Maximum R&B: The 'Orrible 'Oo

[Susan Foreman]

'Keith Moon Was Here'

A PDF file of an unproduced film script about Keith, written by Alex Cox and Tod Davies in 2001

It was rejected by Roger

[Susan Foreman]

August 23rd, 1946 - Keith John Moon was born to Alfred Charles and Kathleen Winifred Moon at Central Middlesex Hospital in London

Of course this means that todays date is cause for birthday shenanigans...

1967 - Keith's 21st birthday. Premier Drums and Decca Records provide a cake for a celebration at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan.

The Truth

The revelries turn into a food fight with the cake and then extends to the parking lot as cars are sprayed with fire extinguisher foam. When a sheriff comes to stop the shenanigans, Keith slips on some of the cake (or, according to Tom Wright, falls off the diving board into an swimming pool surprisingly empty in the middle of August) and knocks out a tooth. The sheriff takes Keith for emergency dental surgery accompanied by Pete and John

The Legend

With time and imagination, Keith amplified this story into a full-scale bacchanalia highlighted by him depositing a Cadillac car into the hotel swimming pool, and resulting in a lifetime ban for The Who in all Holiday Inns worldwide

The only things confirmed are: paint damage caused to some cars, a ruined carpet and a $5000 bill (or $50,000 depending on the source) paid by Decca as a blanket coverage for damage

[Susan Foreman]

August 25th, 1971 - The 'Who's Next' album is released in the U.K, reaching #1. This is the only Who album to top the charts in any country.

In Spain, under General Franco, the cover is declared obscene and replaced with a generic performance photo. That release also has the songs 'Love Ain't For Keeping' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again' removed from the records track listing

[Susan Foreman]

August 29th, 1970 - The Who make their second appearance at the Isle Of Wight Festival, with one of the greatest ever line-ups including performances by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Jethro Tull, Taste, Leonard Cohen, Miles Davis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Sly and the Family Stone

The promoters envision it as a British version of Woodstock. However an attempt to raise money to pay for the festival by keeping out non-paying attendees with fences and guard dogs turns into chaos as 600,000 people (nine-tenths of them not paying) descend on the music event. The fences are soon trampled, fans from France and Germany get blamed and the anger of those who demand a "free festival" reaches all the way to the stage. Some performers are booed or interrupted by hecklers

Keith spends an hour talking to folk artist Melanie to calm her down and get her to perform after hearing she is too nervous to take the stage. Fortunately for the well-being of the hecklers, none of them interfere with The Who's performance that begins around 3am Sunday morning

They roar through a two-hour set featuring a live Tommy. John wears a specially made skeleton suit (so tight he is unable to sit down while wearing it). The Who's set is released on CD as The Who Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970 and as the film Listening To You: The Who at the Isle Of Wight, both in 1996.

[Susan Foreman]

Roger and his stand in, during the making of 'Tommy'

Seeing as Roger did all his own stunts, including flying on a hang-glider, it's thought that they stand-in was only there to get the lighting right for the camera

[Susan Foreman]

Mark Twain And The Strangers, featuring a pre-Who Keith Moon

In 1962 they audition for the BBC Light Programme, but were passed over for The Dave Clark Five

[Susan Foreman]

Keith with his godson Zac Starkey

At the age of 8, Zac was given his first drum kit by Keith and in 1996, aged 31, he took over the seat in The Who where he still remains, making him the longest serving drummer with the band

[Susan Foreman]

September 8th, 1967 - On stage at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. This was the first time that John joined in with the destruction and smashed his bass

The picture was taken by Kim Gottlieb-Walker, who would later become the stills photographer for director John Carpenter

[Susan Foreman]

Elton John's boots from the 'Pinball Wizard' song in the movie 'Tommy'

[Susan Foreman]

Details about the new album have been released

"The Who are back with their first new album in thirteen years entitled WHO due for release on 22nd November.

The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during Spring and Summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend & Dave Sardy with vocal production by Dave Eringa.

Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap.

The album cover has been created by famed pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go. Sir Peter designed and contributed a painting to the sleeve of The Who’s album Face Dances in 1981.

The songs on WHO cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and ‘an old rock star that has lost his marbles’. Singer Roger Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest “I think we’ve made our best album since Quadrophenia in 1973, Pete hasn’t lost it, he’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge”.

Pete Townshend "This album is almost all new songs written last year, with just two exceptions. There is no theme, no concept, no story, just a set of songs that I (and my brother Simon) wrote to give Roger Daltrey some inspiration, challenges and scope for his newly revived singing voice. Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I’ve tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia if I can. I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Memories are OK, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today. I made new home studio demos of all these songs in the summer of 2018 using a wide collection of instruments old and new.”"

Track listing:
1. All This Music Must Fade
2. Ball and Chain
3. I Don’t Wanna Get Wise
4. Detour
5. Beads On One String
6. Hero Ground Zero
7. Street Song
8. I’ll Be Back
9. Break The News
10. Rockin’ In Rage
11. She Rocked My World