PETE TOWNSHEND OF THE WHO AND PARTNER RACHEL FULLER REVEAL NET FEST CONCEPT

Pete Townshend, guitarist and songwriter for The Who, and In The Attic life and internet program partner Rachel Fuller reveal they plan to take their webcasts, shows and podcasts to a broader audience. With Townshend espousing the value of going live on the internet, he and his Fuller have ideas and a framework for a live concert to be held around the world using the internet.

The duo doesn’t have a name for the concert yet, but Townshend and Fuller said that it would take the impetus of the classic festivals and bring it to the next level.

[Townshend] “We feel, I feel in particular probably because I was around in the early days of the big first festivals like Isle of Wight, Woodstock, and Montreaux, I imagine those things happening afresh today with the benefit of a wider sense of…everybody that wasn’t at Woodstock wanted to feel that they could be a part of it, and if you were able to feel like you were a part of something or that you could get inside it, and maybe be a part of where it goes next, that that would be the next best thing.” [Fuller] “The other thing is that it wouldn’t just be that it would be an online experience for people who couldn’t physically be there, it would be almost, as much as you can have, an informal festival — obviously there’s a lot of organization that goes into it. We would invite all the guests that we’ve ever had, and Pete might wander on the stage and play with Rachel Yamagata. We would have an acoustic stage, and I’m also thinking

Townshend said that their event will change the way people view festivals and the way they’re viewed on the internet.

[Townshend] “I think in a sense you could call something, a gathering where there was only five thousand, six thousand people, but that had a web audience, a live web audience of over 24 hours let’s say of a couple of million people. That’s a different kind of festival. You know, it might be that the festival itself did attract a couple of hundred thousand people. I mean V-Fest last year was 120, so…” [Fuller] “I’m actually convinced that by next summer, it won’t be that people go onto a site, buy their 24 hour pass, and have a little sh–ty window with crappy sound. It’s going to be full screen, it’s going to be good (quality). It may not be high definition — and if it’s not hooked up to their speaker system, they’re going to be able to hook it up and wire it to their flatscreen TV and invite their mates over, and have popcorn and get a bit pissed (drunk) and smoke, and watch — I’m just obsessed with that. Not everybody does that

The internet concert is in the embryonic stage, and there are no concrete dates or artists confirmed.

In the meantime fans of music and the likes of Ben Harper, The Kooks, Raconteurs, and The Editors can check out Townshend and Fuller playing with their guests in one of three formats. The duo hosts special one-off intimate live performance shows that are then broadcast live over the internet in the form of Attic Jam. Fans can either get tickets to the show or see it on the net. The other way to see them is their entertainment/music reality show In The Attic, which features acoustic performances, and zany antics and commentary by the show’s host Fuller. It can be found at www.intheattic.tv. The band has also released a compilation album of performances of Attic Jam that can be downloaded for purchase at iTunes.