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BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Pete Townshend's Quadrophenia mod ballet on tour
Musician Pete Townshend says he believes a new ballet version of his rock opera Quadrophenia will "resonate with new audiences".The co-founder of The Who is backing Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet – based on his own music and the subsequent film about mods and rockers clashing in 1960s ballet, which had its premiere in Plymouth, is touring venues around the UK in June and told BBC South East that he thought the story of rebellion and youth culture would make a "powerfully rhythmic and emotionally engaging ballet". "The themes of young people growing up in difficult times are still so relevant," he said."It's going to be tender, poignant, poetic and epic."More than 1,000 youths fought each other between 16 and 18 May 1964 in Brighton, in scenes which were later immortalised in rock opera was released in 1973, and the 1979 film, starring Sting, Ray Winstone, Phil Daniels, Toyah Willcox and Leslie Ash was set around the East Sussex added: "Brighton has always been something special. It has a great history all of its own." The orchestration for the production was written by Townshend's wife Rachel said: "When I've written rock operas, I've always felt they were there to be exploited and changed."This ballet went into workshop with Sadler's Wells and it has landed really well. I was deeply touched by it."We're bringing rock music ethics into the ballet world." The ballet is backed by instrumental music recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra."It was amazing to see people working with my music who were so young," Townshend added."This is a different take on the perennial story of a young man struggling in life to find meaning."Quadrophenia really is my baby and I'm so pleased what we managed to achieve with it."
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Pete Townshend remakes Quadrophenia for a new generation: ‘The world is a dangerous place at the moment'
Deckchairs fly, arms clash, bodies launch into the air as mods and rockers engage in a fierce Brighton seafront battle. But in this east London dance studio – with Zaha Hadid's Olympic swimming pool visible through the window – young performers in sports socks, joggers and baggy T-shirts are reimagining the Who's seminal document of the mid-60s Quadrophenia as ballet. Isn't this 1973 album an unlikely subject for dance? We've recently had Black Sabbath: The Ballet, and Message in a Bottle set to Sting, so why not? After all, Quadrophenia is theatrical at its roots. 'The closest thing to a grand opera I'll ever write,' says the Who's guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend. Set in 1965, the story of disaffected young mod Jimmy looking for meaning in life via music, amphetamines and aspirational tailoring became a cult 1979 film starring Phil Daniels, but a more recent incarnation was Classic Quadrophenia, a symphonic version of the album for orchestra and tenor Alfie Boe. It was when Townshend heard the instrumental version, orchestrated by the musician Rachel Fuller (also Townshend's wife) that he said to her: 'I think this would make a lovely ballet.' A few years on, Fuller was composing a children's ballet and met ex-Royal Ballet dancer Natalie Harrison; together a plan was hatched (Harrison is creative producer on the project). The person whose job it became to turn this much-loved piece of pop culture into dance, however, had barely heard of Quadrophenia. 'I knew the film poster,' says Paul Roberts, a choreographer who has worked with Harry Styles, Spice Girls and numerous other pop luminaries. But the team quickly started workshopping ideas, drawing on classical, contemporary and commercial dance, and brought in Tony-, Emmy- and Olivier-winning director Rob Ashford, to help shape what Townshend calls 'a compressed vision of what a lot of young men go through in their late teens and early 20s. This young guy who is bereft and lacks deep friendships and support and yet he feels part of this mod gang.' It is 60 years since the famous beachfront clash, ancient history for the dancers who are in their 20s, such as Paris Fitzpatrick, 29, who plays Jimmy. Unlike the directionless Jimmy, Fitzpatrick has been training at performing arts school since the age of 12 and gone on to an award-winning dance career. Can he relate to these characters? 'Disillusionment? We can all relate, I think,' he says. 'Being a bit lost, the search for meaning, I've experienced a lot of that.' Harrison tells me that in discussions in the studio, the young cast ended up making parallels with TV series Adolescence, 'the anger, confusion of being a young man, needing to belong'. Down the corridor in the costume room, it turns out one thing the dancers are having trouble relating to is the tightness of the suits. 