Muzach

The Who's Pete Townshend, in an exclusive interview with Billboard, has revealed that the band's upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance will feature a "compact medley" of their signature classic-rock anthems.

"We're kinda doing a mashup of stuff," the guitarist tells Billboard. "A bit of 'Baba O'Riley,' a bit of 'Pinball Wizard,' a bit of the close of 'Tommy,' a bit of 'Who Are You,' and a bit of 'Won't Get Fooled Again.' It works -- it's quite a saga. A lot of the stuff that we do has that kind of celebratory vibe about it -- we've always tried to make music that allows the audience to go a bit wild if they want to. Hopefully it will hit the spot."

The annual Super Bowl half time concert has become one of rock's highest profile gigs, with U2, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Prince, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney each taking the stage in recent years. The medley format is not unusual for artists with such a deep catalogue - Springsteen and Prince took a similar approach.

Speculation about the set, conceived this year by the band's Roger Daltrey along with Pete's brother Simon Townshend, executive producer Ricky Kirschner and new director Hamish Hamilton, is always of huge interest to fans, and last year online sportsbook Bodog took bets on the set's opening number.

If the past is any indicator, The Who's halftime hits medley will give the band a big sales boost. Last year, Bruce Springsteen used his appearance to mark the release of "Working On A Dream," which hit stores the week before the big game. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 on the week culminating with Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 1, 2009), and stayed at No. 2 the following week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Billboard's full preview of the Who's Super Bowl performance, plus extended interviews with Towshend and Daltrey, will appear in the Jan. 30 issue of Billboard, and on Billboard.com starting Friday (Jan. 29).

Super Bowl XLIV, between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints, will be played Sunday, February 7 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami.

Ever since Paul McGuinness, manager of the rock band U2, began lashing out at Internet Service providers two years ago for allegedly profiting from and encouraging illegal file sharing, U2 fans have wondered whether McGuinness spoke for the band.

Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2 (seen here last month at the Vevo launch party) is inviting controversy by speaking out against file sharing.

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)

Bono, U2's outspoken frontman, cleared that up this weekend. As part of a op-ed piece in The New York Times, the singer argued that online file sharing is hurting music and film creators and placed much of the blame on bandwidth providers.

"A decade's worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators," Bono wrote, "in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can't live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us."

Bono's comments are surprising. Most artists haven't come close to publicly criticizing file sharing for fear that they could alienate fans the same way that the band Metallica did when the rock group filed a copyright lawsuit against Napster nearly a decade ago. Lars Ulrich, Metallica's drummer, was vocal in his distaste for those who shared Metallica's music without paying for it and the band was widely criticized for their antipiracy stance.

U2 has appeared willing the past two years to let McGuinness take the spears and arrows for speaking out against file sharing. In an interview with CNET last spring, McGuinness, the band's manager for more than two decades, riled some of the free-content crowd when he said that "ultimately, free is the enemy of good."

McGuinness has typically saved his harshest rebuke for bandwidth providers, who he said "bear a huge responsibility to put things right." Bono also ripped into ISPs for not doing more to help protect copyright.

He said the people benefiting most from online piracy are those running telecom and cable companies, "whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business."

The film and recorded-music sectors have lobbied and cajoled the top ISPs, which they consider to be in the best position to block pirated material flowing freely through their pipes, to create file-sharing deterrents. The ISPs have appeared reluctant to do much. For example, the Recording Industry Association of America has tried to enlist their help in creating a system whereby participating ISPs would gradually ratchet up pressure on suspected file sharers. The RIAA promised a year ago that it had agreements in place.

So far, no partnerships have been announced. Negotiations continue but many in the music industry are weary of the perceived foot dragging of ISPs. Is that the source of Bono's frustration?

Bono and McGuinness know how it looks to some fans when the richest band in the world starts complaining about lost profits. But both men say they aren't speaking out for the benefit of U2, which McGuinness acknowledged is rich and makes a load of money off concert tours and merchandise sales. Bono and his band manager suggest that they are arguing on behalf of talented acts that have not yet made a name for themselves but would be harmed by file sharing.

"Note to self," Bono wrote in the op-ed piece. "Don't get over-rewarded rock stars on this bully pulpit, or famous actors; find the next Cole Porter, if he/she hasn't already left to write jingles."

Check out a video recap of the Vevo Launch Party below: