Fact #47580
When:
Short story:
Clifford Blandford Townshend is born. He will find success as an English jazz musician, noted for playing saxophone in The Royal Air Force Dance Orchestra, more popularly known as The Squadronaires. His son, Pete Townshend, will become leader of 60s pop group The Who.
Full article:
Cliff Townshend : It all started with Peter's grandfather. He was a musician too, and it was he that got me started on the sax at a fairly young age. I was lucky in the fact that there was no burning desire to prove anything in those days. I just wanted to play for the fun and pleasure it gave me.
When I first started playing, it was a case of learning all the hundreds of tunes that had already been written. All the Dinahs, Sweet Sues, and Avalons had to be learned, along with the Gay Gordons and the like. When you're playing five or six hours a night you get a facility on your instrument that just cannot be learned in any other way. Naturally we played all the new stuff that came along, but it was the evergreens that were the mainstay of our library.
The whole training ground was different from Peter's. Peter's is an entirely different world. It's new stuff that is the important thing to them. (Source : interview by Freddy Clayton in 1973)
Pete Townshend (The Who) : There's no doubt that if he hadn't been a musician and hadn't understood our early problems and disappointments, the chances are we might never have gotten off the ground. Still, everyone needs a bit of luck somewhere along the line, and having dad around was ours. Don't forget Mum. She had something to do with all this too. (Source : interview by Freddy Clayton in 1973)
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When I first started playing, it was a case of learning all the hundreds of tunes that had already been written. All the Dinahs, Sweet Sues, and Avalons had to be learned, along with the Gay Gordons and the like. When you're playing five or six hours a night you get a facility on your instrument that just cannot be learned in any other way. Naturally we played all the new stuff that came along, but it was the evergreens that were the mainstay of our library.
The whole training ground was different from Peter's. Peter's is an entirely different world. It's new stuff that is the important thing to them. (Source : interview by Freddy Clayton in 1973)
Pete Townshend (The Who) : There's no doubt that if he hadn't been a musician and hadn't understood our early problems and disappointments, the chances are we might never have gotten off the ground. Still, everyone needs a bit of luck somewhere along the line, and having dad around was ours. Don't forget Mum. She had something to do with all this too. (Source : interview by Freddy Clayton in 1973)