Robert Smith has been revealed as the next guest curator of Teenage Cancer Trust’s annual concert series at the Royal Albert Hall.

The Cure’s frontman has long been a supporter of the charity series, having previously performed two classic shows in 2014 and in 2006. He was also heavily involved in the TCT’s UNSEEN campaign during lockdown – helping the charity raise funds for those struggling during that period.

Smith is no stranger to curating events, having assembled the line-up for the 2018 edition of Meltdown Festival, which was held at the Southbank Centre and saw performances from Mogwai, The Psychedelic Furs, The Church and Nine Inch Nails.

He will personally curate the 2026 edition of Teenage Cancer Trust after series founder Roger Daltry stepped back.

Speaking about the new role, Smith said: “Teenage Cancer Trust does the most fantastic work, and it is a great honour – and a real thrill – to be asked to curate the 2026 shows at the Royal Albert Hall. I can promise it will be a very memorable week!”

Daltry, who will continue as a Teenage Cancer Trust honorary patron, has fundraised and advocated for the Trust – the only UK charity dedicated to providing specialised nursing care and support for young people with cancer – for nearly a quarter of a century.

“With The Cure’s long and outstanding support for Teenage Cancer Trust, Robert appreciates the vital work this charity does”

Since launching the series at the historic London venue in 2000, Daltrey has persuaded superstars such as Paul McCartney, Oasis, Muse, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran, The Cure, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and Take That, to perform unique, one night only gigs to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, generating more than £32 million from ticket sales in the process.

“It has not been easy to find the right curator for the week of concerts in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall, but it’s with great excitement that I can announce that Robert Smith has signed up for 2026,” comments Daltry.

“With The Cure’s long and outstanding support for Teenage Cancer Trust, Robert appreciates the vital work this charity does. The concerts have become an essential fixture in the music calendar, featuring some of the world’s greatest artists. It has been a challenge to find the right person to take them on – but Robert, a true musical great, is the perfect curator for the 2026 concerts.”

This year’s Teenage Cancer Trust series runs from 24–30 March, with headliners including The Who, The Corrs, James Arthur, a comedy night hosted by Micky Flanagan, as well as the Sex Pistols, who will be performing with Frank Carter.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

This year’s Teenage Cancer Trust concert series raised more than £2 million for the charity for the first time in its 24-year history.

Held at London’s Royal Albert Hall from 18-24 March, the 2024 series marked the final week of shows with Roger Daltrey as curator.  The lineup included three nights of celebrations of Daltrey himself, including two nights with The Who and an orchestra, and Ovation – A Celebration of 24 Years of Gigs For Teenage Cancer Trust.

The latter night featured many of those who helped establish the gigs as a celebrated annual event such as Daltrey, Kelly Jones, Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Pete Townshend, Eddie Vedder and Paul Weller.

The week also saw headline performances by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Young Fathers and Chemical Brothers, as well as a Night of Comedy.

“Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have tirelessly built up these concerts annually for 24 years and when they started by telling me they wanted to bring their orchestrated Who show to the Royal Albert Hall, we knew we were off to a strong start,” says Rob Ballantine, director at SJM Concerts with responsibility for the shows.

“My fellow director Chris York has promoted The Chemical Brothers from the beginning and they wanted to end this tour cycle with Chris at the Hall. That was a major shift in direction for the venues normal talent and was such an incredible night it will live long in Albert Hall folklore! Noel Gallagher has supported the charity from day one and believes this year’s gig was one of his best in London ever due to the energy of the audience.

“This was the first time Young Fathers had set foot in the venue and they absolutely delivered! All seven nights sold out including the annual comedy night headlined by Kevin Bridges. The curtain came down with an Ovation to Roger Daltrey from Eddie Vedder, Paul Weller, Kelly Jones and Robert Plant all of whom have supported Roger from the start.”

