Roger Daltrey Talks Up The Teenage Cancer Trust

Since the UK’s Teenage Cancer Trust’s annual series of concerts are taking place this week at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the charity’s patron, The Who’s frontman Roger Daltrey, has been putting the word out about the charity through the media.

Started in 2000, the Teenage Cancer Trust’s concerts at Royal Albert Hall have so far raised 4.5 million UK pounds (approximately $9 million US) for the charity. To date, there have been eight state-of-the-art cancer units built by the Teenage Cancer Trust for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to run. Six teenagers are diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK.

Daltrey has often been quoted as saying that he would not have had the career he’s had in rock if it were not for teenagers, so he felt compelled to become the patron of the charity when asked. Prior to the the cancer wards for teenagers being built, teenagers with cancer often had to be placed in wards with very young children or elderly patients. The Teenage Cancer Trust’s aim is to give teenage cancer patients a place in which they can be among their peers as they go through their treatments.

Among the acts appearing at this year’s Teenage Cancer Trust benefit shows are Madness, Muse, Paul Weller, and the up-and-coming female singer-songwriter Duffy. Daltrey and his Who colleague Pete Townshend will close the series of concerts on Sunday night with a special acoustic show.

Daltrey gave an interview about his work with the Teenage Cancer Trust to the UK’s Channel 4 on Tuesday, April 8th. To watch the interview, go to http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/arts_entertainment/music/the%20who%20and%20the%20why%20of%20it/1966747 and click the “Watch the report” link under Daltrey’s photo.

Also on April 8th, Daltrey gave an interview to the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph about his role with the TCT. To read that interview, go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2008/04/08/hdaltrey108.xml.

The Teenage Cancer Trust are currently running a competition in which, for a donation of 5 UK pounds, entrants will have a chance to win a Volkswagen bus specially painted with Who and TCT logos as well as sporting a huge Union Jack on its roof. All entrants in the competition will receive a free download of a recording of The Who performing the song “Magic Bus”in Hannover, Germany last October. For additional information on the competition, go to http://www.thewhomagicbus.com/litetickets/ticketselection.asp. To see photos of Roger Daltrey with the VW bus outside of Royal Albert Hall, go to http://www.contactmusic.com/photos.nsf/pictures?open&artist=roger_daltrey&page=1&start=1.

Daltrey also recently gave a very interesting interview to Filter magazine about the legacy of The Who. To read that interview, go to http://www.filter-mag.com/index.php?id=16568&c=2.

I had the very good fortune to attend two of the Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at Royal Albert Hall during a visit to London in 2004. The first show that I saw was headlined by The Who with The Coral as the support act. Later in the week, I saw an all-star concert fronted by former Squeeze keyboardist Jools Holland and his band. Also on that bill were, among others, Solomon Burke, David Gilmour, Chrissie Hynde, Ron Wood, Tom Jones, and Chris Difford. At that show, I also heard the wonderful British singer Sam Brown for the first time. She is a stunning woman with an amazing voice. While the tickets for those two shows were quite pricey, it was worth every penny. And audience members really were given a sense of how important a charity the Teenage Cancer Trust is. I will remember those shows for the rest of my life. (Royal Albert Hall was easily the most amazing concert venue I’ve ever been to. It is a fantastic setting for the TCT concerts.)

Daltrey was awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth on January 9, 2005 in large part because of his charity work, including his role with the Teenage Cancer Trust. Daltrey should be commended for his work with the TCT. His role as the patron of the charity keeps him very busy, and he promotes the charity tirelessly. Whenever Daltrey decides to step down from the position with the TCT, I hope his successor will be as passionate a patron for this very important and worthwhile charity as Daltrey has been. Whoever Daltrey’s successor will be, they certainly have some big shoes to fill.

For further information on the Teenage Cancer Trust, see https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/.

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