Pete Townshend has released some new information, apparently only on his mailing list, so I'm including it here. In short, expect the first new Who album in 22 years next year, possibly called The Boy Who Heard Music, and along with the 5.1 mix of Tommy coming reportedly in October, Quadrophenia will be getting the same treatment and also "extended" - whatever that means. Here's the full release:

The band has agreed upon a work plan for the coming year and beyond. At present Pete is involved in setting up a team to do a 5.1 remix of Quadrophenia, which will be released along similar lines to the upcoming Tommy release. An extended version is also planned for the same release, opening the story up for future theatrical and DVD versions.

His main creative work will be songs for a new Who album. These will be based on his story, now complete, The Boy Who Heard Music. He and Roger plan to demo the new material before the end of the year prior to going into record the album in March 04. This of course will be the band's first studio album since 1982's 'It's Hard.' The proposed release date for the album is the early Summer and the idea is to follow it up with a US and UK tour, taking in other regions in 2005.

Both Pete and Roger wanted to share this information with you at an early stage. It is hoped that the recording sessions will be filmed for webcasting and that some live, interactive sessions, via the website, will also take place.

To tie in with this period of activity the www.petetownshend.com chatboard will
reopen on Oct 2nd.

I may be alone in this, but I'm actually excited by the idea of a new Who album. Half-Who it may be, but I think Pete may be charged up after his ordeal this year to put out some aggressive, intelligent new music. I do think it's a bit of a shame to have to slap the Who moniker on it, but if it gets some good new music out to the world, I can accept that.

(More crap: unproductivity.)