“The stature of the artists ensured we could charge high ticket prices and customers supporting these shows understand there is a premium on the ticket”

Ballantine continues: “The stature of the artists ensured we could charge high ticket prices and customers supporting these shows understand there is a premium on the ticket as it’s a fundraising week. However, to ensure everyone got their money’s worth we also brought special guests such as Squeeze and Blossoms both of whom are headliners in their own right and we kept John Bishop as a surprise guest on the night.

“I believe there is a lot of returning business to these shows from both artists and audiences who both have a real affinity with the charity and its work for teenagers. I know they trust us to deliver a great line up and we are overwhelmed by the support from artists year after year. To break all records and raise over £2million for the charity is phenomenal and makes all the hard work worthwhile. We know since Covid the charity have been hit financially and these funds will be much needed.”

Daltrey, frontman of The Who and founder/curator of historic annual concert series, adds: “To find out that this year’s concerts in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust raised over £2 million for Teenage Cancer Trust was music to my ears. After 24 years of doing the concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, to make that much money in my final year as curator is really special. That’s all I wanted when I started these gigs – to make money and bring awareness to an important cause, which has shown what an amazing difference the people at Teenage Cancer Trust can make to a young person dealing with cancer. With a target of building 28 hospital units, I’ve completed the job I set out to do. We have built 28. I’m not going away from the Teenage Cancer Trust – we still have a lot more to do.

“I’ll continue working with them whilst someone else curates the Royal Albert Hall shows, I’ll make sure it’ll be in good hands. The money we raise during that week of gigs is vital to us. It changes people’s lives. Thank you to everyone who came and donated this year, and every year since we started in 2000 – what a ride it’s been.”

Since launching the series at the history London venue in 2000, Daltrey has persuaded superstars such as Paul McCartney, Oasis, Muse, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran, The Cure, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and Take That, to perform unique, one night only gigs to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, generating more than £32 million from ticket sales in the process.

“We have secured three amazing global superstars to individually curate the next three years and they will have already started behind the scenes planning”

“What an incredible way to mark Roger’s final year curating these flagship fundraising gigs,” says Teenage Cancer Trust chief executive Kate Collins. “The terrific total raised has never been more needed. We rely on donations to make sure young people don’t face cancer alone and these funds will make a difference to teenagers and young people with cancer when they need it most.

“The phrase legend is over-used but totally applies to Roger and what he has achieved. We can’t thank him enough for all he has done over the last 24 years to make these gigs such a spectacular success. When he pulled together his friends for that first one-off gig in 2000, I don’t think anyone could have imagined what it would have grown into. There have been so many memorable moments and he’s inspired the music industry and music fans to change the lives of young people with cancer.”

She adds: “What hasn’t changed over the years is that young people with cancer need us in their corner – making sure they are not forgotten. Young people with cancer face unique challenges – from challenges accessing clinical trials through to the impact of cancer at a critical point in their lives, it is essential that they receive specialist care tailored to their unique needs.

“We’ve come a long way since that first gig but progress won’t continue without an organisation like Teenage Cancer Trust to fight for it. Roger’s achievement is about more than the money raised – it’s about the spotlight he has shone on the needs of young people with cancer and the difference this has made to thousands of young people’s lives over the years.”

James Ainscough OBE, chief executive of the Royal Albert Hall, adds: “It’s a huge honour to have hosted this incredible concert series for more than twenty years – one of the jewels in the crown of our programme, and such a privilege to support the mission of Teenage Cancer Trust. This year’s concerts felt particularly poignant with Roger stepping down after 24 glorious years, but we’re very excited to see how the series develops over the coming years.”

From 2025, Teenage Cancer Trust will work with a series of guest curators to take the shows forward. Next year’s shows will run from 24 to 30 March.

“With Roger standing down we face a new and exciting challenge,” concludes Ballantine. “We wanted to give the amazing opportunity to other artists to curate a week of shows at the best venue in the UK. We know it’s a challenge but for an artist to start with a blank canvas and bring together a week of shows reflecting the best of our industry and raise funds for such a worthy cause is an offer most will jump at.

