Zebu oxen in Mumbai, India.

An ox (plural oxen), also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable. Cows (adult females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in some areas.

Oxen are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging.

Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team used for a heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten pairs.

Training[link]

A team of ten pairs of oxen in Australia.

Working oxen are taught to respond to the signals of the teamster, bullocky or ox-driver. These signals are given by verbal command and body language, reinforced by a goad, whip or a long pole (which also serves as a measure of length: see rod). In pre-industrial times, most teamsters were known for their loud voices and forthright language.

Verbal commands for draft animals vary widely throughout the world. In North America, the most common commands are:

• Get up: go
• Whoa: stop
• Back: back up
• Gee: turn to the right
• Haw: turn to the left

In the New England tradition, young castrated cattle selected for draft are known as working steers and are painstakingly trained from a young age. Their teamster makes or buys as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes for each animal as it grows. The steers are normally considered fully trained at the age of four and only then become known as oxen. In other traditions, adult cattle with little or no prior human conditioning are often yoked and trained as oxen. This is done for economy, as it is easier to let a calf be raised by its mother, and for lack of adequate methods for housing and feeding young calves.^[1]

A tradition in south eastern England was to use oxen (often Sussex cattle) as dual-purpose animals: for draft and beef. A plowing team of eight oxen normally consisted of four pairs aged a year apart. Each year, a pair of steers of about three years of age would be bought for the team and trained with the older animals. The pair would be kept for about four years, then sold at about seven years old to be fattened for beef – thus covering much of the cost of buying that year's new pair. Use of oxen for plowing survived in some areas of England (such as the South Downs) until the early twentieth century. Pairs of oxen were always hitched the same way round, and they were often given paired names (as in the well-known example of the names of Santa Claus's reindeer: Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen). In southern England it was traditional to call the near-side (left) ox of a pair by a single-syllable name and the off-side (right) one by a longer one (for example: Lark and Linnet, Turk and Tiger).^[2]

Ox trainers favour larger animals for their ability to do more work. Oxen are therefore usually of larger breeds, and are usually males because they are generally larger. Females can also be trained as oxen, but as well as being smaller, they are often more valued for producing calves and milk. Bulls are also used in many parts of the world, especially Asia and Africa.^[3][4]

Shoeing[link]

A single left-hand ox shoe of the type used for large Chianina oxen in Tuscany

Karel Dujardin, 1622–1678: A Smith Shoeing an Ox

Working oxen usually require shoes,^[5] although in England not all working oxen were shod.^[6] Since their hooves are cloven, two shoes or ox cues are required for each hoof, unlike the single shoe of a horse. Ox shoes are usually of approximately half-moon or banana shape, either with or without calkins, and are fitted in symmetrical pairs to the hooves. Unlike horses, oxen are not easily able to balance on three legs while a farrier shoes the fourth.^[5][7] In England, shoeing was accomplished by throwing the ox to the ground and lashing all four feet to a heavy wooden tripod until the shoeing was complete.^[5] A similar technique was used in Serbia^[8] and, in a simpler form, in India,^[9] where it is still practiced.^[10] In Italy, where oxen may be very large, shoeing is accomplished using a massive framework of beams in which the animal can be partly or completely lifted from the ground by slings passed under the body; the feet are then lashed to lateral beams or held with a rope while the shoes are fitted.^[11][12]

Ox shoeing sling in the Dorfmuseum of Mönchhof, Austria; a pair of ox shoes is attached to the near left column

Such devices were made of wood in the past, but may today be of metal. Similar devices are found in France, Austria, Germany, Spain, Canada and the United States, where they may be called ox slings, ox presses or shoeing stalls.^[7][13][14] The system was sometimes adopted in England also, where the device was called a crush or trevis; one example is recorded in the Vale of Pewsey.^[6] The shoeing of an ox partly lifted in a sling is the subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Shoeing the Ox,^[15] while A Smith Shoeing an Ox by Karel Dujardin shows an ox being shod standing, tied to a post by the horns and balanced by supporting the raised hoof.

Uses and comparison to other draught animals[link]

Riding an ox in Hova, Sweden.

