"Pop music is crucial to today's art, and it's crucial that it should remain art and it is crucial that it should progress as art."

Full-circle windmilling attacks on the guitar have become the trademark of the Who's main songwriter. He was born May 19, 1945, in London, the son of singer Betty Dennis and sax player Cliff Townshend.

His grandmother bought him his first guitar when he was 12; he wrote his first song at 16, and played banjo with (then-trumpeter) John Entwistle in his first band, The Confederates. Townshend, then an art-school student, joined Roger Daltrey and Entwistle's band.

In 1972, he released his first solo album, "Who Came First," a birthday tribute to his Indian guru Meher Baba. His next solo album, "Rough Mix," was released in 1977, and "Empty Glass" in 1980 (included "Let My Love Open the Door").

Townshend penned two rock operas—"Tommy" and "Quadrophenia"—which both led to movies.

After a period of excessive indulgence in drink and drugs, Townshend went straight in 1982 and released another solo record, "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." "Scoop" followed in 1983, and "White City: A Novel" in 1985.

Pete Townshend, left, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle

John Entwistle

Considered an innovator among bass players (check out the lead-quality runs on even the early Who singles), he was born Oct. 9, 1944, in London. He developed the now standard Rotosound roundwound strings (he now plays handmade Maxima gold-plated strings) and was one of the first in rock to experiment with six- and eight-string basses.

Entwistle, a one-time bookkeeper, is the only member of the Who with formal musical training (French horn), which led to horn work in Who recordings from "Circles" to "Tommy" and solo efforts.

His first two songs for the Who were "Boris the Spider" and "Whiskey Man," both from "Happy Jack."

Roger Daltrey

"We've never tried to speak to the kids. The Who have only ever tried to speak to the generation we grew up with, the one we've known all along."

Born March 1, 1944, in London, Daltrey grew up in a non-musical family in a working-class neighborhood. Around the age of 12 he began playing self-made guitars.

Thrown out of school at 15, he labored briefly as a sheet-metal worker and formed his own band, the Detours, later to become the Who. He switched from guitarist to lead vocalist when Townshend joined the group in 1962.

His first solo album, "Daltrey," was released in 1973 (included "Giving It All Away"). In 1975, the vocalist merged his singing career with acting when he starred as Tommy in Ken Russell's 1974 film version of the rock opera.

That led to other roles, including the part of 19th-century composer, Franz Liszt in Russell's "Lisztomania" (1975), and as the title character—England's Public Enemy No. 1—in 1980's "McVicar." He also appeared in "The Beggar's Opera" on British TV. "Ride a Rock Horse," Daltrey's second solo effort, was released in 1975 and "One of the Boys" in 1977.

TAMPA BAY'S CONCERT STATION

Proud to have presented

The Who's 25th Anniversary Concert

Tampa StadiumJuly 29, 1989

(SEEEE YA at THE STONES in November)