The Who [ tickets ], led by surviving founders Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, have added a slew of new dates to their North American tour, which launched last night (9/12) in Philadelphia.

New to the British rock legends' schedule are more than a dozen shows spread across the tour's November and December second leg, including stops in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Denver, Dallas, Houston, and the Ft. Lauderdale and Atlanta areas. The outing's first leg runs until mid-October. Details are included below.

During the downtime between the tour's first and second leg, The Who will issue its first new album in nearly a quarter of a century. Titled "Endless Wire," the set is due out Oct. 31, and will include new tracks, "as well as music culled from a 29 minute operatic work, described by The Who's co-founder Pete Townshend as a mini-opera inspired by his novella 'The Boy Who Heard Music,'" according to a press release. The book is available online at Townshend's website.

All of the songs that appear on "Wire & Glass," an EP recently issued by The Who (available in the US only as an import), will turn up on the forthcoming album, as well.

As previously reported, surviving group founders Townshend (guitar) and Daltrey (vocals) are now backed by drummer Zak Starkey (son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr), guitarist/vocalist Simon Townshend (Pete's younger brother), bassist Pino Palladino and keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick.

Original Who bassist John Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack in 2002 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, where the band was preparing for a North American tour that was scheduled to launch three days later. Daltrey and Townshend canceled the first two shows, but ultimately forged ahead with the outing.

Original drummer Keith Moon died of a drug overdose in 1978.

"This is not the old Who," Townshend wrote in a recent diary entry posted at his website. "We never said it would be. It is something else. It matters."