Blasts From Britain’s Past

Will Jimmy someday stand with Tommy as a rock protagonist for the ages? Pete Townshend, who created both characters, thinks so. That’s why he’s leading the reunited Who in an audiovisual staging of “Quadrophenia.” The U.S. arena tour comes to the Forum on Tuesday and the Pond of Anaheim on Friday.

The 1973 rock opera details the identity crisis of the teenage Jimmy, set against the 1964 street brawls between the leather-jacketed Rockers and the sharp-dressing Mods. While a respected work in the Who canon, it never moved into the mainstream as did Townshend’s first rock opera, 1969’s “Tommy.”

Townshend, flush with “Tommy’s” recent success as a Broadway musical, revived “Quadrophenia” last June when he performed it with an all-star cast at the huge Prince’s Trust benefit in London’s Hyde Park.

He then brought the show to New York for a series of concerts. The drawing card was the reunited Who, which broke up in 1982 and last played together on a 25th anniversary tour in 1989.

In an interview on the eve of the current tour, Townshend, 51, talked about his reconciliation with his old sparring partner Roger Daltrey and his determination to establish “Quadrophenia.”

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Question: You’ve often said that you would never get back on stage with the Who. But here you are again.

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Answer: I don’t think I am doing that. I’m not taking the Who out on a global junket to make millions of dollars. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to honor our relationship, our adolescence, the life of our fans, our fans today and a piece of work that we think is worthy, and to try to progress it a bit.

It doesn’t feel like the Who. . . . But it feels strangely more like the Who should have always been. There’s a really genuine feeling of love and camaraderie and acceptance between Roger and myself, which has just never been there before, and I think this has come through a real struggle between us to each accept what the other wants and needs. . . .

For us this is an extraordinary thing to be going through at our age and our level of process, because we never really expected to creatively collaborate on anything in our lives.

Q: How did it come about?

A: I’ve never got on me knees to anyone, ever . . . but I actually said to Roger, “I really want to do ‘Quadrophenia’ in Hyde Park and I really don’t think I can do it without you.” He said, “I don’t really want to do it.” And I said, “Well, please will you consider it and help me put it together?” And he said, “Well, what’s gonna be different? You’re just a [expletive] dictator.” And I said, “Well, listen, you know, I’m not, I am different, I have grown up and I’ve learned a lot from working in music theater, give it a crack.” And he was willing to give it a crack. . . . He found it very confusing at first dealing with a Pete Townshend that listened.

Q: Why did he regard you as a dictator?

A: When I was in the Who, I felt that everybody else in the band was a force to be opposed. If I didn’t keep my hand on the driving wheel, Keith Moon would take over and we would turn into Jan & Dean revisited, or John Entwistle would take over and we would turn into Van Halen, or Roger would take it over and we would turn into Creedence Clearwater Revival or Bruce Springsteen. I felt I really had to steer the [expletive] thing all the time.

Q: What accounts for your changed attitude?

A: For me this could only have happened by doing the work that I’ve done in music theater. . . . The writer can only go so far, and then you have to start to bring in a creative team of some size. . . . We in the music industry do find it very difficult to let go and truly collaborate, and in theater this is much more how things are done.

The interesting thing about “Quadrophenia” is that it happened as soon as I let it go. Then you start to get the torrential avalanche of ideas that you need, and energy, to stage something.

Q: Has “Quadrophenia” been overlooked and underappreciated?

A: Not by people that are close to me and not by people in the know, but I think everything about my work has been overshadowed by “Tommy,” because the success of “Tommy” has been perennial. . . . There is a certain feeling of bringing it out of the shadow, yeah.

I’m very passionate about doing whatever is necessary to get it to the place that “Tommy” seemed to arrive at in ’89. Basically what had really drawn attention to “Tommy” as a theatrical work was the Universal Amphitheatre show in L.A. where we did it with a bunch of celebrities.

All the L.A. agents came to the show and quite a few celebrities. Suddenly it was accepted that “Tommy” had some kind of theatrical potential. And I decided to pursue the same pathway with “Quadrophenia.” I’m hoping to see it happen as some kind of theatrical installation somewhere like Vegas or somewhere, or as a touring musical.

Q: What were you trying to say in the work?

A: It’s hard on the surface, but the closure of it I hope is an optimistic and uplifting one. It’s the universal story of the West London Mod kids that I grew up with. They seemed to go through a couple of years of going crazy and then they settled down and a lot of them had very happy and satisfactory lives. What I’ve done here is I’ve kind of iconized them all . . . and added it all up to something that really suggests a spiritual answer, a spiritual ending place. It’s kind of like “Tommy” upside down.

Q: Are the themes and story especially relevant today?

A: I think they’re always relevant really. Rites of passage stories, from “Catcher in the Rye” onwards, are always relevant.

And I think what’s relevant about “Quadrophenia” is that it suggested that not everybody becomes Keith Moon in this world. Not everybody that shoots for it explodes. Most of the people that I grew up with made it, and a lot of them are extraordinarily fine people. . . .

The message that it carries is that being young, and being in difficulty, having a good time and having a bad time, is what growing up is about, and ultimately life is a spiritual journey, and we begin it when we stop living in the transference of childhood stuff or adolescent stuff and get down to dealing with life on a day-to-day basis and finding out who we are. And I think that’s a very relevant story.

Q: You’ve said that you considered presenting “Quadrophenia” without your own participation as a performer.

A: Oh, most definitely. I’ve got no desire to do this for a living. But I enjoyed it very much in New York and I’m determined to enjoy this tour as well. I’m enjoying performing, which is something I haven’t [expletive] done since 1967. I’ve done it because it’s been a passion and a mission and a vocation, but I’ve not done it because I’ve loved it. Well, I have loved it, but I haven’t enjoyed it, you know what I mean? I’ve been an addict. And now I feel that it’s really a pleasure and an honor and a gift to get to go on stage and perform.

* The Who performs on Tuesday at the Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, 8 p.m. $35. (310) 419-3100. Also Friday at the Pond of Anaheim, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 8 p.m. $35, $50, $75. (714) 704-2400.