KEITH MOON

MAJOR MUSIC ARTISTS / MAJOR MUSICIANS - UK


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Keith Moon

DESCRIPTION: Keith Moon

ACTIVITY STATUS: Departed

ACTIVITY PERIOD: 1962 - 1978

MUSIC GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Hard Rock, Power Pop

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: ENGLAND, UK

MAIN INSTRUMENT: Drums

BANDS / OUTFITS: The Who, Solo Artist

RECORD COMPANIES / LABELS (Current & Past): MCA/Polydor, Repertoire, Sanctuary

OFFICIAL WEB SITE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Moon


ABOUT HIM:

KEITH MOON: Rock n' Roll Madman! Keith Moon was the drummer for The Who, and if he didn't invent bizarre insane rock star behavior, he did his best to popularise it. What are now common rock star clichés were daring and original back when Moon was doing them. Trashing hotel rooms, consuming horse tranquilizers, engaging in naked cake fights with groupies, Moon did it all, with vigor, passion and creativity. Nothing beats a Champagne tower for old-world elegance, so long as you construct it so it doesn’t fall down! Moon engaged several groupies to fill the glass tower not with champagne, that would be too easy for ‘Moon the Loon’, so he instructed his female entourage to fill the glasses with their pee with Moon himself waiting gleefully underneath it all for the golden delicious to serve him. One classic example of Moon madness is the time when shortly after leaving a hotel, he sat up in a panic and told the driver “I say old boy, would you mind turning around, i forgot something! We've got to go back!" Upon returning to the hotel, he ran to his room, grabbed the television and threw it out the window and into the pool. Returning to the car, he said with a great sigh of relief, "why thank you old chap, I nearly forgot."

His signature stunt was ruining toilets, and not in the way I ruin them after a huge curry. Moon actually demolished them. Complete destruction. He went on the road with an enormous supply of cherry bombs, M-80s and dynamite, exploding toilets wherever he went. Moon was ultimately banned from every Holiday Inn, Sheraton and Hilton in the United States for his trouble—though he was awarded Man of The Year by several plumbing supply industry associations.

He was known for his hard partying lifestyle. His 21st birthday party in 1967 is remembered as an epic event. It has been debated for years whether or not Moon actually drove a car into a swimming pool that night. But he did somehow lose one of his front teeth at the celebration and the car was parked at the bottom of a swimming pool. Much has been said of the infamous Australian tour in 1968 and we’ll just say that not many rock bands have been asked never to return by the leader of a country. Australian Prime Minister John Gorton sent Pete Townshend a telegram telling The Who not to come back to Australia; Pete Townshend reportedly sent back a fruity reply and left Australia swearing never to return- a promise kept until 2004. The rebellious image of the “orrible ‘Oo” naturally attracted the attention of the Australian press still stuck in the 50’s who had long since acquired a well – earned reputation for being difficult, insensitive and often downright provocative. (See Joe Cocker OZ tour 1972 and Lou Reed OZ interviews 1974)

With the Who touring with the equally rebellious Small Faces trouble was found in every port…In January 1970, Neil Boland, Moon's driver, was accidentally killed in a melee with Skinheads. While Boland was outside of Moon's Bentley trying to clear an exit from the Skinheads, Moon took the wheel and stepped on the accelerator. Moon accidentally ran over Boland and killed him. Subsequently, Moon was depressed and some say he was never the same.Moon stated, "I'll always have his death on my conscience." In 1974, Moon completed acting roles in two movies, Uncle Ernie in Tommy and J.D. Clover in in Stardust, the sequel to That'll Be The Day. Moon visited Los Angeles and stayed in a rented Santa Monica beach house with John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Harry Nilsson. Moon had such a good time that he would soon move to Los Angeles for the partying and an attempt at an acting career.

While in Los Angeles, Moon hosted the popular American Television show, In Concert, which featured Keith playing a drum solo with goldfish swimming in his drum kit. Los Angeles was not the best place for someone like Keith Moon to be, by the mid 70’s Keith Moon was out of control. Keith Moon had a propensity for not giving one fantastic flying fuck about anything, ever. Noticing how Pete Townshend was smashing up his guitar at the end of each set and receiving a great reaction “Moon the Loon” decided that he would blow everything up, he then began a habitof loading his drum set with explosives and detonating them at the end of each show to coincide with Pete Townshend smashing his guitars. For the audience it was a sight to behold. Onstage Moon spoke to the audience and was a real personality, he was the Long John Silver of rock n’ roll.

Meanwhile, John Entwistle barely even knew he was there. So, when The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour invited the Who to perform live on national television, Moon figured he'd stuff his bass drums twice as full as he normally did, because there was no greater exposure for a band back in 1967 than being on live TV, and explosions are very popular in America. After a more or less typical rendition of "My Generation" in which Moon and Townshend were the only ones remotely interesting to watch, while Roger Daltrey twirled his microphone around like a dick and Entwistle vacantly plucked his bass while staring eerily into the middle distance, Townshend began smashing all his equipment. Moon, taking his cue, pressed the switch to set off the explosives just as Pete Townshend walked in front of his kit. You can probably guess what happened next, kabooommmmm……..but it's way more fun to watch it: Townshend instantly disappears in a cloud of smoke, the explosion took out his ear drum, Daltrey gets flung into the camera, Moon dives off the stage like he's Bruce Willis escaping a Die Hard explosion and Entwistle barely reacts. The drum kit looked like a plane crash, Townshend's hair was singed, Moon had a piece of shrapnel embedded in his arm and the Who was never invited onto a variety show ever again. Now this is rock n’ roll. Pete Townshend today is completely deaf in one ear.

“What I want to do is sophis*cate our sound a li+le. One of the troubles is Moon. He's so
deafening.” – Pete Townshend April 1970

Pamela de Barres (famous groupie and GTO) describes the Moon madness: Well it was certainly real—I was a participant in a lot of it—but he was a very complex individual, and a lot of stuff was submerged. He really wasn’t happy with himself, and it came out in all sorts of chaotic ways, but he was so generous, and sweet…just a delight, most of the time. Then there was the other side that you had to deal with for awhile until the happy side came out again. Keith Moon was her "freakiest" lover, confesses Des Barres. "He liked to dress me up as a little schoolgirl and he would be the naughty priest, or we would trade sexes and he would put on my clothes and I would put on his. There was nothing left to the imagination in the bedroom with Keith Moon.”

By Glenn Forsyth


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