'They normally wear triple XL,' laughs associate costume designer Natalie Pryce, amid the racks of Paul Smith shirts, vintage finds, polo shirts and parkas. Smith has designed the costumes, and Pryce and costume stylist Hannah Teare are putting together the wardrobe and adjusting garments for the needs of dancers. That means adding gussets under the arms and in the slim-cut trousers, accommodating dancers' muscular thighs. Vintage suits have 'no bounce', says Teare, no stretch in the fabric. They also have to double up on some items to take into account all the inevitable sweat. 'You've got to allow for the first previews and press night, where everyone's a bit more nervous,' says Pryce. Then you've got to get the details right, the correct width of lapel (narrow) and collar style (dagger), the kind of things that might pass some by 'but a mod would know that another guy passing on the street was a mod', says Teare. There are hairstyles to think about, too. A lot of the boys are reluctant to grow out their fades, says Pryce, but others are getting in the spirit. (And since there's an Oasis reunion about to happen, they might find themselves at the height of fashion.) 'The look was the manifesto,' says Townshend of the mod movement. And the suits, in fact, were instrumental in shaping the actual dancing the mods did in the 60s ('Pete got up and showed us some moves,' says Roberts. 'There's one where he flicks his leg out, we've stolen that.') 'Because they invested so much into what they were wearing, it's very poised, very collected, super minimal,' Roberts demonstrates a subtle groove. 'You want to keep your tie straight, your shirt tails tucked in,' adds Ashford, and God forbid you mess up your hair. But there was an edge, a sense of the caged animal about it. The energy inside that composure was 'scruffy and hectic', says Roberts, 'wild and messy energy contained in a sort of box of self-consciousness' is how Fitzpatrick puts it. 'About as far from classical ballet as you can get.' Everyone on the production raves about Fitzpatrick as Jimmy (he's best known for dancing the lead in Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet). 'He has this fragility, this rawness to him,' says Roberts. It's the lost boy look in his deep brown eyes. In the show, four other dancers embody the four facets of Jimmy's personality that he's grappling with – the Romantic, the Hypocrite, the Tough Guy, the Lunatic – trying to make sense of who he is. Also recently added to the cast is Royal Ballet principal Matthew Ball, as Godfather. Harrison tells me she was watching him in rehearsal leaping around the room. 'It was electric,' she says. 'You know how suddenly the stars align? It was like Pete's guitar playing happening as a full-body experience.' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Fuller has written the scenario based on Townshend's original liner notes (rather than a rehash of the film) and without lyrics or text; making sure the storytelling is clear was paramount for her: 'I've been to a few dance things, and I'm like: this is great but I've literally got no idea what's going on.' Never being much of a dance person in the past, 'what surprised me is that I've been able to make a real connection with it,' she says. Townshend already liked dance. 'I'm a big fan of ballet. I go quite a lot,' he says. He talks about a scene between Jimmy's troubled parents. 'When they move together it's absolutely powerful and poignant. You couldn't do it with words.' When Townshend first saw some of the movement Roberts had made to his music, 'I was struck by the fact that I was being drawn back to my mid-20s by these boys, who had a physical way of expressing the missing lyrics. It felt like it was drawn from deep inside these young dancers. And I found it incredibly moving.' The 1960s was a different world, the inheritance of the postwar generation and the heralding of huge social change. 'But it became clear there was a link between the kids that I grew up with and the similar issues, frustrations, difficulties that young men are facing today,' says Townshend. 'The world is in a dangerous place at the moment.' Fuller was determined that the ballet shouldn't be set in the modern day, but in a way, says Townshend, that's what's happening. 'It's being brought into the modern day by the dancers. There are a couple of times when I've had tears in my eyes,' he says. 'And that's not because I'm listening to my own music,' he smiles, 'it's because it feels like it belongs to this new gang.' There's so much mythology around the mod movement. 'The most dramatic pictures taken in the beach fights? The press set it up,' says Townshend. 'Got a couple of rockers to jump off [the prom]. And according to a few of my mates from the day, they were paid 10 quid to smash up some deckchairs. Most of the mods didn't want to muck up their clothes fighting.' And the movement itself was transitory. 'It was very, very strong and very, very powerful when it was there,' says Townshend. 'But it only lasted about two and a half years.' Quadrophenia, by contrast, is still thriving. Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet is at Theatre Royal, Plymouth, Wednesday to 1 June; touring to 19 July.