Oxen can pull heavier loads, and pull for a longer period of time than horses depending on weather conditions.^[16] On the other hand, they are also slower than horses, which has both advantages and disadvantages; their pulling style is steadier, but they cannot cover as much ground in a given period of time. For agricultural purposes, oxen are more suitable for heavy tasks such as breaking sod or ploughing in wet, heavy, or clayey soil. When hauling freight, oxen can move very heavy loads in a slow and steady fashion. They are at a disadvantage compared to horses when it is necessary to pull a plow or load of freight relatively quickly.

For millennia, oxen also could pull heavier loads due to the use of the yoke, which was designed to work best with the neck and shoulder anatomy of cattle. Until the invention of the horse collar, which allowed the horse to engage the pushing power of its hindquarters in moving a load, horses could not pull with their full strength because the yoke was incompatible with their anatomy.^[1]

Well-trained oxen in general are also considered less excitable than horses.

See also[link]

• Aurochs
• Bullock cart (ox-cart)
• Bullocky (ox-driver, teamster)
• Ox-wagon (bullock wagon)
• Oxtail
• Ridge and furrow
• Ox

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oxen

• Don't Knock the Ox, Canadian short showing ox-shoeing and ox-pulling
• Rural Heritage-Ox Paddock
• Two articles about oxen compared with horses

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2007)

John Entwistle
Entwistle in 1978
Background information
Birth name	John Alec Entwistle
Also known as	The Ox, Thunderfingers
Born	9 October 1944 (1944-10-09) Chiswick, London, England
Died	27 June 2002 (2002-06-28) (aged 57) Paradise, Nevada, United States
Genres	Rock, art rock, hard rock, power pop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, record producer, musical arranger
Instruments	Bass guitar, french horn, double bass, vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, trumpet, jaw harp, trombone, cello,Electric Guitar,Triangle
Years active	1962–2002
Labels	Polydor, MCA
Associated acts	The Who, The John Entwistle Band, Gov't Mule, Led Zeppelin
Website	johnentwistle.com
Notable instruments
Alembic Exploiter Warwick Buzzard Gibson Thunderbird Status Graphite Buzzard Fender "Frankenstein" Precision Bass

John Alec Entwistle (9 October 1944 – 27 June 2002) was an English bass guitarist, songwriter, singer, horn player, and film and record producer who was best known as the bass player for the rock band The Who. His aggressive lead sound influenced many rock bass players.^[1][2] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990.

Entwistle's lead instrument approach used pentatonic lead lines, and a then-unusual trebly sound ("full treble, full volume") created by roundwound RotoSound steel bass strings. He had a collection of over 200 instruments by the time of his death, reflecting the different brands he used over his career: Fender, Danelectro, and Rickenbacker basses in the 1960s, Gibson and Alembic basses in the 1970s, Warwick in the 1980s, and Status all-Carbon fibre basses in the 1990s. In 2011, a Rolling Stone reader poll selected him as the No. 1 rock bassist of all time.^[3]

Birth and early career[link]

John Alec Entwistle was born in 1944 into a musical family in Chiswick, a London suburb. His father Herbert played trumpet and his mother, Queenie Maud Johns Entwistle (29 November 1922 – 4 March 2011), played piano. His parents' marriage failed soon after he was born, and Entwistle was mostly raised by his grandparents. He attended Acton County Grammar School and joined the Middlesex Youth Orchestra. His initial music training was on trumpet, french horn and piano, all three of which would feature in his later rock compositions.

In the early 1960s, Entwistle played in several traditional jazz and Dixieland outfits. He formed a duo called The Confederates with schoolmate Pete Townshend, and later joined Roger Daltrey's band The Detours, playing a major role in encouraging Townshend's budding talent on the guitar, and insisting that Townshend be admitted to the Detours as well. After changes in personnel, Daltrey had fired all members of his band with the exception of Entwistle, Townshend, and the drummer, Doug Sandom, although it was only because he had not yet found a drummer with sufficient talent to replace him. Upon the entry of Keith Moon to the band, Daltrey relinquished the role of guitar to Townshend, becoming frontman and lead singer in the band, while the band considered several changes of name, temporarily performing as the High Numbers, and finally settling on the name The Who. When the band decided that the blond Daltrey needed to stand out more from the others, Entwistle dyed his naturally golden hair black, and it remained so until the early 1980s. Around 1963 Entwistle played in a London band called The Initials for a short while; the band split when a planned resident stint in Spain fell through.

