Pete Townshend recalled the triumph and tragedy of Thunderclap Newman, the one-hit wonder band he created for three “dear friends” in 1968.
In the foreword to Mark Ian Wilkerson’s new book Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story (via Rolling Stone), the Who guitarist outlined the bigger plans he’d had for the group known for their 1969 single “Something in the Air.”
Townshend said he first met multi-instrumentalist Andy “Thunderclap” Newman at art college in 1963, and with the help of Who manager Kit Lambert, he assembled a group around him including future Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, Who collaborator and later Motorhead producer John “Speedy” Keen, and future Big Country drummer Mark Brzezicki.
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“Andy, with the very young Jimmy McCulloch and John ‘Speedy’ Keen, ended up in Thunderclap Newman, a band I created named after Andy, which — had I had my way — would have had a few more members,” Townshend wrote, saying his list included Arthur Brown of “Fire” fame. “Speedy wrote the divine ‘Something In the Air,’ and became the lead singer and studio drummer for the band – the only three I could keep my grip on, that is.”
He described Thunderclap Newman as “a great adventure and one I try to relive often,” adding: “‘Something In The Air’ saw each of them move on to new lives, and new adventures, some wonderful, some tragic. Who knew that great music could be created this way? Well, I did, even if the three members of the band were unsure at first.”
Hailing Wilkerson’s work as one he planned to reread regularly, Townshend continued: “This book says it all – that creativity and even hit records, sometimes, can be more about play than work. Musicians play, and when the hard work begins as it must, they sometimes fall by the wayside.”
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“The tragedy … is simply that there was only one Thunderclap Newman album, the beautiful Hollywood Dream, recorded entirely in my home studio, which was in a room meant to be a small bathroom,” Townshend continued. “The saddest part of it all is that they don’t exist today.”
Townshend also discussed what the experience meant to him: “My dedication, to help the waifs and strays and eccentrics of the music world together, continues to this day. I must admit that I learn more from working with other artists than I do working alone; and through them all have, like Rick Rubin, produced a philosophy of recording studio craft that sustains me every day. Creativity sparks creativity, and eccentricity in an artist is sublime – look at the list of chart-topping superstars of the past: they are all slightly nuts. They are all slightly brilliant too.”
Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story is on sale now via Third Man Books.
Listen to Thunderclap Newman’s ‘Something in the Air’
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