“We have secured three amazing global superstars to individually curate the next three years and they will have already started behind the scenes planning. We are excited to reveal these annually when the shows go on sale. If there are any agents, managers, artists who would like to schedule a show for Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall into their live calendar they are very welcome to contact us at SJM Concerts.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Roger Daltrey has announced that 2024 will be his final year as curator of the Teenage Cancer Trust’s annual Royal Albert Hall concert series.

The Who singer, who will continue as a Teenage Cancer Trust honorary patron, has fundraised and advocated for the Trust – the only UK charity dedicated to providing specialised nursing care and support for young people with cancer – for nearly a quarter of a century.

Since launching the series at the historic London venue in 2000, Daltrey has persuaded superstars such as Paul McCartney, Oasis, Muse, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran, The Cure, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and Take That, to perform unique, one night only gigs to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, generating more than £32 million from ticket sales in the process.

“The £32 million raised from these concerts has been the foundation for the 28 specialised units within the NHS, as well as specialist nurses and youth workers to be there for a young person when cancer has turned their world upside down,” says Daltrey.

From 2025, Teenage Cancer Trust will work with a series of guest curators to take the shows forward.

Running from 18-24 March, the series’ 2024 lineup includes three nights of celebrations of Daltrey himself, including two nights with The Who and an orchestra (18 & 20 March). Meanwhile, Ovation – A Celebration of 24 Years of Gigs For Teenage Cancer Trust on 24 March – will feature many of those who helped establish the gigs as a celebrated annual event: Daltrey himself, with Kelly Jones, Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Pete Townshend, Eddie Vedder and Paul Weller.

The week will also see headline performances by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Young Fathers and Chemical Brothers, as well as a Night Of Comedy.

“Quite simply, we would not be the charity we are without Roger and these shows”

“For the 22nd year Roger has put together a remarkable season of shows. Roger’s impact on the lives of young people with cancer in the UK is immeasurable,” says Teenage Cancert Trust CEO Kate Collins. “The very first show for Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall in 2000, The Who & Friends, was the catalyst for what has become over 20 years of flagship weeks of fundraising, awareness raising and magical moments at this exceptional venue.

“After that first gig, Roger became the driving force behind changing the lives of young people with cancer in the UK. Working day and night, year-round, Roger has enabled these gigs to form the bedrock of Teenage Cancer Trust’s growth to be the leading charity for young people with cancer in the UK. Quite simply, we would not be the charity we are without Roger and these shows and – more importantly than that – thousands of young people with cancer in the UK would not have had the specialist support and care they urgently need.

“These concerts have raised over £32 million for specialist hospital wards, nurses and youth workers – ensuring young people in the UK do not face cancer alone – however we urgently need to continue to raise funds to continue our work.”

Aldi is the headline sponsor for this year’s Royal Albert Hall series, while Domino’s is the official sponsor of the Ultimate Backstage Experience. The shows are also supported by American Airlines, Metro, Absolute Radio, SJM Concerts, Twickets and the Royal Albert Hall.

The full list of 2024 concerts is as follows:

Mon 18 March – The Who with Orchestra, with special guests Squeeze
Tue 19 – Evening Of Comedy
Weds 20 – The Who with Orchestra, with special guests Squeeze
Thurs 21 – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, with special guests Blossoms
Fri 22 – Young Fathers plus special guests
Sat 23 – The Chemical Brothers
Sun 24 – ‘Ovation’ – A Celebration of 24 Years of Gigs For Teenage Cancer Trust with: Roger Daltrey, Kelly Jones, Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Pete Townshend, Eddie Vedder, Paul Weller

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

US rock band Eagles are bringing their Hotel California tour to London’s 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium on 29 and 30 August 2020, the group’s only European dates of the year.

Eagles, consisting of Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmit, along with Deacon Frey and Vince Gill, will perform the Hotel California album in full at the Wembley concerts, followed by an additional set of the band’s greatest hits.

