Pete Townshend has moved from his Richmond home of 26 years, leaving behind the home studio but taking with him the console he used for many recordings by The Who. The Richmond Hill residence – once owned by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood – sold the 18th-century, Grade I listed Georgian...
Pete Townshend has moved from his Richmond home of 26 years, leaving behind the home studio but taking with him the console he used for many recordings by The Who.
The Richmond Hill residence – once owned by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood – sold the 18th-century, Grade I listed Georgian house for £15million in August.
“Moving house is never fun,” the musician said on Instagram. “But with it went the home studio (which I helped build for Ronnie Wood when he lived in the house before me in 1973) where I have produced a lot of my songs and quite a bit of commercial music.”
His Neve BCM10 console, which he is taking with him, was used to mix Live at Leeds, the piano part of “Love Reign O’er Me” and more. “I did all the synthesizer backing tracks for Quadrophenia, the music for Ken Russell’s Tommy movie, and ‘Baba O’Riley’, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, Townshend‘s post continued.
“This console has so much mojo for me. I truly love it. I’ve rarely managed to get a bad sound out of it.” The guitarist said he was relocating his studio to the countryside.
Despite holding on to the console, Townshend said last month that he is “reluctant” to record any new music with The Who, saying the “old fashioned way that [the band] work” is a stumbling block.
“A lot of artists now are writing songs at home, recording them at home and putting them out within weeks,” he said at the time. “But our process is the old-fashioned way, and it does take a lot of time.
“So I don’t know, but I am optimistic. And I’m certainly full of ideas.”