire John Entwistle, and manic drummer and master prankster Keith Moon (aka ‘Moon the Loon’), The Who in their heyday were a musical and visual force to be reckoned with – especially as a live act.

The quartet, one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century, were famously recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the world’s loudest band, reaching 126 decibels at a concert at The Valley stadium in London in 1976, while their 1970 album Live at Leeds is widely regarded as one of the best live albums of all time.

Unsurprisingly, Roger, who lists Elvis Presley and Lonnie Donegan among his influences, has suffered hearing loss as a result of performing at such a high volume for so many years, and without ear defenders.

“It is about the same as every musician of my age who plays the kind of music we play,” he says. “It’s not very good without hearing aids.

“We were all basically stupid in the early days... Before we had any kind of monitor system at all, at Charlton Athletic Football Ground, we were recorded at a volume that was louder than Concorde taking off!

“If you’re standing there in front of that for two hours, it’s no wonder you’ve damaged your ears!”

These days, following the deaths of Keith Moon (in 1978) and John Entwistle (in 2002), only Roger and Pete Townshend remain from the classic Who line-up.

The band’s best-known songs include My Generation, Substitute, I Can See for Miles, Pinball Wizard, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Baba O’Riley, and Who Are You.

The Who have also won numerous awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1990.

They played the Super Bowl in 2010 at the Sun Life Stadium (now the Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida, and performed at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012.

“I do quite a few songs [at the show] from [1971 album] Who’s Next,” notes Roger, an honorary patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust and an active campaigner on the charity’s behalf.

He has raised more than £34million for it over the years with star-studded concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, the first of which he put on in 2000.

“For instance, we do Won’t Get Fooled Again and Baba O’Riley but we don’t do it on synthesisers, we do it all on instruments…

“It leaves you so much more space in the arrangements because you’re not stuck on the rails of the track. That [Baba O’Riley] has proved to be very, very uplifting and interesting – the crowd love it, that’s for sure.

“I mean [the new arrangement of] Won’t Get Fooled Again has got a blues harmonica on it!”

With so many outstanding songs to choose from, it must be difficult to decide which ones to include and which to leave out.

“That’s one of The Who’s biggest problems,” admits Roger, whose solo band includes Pete Townshend’s brother and Who regular, Simon Townshend, on vocals and guitar – a talented musician and songwriter in his own right.

“Peter’s written so many great songs, that mean so much to so many people, but unfortunately they don’t always agree with each other.

“So finding the perfect setlist is a complete impossibility, and people expect so much from a stage show now. They expect the lights and they expect the screens…”

Won’t Get Fooled Again is not the only Who song in Roger’s current set to be given a new arrangement.

“We do Substitute, and again with a harmonica solo,” he reveals, “and again it just gives it a completely different texture.

“But it’s still got that energy, and it’s still got those wonderful lyrics. The best line in rock I think is in Substitute – ‘I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth’. Sums it all up!”

What are Roger’s favourite Who songs?

“Behind Blue Eyes I’ve always loved,” he says, “but there’s so many… I also love Love, Reign o’er Me, Love Ain’t for Keeping – we sometimes play that as well.”

Even though he’s now in his 80s, Roger’s voice still sounds impressive.

“I’ve learnt how to be kind to my voice,” he explains, “and how to use it. I did have voice problems for about 10 years, which was a pre-cancerous thing.

“I got very lucky; I found a brilliant surgeon in Boston in America and he fixed me up and my voice is possibly better than it’s ever been.

“What you gain in the years that you’ve lived is all reflected in the voice and it’s only that living that can put that there...

“I can sing the same notes that I was singing when I was young, but they’ve got more meat and potatoes in them, in the sound. It’s a really interesting thing, the human voice.”

There has been a lot of speculation that The Who’s next tour of America is to be their last, with some reports suggesting that they’re about to retire.

Roger sets the record straight: “We are doing our final tour in America – touring is becoming hard at this age.

“We’re not saying we’re not going to do any more shows, and we certainly will always do charity shows, if we can, and are invited to.

“But we’re not going to do any more touring; this will be the last one in America. Whether we do any more after the end of this year, who knows?

“At this age, we’re in the lap of the gods. But that’s what, in some ways, makes it exciting. It also puts us on our mettle to be as good as we can be – and let me tell you, it’s still got some power left in it.

“We can still blow quite a lot of young bands off the stage, that’s for sure.”

Roger’s most recent solo album was 2018’s top 10 hit, As Long as I Have You.

His autobiography, Thanks a lot Mr Kibblewhite: My Story, a Sunday Times bestseller, was also published that year.

Not long after our interview took place, it was announced that Roger was to receive a knighthood for services to charity and music.

In a statement, he said: “It is a wonderful honour for me and especially for Teenage Cancer Trust.

“I accept this award not only for myself but on behalf of all the unsung heroes who have given their energy towards making the Teenage Cancer Trust the success it has become.

“The likes of The Who and their fans, Angie Jenkison, Lindsay Hughes, Des Murphy, Rob Ballantine and the late Chris York are some of many who have done so much to elevate the charity, to the point where it now has 28 specialist units in NHS hospitals across the UK.”

Sir Roger Daltrey and his incredible nine-piece band will be appearing at Audley End House and Gardens in Saffron Walden, Essex, on Friday, 1 August, along with Ocean Colour Scene and Cast.

Tickets, priced £82.13, are available from heritagelive.net. For more on Roger and The Who, go to thewho.com.