{"id":2989,"date":"2025-09-16T18:26:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/?p=2989"},"modified":"2025-09-16T18:27:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:27:01","slug":"the-who-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/2025\/09\/16\/the-who-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Drink, drugs and a traumatic implosion: The true story behind the downfall of Keith Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code module_class=”custom-cat” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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\t\tMojo<\/pee>\t<\/div>\t
\t\tPresents<\/pee>\t<\/div><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Shadow Of The Moon<\/b><\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||0px|||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

As The Who<\/strong>\u00a0hit the road, perhaps for the last time, after another drummer-oriented crisis, they reboot Who Are You \u2013 Keith Moon’s<\/strong> arduous yet fascinating swan song. With punks at the gate, scraps in the studio and Townshend’s demons flaring, it was already hard going. Then came their drummer’s tragic implosion. “We all were traumatised.”<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Words: Tom Doyle <\/strong>Photograph: Terry O’Neill<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/1978-26MAY-Who-Are-You-OUTTAKE2.jpg-scaled.jpg” title_text=”1978-26MAY Who Are You OUTTAKE2.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Demolition men: The Who at Shapperton Studios during the Who Are You<\/em> cover shoot, 1978. [From left: John Entwhistle, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Keith Moon.]<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

The Who were only two songs into their set at the Boston Garden when Keith Moon collapsed. The date was March 9, 1976, the opening show of the second US leg of the band\u2019s tour in support of The Who By Numbers, released five months before.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Ominously, the forever unpredictable drummer had sounded shaky from the start \u2013 muddling through I Can\u2019t Explain, before his playing turned sloppy during Substitute, then descended into troglodyte thumping, as the rest of the band noisily attempted to cover up the mess. In the last chorus, Moon stopped playing altogether, before briefly rousing himself back to consciousness and then passing out.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cWe\u2019ve got a little bit of a problem,\u201d Pete Townshend calmly informed the crowd. \u201cKeith Moon is in very, very bad shape.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cHe\u2019s got the flu, he\u2019s out of it,\u201d Roger Daltrey added, only half-truthfully. Protesting voices began to rise from the audience. \u201cNobody wants to play more than The Who, I\u2019ll tell ya that now,\u201d the singer forcefully stressed in the face of the growing uproar. \u201cBut we don\u2019t want to kill Keith Moon, right?\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cThe official explanation was that he had flu,\u201d Daltrey later elucidated in his 2018 memoir, Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite. \u201cThe real reason was the usual one. Brandy and barbiturates.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Unlike three years before, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, on November 20, 1973, when Moon had similarly keeled over behind his kit after scarfing tranquillisers, there was no Who fan hero to save the day. That night, Townshend had hopefully asked, \u201cCan anybody play the drums?\u201d Up stepped local amateur sticksman Scot Halpin to help push the band through three more numbers.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The Who\u2019s 1975-76 tour of Europe and America \u2013 their longest and most ambitious yet, boasting an expensive and elaborate laser display \u2013 was turning out to be a grind. It involved the group performing a strictly crowd-pleasing set that John Entwistle jadedly referred to as the \u201csame old stage act\u201d: a variety of their \u201960s hits and a suite of songs from Tommy<\/em>, with only a few selections from Who\u2019s Next<\/em> and the latest LP they were supposed to be promoting.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

“You look at Keith’s childhood and there’s no tragedy. There’s no difficulty. I can’t work out what the fuck he was doing.”<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Pete Townshend<\/b><\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]While Moon quickly recovered and the jaunt continued two nights later at Madison Square Garden, the drummer\u2019s playing remained unreliable. By the summer, at the close of a four-date third leg culminating on August 9 at Miami Stadium, as Townshend noted in his 2012 autobiography, Who I Am, \u201cKeith\u2019s tempos were sliding, and some of his most ambitious drum fills were falling short.\u201d Post-gig, Moon collapsed again at his hotel, and was hospitalised for eight days. \u201cHe returned,\u201d the guitarist grimly noted, \u201cdrinking a bottle of R\u00e9my [Martin] a day on top of his medication.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Townshend was never able to understand the root causes of his bandmate\u2019s outr\u00e9 behaviour and apparent death wish. \u201cHe was a fucking pain in the arse, Keith was\u2026 just a pain in the arse,\u201d he told this writer, with a grin, in 2019. \u201cYou look at his childhood and there\u2019s no tragedy. There\u2019s no difficulty. I can\u2019t work out what the fuck he was doing.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]All the more remarkable, then, that in the dying moments of the final show of the tour at Toronto\u2019s Maple Leaf Gardens on October 21, \u201976, The Who dramatically sparked into life, jamming on a simple three-chord riff with a kosmische groove. Moon pummelled the kit with Klaus Dinger-like minimalist intensity, driving the band along a precise straight line, before his playing characteristically morphed into rolling thunder. No one was to know that it was to be his last appearance with The Who on a North American stage. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Throughout this purgative wig-out, Townshend improvised a simple chant involving the phrase: \u201cWho are you? Who are you?\u201d It was an existential question that was to haunt Townshend, Moon, and The Who as a whole, during the horribly eventful period that was to immediately follow.[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/KM-transp-topaz-denoise-sharpen.jpg-scaled.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Animal magic: Keith Moon cuts loose in 1973.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

