Who guitarist Pete Townshend was born in Chiswick, London, England, on May 19, 1945. His parents were both professional musicians. His father played saxophone in a group called the Squadronaires and his mother was a singer. Townshend began playing guitar at the age of 12 and started his first band with John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey while studying graphic design at Ealing Art College. The group initially played skiffle music and were called the Detours. After adding drummer Keith Moon, they starting playing under the name the Who.By April of 1965, the band had broken into the top ten on the U.K. singles chart with their early track “I Can’t Explain.” They began to gain an international audience with the song “My Generation” in 1966. The track narrowly broke onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart, hitting number 74, but scored a number two hit for the group in the U.K.