Who Promises to Turn Down the Volume on Reunion Tour

The three surviving members of the legendary Who said Monday they’re reuniting this summer for a 25-city, 25th anniversary North American tour--one that could feature kinder, gentler-to-the-ears rock concerts.

The reason: ear damage to Who guitarist Peter Townshend caused by years of loud, explosive, high-decibel rock that made the Who what some critics call one of the half-dozen most influential bands in rock history.

The concern is how to perform “without creating further damage to my hearing,” Townshend told a Radio City Music Hall news conference attended by about 70 reporters and photographers and seven TV news crews.

“I think we’ll manage somehow,” he added, then joked: “We’ll play very, very, very quietly.”

The tour, which opens June 24 in Toronto, is to play Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego on Aug. 22, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 26, and close in Oakland Coliseum Stadium on Aug. 30.

Appearing with singer Roger Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle, Townshend spoke bluntly, almost wistfully, about his problem during the kickoff of the latest instance of British lords of middle-aged rock again preparing to go forth and boogie.

The Rolling Stones, who like the Who now are in their 40s, also are due to start a North American tour, possibly around Labor Day, with a guarantee reported at between $65 million and $70 million.

The Who, which broke up after its last tour in 1982, but got together for the “Live Aid” concert in England in 1985, will have drummer Simon Phillips on the tour, succeeding Kenney Jones, who had joined the band after the death of drummer Keith Moon in 1978. The group also will include keyboardist John Bundrick, horns, percussion and three back-up singers.

The tour is expected to gross about $35 million before expenses and promoters’ fees, according to a spokesman.

Townshend called the tour a special-occasion-only “25th birthday party” that will play three Canadian and 22 U.S. cities, all in outdoor stadiums, with an average ticket price, the spokesman said, of $22.50.

It also will play, for charities for children and young people, two full performances of its rock opera, “Tommy.” The first set for June 27 at Radio City Music Hall, the second for Los Angeles late in the tour. No Los Angeles location has been set, but sources said chances are it will be the 6,600-seat Universal Amphitheatre.

Unlike the coming Stones trip, which will follow the release of a new album, no album has been recorded to coincide with the Who tour.

“We weren’t trying to resurrect the band,” Daltrey, at 45 the oldest Who, told reporters at the 35-minute news conference, aired live by the Westwood One radio network.

One reason the band stopped touring, he said, is that it tired of the “tour-album-tour rat race.”

The band is doing this tour, he said, only as a 25th-anniversary “celebration of the music, and an album might come and might not . . . if we do it, we’ll do it because it’s fun.”

Townshend, 43, a rock-guitar virtuoso whose early years in the band including smashing his guitars to signal a concert’s finale, has publicly spoken before of his rock-damaged hearing.

The matter arose again Monday when he was asked if there will be a second guitarist playing with the Who on this tour. Yes, he said, but didn’t identify the musician.

Then, sounding what seemed a cautionary note, he said that his own hearing problem is diagnosed as tinnitus, a ringing in the ears and pain when exposed to loud music. He wryly noted that many young rockers like to listen to rock through their earphones, drink whiskey and play loud guitar.

“That’s what I liked to do, and I’ve shot my hearing,” he said, joking that on the tour he’s “going to play a bit like John Denver.”

Later, when asked if he’d been reluctant to do the tour, he said no, that in fact he’d been the prime mover of it, but “the problem has been the worry about the hearing. . . .

“You have to realize that I’m somebody who’s actually disabled. I’ve actually disabled myself doing my job.”