The Who ready to rock North America

Roger Daltrey says that the 2002 death of the Who's bassist, John Entwistle, changed the way he and Pete Townshend went about preparing material for their first new album in 24 years.

Last month at the Who's press conference in Berlin to announce their upcoming American tour, Daltrey explained how he and Townshend how to restructure the band's balance for the new album: "We've made several attempts in the early part of this century, in 2000, and we recorded a couple of new ones and then sadly, John died and that changed the balance in the band. Pete and I are two opposite end of the globe, if you like, and John was the equator. Now it's very, very, different and we had to come to terms with that."

On June 27th 2002, Entwistle was found dead of a heart attack in a Las Vegas hotel room, on the eve of the Who's North American tour.

Newly released on DVD is An Ox's Tale, a video tribute to Entwistle hosted by Peter Frampton. "The Ox," which was Entwistle's nickname, is paid tribute by the Who's early co-manager Chris Stamp, the Doors' Ray Manzarek, and others.

Earlier this month, the Who released an 11-minute "mini-opera," titled Wire And Glass. An expanded version of the piece will be featured on their upcoming full length album Endless Wire, which will be released on October 31st.

The new Wire And Glass CD single isn't actually the first new music from the Who since their 1982 It's Hard album. The band re-grouped in 1989 for two songs for Townshend's The Iron Man: A Musical album, and recorded a cover of "Saturday's Alright For Fighting " for the 1991 Elton John-Bernie Taupin tribute album, Two Rooms. More recently, in 2004, they recorded two new songs for a greatest hits collection, Then And Now: 1964-2004.

The Who's American tour kicks off on September 12th in Philadelphia at the Wachovia Center.