Rock icons The Who to start new UK tour in Manchester – how to get tickets

Rock and roll legends The Who have announced a major new UK tour which will start in Manchester in 2020.

The music icons, fronted by Roger Daltrey and with Pete Townshend on the guitar, have also confirmed they will release their first new album in 13 years in November, entitled WHO.

The band will head out on the road with a full live orchestra for the new tour, which will start at Manchester Arena on March 16, 2020, before heading across the UK and Ireland to venues in Dublin, Newcastle, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool and London.

Generally regarded as one of the greatest rock bands of all time, The Who have sold over 100 million records worldwide including 9 US and 10 UK top ten albums and 14 UK top ten singles in a career spanning six decades.

Now fifty-five years after they made their first recordings, The Who will release new album WHO on 22^nd November 2019.  The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during Spring and Summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend and D. Sardy (who has worked with Noel Gallagher, Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz) with vocal production by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson).

 

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‘WHO’ – THE NEW STUDIO ALBUM IS NOW AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER. GET EARLY TICKET ACCESS TO THE WHO’S 2020 UK AND IRELAND TOUR. Pete and Roger unveiled the Sir Peter Blake designed album artwork at the opening of Pace Gallery’s new Headquarters in New York las night. Pre-order the new studio album WHO by The Who by 4pm on Tuesday 17th September for exclusive pre-sale access to The Who’s 2020 UK and Ireland tour. Tickets go on general sale on Friday 20th September. Link in bio.

A post shared by The Who (@officialthewho) on Sep 13, 2019 at 4:34am PDT

Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap.

The album cover, unveiled in New York at the weekend, has been created by famed pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go.

The songs on WHO cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and ‘an old rock star that has lost his marbles’. Singer Roger Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest saying: “I think we’ve made our best album since Quadrophenia in 1973, Pete hasn’t lost it, he’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge”.

Pete Townshend added: “Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I’ve tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia if I can. I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Memories are OK, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today. I made new home studio demos of all these songs in the summer of 2018 using a wide collection of instruments old and new.”

The Who 2020 tour – how to get tickets

Tickets for The Who’s 2020 tour, which opens at Manchester Arena on March 16th, will go on sale on Friday, 20th September at 10am from Live Nation here.

There is also a pre-sale from Wednesday 18th September for those who pre-order the new album – see The Who’s official website for more details here.