A Band with Built-In Hate

'Ours is music with built-in hatred.' Pete Townshend A Band with Built-In Hate pictures The Who through the prism of pop art and the levelling of high and low culture it brought about. Peter Stanfield guides us through the British pop revolution as it was embodied by the band: first, under the mentorship of arch-mod Peter Meaden; and then with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, two aspiring filmmakers, at the very centre of things in Soho. Guided by contemporary commentators - most conspicuously, Nik Cohn - Stanfield tells of a band driven by fury, and of what happened when they moved from explosive 45s to expansive concept albums. Above all, he describes how The Who confronted their lost youth as it was echoed in punk."