The Who - Who's Next

Super Deluxe Edition 10CD & Blu-ray Audio Box Set!

Lavish set documents Pete Townshend's vision for the internet and virtual reality!

Features dozens of unreleased tracks and fresh remixes!

Includes book, graphic novel, posters, buttons and more!

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time — rated 77/500!

The suite of songs by The Who on which, more than half a century ago, Pete Townshend foresaw the invention of the internet, of virtual reality and pandemic-style lockdown, is to be heard as he intended for the first time as a lavish, multi-format Super Deluxe Edition!

Featuring 155 tracks, of which 89 are previously unreleased and 57 feature fresh remixes, the set will delight longtime Who fans with its long-sought, complete picture of Townshend's incredibly prescient songwriting, while captivating a new audience with his visionary description of a future that has, in many ways, come true. It features all of his songs, in their many stages of development, from the abandoned, audacious Life House project, started in 1970 as a follow-up to The Who's epic Tommy, and from the undisputed rock classic of 1971 that it evolved into, Who's Next.

Across the course of the 10-CD set, Who's Next / Life House sets out Townshend's extraordinary vision of a world beset by climatic catastrophe and pollution, leading to a curtailing of personal freedom that will be all too familiar to the pandemic generation. Decades ahead of his time, he details how the population is then seduced and sedated by access to an entertainment "Grid," piped into every home via the use of virtual reality experience suits.

In his introduction to the new edition, Townshend describes Life House as "a portentous polemic about the coming of a nation beaten down by climate issues and pollution." He then explains how "an opportunist and autocratic government enforce a national lock-down in which every person is hooked up to an entertainment grid." Music itself then becomes an inconvenient diversion, "a very real distraction to the subjugation of the population in suits," with fascinating consequences. Songs that depicted a dystopian world in which faceless corporations control our lives may have been fiction at the time, but they have come to be more like a documentary.

The unfulfilled project, which Townshend conceived as one part film script and one part blueprint for a live musical experiment, brought him to the edge of a breakdown. But, as he writes, "some wonderful music came from the project, and the idea has always held me in thrall, partly because so many of the strands of the fiction seem to be coming true."

Listeners will hear, for the first time, how that concept folded into Who's Next, widely regarded as not only one of the greatest albums in the band's astonishing catalogue, but a seminal moment in music history. Here, The Who's instinctive, scintillating cohesion reached new peaks, Townshend's brilliant creativity as one of rock's great auteurs brought thrillingly to life by Roger Daltrey's unsurpassed vocal performances, John Entwistle's visceral, fluid basslines and Keith Moon's fiery potency on the drums.

With the release of Who's Next/Life House, one of rock 'n' roll's great last untold stories gets recounted in full!

Who's Next / Life House Super Deluxe Edition contains 10 CDs all remastered from original tapes by long time Who engineer Jon Astley as well as a Blu-Ray Audio disc with newly made Atmos and 5.1 surround mixes of the original album and 14 bonus tracks by Steven Wilson. The set features 155 total tracks including 89 unreleased tracks and mixes and another 57 previously released tracks but with a fresh remix. Showcased are Pete Townshend's Life House demos, the band's Record Plant NYC 1971 sessions, the Olympic Studios 1970-1972 sessions, singles and additional sessions, and two complete concerts for the first-time ever from London's Young Vic Theatre and San Francisco's Civic Auditorium both from 1971 and newly mixed.

The box contains a 100-page hardback book designed by Richard Evans with an introduction by Pete Townshend and new sleeve notes by compilers Andy Neil and Matt Kent giving an overview of this classic album as well as rare photos and memorabilia from the era.

Life House - The Graphic Novel is a newly commissioned work putting the album's story into an interpretation in words and pictures of the story, and is a 172-page hardback book overseen by Pete Townshend.

To round off this exceptional set there is a wallet containing a 20" x 30" poster of a gig in Sunderland, England, May 7, 1970; a 25.5" x 34.25" poster of a gig at Denver Coliseum, Denver, CO, December 10, 1971; a 20-page concert program from the Rainbow Theatre, London, November 4, 1971; a 16-page U.K. tour program, October/November 1971; a collectible four-pin button set; and an 8" x 10" color photo of The Who with printed autographs.

Features:
Super Deluxe Edition
10CD & Blu-Ray Audio Box Set
All 10 CDs Remastered from Original Tapes by Jon Astley
Blu-Ray Audio Disc: New Atmos & 5.1 Surround Mixes of Original Album + 14 Bonus Tracks by Steven Wilson
155 Total Tracks Incl. 89 Tracks Previously Unreleased & Another 57 Tracks with a Fresh Remix
Demos, Singles, Studio Sessions & 2 Complete Concerts
100-Page Hardback Book with New Liner Notes & Imagery
170-Page Life House Graphic Novel
2 Gig Posters
2 Concert Programs
4 Buttons
Band Photo with Printed Autographs