The Who Planning Intimate Shows, Summer Tour

NEW YORK (Who WebFans) - The Who will play three U.K. shows in small venues later this month as precursors to previously announced charity performances at London's Royal Albert Hall in February. A summer North American tour is also in the works. Guitarist Pete Townshend reveals on his official Web site that plans call for a three-leg tour, likely beginning in Los Angeles in June and wrapping in Canada in August. "It could all change though," Townshend warns.

Prior to the Who's Feb. 7-8 London shows, which will benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust, the group will play Jan. 27-28 at the 2,000-capacity Guildhall in Portsmouth, England. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Jan. 11); more information is available on the venue's official Web site. Details for a third warmup gig have yet to be finalized.

Townshend recently told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he'd "made a very real commitment now to go into the studio with the Who at the end of October of 2002, with a producer and a record deal, and to put out whatever we come up with, even if it's rubbish." The group has not recorded together since 1982's "It's Hard," which featured the No. 28 Hot 100 hit "Athena."

The ever-busy Townshend said he is preparing a new film treatment for "White City," his 1985 concept album that was accompanied by a feature-length video. "I think reading this treatment will bring new life and meaning to the songs I wrote for the film, many of which were unfinished," he says on his Web site of the project, which included such tracks as "Give Blood" and "Face the Face." He reports that he is also "writing a novel."

Image Entertainment will on Feb. 26 release the DVD/VHS home video "Pete Townshend: Music From Lifehouse," which features 16 songs drawn from Townshend's Feb. 25-26, 2000, performances of his unfinished "Lifehouse" rock opera.