Set for release on April 23rd for Record Store Day is the first vinyl version of Pete Townshend’s Face The Face. The collection, which was first issued on CD and DVD back in 2016, captures Townshend’s short-lived 16-piece Deep End band featuring David Gilmour — along with Simon Phillips who would serve as the Who‘s drummer on their 1989 reunion tour.
The January 29th, 1986 show was Deep’s End’s third and final full-length concert and was captured by the German TV series Rockpalast at MIDEM in Cannes. Although shorter than the November 1985 Deep End shows — which were chronicled on previous Townshend releases, Deep End Live! and the extended Live: Brixton Academy ’85 — Face The Face includes two songs not featured on either collection: “Slit Skirts” and “Hiding Out.”
As on the Brixton live disc, Gilmour is given a star turn with “Blue Light” from his 1984 About Face album. In addition to solo favorites, Townshend and Deep End tackle such Who classics as “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” and “Pinball Wizard.”
Townshend’s solo career gets the focus on the disc, including such favorites as his then-new tunes “Face The Face,” “Second Hand Love,” “Give Blood” along with Townshend’s recent giveaway to Roger Daltrey — “After The Fire.” Other Townshend classics include “Rough Boys,” “The Sea Refuses No River,” and “A Little Is Enough.”
Townshend recently spoke about his mid-’80s Deep End era, telling In The Studio, “It wasn’t that I particularly felt the Who wanting, in anyway. I didn’t feel that they didn’t provide me with anything. I felt that I wasn’t serving them very well, and I thought that perhaps pursuing a solo career would in fact help me to serve the Who better. In actual fact, what I think happened was I ended up stopping working for the Who at all.”
The tracklisting to Pete Townshend’s Face The Face is: “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Second Hand Love,” “Give Blood,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” “After The Fire,” “Slit Skirts,” “Blue Light,” “I Put A Spell On You,” “Hiding Out,” “The Sea Refuses No River,” “Face The Face,” “Pinball Wizard,” “A Little Is Enough,” “Rough Boys,” and “Night Train.”
FAST FACTS
- The Deep End shows were played in support of Pete Townshend‘s 1985 solo album, White City – Novel, which was released on November 11th, 1985 and peaked at Number 26 on the Billboard 200 albums charts.
- The following August, Townshend released an abbreviated version of the November 1st and 2nd, 1985 shows at London’s Brixton Academy, as Deep End Live!
- Although the film of the shows was an MTV staple, the album stalled at Number 98.
SIDE NOTES
- The lineup for Face The Face is: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar); David Gilmour (guitar, vocals); Peter Hope-Evans (harmonica); Chucho Merchan (bass); Simon Phillips (drums); John “Rabbit” Bundrick (keyboards); Jody Linscott (percussion); The Kick Horns: Simon Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders, Pete Beachill, and Dave Plews; Backing Vocalists: Billy Nicholls, Ian Ellis, Chris Staines, Gina Foster, and Coral Gordan.
CHECK IT OUT: Pete Townshend’s Deep End performing “Give Blood” as featured on Face The Face:
CHECK IT OUT: Pete Townshend’s Deep End performing “Rough Boys” as featured on Face The Face: