Rocker Pete Townsend has blasted musical bootleggers in a damning new post on his website. The Who star contends that people who sell concert footage and recordings illegally are turning artists like him into beggars. He fumes, "I have always been bootlegged, and my music has always been given away free or almost free on the radio and television."We view this as a form of promotion now. If people feel it is OK to walk through an artist's life and take their work for free, then those artists will die."Artists and artisans will be like beggars." Townsend made is name as the guitarist and princilpe songwriter in rock band The Who in a career which spans 40 years.The band are regulary labekked as one of the most influential bands of all time. But they split in 1983. They did reform several times during the 80's and 90's for special events such as their 25th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of Tommy.2006 saw the band release the album Endless Wire it was their first studio album, of new material, since 1982.

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