THE CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING UP TO THE recording of Who Are You<\/em> \u2013 fatefully the group\u2019s last album with their pyrotechnic, if problematic drummer \u2013 found a tired and disillusioned band flying in the face of punky musical fashions. As evidenced by a new and vastly expanded 89-track box set reissue of the album \u2013 featuring demos, rehearsals, live performances, rejected Glyn Johns mixes and new Steven Wilson Atmos remixes \u2013 it saw Townshend double down on the synth experiments he\u2019d first dabbled in circa 1971\u2019s Who\u2019s Next<\/em>, and lean into FM rock, while lyrically blaring his creative torment in Guitar And Pen and his music biz disenchantment in the cynical New Song.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]If Townshend was troubled, then Moon seemed lost. When the \u201975-\u201976 tour was over, he stayed behind in Los Angeles, mainly to escape Britain\u2019s 83 per cent tax for high earners. \u201cThey\u2019re driving out all those people who make the money,\u201d Moon moaned to NME, while fretting about the instability of music careers. \u201cWhat so many people fail to appreciate,\u201d he stressed, \u201cis that in many cases a person may only ever have a single opportunity to make it.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]During this period, a frequent visitor to Moon\u2019s Malibu beach house was his young godson, Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1151220628.jpg.jpg” title_text=”Ringo Starr With Zak Starkey And Keith Moon In Malibu” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Beach boys: [From left] Ringo Starr, Zak Starkey and Moon on the beach in Malibu.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cMy dad used to send me to stay with Keith in Malibu quite regularly for the weekend,\u201d Starkey told MOJO last year, \u201c\u2026in retrospect (laughs)<\/em>\u2026 not the greatest babysitter ever, right?<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cWe sat and drank beer together, even though I was 10 or 11. He got me into The Beach Boys, and he talked about surfing and girls. It turns out he\u2019d only ever been surfing once, and he nearly drowned, and he never did it again.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]All the while, not playing drums and largely idle, Moon\u2019s extreme imbibing only worsened during his time in California, particularly in an era where the LA music scene was characterised by wild overindulgence. \u201cIt was settling into a \u2018nothing to do\u2019 lifestyle that messed him up,\u201d reckoned Entwistle. \u201cHe had a pill for every time of the day.\u201d [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In one moment of desperation, the drummer\u2019s girlfriend, Swedish model Annette Walter-Lax, sought the help of the couple\u2019s neighbour in Malibu, actor Larry Hagman, who had shared the screen with Moon \u2013 typecast as feral drummer J.D. Clover \u2013 in 1974 rise-and-fall rock film Stardust (reprising his role from 1973\u2019s That\u2019ll Be The Day). Moon duly checked into a Cedars-Sinai treatment facility for three days in February 1977, in another failed \u2028attempt to clean up.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-121982233.jpg-scaled.jpg” title_text=”That’ll Be The Day” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Lucky for some: Moon as ‘J.D. Clover’ alongside David Essex, Karl Howman and Billy Fury in That’ll Be The Day.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]An ongoing film career was clearly in the drummer\u2019s plans, leading to perhaps the strangest movie cameo of his brief and chequered screen career (which had included playing a harpist nun in Frank Zappa\u2019s 1971 mind-boggler 200 Motels). Appearing alongside octogenarian film star Mae West \u2013 and a supporting cast that included Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper \u2013 Moon hammed it up magnificently as a camp fashion designer. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]A different movie crew arrived at the Malibu beach house in August \u201977 to film interstitial scenes for director Jeff Stein\u2019s mosaic Who documentary, The Kids Are Alright. Interviewed in tandem with his booze buddy Ringo (slurring throughout), a bearded Moon was totally wired, and sharply funny. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Canvassing his opinions on the other Who members, Starr cheekily enquired of his relationship with Daltrey, \u201cWhat about the little singer? What\u2019s your opinion of him?\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cWell\u2026 I think he does a damn good job out there,\u201d Moon averred, before praising the frontman\u2019s mike-whirling talents. \u201cHe manages to revolve it so fast that when people throw things, he gets a sort of desiccated egg and a sliced tomato. At the end of the night I have a salad mixed. I just sprinkle some salt and Italian seasoning on it.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Back in England, the other members of The Who were not seeing the funny side and grew increasingly concerned about their self-exiled drummer. Townshend flew to LA in autumn \u201977 and convinced Moon to return to the UK and rejoin the band for their next venture. Keith didn\u2019t need much persuasion. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cI was really drifting away with no direction,\u201d he subsequently confessed. \u201cI\u2019d try to do things and get involved with projects. But nothing ever came close to the feeling I get when I\u2019m working with the guys.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-79188185.jpg-scaled.jpg” title_text=”File Photos of Keith Moon” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