The group recently performed three sold-out performances of the album – the third best-selling US album in history – in Las Vegas. The concerts marked the first time Eagles had performed Hotel California in its entirety and featured 77 musicians on stage, including a 46-piece orchestra and 22-voice choir.

As the best-selling US band of the 1970s, Eagles have won six Grammy Awards, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to US culture in 2016.

“We are delighted to welcome back The Eagles who played a huge part in this year’s success story”

The Live Nation-promoted shows see Eagles return to the stadium for the second time in as many years, following a sell-out show in June. The band contributed to a record-breaking summer for Wembley in 2019, with over 900,000 fans watching acts including the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and Pink.

“We are delighted to welcome back The Eagles who played a huge part in this year’s success story,” comments James Taylor, senior commercial manager for Wembley Stadium.

“Wembley is an iconic venue that attracts the biggest and best acts and we are thrilled this legendary band has once again chosen our world-class stadium for what will be their only performances in Europe in 2020.”

Tickets for Eagles 2020 Wembley Stadium shows go on sale on Saturday 14 December at 9 a.m. (GMT), available here.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

On Tuesday (19 November), the Who became the first artists to receive a stone on the new Music Walk of Fame (MWOF) on Britannia Junction in Camden, London. The legendary British band, who were presented with their stone by Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, are also airing their latest single, ‘I Don’t Wanna Get Wise’, exclusively through the MWOF app.

The premiere of the new song – which comes over two weeks before the release of their 12th studio album, Who – is “the first taste of exclusive content that will become a characteristic of the official app”, according to its developer, Second Screen, which has also created festival apps for the likes of Boardmasters, Sound City, Neighbourhood Weekender, Notting Hill Carnival and Liverpool Psych Fest.

The MWOF app already houses a map of Camden with interactive points of interest marked as series of pins.

It will also incorporate augmented-reality (AR) technology triggered by each MWOF stone (the Who’s is outside Camden Town tube station), with more AR experiences set to be added as more stones are laid.ed in a series of insightful pins.

The Music Walk of Fame app is available to download for iPhone now, with the Android version set to follow in the coming weeks.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

The Who will play a third date at California’s Hollywood Bowl as part of their Moving On! Tour this autumn, promoter Live Nation has announced.

The English rock band has never before performed at the iconic 17,500-capacity venue more than two times in one tour cycle. The Bowl dates mark the Who’s first appearance at the venue since a two-show run in April and May of 2006.

Liam Gallagher will open the third Hollywood Bowl show on October 24. The extra date comes as the band cancelled their performance at Rogers Place (20,734-cap.) in Edmonton, scheduled for 23 October.

Guests for the first two Bowl shows on October 11 and 13 are yet to be announced.

In 2017, Live Nation veteran promoters Andrew Hewitt and Bill Silva beat a rival AEG Presents bid to sign a ten-year deal with LA Philharmonic to exclusively promote non-classical concerts at the Bowl.

The Bowl dates mark the Who’s first appearance at the venue since a two-show run in April and May of 2006.

The Who kicked off their stadium tour on 9 May in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ending the first week of touring playing to a sold-out crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden (20,789-cap.) on Monday (13 May).

The Who are accompanied by acclaimed local orchestras as they visit 29 cities across the United States and Canada for their symphonic concert tour. Guitarist and backup singer Simon Townshend, keyboardist Loren Gold, bassist Jon Button and drummer Zak Starkey also join the band.

A UK tour date, at London’s Wembley Stadium, is scheduled for July.

The Moving On! Tour is Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend’s first tour since Endless Wire in 2006. Speaking in a keynote interview at this year’s International Live Music Conference, Daltrey suggested that, despite the tour, his and Townshend’s relationship remains strained. The pair are recording the Who’s new album separately.

The album – the Who’s first record of new songs in 13 years – will be out later this year.

Tickets for the Hollywood Bowl go on sale on Friday 17 May at 12 p.m. local time. More information can be found here.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

London’s Wembley Stadium connected by EE is getting ready for a record-breaking summer of live music, with a line-up of 14 concerts expected to attract over a million music fans to the stadium.

