Pete Townshend has wrapped work on the third installment in his Scoop series of demos and outtakes. The Who guitarist has sent the recordings to be mastered by Jon Astley, who co-produced Who Are You as well as several Who reissues and has also done production work for Eric Clapton.
The two-disc set is “less really old demos than usual perhaps,” Townshend wrote of the album on his Web site. “There is a lot of music from the last ten years.” Townshend also calls Scoop 3 the “only new creative release I’ve completed since Psychoderelict in 1992.” He claims that there are also a number of leftover songs that didn’t make the album that will be offered as free MP3s on his site.
Townshend released the original Scoop in 1983, after his demos had achieved legendary status among Who collectors. The twenty-five track album featured stripped-down Who chestnuts like “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Magic Bus” and “Love Reign O’er Me” paired with unreleased gems. In 1987, he released the twenty-seven song Another Scoop, which used the same formula, though it leaned heavier on the catalogue of Who favorites (“You Better You Bet,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Happy Jack,” “The Kids Are Alright” and others).
No information is about the release date, but Townshend claims he’s already planning the next album in the series, a live Scoop.