TWO veteran British rockers have come out swinging against the rock scene today, with The Who frontman Pete Townshend slamming ageing rockers, while Sting has said the new breed is boring.
After releasing The Who's first new studio album in more than 20 years, Townshend has said he wouldn't bother going to see the band on their current world tour.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the ageing rocker said he doesn't want to watch old guys in their self-congratulatory mode .
The Who just wrapped the first leg of their North American tour, and will resume the trek in Los Angeles on November 4. They will release their first studio album in 24 years, Endless Wire, on October 31.
I don't want to go out and see Bob Dylan.
I don't want to go out and see the Stones. I wouldn't pay money to go see the Who, not even with new songs, Townshend, 61, added in the interview.
Speaking of self-congratulation, the admitted ageist declared that he was at the top of his artistic game.
He recalled that he felt like a triumphant liberating giant come to release a million captive children when the Who played a recent show in Spain.
I may never get any better, he said. But I can try.
Meanwhile, pop singer Sting has come out against today's young rockers, saying the scene is so stagnant that he prefers to sing 16th century English ballads.
The former teacher, who shot to fame in the 1970s and 80s with The Police, told German newspaper Die Zeit that he prefers singing songs of Elizabethan lutenist and composer John Dowland to the rock music of today.
His album of Dowland lute music Songs from the Labyrinth has topped classical charts on both sides of the Atlantic and entered the UK album chart at No.
24.
Rock music has come to a standstill - it's not going forward any more, it only bores me, Die Zeit quoted Sting as saying.
The 55-year-old singer, real name Gordon Sumner, had a string of hits with The Police with songs like Roxanne and Don't Stand So Close To Me.
He has since also had a lucrative solo career.
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