If you were alive then, and old enough to know Who he was, I'd be curious to know, What are your memories of that day?

Hello,

Here is one such memory from Chris Charlesworth...

[www.ijamming.net]

Cheers Keith,

Si.

In the States, I don't think we got the news until the morning of Sept. 8. I know 'cause on the night of Sept. 7 a friend dragged me to see the band Kansas and I don't have any memory at all of the two of us talking about Moon or the Who. The next morning, I had to get up early for a film class (I was in my second year of college then) and I was sitting there waiting for the film to begin when a friend of mine who was a DJ at the campus radio station came in, sat next to me, and told me a news bulletin had just come into the radio station saying that Keith Moon had died.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-09-07 18:03 by tatters.

I was a freshman at George Washington University in DC and got the news from one of the local rock radio stations on the afternoon of the 8th. I don't recall if it was DC101 or FM105. I remembered thinking that I'll never see another Who show.

Later that day, I at the studio of WRGW, the college radio station, to audition for a show there. One of the guys who was auditioning, an Englishman with a bizarre nervous tick, refused to believe that Moon was dead. It took a room full of people about 15 minutes to convince this guy.

A few days later, I went with some friends to see David Johansen and Richard Hell on a double bill at the Atlantis, which later became the 930 Club. Johansen dedicated "Donna" to Moon.

Then a little more than two years later, it was more of the same when John Bonham died. I recall plotting with friends about who was going to wait on line overnight to get tickets.

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baxlap
I was a freshman at George Washington University in DC and got the news from one of the local rock radio stations on the afternoon of the 8th. I don't recall if it was DC101 or FM105. I remembered thinking that I'll never see another Who show.

Later that day, I was at the studio of WRGW, the college radio station, to audition for a show there. One of the guys who was auditioning, an Englishman with a bizarre nervous tick, refused to believe that Moon was dead. It took a room full of people about 15 minutes to convince this guy.

I remember it the same way. The disbelief. My friend saying "Keith Moon CAN'T be dead! Keith Moon is an INSTITUTION! It was the first really big rock star death since Morrison, seven years earlier, but there really wasn't all that much coverage in the "straight" press, and what there was, was full of the usual cliches about the "wildman" drummer whose band was best-known for the rock opera Tommy, blah, blah, blah. I also remember thinking "This is the end of the Who. There's no way they can go on without Keith". Strangely, I did NOT feel that way when Bonham died. I figured that since Bonham's technique CAN be imitated, they could just find another guy. But Moon's technique was unique to him, and so impossible to imitate, I figured the Who HAD to breakup. Shows just how wrong you can be.

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tatters
It was the first really big rock star death since Morrison, seven years earlier...

I'm guessing that you didn't consider Elvis Presley a "really big rock star"...

I was very young and remember one of my brothers, the one who was the biggest rock fan, being quite down. He was working at McDonald's and apparently stayed late with some co-worker friends playing "The Song Is Over" on the car stereo for several hours. For me, the event blends somewhat with the famous deaths of Thurman Munson, John Lennon--about which I was old enough to read the news myself... or maybe that was a "1 year later" sort of thing--and then the assassination attempt on Reagan, which I remember much more clearly. The rapid series of Pope deaths and also the attempt on John Paul II also come to mind, but Moon's was I think the earliest event in this group for me.

it really was the end of the Who.

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Sleepy City

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tatters
It was the first really big rock star death since Morrison, seven years earlier...

I'm guessing that you didn't consider Elvis Presley a "really big rock star"...

I forgot about that one, which tells you how much of an Elvis fan I am, but then, I've never claimed to be much of an Elvis fan. I consider him to be from an era before my time. I'm ONLY 49, after all. LOL

I was 15 in 1978, & I had barely even heard of Keith Moon. So the impact was minimal.

Thirty years ago today, Keith Moon was taken away. This, despite the fact that he was clearly labelled "not to be taken away" in this photo. Apparently the Grim Reaper is illiterate.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-09-07 22:43 by ohnonotyouagain.

There was only one Moonie

Here's to Keith. I love Keith's drumming on this oldie. In about 1:20 of the video. Not sure what Pete is doing ?!?!







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-09-08 00:31 by custom55.

Thats taken from the Richmond Jazz festival I think and Pete's doing the 'birdman'

Keith Moon to Tommy Smothers: "My friends call me Keith, you can call me John". A comedian, a generous man, and a wild talented drummer. RIP Keith.

[www.iorr.org]

I was 13. It was the first big rock star death I remember. I had just discovered the Stones and was in the early stages of my life-long infatuation with all things British-invasion, so I was also all about the Who.

And no, I didn't consider Elvis a big rock star - by the time I was 13 Elvis was old. And fat. Sorry.

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ohnonotyouagain
Thirty years ago today, Keith Moon was taken away. This, despite the fact that he was clearly labelled "not to be taken away" in this photo. Apparently the Grim Reaper is illiterate.

The irony of that "Not To Be Taken Away" message was a topic hashed over thousands of bong hits back in teenage wasteland.

The day Moon died some FM stations picked up on Nils Lofgren's "Keith Don't Go"--a song about OUR Keef--and put that in rotation for a few days.

I saw Keith a couple of times in the mid-70's. First was at a small movie premiere for the cult film "That'll Be the Day" in 1974 starring Ringo. I was standing about 10 feet away from where the celebs entered, and while all in the crowd waited for a Beatle, in walks Keith Moon, unrecognized by the would-be Apple Scruffs.

At the July 9 '75 Stones show at the Forum, Keith--unannounced-- joined in a conga line of percussionists who came on during the "Sympathy" encore. After the show he came on the floor and ran right past me like some wild little kid to see some friends of his.

