The Who confirm new album and tour plans for 2019

14 January 2019, 13:57 | Updated: 6 October 2023, 10:24

It will be their first new album for over 10 years.

The Who have announced their plans to release a new album later this year, alongside a North American arena tour.

The upcoming album will be iconic rock band’s first since 2006’s Endless Wire.

From April, the band will head out on their Moving On! tour, performing with local orchestras at different venues every night in the States.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Pete Townshend said that he told his promoters that he wouldn’t agree to a tour unless they new songs: “I said I was not going to sign any contracts unless we have new material.

The Who - Baba O'Riley (Live In Hyde Park)

"This has nothing to do with wanting a hit album. It has nothing to do with the fact that The Who need a new album. It’s purely personal. It’s about my pride, my sense of self-worth and self-dignity as a writer.”

Townshend described the album as a mix of “dark ballads, heavy rock stuff, experimental electronica, sampled stuff and cliched Who-ish tunes that began with a guitar that goes yanga-dang.”

Daltrey added: “They’re all great songs,. But sometimes I hear them and I think, ‘I can’t add anything to this to make my job as singer worthy of doing anything better than what Pete has already done.'

"There’s at least five or six I can lay into and I’m sure they’ll come out incredible. Now that I’m healed up, I’m going to spend time getting into them. Okay, so I didn’t get back to him quickly at first. It doesn’t mean anything! I was deaf for about three weeks. It wasn’t even possible for me to bloody hear what was in them!”