LISTEN: The Who’s Roger Daltrey unveils new solo album and streams title track
Roger Daltrey has announced details of a brand new studio album titled ‘As Long As I Have You’.
Released on Friday 1st June via Polydor Records, the album was helmed by esteemed Manic Street Preachers producer Dave Eringa, who also produced Roger and Wilko Johnson’s 2014 album ‘Going Back Home’.
Roger started work on the solo album shortly after ‘Going Back Home’ dented the album chart at no.5 and recorded it whenever possible between The Who’s 50th anniversary shows.
His band mate of more than five decades Pete Townshend lends his idiosyncratic guitar playing to seven tracks, while there are guest performances from Mick Talbot on keyboards (Dexys, The Style Council) and Sean Genockey on lead guitar.
The album melds original compositions such as ‘Certified Rose’ and the soulful ballad ‘Always Heading Home’ together with covers of tracks by artists including Steve Wonder (‘You Haven’t Done Nothing’), Nick Cave (‘Into My Arms’) and Stephen Stills (‘How Far’).
Title track ‘As Long As I Have You’ is a cover of a song originally recorded by Garnet Mimms in 1964; the year that Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle and Moon changed their name from The High Numbers and became The Who.
“This is a return to the very beginning, to the time before Pete started writing our songs, to a time when we were a teenage band playing soul music to small crowds in church halls,” says Roger.
"That's what we were, a soul band. And now, I can sing soul with all the experience you need to sing it. Life puts the soul in. I’ve always sung from the heart but when you’re 19, you haven’t had the life experience with all its emotional trials and traumas that you have by the time you get to my age. You carry all the emotional bruises of life and when you sing these songs, those emotions are in your voice. You feel the pain of a lost love. You feel it and you sing it and that's soul.
“For a long time, I've wanted to return to the simplicity of these songs, to show people my voice, a voice they won't have heard before. It felt like the right time. It's where I am, looking back to that time, looking across all those years but also being here, now, in the soulful moment.”
‘As Long As I Have You’ has been a mainstay on Roger’s North American tour. You can listen to it right here:
Roger will be headlining the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 22nd March in aid of The Teenage Cancer Trust. Tickets are on sale from Planet Rock Tickets now.
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