The 90,000-capacity stadium, owned by the Football Association (FA), will host five weeks’ worth of concerts from 1 June. Nine headliners will play a total of fourteen shows, in the most music-focused schedule ever for the stadium.

The line-up includes shows from K-pop stars BTS, Bon Jovi, the Who and the Spice Girls, in their first set of shows since the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony. Pink will also perform at the stadium as part of her mega Beautiful Trauma world tour, which has sold three million tickets just over a month in.

The number of concerts surpasses the stadium’s previous record of 13, set in 1992, before the stadium was demolished and rebuilt. The best year for music since the 2007 reopening of the stadium came in 2016, when six headliners played across ten shows.

“We are delighted to host what will be a record-breaking year for music at Wembley Stadium,” says Wembley’s senior commercial manager, James Taylor.

“Holding music events and attracting more people to our venue are an essential part of our business and we are looking forward to hosting some of the world’s biggest artists this summer”

“Holding music events and attracting more people to our venue are an essential part of our business and we are looking forward to hosting some of the world’s biggest artists this summer. We are setting the bar high in 2019 and long may this continue.”

The stadium will also host performances from Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and Eagles, as well as the Capital Summertime Ball, featuring Mark Ronson, Ellie Goulding, Jonas Brothers, Maroon 5 and Jess Glynne.

In 2016, Wembley Stadium achieved it best-ever turnover of £370m, driven in part by a busier live events calendar, with dates by Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Rihanna and Ed Sheeran.

However, last year the stadium recorded a pre-tax deficit of £9 million, compared with a £5.5m profit the year before, and a drop in sales by 13%. This slump in profit follows a scaling back of the music calendar in 2017 and a renewed focus on football.

More information and tickets for the shows can be found here.

A full list of concerts and dates are below:

Saturday 1 June: BTS

Sunday 2 June: BTS

Saturday 8 June: Capital Summertime Ball

Thursday 13 June: Spice Girls

Friday 14 June: Spice Girls

Saturday 15 June: Spice Girls

Sunday 16 June: Fleetwood Mac

Tuesday 18 June: Fleetwood Mac

Friday 21 June: Bon Jovi

Saturday 22 June: Billy Joel

Sunday 23 June: Eagles

Saturday 29 June: Pink

Sunday 30 June: Pink

Saturday 6 July: The Who and Eddie Vedder

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free digest of essential live music industry news, via email or Messenger.

Born during a V-1 raid in the Second World War, Roger Daltrey rose from the rubble-strewn seats of post-war London to become one of the world’s greatest rock frontmen – and host Ed Bicknell, and hundreds of delegates, were on hand to hear all about it, in this year’s later ILMC Breakfast Meeting.

Daltrey opened by talking about his new memoir, Thanks a Lot, Mr Kibblewhite, whose cover features the singer in his mid-70s pomp standing in front of what looks like a bombed-out house. “The world I grew up in was bombsites, of ruined houses being demolished to build jerry-built tower blocks in their place – and I wanted a cover that told that story,” he said. “It’s a composite of me in a glamorous period of my life against those houses being demolished.”

Daltrey said he, and others like him, became interested in American blues and R&B as a result of their working-class backgrounds. “Being working class in Britain was equivalent of being black in America, and that’s what drew us to that music,” he explained. “We identified with their struggle.”

His love of music, however, started earlier: “I was a choir boy when I was at school, so I had perfect pitch and I was a good singer. But it was [British skiffle singer] Lonnie Donegan who first made he want to throw my head back and wail. He influenced Robert Plant, all the singers of my generation… Lonnie Donegan, he was the one.”

