When Roger Daltrey said that playing with The Who had become "meaningless"

24 June 2026, 14:04

Roger Daltrey and The Who. Picture: Alamy

By Mayer Nissim

Roger Daltrey once suggested that The Who needed to record new songs for shows to have meaning.

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The Who have seemingly retired from touring after wrapping up their Song Is Over farewell jaunt.

But it was over half a century ago that Roger Daltrey had previously expressed concerns that the band's concerts had felt somewhat meaningless.

That was because, despite the quality of the performances, the band had been touring their then-current record Who's Next for a couple of years.

The Who had made a start on making the album that would be Quadrophenia in the spring of 1972 at their own newly built Ramport Studios in Battersea, but ended up having to finish it a year later at Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio.

"We'll be back on the road but not until we finish the new material," Daltrey told Melody Maker in April 1973.

The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (Shepperton Studios / 1978)

"We've really got to change because the last few gigs we've done have felt meaningless to us. We’ve enjoyed them but we’ve milked all the material so much now there’s nothing more to come out of it."

He added: "We’ve been criticised for playing the same stuff over and over again, but I know that whenever we do play it we do it bloody well.

"The other week in the Hague when we played with various other top bands I know that we showed them we were the governors.

The Who on stage in 1974. Picture: Alamy

“And you've got to remember that journalists who criticise see us, maybe, three times a year. The kids see us probably once in two years and that's hard for us to understand as well."

Over 50 years on and with their back catalogue admittedly much bigger by this point it was seemingly Roger Daltrey who was against the idea of The Who recording new material, even though they were still playing live.

"I would love to do another album with Roger. I really enjoyed doing the last one, but he doesn't really want to do that," guitarist Pete Townshend said.

"I feel like with The Who, I’m still trying to push this elephant up the hill, with Roger being resistant to doing new creative work.

The Who Live at Eden Project

"He always says to me, 'Pete, you’ve done enough. We did enough in the early days. That's what people want here. Let's just do that'."

For his part, Daltrey had previously told the NME: "What's the point of records? We released an album [2019's Who] four years ago, and it did nothing.

"It's a great album too, but there isn't the interest out there for new music these days. People want to hear the old music. I don't know why, but that’s the fact."