Keith Moon

There was rumour that Keith was self-taught, but history says otherwise, he was shown how to play by the late Carlo Little (1938-2005), Carlo was the original drummer in The Rolling Stones and David Sutch's band, The Savages. By the age of 18, he had joined a local London band, The High Numbers; this was to consist of what is now known as The Who. With his own unique style of drumming, rolling the sticks along the skins as to banging the typical beat, he was to become extrovertly charismatic in his life as well as his playing. With a desire, a need if you like, to be the centre of attention, this hyperactive, and largely, self destructive, personality became his own worst enemy. With a flair for theatrical and ridiculous behaviour, he was the centre point and self-publicist for, if they liked it or not, The Who. In the meantime, he had fathered a daughter, Mandy, to Kim. He may have been the perfect showman, but behind the scenes, he was often a very aggressive man to live around and with. Kim soon left him, taking their young daughter with her. He started to live the high life in California, with the likes of John Lennon, Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr, Ringo's son, Zak, was his godson, ironically, it was Zak who played with The Who in their later career, during the nineties and beyond.

Keith John Moon was born to working class parents in Wembley, London, England, on the 23rd August, 1946. At the age of 12, he had joined the Sea Cadet Corp and was given his first musical instrument, the bugle.

He left school by 15 and was in his first band, The Beachcombers; this was around the summer of 1963.

Joined The Who in late 1964. Prior to that, he played drums for a cover band called The Beachcombers.

Daughter with his then wife Kim McLagan, Amanda Jane ("Mandy"), born on July 12, 1966.

Packed flash powder in his bass drum during an appearance on the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), causing it to explode. This not only caused Pete Townshend's hair to catch fire and damaged his hearing, but Moon was injured as well. His prime purpose in this prank was to upstage Smothers, and when he appeared right in front of the camera whilst a joke was being cracked, before collapsing, his attempts were successful. Bette Davis was standing backstage during the explosion and fainted.

Moon accidentally ran over his driver, Neil Boland on January 4, 1970. Moon, his wife, Kim and Larry "Legs" Smith (of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) left a pub where they were followed by a group of Skinheads who proceeded to pound on the car after Moon and his group got in it. Neil exited the car to stop the fracas and the car continued to move. Moon, from the back seat, tried to steer the car out of harm's way and inadvertently ran over Boland. Boland later died of his injuries. (Described in "Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon" by Tony Fletcher.)

In 1973 he collapsed onstage at the San Francisco Cow Palace after having taken a huge amount of animal tranquilizer.

Shared a house in Los Angeles with John Lennon and May Pang, Ringo Starr, and Harry Nilsson in 1974; it was the same place where Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe had met for trysts in the early 1960s. They called it their "rock-n-roll rest home", and Moon was fond of coming down to breakfast wearing a trenchcoat slit up the back... and nothing underneath. (Klaus Voormann also lived there with his girlfriend, but steered clear of the other men's antics.)

While in California, he made his only solo album, Two Sides of The Moon, for MCA Records, a 1975 release, with many guest artists. Keith rarely played the drums while away from The Who, he sang on the album, and played the drums on only three of the tracks. His on-stage aggression, destroying his drum kits while still playing them and wrecking hotel rooms, apart from being an obvious publicity stunt, was fuelled with an over use of drugs and alcohol. This addictive side to his nature flowed into the 70s, playing against the band, his family and friends. His drumming became irregular and unpredictable.

He put on weight, so much so as to have him sit in a chair with the backrest toward the camera, to hide his paunch, on the cover of the last The Who album with Keith, the 1978 Who are You.

Dedicatee of the published script of Monty Python's Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979).

Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Who) in 1990.

His ex-wife, Kim Moon McLagan, was killed in a car accident in August 2006 in Texas.

To be honoured with a 'blue plaque' at London's Marquee Club at 90 Wardour Street, Soho on 9th March 2009 by the Heritage Foundation. Rejecting the application by English Heritage for not being truly 'outstanding', English Heritage explained: "Is he a great drummer? Well you'd have to wait until Ringo Starr is dead and Phil Collins is dead and all these other great rock drummers until you can make that kind of decision... We decided that bad behaviour and overdosing on various substances wasn't a sufficient qualification to get a blue plaque.".