Daltrey said the band that became the Who really developed their chops when they got into the blues, honing their craft by touring constantly across the UK’s then-booming grassroots venues circuit. “There were so many venues, then,” he commented. “Every other vehicle on the roads was a van taking a group up north somewhere to a gig. That’s what was so great – almost every street had a band in it, and almost every band was getting some kind of work, whether it was playing a pub, a bar mitzvah or wedding, a youth club…”

Fast-forward a few years, and the Who are riding high on their post-Tommy success, with Pete Townshend’s rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy (who sure plays a mean pinball) propelling the band to greater heights. Yet despite their growing profile and critical and commercial success, they’re broke: “In 1971, after touring for a whole year, we came back to the great news that our debt, instead of being £1.3 million, had gone down to £650,000,” Daltrey continued.

“Even Peter Sellers used to laugh at Keith Moon, and it wasn’t easy to make Peter Sellers laugh”

As it turned out, the Who’s managers, Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, had their hands in the till, with Daltrey, Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon funding the pair’s lavish lifestyles and growing heroin habits.

“You can’t be managed by crooks – as the Small Faces found out [with Don Arden] – but Pete wouldn’t join up with us [to oust Stamp and Lambert],” Daltrey explained, “until he went to America, went to his publishing account and found a load of money missing. In the end they ended up with nothing, and we lost two creative people that could have been part of our team. They were the best creative managers any band could ask for, but they were crooked.”

Their replacement was Bill Curbishley, whom Daltrey first noticed working in the offices of Stamp and Lambert’s company, Track Records. “He used to disappear at the same time every night,” Daltrey recalls. “I only realised later he was on parole. Turns out he was inside for eight years for a bank robbery! One he didn’t do – but, equally, he could have got done for one that he did do…

“He did eight years for someone else, so I knew that if he did a deal with me, he’d be straight with me. And from that day on, we started making money. With Bill, you didn’t have to count your fingers after you shook hands, and that says a lot about a man.”

Reflecting on the Track team’s heroin use, Daltrey said he was also “in a band with three addicts. Pete and John were alcoholics, and Keith would have taken anything. He [Moon] had huge talent – he’d have you laughing until you had to walk out the room, because that’s all you could do; even Peter Sellers used to laugh at Keith Moon, and it wasn’t easy to make Peter Sellers laugh – but underneath that was this incredible frailty and vulnerability. He couldn’t channel his talent in a way he could use it creatively.”

Daltrey also recalled his own brief dalliance with narcotics – “I did speed back in ’64, in the mod days, when we’d play 8–11, and then again from 2­–6am, and then I’d drive the van home as well” – but said all the ‘purple hearts’ did was “made me chew my lips up and make my mouth dry so I couldn’t sing.”

“For me it was really painful to hear this group of fantastic musicians play so badly”

The frontman’s distaste for drugs also led to his brief dismissal from the group: “For me it was really painful to hear this group of fantastic musicians, hear this band with so much talent, play so badly [because they were on speed] – I couldn’t take it. So I came off stage and flushed their stuff down the loo… they weren’t best pleased!”

Bicknell then shared an anecdote about his booking the Who in 1968 for a student night in Hull – and the young band’s approach to hecklers. “In May 1968, I booked the Who for 350 very large pounds, and halfway through the set, when you’re in a quiet passage, these very two large Hull dockers who’d made their way into the gig started heckling.

“Pete stopped the song and said, ‘If you can do any fucking better than this, come up here.’ To my horror the guy gets on stage, and Pete spins round and hits this him over the head with the machine heads of his guitar. To this day, it’s the hardest I’ve ever seen anyone hit with anything – blood spurts out this guy’s head and he collapses in a heap on the floor. Then the other guy gets on stage and you kick him in the head!”

“It never ceases to amaze me, the stupidity of these people,” said Daltrey. “It’s the first rule of warfare: you always need to have the high ground!”

Bicknell also recalled the overpowering volume of the band’s speaker stacks, even at that early stage in their career. “We wanted to create the noise of a battlefield,” replied Daltrey. “We were trying to create the sound of war.”

Although Daltrey and Townshend (75 and 73, respectively) are gearing up for a new album, their first since 2006’s Endless Wire­, and a Live Nation-promoted stadium tour, Daltrey suggested the pair’s often-fractious relationship remains strained, revealing they are recording the new record separately.