See me: Moon during the filming of Tommy, 1974.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

HAVING BRIEFLY RECONVENED in July 1977 at Shepperton Studios in Surrey \u2013 where The Who had leased two enormous sound stages and an office building to use as the nerve centre of their music and film operations \u2013 the future of the band looked altogether positive.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Performing for the benefit of Jeff Stein\u2019s cameras, they powered through some of their standards and indulged in semi-piss-taking renditions of The Beatles\u2019 I Saw Her Standing There and The Beach Boys\u2019 Barbara Ann, a sweaty Moon attempting falsetto lead on the latter from behind his kit.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

And yet, two months later, recording what would become Who Are You<\/em>, the drummer was in worryingly bad shape. Ahead of preliminary sessions, beginning in September \u201977 at the band\u2019s Ramport Studios in Battersea, the drummer had been suffering from seizures due to sudden alcohol withdrawal.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Nonetheless, on day one, he appeared to be back to his old devilish self, likely since he\u2019d reacquainted himself with the brandy bottle and other familiar substances. Firstly, he took a strange dislike to a new message board that had been bought for the studio and set it alight. Next, he tested out the drum sound that Jon Astley \u2013 engineering for producer Glyn Johns \u2013 had spent the previous day perfecting. Once Astley declared himself satisfied with the stereo balance, as later he recalled, Moon \u201cstood up and walked through the bloody kit\u201d, wrecking the set-up.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Such unhinged antics were easier to tolerate when Moon was on top musicianly form. But when the tapes rolled, it quickly became apparent that the drummer\u2019s timing was all over the place. Part of the problem was that Moon was being pushed by the others to lay down straighter beats (at the time in vogue on US rock radio) that inhibited his inherently frenetic style. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/1978-PT-PaulCook-SteveJones-topaz-copy.jpg-scaled.jpg” title_text=”1978-PT-PaulCook SteveJones-topaz copy.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Who’s fooling who: Pete Townshend meets Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones at the Speakeasy Club, London, 1978.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Given other current musical fashions, it might have been a better idea to allow Moon completely off the leash. The drummer, like the rest of The Who, had a complicated attitude towards punk, which he and his bandmates had clearly inspired. Paul McCartney later told MOJO\u2019s Paul Du Noyer, \u201cI know people like Keith Moon were not so much threatened, as just pissed off, that the people who were emulating his drum style were calling him a boring old fart.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Roger Daltrey was characteristically belligerent about the new upstarts, deciding, \u201cFuck you, you can\u2019t out-punk The Who.\u201d Pete Townshend reacted by drinking harder, one night meeting Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols at the Speakeasy club in London\u2019s West End, ranting at the pair about the financial unfairness of the music business and then conking out in a Soho doorway, before being woken by a policeman \u2013 thus finding inspiration for the verses of the work-in-progress Who Are You.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Moon, meanwhile, taunted the punks, turning up at the Vortex on Wardour Street in his Rolls-Royce and conspicuously playing the big spender at the bar. \u201cThey threatened Keith,\u201d remembered Townshend of the drummer\u2019s fellow club-goers, \u201cand he laughed at them, inviting them to come out and ride around in his car. I wasn\u2019t so brave.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

“I was really drifting away with no direction. Nothing came close to the feeling I get when I\u2019m working with the guys.”<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Keith Moon<\/b><\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

ALTHOUGH, IN TRUTH, ALBEIT in private, The Who could be just as lairy as the punks. In October 1977, tempers erupted in the studio when Glyn Johns played Daltrey synthesized string parts that had been added to two tracks, Sister Disco and Had Enough. The singer bluntly told the producer he thought the results were \u201ccrap\u201d. An argument broke out and the two spilled into a corridor. Johns apparently called Daltrey \u201ca little cunt\u201d. The singer responded by headbutting him. Johns stormed out of the studio and refused to work with The Who\u2019s frontman for the remainder of the record (with Jon Astley assuming a co-producer role).<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]The turbulence continued into December. On the night of the 15th, at the Gaumont State Cinema in Kilburn, north London, during a show staged for Jeff Stein\u2019s cameras, a flabby Moon underperformed, and Townshend lashed out at his perceived punk enemies in the crowd. \u201cWell, this wasn\u2019t fucking worth filming, Stein,\u201d the guitarist huffily declared into his microphone. \u201cMight as well send the cameramen home.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Townshend\u2019s anger didn\u2019t abate over the Christmas period and, at home with his parents in Ealing, an argument provoked him to punch his hand through a window, causing lacerations that were to delay the album\u2019s progress by two months. Then, just as the sessions were set to recommence, the band\u2019s new keyboard player John \u2018Rabbit\u2019 Bundrick broke his arm after falling out of a cab following a drinking session with Moon (requiring the emergency drafting of erstwhile Zombie, Rod Argent). [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-612577104.jpg-scaled.jpg” title_text=”Keith Moon Drinking Beer at Home” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Ever the optimist: Moon keeps his glass half full, 1972.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In March \u201978, at RAK Studios in St John\u2019s Wood, Moon struggled to get to grips with the 6\/8 time signature of Townshend\u2019s Music Must Change. The difficulty, from Entwistle\u2019s perspective, was that the drummer \u201ccouldn\u2019t think of anything to play\u201d. Daltrey later said of the song, \u201cKeith couldn\u2019t play to it. Keith could play great Moon drums, and that was it.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]For Townshend, the problem was more acute. \u201cHe did actually physically stop playing,\u201d the guitarist told me in 2019. \u201cWe were recording the song, and he couldn\u2019t play, and we ended up using footsteps as the rhythm.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Townshend held an emergency summit at a nearby restaurant, reportedly threatening to sack Moon if he didn\u2019t sort himself out. Moon insisted, \u201cI can do triplet jazz!\u201d then comically announced, \u201cI am the best\u2026 Keith Moon-type drummer in the world!\u201d [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Still, Moon heeded Townshend\u2019s warning, and most of the drummer\u2019s parts for Who Are You were far more capably overdubbed in April \u201978, back at Ramport, in the final two weeks of recording. Somehow he managed to find a middle ground (particularly on the stomping, synth-led Had Enough and Sister Disco) between straight-ahead, four-on-the-floor rock beats and his baroque drum fills. His old fire had suddenly returned.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-74300571-1.jpg.jpg” title_text=”%22The Who%22 Portrait” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Who are they?: The Who, circa 1965. [From left: Daltrey, Entwistle, Townshend, Moon.]<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

