His mother won a Vauxhall Chevette in a national newspaper competition when he was ten; having never learned to drive, she instead opted to take the prize in cash and spent it buying her son a drum kit.

Townshend started an apprenticeship with the local bus company, the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, working on buses at the PTE's Dudley garage.

[4] During his time at Dudley, he recorded his first two John Peel Sessions for BBC Radio 1 and released his first single which made its way into the NME indie charts.

Townshend spent the next four and a half years drumming for the band, during which time they had successes in both the UK single and album charts and toured North America with Nine Inch Nails.

[8] In April 2019, a message posted on the Facebook page Classic Friendly Ltd confirmed that Townshend had resigned from the business around one year earlier and that he had "no further dealings or influence with its direction or trading."