The Who

The two original surviving members of legendary band Who Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are making progress on the first

new album under the group name since 1982's "It's Hard," but Daltrey says there is no real rush to finish the project.

"It will come out when it is ready," he tells Billboard. "What's the point of trying to give yourself deadlines that

aren't really important? I think we have to get it good before we can finish it."

Describing the entire process of developing material, Daltrey admits, "We are doing it in a very different way. All the

time that [the late bassist] John [Entwistle] was in the band, we kind of felt we had to go in as a group. Now, it is really

only Pete and I, and Pete wants to do all the guitars and some of the bass playing. Whether we will end up going into the

studio with a group and recording it all again, I don't know. These are all the kinds of bridges that we need to cross."

Daltrey says he has three tracks written for the project. "One of them is particularly fantastic in the older Who-type

vain," he enthuses. "Another is particularly fantastic in a completely different way. These songs are all about the spirit

and the emotion. Whether or not they are successful in today's world, who knows? The business is totally different now."

The Who vocalist says he's particularly excited about the Townshend song "Black Widow's Eyes," which concerns Stockholm

syndrome. "The fact that he's done that in music and words, and he completely sums up Stockholm syndrome in this song, is so

haunting," he says. "Imagine how difficult it is for Pete. He doesn't need to write another song. God almighty, all that

music out of one head. But he seems driven at the moment, which is great because I've always felt that he was the kind of

writer who would write his best stuff at the age he is now. His skills have caught up with his intellect."

As previously reported, the Who will tour Europe this summer, with additional international dates to be added later in the

year. "If we can go out and play festival spots and play our hits, we can relight the fire," Daltrey says. "It's amazing when

young people see the band. We've had a great response from young people.

Daltrey is also involved in a long-in-the-works biopic about late Who drummer Keith Moon, but has yet to give out details.

"We've had three or four scripts written, and we've never quite nailed what we wanted to do," he admits. "We've got a new

writer. A very famous writer, a Pulitzer Prize winner indeed. I can't name him because I don't know the situation at the

moment. You can't tell someone's life story in two hours on film. If I can do it, I hope to make a real rock'n'roll film that

will be funny, poignant, sad, celebratory, all the things that Moon was. But if I can't, I'm very glad that I'm holding the

reins and stopping any bad films of Keith Moon being made."