A Band with Built-In Hate

If Roger Daltry's 2018 autobiography was a prosaic foot soldier's telling of the Who story, here is a view from the high plains . . . . The best parts of the book mirror the best of The Who, fizzing with ideas and connections . . . This book vividly reanimates the nasty, transgressive, scene-shaping thrill of their beginnings. * Mail on Sunday *
The Who have always been a bundle of contradictions, always a mismatch between theory and practice and always unsure whether to look at the gutter or the stars. Stanfield proudly takes the intellectual high road – a move that Pete Townshend would regard as ludicrously pretentious or highly appropriate, depending on mood. As Stanfield notes: “The Who made the simple things complicated and the complicated simple.” . . . At the end of it all you will have been royally entertained. * Classic Rock Magazine *
This superb volume . . . A Band with Built-in Hate feels fresh and without precedent, a scholarly yet thrilling study of the paradoxes that made The Who the most vital band of the '60s, and the cultural backdrop against which their initial impact was played out. * Shindig! *
There’s some very perceptive writing on the influence the Who had on the wider scene . . . essential reading for anyone who’s ever loved the Who, or wants an insight into the Sixties’ music scene that goes beyond greatest hits compilations and easy generalisations. * Louder Than War *
Stanfield has masterfully identified the mod, pop art, and art rock stages of the Who’s career for rock fans and general readers alike. * Library Journal *
A Band With Built-in Hate reaffirms the Who's importance to the rock and pop revolutions of the sixties and seventies * Choice magazine, UK *
Eloquently framing their success as the only successful 1960s UK pop/rock group that didn't want to be either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, Stanfield locates The Who (and crucially their peak years, during which they were, he writes "not copyists but innovators") at a boundary-breaking intersection of pop and art-rock. * Tony Clayton-Lea, Irish Times *
[An] ear for apt detail enriches Stanfield's account. He plumbs archives for ephemeral magazines and forgotten interviews to reveal more than the standard recitals of the works. * Popmatters *
Stanfield’s masterful new book on the Who, A Band with Built-In Hate, charts their perfect trajectory from pop art to punk with the serious tone their cultural rage deserves. And he does it with a verve that properly situates creative powerhouse Townshend in a practically ideal collaborative arc . . . Stanfield has produced a valuable document, the accurate archive of a uniquely revolutionary band driven forward by belligerence. * Critics at Large *
This definitely is not the kind of book on The Who you expected. A Band with Built-In Hate is an unusual title, very well done and enlightening. * www.popcultureshelf.com *
While the death of Keith Moon effectively put to bed the essential meaning of their opposition, the push-back of their music and lives, A Band with Built-In Hate can now address with minute clarity and put-right connections how it all started and for the others that followed in their tidal-wave wake, and for the lows and the highs of the cultural innovators that are collectively engraved as the Who. I give this book 4 out of 4 beetles! * beatles-freak.com *
With impressive eloquence, A Band with Built-in Hate situates '60s Britain's most volatile and incendiary group at the heart of pop's wild vortex, its sonic assaults on the class system and the cultural status quo. Stanfield digs brilliantly into the Who's transgressions, their up-ending of entertainment, their transmuting of pop music into art-rock and proto-punk. He can see for miles. * Barney Hoskyns, author of Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits and Major Dudes: A Steely Dan Companion *
A Band With Built-In Hate: The Who From Pop Art To Punk is an easy but by no means breezy read, well researched and notated, and illustrated throughout in black and white. It brings together some significant criticism of The Who, connecting them with all manner of cultural references, and is a valuable addition to my ever-expanding Who library. That The Who continue to be so well-served by knowledgeable authors is a tribute to their importance. * Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated *
The best book on the Who. Stanfield understands that they were built entirely around opposition - they didn’t want to be the Beatles or the Stones; they didn’t even want to be the Who most of the time. He smartly states the case for peak Who as transgressive, how their clashing obsessions with primitive rock’n’roll and sociological statements made them so exciting. He also wisely concentrates on their peak years, before pop solidified as rock, when the Who were the closest thing to pop art British music has ever produced. * Bob Stanley, founding member of Saint Etienne and author of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop *
That The Who’s image was constantly shifting according to whatever they thought would best promote their music in the moment is the focus of Peter Stanfield’s new book A Band with Built-In Hate. Stanfield examines how The Who took in disparate influences from outside the rock world—influences flying in from the fine and pop arts, youth culture, and so-on – and shipped them back out to be co-opted by everyone from The Creation to The Sex Pistols. It is the first deep, book-length look at an important aspect of The Who’s persona and art that is an integral portion of every book on the band . . . fills in the gaps of an important area of Who history. * Mike Segretto, The Who FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Fifty Years of Maximum R&B *