\u201cIT WAS JUST FUCKING PHENOMENAL,\u201d enthused John Entwistle of the explosive drum solo that Keith Moon played, for the benefit of only the other members of The Who and their crew, at the end of a particularly productive day of filming and recording at Ramport, on May 4, 1978. The plan had been for Jeff Stein to film the band miming to the title track and first single from Who Are You. Spontaneously the group began jamming on top of the master tape, in spur-of-the-moment performances quickly captured by Jon Astley and subsequently cut into the video.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In the footage, Moon typically looned around, his headphones gaffer-taped to his head, but also played brilliantly. Three weeks later, on May 25, The Who returned to the stage, at Shepperton, performing for an invited audience what would be the classic line-up\u2019s last show together. Jeff Stein was lacking decent film takes of Baba O\u2019Riley and Won\u2019t Get Fooled Again and the gig was set up expressly for this purpose. But in the end \u2013 as revealed in the new box set\u2019s previously unreleased Who Are You<\/em> outtakes \u2013 the band played for far longer, hitting peaks and sliding into troughs.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Moon pummelled through opener Baba O\u2019Riley, then began flailing more wildly, erratically pushing and pulling the tempo of Entwistle\u2019s My Wife, losing the plot several times as the band threatened to fall apart. Periodically, he broke out into \u2013 as if to prove a point \u2013 nifty triplet jazz rolls, before a messy Who Are You prompted Daltrey to apologise to the crowd, promising that the upcoming recorded version of the song sounded \u201cabsolutely nothing like that at all\u201d. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-612576798.jpg-scaled.jpg” title_text=”Keith Moon Standing with Warthog Head” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Feeling boar-ed?: Keith Moon has a friend for dinner, 1972.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Later, Moon experienced a surge of energy (the result, reportedly, of a hefty double shovel of cocaine) and turned in a charged performance of Won\u2019t Get Fooled Again that was both solid and flashy. At its close, Moon, for one more time, climbed over his drum kit, and was immediately hugged by Townshend.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Speaking to the Evening Standard three months later, the drummer was doubtful about The Who\u2019s ongoing prospects as a touring band. \u201cAs regards records and films, I can see a future for The Who,\u201d he said. \u201cNot on the road, not in the same way as the Stones. I certainly see The Who broadening their horizons.\u201d He went on to talk up a new holographic film technology that was apparently in development by the band\u2019s team. \u201cI\u2019m much more involved, much more interested in some of the things that we\u2019re doing at Shepperton,\u201d he emphasised.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In August, the same month that Who Are You<\/em> was released (peaking at UK Number 6 and US Number 2), a private screening of a rough cut of The Kids Are Alright was held for the band and their associates. Spanning the period between their performance of I Can\u2019t Explain for the US Shindig! TV show in 1965 and the May \u201978 gig at Shepperton, it documented just how much Moon had changed in just 13 years.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cIt must have been horrific for Keith,\u201d Daltrey later empathised. \u201cThis young drummer, great-looking kid, going bananas, who turns out at the end of the film a fat old thing\u2026 falling off the drums, being held up. He\u2019d gone to seed, and he wanted to get it back.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-465849623.jpg-1-scaled.jpg” title_text=”The Who” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Send-off: Moon bids adieu, Rotterdam, October 27, 1975.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

THE LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE OF KEITH MOON was on Wednesday, September 6, 1978, at a Paul McCartney-organised screening of The Buddy Holly Story at the Leicester Square Odeon, preceded by a bash at the Peppermint Park restaurant in Covent Garden. Showing support for his other ex-Beatle pal, The Who\u2019s drummer turned up wearing a Wings T-shirt.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Kenney Jones, the ex-Faces drummer (who was, under terrible circumstances, soon to replace Moon in the ranks of The Who), ended up hanging out with his fellow sticksman that evening. \u201cI found myself at a table with Keith, his girlfriend, Paul and Linda, and David Frost,\u201d Jones recalled to MOJO in 2024. \u201cKeith and I were talking. I said, How you been? He said, \u2018Yeah, great. I\u2019m not taking any drugs and I\u2019ve stopped drinking completely.\u2019 It was more the drinking with Moony than anything.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]\u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m taking these pills. And they keep me off drink. If I take one, I get violently ill.\u2019\u201d The rest is all grim detail. Moon and Walter-Lax left the screening midway, returning to the top-floor flat in Curzon Place, Mayfair, that the couple were renting from singer Harry Nilsson. Nilsson had been reluctant to lease the apartment to Moon, believing it to be cursed, following the death there of Cass Elliot of The Mamas & The Papas in the summer of 1974. Townshend had reassured Nilsson, saying, \u201clightning wouldn\u2019t strike in the same place twice\u201d.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Back at home, Moon took more of the Heminevrin sedatives prescribed to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms (his doctor, restricting him to three tablets a day, had naively given the drummer a bottle filled with 100). He fell asleep in front of the TV while watching the Vincent Price-starring 1971 horror flick, The Abominable Dr. Phibes. In the morning, he woke and ate a breakfast of steak and eggs made for him by Walter-Lax, popped more pills and then nodded out. On the afternoon of September 7, his girlfriend woke to find him dead. A post-mortem found 32 pills in his system.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

