Composer Peter Townshend. 'The Who' Due Peter Townshend, composer of the rock opera "Tommy" and leader of the group known as The Who, says rock festivals "have had their day" and rock itself is in trouble.

The Who is in the U.S. on tour and will be at the War Memorial in Rochester Monday, Aug. 9, with LaBelle, a soul group.

Saying the drug problem and political activity have split the rock audience, Townshend said yesterday rock needs a "tidal wave" innovation, something even "bigger and better" than the infusion it got from emergence in the '60s of the Beatles.

"It might be a new kind of performance. Something like a holiday camp show," he added. Townshend said drugs might have been a problem with his group in the beginning, "but currently, thank God, it isn't. "I'm a respectable anti now," he added.

The Who is scheduled to perform at Forest Hills July 29 and 21, as well as in Saratoga, Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

Townshend arrived with his wife, Karen, and two small daughters aboard the liner Queen Elizabeth 2. —From the AP.