And I saw him with the Who at Winterland in '76. Just before the show started a guy with a lot of cameras squeezed into my airspace on the floor in front of me. Pissed me off at the time, but years later when the Who box set came out, the cover photo (actually a montage) looked like it might have been taken by that guy...that was my perspective. That was an unbelievable show.

Last night my local PBS station ran the new film of the Who concert from 1977. Nice to see it finally come out. As much as I like Kenney Jones, I think it was a mistake for the Who to go on. There's a big coffee table book about the history of Who that came out a few years back. It stops in 1978. In hindsight, somebody got it right.

If you read about Keith as a person, he was a bit of a mess. Wanted to have a goon break Ian McLagan's hands when he started dating Kim. Thank God that never happened. Mac took good care of Kim and and Keith's daughter Mandy. In the 80's I saw a Mac show at the Club Lingerie where he announced that it was Mandy's 21st birthday. He dedicated "Little Girl" and "You're My Girl" to her that night. There's a lotta love in that family. God bless Mac for being such a good guy.


Finally, there has been talk about a Keith Moon bio-pic that would star Mike Myers. I don't think that would be very good. A few years back I saw a band open for Elvis Costello that I had never heard of--Phantom Planet. The drummer was "doing" a Keith Moon, and it was really strange because it wasn't as if all their songs were Who-like. But the guy was good! I told my wife that if the Keith Moon film ever gets made, that this guy should double the drum parts for the actor.

The next day I looked them up on line, and the drummer was an actor! It was Jason Schwartzman! I understand he's no longer with the group, but I tell you, if this film ever gets made, he would be the obvious choice.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2008-09-08 05:52 by loog droog.

i don't remember if I heard the news at work in my dad's office or his office was where I went after I heard the news, then bought Who Are You the same day.

That album had come out recently, didnt have it yet, but I made it a point to go to Tower Records (at the original and first location on Broadway in Sacramento, though by the 70s a newer one had gone up across the street)and buy it.

Strange to see the album cover posted here. It was fairly shocking and sad. I had just seen the Who for the first time in 76 at Winterland (Ohno, did u see the first or second of the two shows?) and later that same year at the Day on the Green in Oakland with the Dead opening. Lots of stories go with those shows.

Though I love Keith Moon and will always be loyal to him, I am glad the Who have "carried on" as Townshend likes to say. They are still good.

In fact, on one recording during a show, Pete says "we've got to carry on." Maybe someone knows the recording and the year.


p

Oh and Ohno, speaking of fotos of that Winterland show, I took a bunch and a number of them came out well. Had a telephoto lense and in those days or at least at that show, they didn't stop people.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-09-08 06:53 by timbernardis.

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timbernardis
Oh and Ohno, speaking of fotos of that Winterland show, I took a bunch and a number of them came out well. Had a telephoto lense and in those days or at least at that show, they didn't stop people.

Do you have a scanner? It would be great if you could post a few.

I was at the first Winterland show.

My buddy and drove up from LA, because we didn't want to see them at Anaheim Stadium. (The year before we saw Faces there and back then it was an awful place to see a show)

Waited all day in line, saw Bill Graham checking out the crowd. Steve Gibbons Band was the opening act.

I was glad to have been to a show at Winterland--especially to see the Who with Moon so up close!


Would love to see those pics.

Remember they sold the tickets in a lottery and I was told that only 1 in 8 entries got a pair of tickets. Just got lucky.

My pics are on slides and have been packed away in storage for years. I need to dig them out along with all of my old Stones stuff as I have been saying. I may have had some prints made too, which would make the digitization and posting process easier.

That show was, simply put, the greatest rock n roll show I have ever seen, before or since, including all 45 Stones shows I have seen to date. It had such a feeling and power that only the Who can evoke.

ANd I know there is a boot of one or both shows, but have never heard them.

Bill Graham introduced them as the greatest @#$%& rock n roll band in the world, or something like that.


p

ps whatever happened to Euell Gibbons, I mean Steve Gibbons?

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timbernardis
i don't remember if I heard the news at work in my dad's office or his office was where I went after I heard the news, then bought Who Are You the same day.

That album had come out recently, didnt have it yet, but I made it a point to go to Tower Records (at the original and first location on Broadway in Sacramento, though by the 70s a newer one had gone up across the street)and buy it.

Strange to see the album cover posted here. It was fairly shocking and sad.

Who Are You was released only two weeks before Keith's death. I bought it on the day of its release and the irony of the "not to be taken away" chair was the first thing I thought of after the news of his death had sunk in. In the two weeks between the album's release and Keith's death, it had been so thrilling to have some new Who music to listen to, and a new tour (presumably) to look forward to. It had been three years since the release of The Who By Numbers and in those days, three years seemed like forever. I thought the initial reviews were ridiculously over-enthusiastic; one guy said it was their best since Who's Next; another guy said it might just be their best ever! In retrospect, it's not even as good as The Who By Numbers, but I still cherish it as the last "real" Who album.

Has anybody here read the book Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon (retitled Moon, The Life and Death of a Rock Legend) by Tony Fletcher? Is it worth buying?

Superb stuff but ultimately quite sad......

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Svartmer
Has anybody here read the book Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon (retitled Moon, The Life and Death of a Rock Legend) by Tony Fletcher? Is it worth buying?

Yes, my wife brought it home one day and I read it after she got done. It's extremely thorough. I also enjoyed Dougal Butler's "Full Moon" which was published not long after Moon's death. My favourite Who book, though it only tells you about half the story and is loaded with mistakes, remains Dave Marsh's "Before I Get Old". I'm actually re-re-reading it now, in an attempt to work up some enthusiasm for the upcoming tour.