Scotsman
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Rachel Fuller on creating the soundtrack for Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet: 'the whole thing has felt magical'
Rachel Fuller's moment of epiphany came when she wrote a children's ballet during lockdown, she tells Fiona Shepherd Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When Pete Townsend originally wrote Quadrophenia in the early 1970s, he heard the music in his head as a fully orchestrated suite. Unable to read music, he used the (superb) instruments at this disposal – Keith Moon's drums, John Entwistle's bass, Roger Daltrey's voice and his own guitar - to convey his vision. In 2015, the iconic 'mod opera' was finally reinvented as Classic Quadrophenia, an album and concert tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and singers Alfie Boe and Billy Idol, with arrangements by Townsend's wife, the composer Rachel Fuller. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Rachel Fuller and Pete Townsend pictured at the 77th Tony Awards in New York, 16 June 2024 | AFP via Getty Images 'I stayed really faithful to the original format,' says Fuller. 'I tried to arrange in a way that I felt Pete would do, so I didn't change keys or mess around with the melodic lines. Often I would listen to John Entwistle's bassline and I would score the double basses exactly to what he was playing.' The roots of Quadrophenia's latest rebirth came when Townsend first heard Fuller's instrumental demos and remarked that the score would make a great ballet soundtrack. 'I'd never been to the ballet,' says Fuller. 'It was not something I particularly connected with. I don't have a graceful bone in my body.' Fuller's classical dance epiphany came when she wrote a children's ballet called Bee in lockdown. Armed with contacts in the field and a new appreciation of the form, she picked up on Townsend's original impulse, repurposing her orchestral arrangement without vocals to produce the soundtrack for Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet. Pete Townshend of The Who on stage at Granby Hall, Leicester, 18 October 1975 | Getty Images Fuller hopes it will resonate with ballet and non-ballet fans alike. 'I think the story of a teenage boy who's struggling with identity, with sense of self, with belonging, with fitting in, it's a universal story that people are going to connect with, especially young men who are going through a similar thing.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Fuller has her own affinity with the theme of not fitting in, having only recently been diagnosed with ADHD after a childhood of being 'seen as a fidgety girl who talked too much and found it hard to focus and pay attention. As a result of that I internalised everything and ended up with chronic anxiety by the age of ten.' Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who perform at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey on 10 September 1979. | Getty Images Fuller found respite in music, forging a career mainly as a composer and arranger. She also released an album of her own songs in 2004 but feels she has put her singer/songwriter days to bed. 'My voice doesn't match up with my personality,' she says. 'In person, I'm quite loud and vulgar, but when I sing I sound like a nun. Maybe because my brain is wired slightly differently and I think outside the box it's particularly suited to composing and arranging orchestras so I think it's been part of my creative journey.' As for her work on Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet, she says 'the whole thing has felt magical. Our hope is that people have a good night out, that they can put their life on a hook and be present and have their soul moved. People can sing along – I'm hoping they won't, but inside they might!' Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet is at Edinburgh Festival Theatre from 10-14 June Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This feature was produced in association with Capital Theatres WIN: £400 PAUL SMITH PRIZE DRAW WITH HARVEY NICHOLS Everyone who buys a ticket for Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet at the Festival Theatre will be entered into a prize draw to win £400 credit and a Personal Shopping experience in Paul Smith at Harvey Nichols, Edinburgh, see
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE PETE TOWNSHEND reveals why he wishes he quit The Who DECADES ago - and what he REALLY thinks of Roger Daltrey
He's a rock god, adored by many and worth millions. Yet The Who's Pete Townshend has regrets. 'I always feel I wish I'd left before the band got famous and been an artist,' says the former art school student. 'I think I would have been happier.' This jaw-dropping moment of reflection comes after we've been watching the dancers of Sadler's Wells rehearse a new ballet that is based on his wife Rachel Fuller's orchestration of the rock opera Quadrophenia, written by Pete and released as an album by The Who in 1973. It's the story of Jimmy, a young man having a breakdown during the legendary clashes between Mods and Rockers on Brighton seafront in 1964. And Pete was actually there.
BBC News
16-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Oxfordshire musician celebrates ADHD differences in new book
Musician Rachel Fuller was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) two years ago but says she was seen as "a bit of a headache" as a she had a talent for music at nine-years-old was an outlet for her to channel her differences."When I started playing the piano and I had this aptitude for it, I think everyone was relieved: 'well, at least she's really good at something,'" she says."There really was nothing like ADHD. You were just labelled a naughty, disruptive kid. I don't think I came across as someone who had something wrong with me. I think I came across as a child who was naughty." Zoom along to today and her book BEE celebrates people's differences and is based on her ballet that was co-produced with the Royal Ballet and Opera."It's very easy to see external differences – hair colour, skin colour, eye colour, how tall you are. But we have these differences on the inside as well," she says."We all have our own unique talent and our own sort of superpower. I love that word: I hear children using it a lot. If they're a little bit different, it's a superpower."So really [BEE is] about how we're all different. I think every child at some point has felt that they're a bit left out or they're a bit different but for neurodiverse children it can feel a lot greater." Since 2015, the number of patients in England prescribed drugs to treat ADHD has nearly trebled, and BBC research last year suggested it would take eight years to assess all adults who were on waiting National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) only officially recognised ADHD in adults 17 years ago and it is thought about 3 to 4% of adults in the UK have Fuller, who lives in Uffington, Oxfordshire, her diagnosis had a significant impact on her life."Suddenly all the things I thought were bad aspects of my personality, things I thought were just defects in my character – like being impatient and interrupting people when they were talking – I could see that actually [ADHD's] a physical condition where your brain does not make enough dopamine," she told BBC Radio written by Fuller and illustrated by Emilia Wharfe, explores difference and acceptance and the importance of individuals' talents being shared. And Fuller and Wharfe seem set to take their work to festivals over the summer. "I have an old 1965 split-screen VW Camper, because I am essentially a big child myself. I like to go camping, I like to mess around on boats. "I said to a friend and to Emilia: in the summer, decorate it with ivy and flowers and lights and get kids to sit on beanbags and read the books and play some of the music [from BEE] and maybe encourage them to to do some movement and workshop stuff," Fuller added."I feel like I might have more fun than the children!" You can follow BBC Oxford on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