“In the old days you’d just shout out the next number, responding to the vibe of the crowd… now you have to do that before the show”

Artistically, however, his sole remaining bandmate is a bona fide genius, he added: “People overuse the word ‘genius’ […] but when it comes to songwriting, Pete Townshend is – he’s one of the most important composers of the 20th century.”

“I can write songs, but they’re not great songs of significance like Townshend’s are,” he continued, adding he loves “being the guy who takes what Pete’s written” and interpreting it his own way.

Responding to a question from the floor about his opinion of modern big-production shows, Daltrey said: “In some ways I hate it, because we have to play to a setlist. In the old days you’d just shout out the next number, responding to the vibe of the crowd – now you have to do that before the show, because the whole thing has to work with the lighting man, the video man and everything else…

“So, in that sense it’s a little less exciting, but we manage it.”

Daltrey closed by talking about his work with Teenage Cancer Trust, as well as his vision for a worldwide network of hospitals designed specifically for teenagers – the people who, he acknowledged, were key to the success of the Who.

“In the ’70s, when it all went tits up and high earners were taxed at 98%, squeezed till the pips squeaked, we were one of the few bands who didn’t go abroad,” he recalled. “We thought, ‘We voted them [the Labour government] in’; we can’t just leave. So we carried on earning but turned ourselves into a charity, putting all the money we earnt into this charity and giving it out to other charities we thought were worthy.

“That’s how the Who were, and how I still feel. You get out of life what you put in.”

Previous ILMC Breakfast Meeting interviewees include Nick Mason, Bill Curbishley, Marc Geiger, Arthur Fogel, Claude Nobs, Doc McGhee and longtime U2 manager Paul McGuinness.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free digest of essential live music industry news, via email or Messenger.

Roger Daltrey, lead singer and founder member of the Who and one of the greatest frontmen in rock history, has been announced for this year’s International Live Music Conference (ILMC) keynote interview.

Daltrey will join former Dire Straits manager and raconteur Ed Bicknell for the latest edition of the ILMC Breakfast meeting at 16.45 on Thursday 7 March, joining a roster of previous Breakfast Meeting interviewees that includes Nick Mason, Bill Curbishley, Marc Geiger, Arthur Fogel, Claude Nobs, Doc McGhee and longtime U2 manager Paul McGuinness.

Famed for his powerful voice and energetic stage presence, Daltrey is among the most charismatic of rock’s vocalists, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide across a 50-year career with the Who and as a solo artist.

Daltrey has sold 100m+ records worldwide across a 50-year career with the Who and as a solo artist

As an honorary patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, Daltrey has additionally been the driving force behind the annual Royal Albert Hall concert series since 2000, and with the recent publication of his memoir, Thanks a Lot Mr Kibblewhite: My Story, he adds author to a long list of job titles that also includes film actor and producer.

Daltrey’s appearance at ILMC marks the 15th edition of the Breakfast Meeting, which this year moves to a later afternoon slot to accommodate changes to the Friday schedule and the new Futures Forum event.

The announcement follows that of the first round of ILMC panels and sessions in December, with the full conference schedule set to be announced in two weeks’ time.

ILMC, the leading gathering of the international live music business, takes place at the Royal Garden Hotel in west London from 5 to 8 March. The discounted earlybird rate for delegate passes expires on 23 January.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Though Roger Daltrey had already rather ruined the surprise, Goldenvoice – the AEG Live-owned promoter behind Coachella, FYF Fest and country music festival Stagecoach – has officially confirmed the existence of its long-rumoured California ‘megafestival’ featuring six of the biggest rock acts of all time: The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who.

Tickets for Desert Trip will go on sale on 9 May and cost US$399 for a three-day pass, with single-day passes ($199), reserved floor, reserved grandstand and standing pit ($1,599) tickets and hotel packages, RVs and tent camping also available.

There will be further additions to the line-up, meaning each act will set back festivalgoers a hefty $66.66.

Here’s a poster: