Sell Out

"The Who Sell Out", the band’s landmark album from December 1967, will be released in a new super deluxe edition on April 23rd by Universal/Polydor.

Latterly described by Rolling Stone as “The Who’s finest album,” this staging post in pop art, an enduring reflection of popular culture of the day, is now lavishly expanded and features 112 tracks, of which 46 are unreleased.

It has an 80 page, hardback full color book with rare period photos, memorabilia, a track by track annotation and new sleeve notes by Townshend. There are also comments from Radio London DJ of the time, Pete Drummond, designer Richard Evans, and Roy Flynn, the manager of the Speakeasy Club, among others.

Also part of the super deluxe package are 9 posters and inserts, including replicas of the 20”x30” original album poster by Adrian George, a gig poster from The Who’s show at City Hall, Newcastle, an 8 page programme from their Saville Theatre show in London, a business card for the Bag O’ Nails club in Kingly Street, a Who fan club photo of the group, a flyer for Bath Pavilion concerts, including The Who, a crack back bumper sticker for “Wonderful Radio London”, Keith Moon’s Speakeasy Club membership card and a Who Fan Club Newsletter.

Townshend and The Who’s managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp conceived the record as a loose concept album, including jingles and commercials to link material presented as a pirate radio broadcast. The band’s label and management were chasing a new Who album at the time, and Townshend felt that he didn’t have enough songs.

The groundbreaking plan was to sell advertising space on the album, but instead the band went on to write their own jingles paying tribute to pirate radio stations and as a parody of the increasingly consumerist society of the era.

The unforgettable sleeve design was created by David King, art director at the Sunday Times, and Roger Law, who would go on to create the satirical political TV series 'Spitting Image'. It featured 4 advertising images, by the renowned photographer David Montgomery, with endorsements by Pete Townshend for Odorono deodorant, Keith Moon for Medac spot cream, John Entwistle for Charles Atlas bodybuilding and Roger Daltrey for Heinz baked beans.

The album stands as a profound representation of its time, as straight ahead pop met pop art, psychedelia and the expanding rock world into which The Who would launch "Tommy" 2 years later.

The super deluxe edition of "The Who Sell Out" is released on April 23rd, 2021.