The Who to rack up miles and miles and miles

The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are taking “Quadrophenia” and other Who classics on the road for a U.S. tour this fall, but first plan what Daltrey calls a great finale for the Olympic Games in London.

“We have recorded a piece of music that is a fabulous ending for the Olympics … and just shows the great music that has come out of this country. This country has put some fabulous music out into the world,” Daltrey said Wednesday as he sat next to Townshend. Both are British.

The Who’s Olympic performance will be a tuneup of sorts for their American tour, which kicks off Nov. 1 in Sunrise, Fla., and will end in Providence, R.I., on Feb. 26.

Their Olympic gig will put them on an even bigger stage than their halftime performance at the Super Bowl in 2010. Daltrey said the closing performance “is not about The Who being on a TV show, it’s about making great music that is apropos to the end of that event. … I’m extremely proud of it.”

‘Hobbit’ filmmaker no superhero fan

Peter Jackson does not expect he’ll ever get into the superhero business.

The filmmaker behind the upcoming “The Hobbit” said superheroes may rule in Hollywood, but he has no interest in doing a comic-book adaptation himself.

“I’ve never actually read a comic in my life,” Jackson confided in an interview at last week’s Comic-Con. “That’s a lie. I did read ‘The Walking Dead’ in the last year or two, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I’ve never read a superhero comic.”

Jackson’s a master of action spectacles himself, so he’s not going to knock superhero flicks. He’s in favor of whatever it takes to keep people coming out to the movies at a time when technology has given them endless entertainment options.

“You’re dealing with a situation in which the audience votes with its bums, as they say,” Jackson said. “We’ve got to make films that get kids off their iPads and away from their home entertainment systems and back into the cinemas again. So I think anything that can stimulate a return to the cinema is a good thing, no matter what the genre is.”

The birthday bunch

Country singer George Hamilton IV is 75. Singer Vikki Carr is 72. Musician Commander Cody is 68. Actor George Dzundza is 67. Guitarist Brian May (Queen) is 65. Guitarist Bernie Leadon (Eagles, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 65. Actor Campbell Scott is 51. Actor Anthony Edwards is 50. Actress Clea Lewis (“Ellen”) is 47. Singer Urs Buhler (Il Divo) is 41. Drummer Jason McGerr (Death Cab for Cutie) is 38. Actor Jared Padalecki (“Gilmore Girls”) is 30.