The Who slam Quadrophenia sequel as 'blatant attempt to cash in'

Sting in Quadrophenia, 1979
Sting in Quadrophenia, 1979

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey have described the planned Quadrophenia sequel as “a blatant attempt to cash in.”

The 1979 film Quadrophenia was based around The Who’s 1973 rock opera of the same name and starred Phil Daniels, Sting, Ray Winstone, Mark Wingett, Leslie Ash, Trevor Laird and Toyah Willcox.

News of the planned sequel – called To Be Someone – broke last month and it was reported that Daniels, Willcox, Wingett and Laird would reprise their roles.

But The Who have made it clear they’re in no way involved.

They say: “As far as the group and original producer Bill Curbishley are concerned, the new film is a blatant attempt to cash in on the original film’s enduring popularity.

“The new film doesn’t feature Sting, Leslie Ash or Ray Winstone from the original, let alone any words or music from The Who.

“For the avoidance of doubt, this project isn’t endorsed by The Who, Who Films, Universal or any of the other rights owners of the original.”

The Who’s manager Bill Curbishley adds: “I find it hard to understand why any of the original cast would lend themselves to this crass attempt to cash in on the excellence of the original, when this quite clearly isn’t a sequel.

Quadrophenia is a significant and influential film based on The Who’s music, not some Carry On franchise. Any follow-up could only be made by the authors of the original and would need to be worthy of the name. This karaoke sequel announced recently would be totally ridiculous.”

The Who headline this weekend’s Isle Of Wight festival and will also appear at October’s California mega festival, Desert Trip. They tour the UK and Europe in August and September.

The Who UK and Europe dates 2016

Aug 29: Glasgow SSE Hydro, UK
Aug 31: Manchester Arena, UK
Sep 03: Sheffield Arena, UK
Sep 07: Liverpool Echo Arena, UK
Sep 09: Oberhausen Koenig Pilsener Arena, Germany
Sep 12: Stuttgart Schyleyer-Halle, Germany
Sep 14: Vienna Wiener Stadhalle, Austria
Sep 17: Bologna Unipol Arena, Italy
Sep 19: Milan Mediolanum Forum, Italy

Roger Daltrey: There's no music industry anymore, why would we make an album?

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.