The Who’s Pete Townshend To Release 14-CD ‘Live > In Concert 1985-2001’ Box Set

UMR has announced Pete Townshend Live > In Concert 1985-2001, an expanded 14-CD box set and digital set featuring seven long-out-of-print live albums by The Who founder Pete Townshend, will be released on July 26.

The set is available for pre-order now at https://petetownshend.lnk.to/liveinconcert

Newly remastered by Jon Astley at Close To The Edge, the set gathers together for the first time all of the live solo recordings that were only available via Townshend’s website, Eel Pie. All of the albums have been out of print for two decades.

The box set features expanded deluxe packaging in a CD-size hard slip case and tray with new art by longtime Townshend collaborator Richard Evans, including updated gatefold CD wallets, and a 28-page booklet with sleeve notes by Who and Townshend archivist Matt Kent, a new exclusive foreword by Townshend, plus rare photos and memorabilia.

The live shows included in the box set are Townshend’s Deep End live at Brixton Academy in London recorded in November 1985 and featuring David Gilmour of Pink Floyd on guitar, a live full rendition of Pete’s album Psychoderelict and more recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in August 1993 during Pete’s only full solo tour, an intimate show from The Fillmore in San Francisco on 1996 April 30 around the time of his first solo compilation album

Speaking of performing solo or performing with a band that wasn’t The Who, Townshend said, “I always have too much to do, too much responsibility, and not enough time. I have to live enough life to provide me with inspiration and context for my songs, I have to then spend enough time in my home studio finessing songs so they feel worthy of my band (The Who), then I have to re-record them with that band, then speak eloquently about them to the media, justifying my creative divergences, then I must tour endlessly behind the new music, continuing to celebrate the old stuff as well, and then start all over again.”

Matt Kent said, “When Pete Townshend plays a solo show it isn’t just a concert, it is an EVENT. These CDs represent just how good these events are.”