July 18, 2008 --
THE Who's upcoming tour is expected to garner the legendary band a cool $100 million, but getting Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to travel and perform together is turning into a logistical night- mare.
One insider said, "There is a lot of tension and fighting going on right now. Roger is furious with Pete. Pete has been writing all this new material and wants to perform the new stuff, but Roger wants to stick with 'My Generation,' 'Won't Get Fooled Again,' 'Pinball Wizard' and other classics."
Townshend and Daltrey are said not even to be on speaking terms, and have supposedly presented tour operators with a list of demands, including:
* The two rockers must have separate dressing rooms on opposite ends of the hallway.
* There will be no conversation between the two of them either before or after performances. "They will basically show up, play, and leave," the source said.
* They must have separate travel arrangements, separate hotel accommodations, as well as separate staffing.
"They're at each other's throats right now," our insider said, "But considering how much money is on the line, there's 100 million reasons why they need to do this."
The tour, which kicks off in Detroit on Oct. 21, takes the band through Los Angeles in November but, "They are trying to book more shows so that the North American part of the tour goes through 2009. Then they will hit Japan and Australia."
Daltrey and Townshend are the only surviving members of the original Who. Drummer Keith Moon died in 1978, and bassist John Entwistle died of a suspected OD in 2002. The lineup currently has John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards, Pino Palladino on bass, and Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey on drums.
A spokesperson for the group in London didn't return our detailed call for a comment.
