Petes guitar rage!

[Rickygirl]

Personally, I think ANYONE who smashes a guitar on purpose is a moron. It is the biggest turn off ever.

I have "minus zero" respect for anyone who thinks this is a good idea and they don't deserve the money to be able to afford to do it. When I saw how Nirvana destroyed their gear, i just couldn't stand them anymore - not that I was a big fan to start with, but my respect for them vanished completely. I have some respect for Townsend as he feels bad about doing it now. So long as he doesn't do it again.

Still, I doubt Townsend gives a damn what anyone thinks, good or bad.

[wmthor]

Townshend could always gather up the remaining pieces and send to our very own Jingle Jangle for restoration.

[just_bassics]

Personally, I think ANYONE who smashes a guitar on purpose is a moron. It is the biggest turn off ever.

+1. I guess if you own the guitar, you can do with it as you please, but it never impressed me. What does impress me is great musicians composing, recording and performing live with their instruments. When my favorite band tours later this year, the guitar and bass players will still be playing their very famous 1964 Gibson and Rickenbacker axes.

When I saw KISS live in 1976 and Paul Stanley clearly removed his good Gibson to smash a cheap copy, the crowd went nuts, but it just did nothing for me. Just a cheap stage prop, IMO. But the Pete Townshend story, as I heard it, was that he hit his head jumping into a low stage ceiling and smashed it in anger. The next night, the place was packed with people expecting to see it happen again. Pete may just have seized the moment! At any rate, I love his music.

On the topic of The Who, my wife bought me a copy of Entwistle's Guitar Collection in hardback and it's a great book with many humorous footnotes and anecdotes. Highly recommended!

[collin]

ya know...it's hard to say whether or not it was right. We have the benefit of hindsight.

In 1964, the guitars Pete were smashing were BRAND NEW guitars. In a period like the 1960's, where the concept of a disposible commodity was becoming more familiar in Britain, it makes a lot more sense. Pete did accidently smash the first one, but when you're a struggling band and an onstage "accident" becomes a major draw, what else would he have done? Did it again!

He also knew that he was smashing up one of the most expensive guitars in Britain, and that was part of the allure of doing it, at least in the early days. If you traveled back in time and told Pete Townshend that his 360S/12 was one of six ever made, or his 1993's would be extremely rare collectors items (regardless of his ownership), he might not have done it.

But the culture in mid-sixties Britain was, "Live for now.....worry about tomorrow later," so why would PT give ten seconds time thinking about the morals of what he was doing?

I'd say after '67 or so it became a real gimmick, something that he didn't even want to do, but the audience expected it. He still does it even now, (on rare occassions). Townshend is a Fender endorsee and they give him free Clapton strats to demolish. It's lame and contrived now, but the audience still wants to see it.

Now, when other bands do it, it looks like a cartoon act. (though...against what was stated before, I think Nirvana was particularily good at it, and fresh..), but it's been done so much it's neither entertaining or groundbreaking.

Cheers,
-Collin

[headbanger]

I'm very pleased he smashed 1997's & 1998's because it makes them all the rarer and I have one.

[JakeK]

I'd say after '67 or so it became a real gimmick, something that he didn't even want to do, but the audience expected it. He still does it even now, (on rare occassions). Townshend is a Fender endorsee and they give him free Clapton strats to demolish. It's lame and contrived now, but the audience still wants to see it.

Yeah, I remember Pete saying in "Kids Are Alright", that there was a brief period (he didn't say when) where he stopped smashing guitars, but people constantly badgered him to do it, so he was so ****** off, that he did it to appease them.

[iamthebassman]

As someone who loves The Who, and has himself destroyed a few basses on-stage in my life(not to mention shot a Fender Stratocaster with a shotgun; but that's another story) I absolutely dig the smashing of guitars, knowing that its for affect, to give the crowd a thrill and also it feels great to do it! I haven't totally smashed a bass since my Punk days of the late 70s/early 80s but there was a New Years Eve show a few years back that, at the end of a particularly blistering "My Generation" a P-Bass of mine received some serious abuse.
And yes, those guitars of Pete's would be worth a ton nowadays but back then they were off-the-rack stuff pretty much. and, if he bought 'em he can bust 'em. Go Pete!

[scotty]

DUCK!

[deaconblues]

Pete says...

Then I was in this club and I was banging on the ceiling playing with my Rickenbacker, and I didn’t realize how flimsy they were. You know, the Rickenbacker company has always hated me saying this, but the fact is that their guitars are very, very delicate. I used to say they were just flimsy, but they’re delicately built instruments and there was not a lot of wood in the thinnest part that flares out into the headstock — it was very, very narrow. So I banged it against this low ceiling and it fell off. I just went bam! and it fell off.

In today’s terms, it was a $3000 guitar, and we were making pennies. But once I’d done it, the club was pretty packed the following week. You couldn’t have gotten another individual through the door. I started to think I couldn’t smash up my 12-string — I remember it cost 450 pounds sterling, which was a lot of money in 1963, around a thousand dollars. I’ve now discovered that in that year they made, like, six. So they were rare guitars, and they were precious guitars, they sounded absolutely wonderful with the double Fender rig.

Hey, at the end of the day it's rock and roll, not Antiques Roadshow!

[scotty]

Hey, at the end of the day it's rock and roll, not Antiques Roadshow!

i love it!!!

[Chris P]

Some people complain about the smashed Ricks being expensive and smashing Ricks is being unfaor to people who couldn't afford them... Well, Pete Townshend could'nt afford them either!!!! He sometimes stole guitars and most of them still had to be paid. I believe the had a 100.000 pound debt, before making Tommy!

So it's great Pete did it:)

About his endorsement with Rickenbacker some years ago:

It's strange to endorse a guitar which has such a strange history with me smashing them. I did the endorsement partly out of guilt.

[mikethemod1992]

I heard the first time he did it was because his AC100 blew up (as they were notoriously wont to do) and he got mad at it. The audience loved it (as did I) so he kept it in the act.

I thought it was because he was experimenting it with sound by banging it, and the guitar neck went into the ceiling at the Railway hotel?

[beatlefreak]

That's the story.

[rickenbrother]

I've always thought it was a waste of a guitar when one was smashed. There are people that wish they afford to buy one like he'd smash.

[scotty]