While The Who are on the road with an orchestra, Roger Daltrey has announced June 14th as the release date for his orchestral album.
The Who’s Tommy Orchestralwas recorded on his 2018 tour, on which he did the rock opera backed by an orchestra. The show was recorded at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, New York. It sits on the site of the original Woodstock, where The Who did the bulk of the album when they played the second day of the 1969 festival.
However, the orchestration from that show had to be wiped due to the cost. As a result, Daltrey re-recorded the orchestra part in Budapest, Hungary.
Daltrey says, “Pete [Townshend]’s music is particularly suited to being embellished by the sounds that an orchestra can add to the band. Tommy can mean whatever you want it to mean; I use the characters in it as metaphors for parts of the human condition, so it’s a kind of a story of the human spirit. Even though it is 50 years on, I approach it as though I’m singing it for the first time.”
Daltrey and The Who are doing songs off of Tommy on their Moving On! tour, but not the entire album. Next up is Buffalo, New York tonight, followed by Bristow, Virginia on Saturday.