Who's sleeping while on stage?

By Kurt Loder

Rolling Stone

Pete Townshend falling asleep onstage? It's hard to envision, but apparently that's what happened on the first night of the Secret Policeman's Ball, a series of concerts — soon to be a movie and a pair of LPs — held two years ago in London to benefit Amnesty International.

According to Martin Lewis, producer of the music and comedy extravaganza, Townshend was initially hesitant about performing without any backup. "He was terribly nervous," Lewis said. "He'd never performed solo solo before."

He kicked off the show with searing renditions of "Pinball Wizard" and "Drowned," then retreated to his dressing room to await the finale, a duet with classical guitarist John Williams on "Won't Get Fooled Again." The show ran very late, though, and Townshend asked for a glass of brandy to tide him over. "So I got an enormous bottle and sent it up," Lewis said. "Since we got him for nothing, I felt obligated to get him a bottle. I figured he'd take it home with him. But when we went to get him, there wasn't much brandy left, and Pete was looking very mellow. He said, 'Right, oh, is it time now? Fine, OK, how much rehearsing do we have? Five minutes? That'll do.'"

Once onstage, Townshend meandered through the song before nodding out over his acoustic Gibson. "Only three people noticed," asserts Lewis. "Pete noticed, because he woke up at some point, and John Williams and I noticed it. I thought, 'Christ, how will they get out of this?'" But they got a standing ovation for their efforts, and subsequent nights passed without incident. Townshend's narcolepsy doesn't appear in the film or on the record. Why? Simple, Lewis said. "Pete would have bits of my anatomy cut out."