Rachel Fuller on creating the soundtrack for Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet: 'the whole thing has felt magical'

When Pete Townshend originally wrote Quadrophenia in the early 1970s, he heard the music in his head as a fully orchestrated suite. Unable to read music, he used the (superb) instruments at this disposal – Keith Moon’s drums, John Entwistle’s bass, Roger Daltrey’s voice and his own guitar - to convey his vision.

In 2015, the iconic “mod opera” was finally reinvented as Classic Quadrophenia, an album and concert tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and singers Alfie Boe and Billy Idol, with arrangements by Townshend’s wife, the composer Rachel Fuller.

Rachel Fuller and Pete Townshend pictured at the 77th Tony Awards in New York, 16 June 2024 | AFP via Getty Images

“I stayed really faithful to the original format,” says Fuller. “I tried to arrange in a way that I felt Pete would do, so I didn’t change keys or mess around with the melodic lines. Often I would listen to John Entwistle’s bassline and I would score the double basses exactly to what he was playing.”

The roots of Quadrophenia’s latest rebirth came when Townshend first heard Fuller’s instrumental demos and remarked that the score would make a great ballet soundtrack. “I’d never been to the ballet,” says Fuller. “It was not something I particularly connected with. I don’t have a graceful bone in my body.”

Fuller’s classical dance epiphany came when she wrote a children’s ballet called Bee in lockdown. Armed with contacts in the field and a new appreciation of the form, she picked up on Townshend’s original impulse, repurposing her orchestral arrangement without vocals to produce the soundtrack for Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet.

Pete Townshend of The Who on stage at Granby Hall, Leicester, 18 October 1975 | Getty Images

Fuller hopes it will resonate with ballet and non-ballet fans alike. “I think the story of a teenage boy who’s struggling with identity, with sense of self, with belonging, with fitting in, it’s a universal story that people are going to connect with, especially young men who are going through a similar thing.”

Fuller has her own affinity with the theme of not fitting in, having only recently been diagnosed with ADHD after a childhood of being “seen as a fidgety girl who talked too much and found it hard to focus and pay attention. As a result of that I internalised everything and ended up with chronic anxiety by the age of ten.”

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who perform at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey on 10 September 1979. | Getty Images

Fuller found respite in music, forging a career mainly as a composer and arranger. She also released an album of her own songs in 2004 but feels she has put her singer/songwriter days to bed. “My voice doesn’t match up with my personality,” she says. “In person, I’m quite loud and vulgar, but when I sing I sound like a nun. Maybe because my brain is wired slightly differently and I think outside the box it’s particularly suited to composing and arranging orchestras so I think it’s been part of my creative journey.”

As for her work on Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet, she says “the whole thing has felt magical. Our hope is that people have a good night out, that they can put their life on a hook and be present and have their soul moved. People can sing along – I’m hoping they won’t, but inside they might!”

Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet is at Edinburgh Festival Theatre from 10-14 June

READ MORE: Rob Ashford on directing Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet: 'the dancers loved it'

This feature was produced in association with Capital Theatres

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