Pete Townshend And Friends Fete Roadwork

Just back from Austin, Texas. Beautiful city, and host to South By Southwest, the annual music/film/tech industries confab that saw 15,000 revelers descend on Austin's robust bar and nightclub scene last week.

As it happened, the Who's Pete Townshend was SXSW's keynote speaker this year. And since Pete is a central character in and contributor to Roadwork: Rock & Roll Turned Inside Out, the rock-meets-art book I co-wrote with photographer Tom Wright, it made perfect sense to throw our launch fiesta there in Austin, where Pete would be available to say a few words. The book's pub date is May 31, 2007.

Enter the University of Texas, whose Center For American History years ago acquired Tom's vast collection of rock memorabilia – over 500,000 prints and negatives, recordings of soundchecks and live shows, correspondence with some of rock's largest luminaries, and other unexplored ephemera still being unboxed and cataloged.

Center For American History director Dr. Don Carleton took charge. He and his efficient staff organized a beautiful reception for Tom at the chic Headliners Club on the 20th floor of Austin's Chase Building, with an exclusive guest list of musicians, media, artists, scholars and philanthropists. The event was the perfect blend of rock star panache and academic sophistication.

Guests were greeted with a stunning view of the Austin skyline at sunset, canapes and cocktails served by bow-tied waitstaff, and an eye-popping gallery of Tom's incredible photographs. Carleton's enlightening speech explaining the cultural and historic significance of Tom's collection was followed by remarks from Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, and Pete Townshend. The musicians were all by turns hilarious, reflective, and even emotional – there were moments when Joe and Pete seemed to tear up. The audience was riveted. Guests left with swag bags stuffed with goodies, including a Roadwork blad (book layout and design – a "mini-book" showing cover and interior design, with a few sample chapters).

The outpouring of affection for Tom shown all weekend from his myriad friends from every walk of life – most of whom had traveled to Austin on their own dime for Tom's big moment – was especially touching. It was a delight to meet these incredible folks.

My first night in Austin, at dinner with Joe Walsh, I was seated across the table from Lorne Darnell, a hugely successful tech biz entrepreneur. He's one of those brilliant people who's wildfire enthusiasm is contagious; his passion that night was the digital possibilities of books. We're not talking simple e-books or audio books here. Darnell's thinking big picture: text, narration, graphics, video, music, the whole nine – downloadable directly to your iPod. A multimedia package, based on a book.

Darnell definitely had me scrambling for the electronic rights clauses in my contracts when I got back home. Seems it's still a murky legal area, he says, the digital rights to book content, since the Internet is a worldwide medium, and contracts are often written for specific territories, i.e. North America. Definitely something to think about before you sign your next book deal...