The Who - Siege

Anyone have any information or details about this musical project Townshend was working on for The Who during 1983 before he decided to disband the group? Other than the musical sketches found on the Scoop releases, I don't recall reading many details about the project. It appears it was some sort of themed project. Maybe very little is known, but I was curious.

 

Other than what is known from the sources you cite, I've only read about it as in reference to or as an aside to something else (like the Lifehouse Method). Sorry, not much help there. Maybe there was some influence found of it, musically, specualtion only, in some of the compositions/synth programs on the White City cd and film (I Am Secure, Give Blood, Come to Mama). Just throwing that out there...

 

If you find something out

If you find some seige tracks please give me an email!

 

Siege was a project that Townshend was recording demos for in 1983. 3 songs can be found on Another Scoop: "Cat Snatch," "Ask Yourself," and "Prelude: The Right to Write."

The project only got as far as Pete recording demos. The Who never recorded the material.

From the liner notes to Another Scoop:

ASK YOURSELF
One idea I hit on while culling ideas for the aborted last Who album was called SIEGE. It was rooted in the idea that each of us is a soul in siege. I abandoned the idea in March '83. ASK YOURSELF (with CAT SNATCH) was one of the few pieces I worked on. SIEGE was based musically on a series of five black note repetitions. ASK YOURSELF contains an hypnotic exploration of one of these repetitions. This track was recorded in Cornwall in August 1982 and in early '83, I continued to work on it in Soho, London.

PRELUDE, THE RIGHT TO WRITE
In early 1983 I was desperately attempting to come up with a concept for the projected Who album that year. While I settled my mind, I did some inventing. I organized a synthesizer whose sixteen unison 'string' voices were reproduced through what I called a 'MYRIAD SPEAKER SYSTEM'. This was simply sixteen separate small speakers on mike stands at about head height, distributed around the recording studio in formal string section grouping.

As soon as I played a note I knew I'd hit on something. The synthetic string sound was rich and spacious. I recorded it in real stereo with the natural ambience of the room.
It's a wonderful system, but is complex and takes many hours to set up. The prelude itself was intended to precede a demo of a song that I sadly never finished.

CAT SNATCH
This is one of the many experimental sequences from SIEGE.
(See ASK YOURSELF)
The random bass part was carefully and tortuously transcribed and played by my Columbian friend Chucho Merchan. The other elements were produced almost by chance and embellished and mixed at my studio in Twickenham.

 

Mark Wilkerson's bio (2008 version), "Pete Townshend: The Life" has more information on "Siege" than anything I had previously read. If you haven't read that book, I recommend it. It's different from most bios in that it's less of a narrative and more of a (well researched) straight ahead collection of facts and interviews.