“I said to Pete, we don\u2019t have to stop. You can\u2019t replace Keith, but you can keep the music going.”<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Roger Daltrey<\/b><\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cI turn the TV on,\u201d Kenney Jones remembered, \u201cand the news came on. Y\u2019know, \u2018Keith Moon was found dead in his flat.\u2019 I said, What the fuck? I just left him. He\u2019s up to mischief again. I never believed it. Then I found out it was real.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In a state of shock, their minds fogged by grief, Daltrey and Townshend could never quite remember who called who with the awful news: the singer claimed it was the guitarist, who swore it was the other way around. After holding a three-quarters band meeting with manager Bill Curbishley, The Who resolved to continue.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cI said to Pete, We don\u2019t have to stop,\u201d Daltrey remembered. \u201cYou can\u2019t replace Keith, but you can keep the music going. It\u2019s all about the music in the end.\u201d [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Townshend subsequently released a media statement. \u201cNo one could ever take Keith\u2019s place,\u201d he stressed. \u201cBut we\u2019re more determined than ever to carry on.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Moon\u2019s funeral was a private ceremony, with the details kept secret from the press, on September 13 at Golders Green Crematorium in north London. When it came to the many floral tributes, Daltrey had one commissioned in the shape of a lobbed champagne bottle poking out of a TV screen. Kenney Jones was there, but sneaked in and out unnoticed.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cI didn\u2019t want to see anyone,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo I crept up, I did a little poem, little bunch of flowers, and I just left it and nipped out, so no one knew I was there.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/keith-moon-v2.png” title_text=”keith moon v2″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

One week apart: Moon with Annette Walter-Lax, September 6, 1978; One week later, floral tributes at Moon’s funeral.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

IN A DARKLY RESONANT JOKE \u2013 ONE THAT HE SURELY would have appreciated \u2013 Keith Moon had been photographed with the group on the cover of Who Are You<\/em> amid cable clutter and in front of their gargantuan PA system, straddling a chair with the words \u201cNot To Be Taken Away\u201d stencilled on its back. As Townshend had acknowledged in his missive, the Moon-shaped hole in The Who was to prove impossible to fill.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cPete turned to drink,\u201d Daltrey told MOJO in 2018. \u201cPete never did drugs, all the way through, \u2019til Keith died. I think that was from heartbreak. We all were traumatised by that. That was hard to get over. Keith was only 32. It\u2019s young, innit. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cThe worst thing was we were expecting it any time with him. \u2019Cos he had nine lives, and he lived nine lives as well (laughs). The shock became even greater for some reason.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In November 1978, Kenney Jones \u2013 who had previously played on seven tracks on 1975\u2019s Tommy<\/em> film soundtrack (while Moon was filming Stardust) \u2013 was revealed as the new drummer in The Who.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/Kenney-Jones-topaz-face.jpg-scaled.jpg” title_text=”Kenney Jones-topaz-face.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The next generation: Kenney Jones, 1979.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cWhen I said I would join,\u201d Jones recalled, \u201cI said, I\u2019m not going to copy Keith Moon. I can only play me. That\u2019s all I can do. I\u2019m a completely different drummer. I\u2019m straighter. But I like certain things Keith did, so I want to do them. I\u2019m going to complement them if I can, but I\u2019ll have to do it my way.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

This new version of The Who debuted at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, north London, on May 2, 1979. Their return coincided with a Mod revival at least part-ignited by The Jam, as evidenced by the packs of youths arriving at the venue on scooters and wearing parkas. It was a resurgence further fuelled in the summer of 1979 by the cinematic release of the film version of Quadrophenia.<\/em><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]But, for Roger Daltrey in particular, something was irretrievably lost from The Who with the death of Moon. \u201cWithout Keith, we weren\u2019t the band we were,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then I was in a strange place myself. So it was hard.\u201d In many ways, the singer has remained the keeper of the drummer\u2019s flame, pushing for decades to have a Moon biopic (provisionally titled The Real Me and still in development) brought to the screen.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cThe thunder of Moon\u2019s drums,\u201d Daltrey told me, still awed by his long-gone pal\u2019s unique playing, \u201cthat will reverberate for ever.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Moon himself, too, it seems, always kept one eye on his legend. Writer\/publicist Keith Altham later remembered visiting the drummer on an unspecified date in a London hospital \u201cafter a suspected stroke\u201d. Altham voiced aloud his hope that Moon would take this particular health scare as a warning to slow down.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cYou know me, dear boy,\u201d the drummer announced. \u201cMortality, I never consider. Now immortality I take quite seriously.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/09\/keith-moon-resized-3.png” title_text=”keith moon resized (3)” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Final flight: Moon during The Who’s last show, Shepperton Studios, May 25, 1978.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Trinfiold archive, Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As The Who hit the road, perhaps for the last time, after another drummer-oriented crisis, they reboot Who Are You \u2013 Keith Moon’s arduous yet fascinating swan song. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2989"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3035,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989\/revisions\/3035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}