Entwistle picked up two nicknames during his tenure as a musician. He was nicknamed "The Ox" because of his strong constitution and seeming ability to "eat, drink or do more than the rest of them." Bill Wyman, bassist for the Rolling Stones, described him as "the quietest man in private but the loudest man on stage." Entwistle who was one of the first to make use of Marshall stacks, in an attempt to hear himself over the ruckus of his bandmates, who famously leapt and moved about on the stage, with Townshend and Moon smashing their instruments on numerous occasions. (Moon even employed explosives in his drum kit during one memorable performance). Pete Townshend later remarked that John started using Marshalls in order to hear himself over drummer Keith Moon's rapid-fire drumming style, and Townshend himself also had to use them just to be heard over John. They both continued expanding and experimenting with their rigs, until (at a time when most bands used 50–100 watt amplifiers with single cabinets) they were both using twin Stacks with new experimental prototype 200 watt amps. However, no matter what was taking place on stage, Entwistle stood by calmly and quietly, while plucking the strings very fast, in what was later described as his "typewriter" technique of playing, which earned him the name "Thunderfingers" by his bandmates and some fans of the Who. The band had a strong influence on the equipment of their contemporaries at the time, with Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience both following suit. Although they pioneered and directly contributed to the development of the "classic" Marshall sound (at this point their equipment was being built/tweaked to their personal specifications), they would only use Marshalls for a couple of years. Entwistle eventually switched to using a Sound City rig in search of his perfect sound, with Townshend following suit later as well. Townshend points out that Jimi Hendrix, their new label mate, was influenced beyond just the band's volume. Both Entwistle and Townshend had begun experimenting with feedback from the amplifiers in the mid-1960s, and Hendrix had not begun destroying his instruments until after he had witnessed The Who's "auto-destructive art".

Entwistle backstage with The Who, 1967

Entwistle's wry and sometimes dark sense of humour clashed at times with Pete Townshend's more introspective work. Though he continued to contribute material to all of The Who's albums, with the exception of Quadrophenia, his frustration with having his material recorded by the band, only to relinquish the position of vocalist to Daltrey, was a large part of the reason^{[citation needed]} he became the first member of the band to release a solo record, Smash Your Head Against the Wall (1971). The only member of the band to have had formal training, he contributed backing vocals and performed on the French horn (heard in "Pictures of Lily"), trumpet, bugle, and jaw harp, and on some occasions (generally at least once per album & concert), lead vocalist on his compositions, the only exceptions being the first verse of "Happy Jack" and Ivor's part on "A Quick One, While He's Away". Examples are on Tommy, ("Cousin Kevin", "Fiddle About"), on the live favourite "Heaven and Hell", and on Who's Next ("My Wife"). He layered several horns and performed all pieces to create the brass as heard on songs such as "5:15", among others, while recording the Who's studio albums, and for concerts, arranged a horn section to perform with the band. In concert, Entwistle was content to stand quite still beside the uproar onstage, delivering dense and high-energy body to the music, but taking the spotlight only when singing lead. The exception was blinding illumination of his roaring solo notes in opening "Pinball Wizard".

Entwistle playing at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto 1976 Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin

Entwistle also experimented throughout his career with "bi-amping," where the high and low ends of the bass sound are sent through separate signal paths, allowing for more control over the output. At one point his rig became so loaded with speaker cabinets and processing gear that it was dubbed "Little Manhattan," in reference to the towering, skyscraper-like stacks, racks and blinking lights.

His "full treble, full volume" approach to bass sound was originally supposed to be captured in the bass solo to "My Generation". According to Entwistle, his original intention was to feature the distinctive Danelectro Longhorn bass, which had a very twangy sound, in the solo, but the strings kept breaking. Eventually, he recorded a simpler solo using a pick with a Fender Jazz Bass strung with LaBella tapewound strings. This solo bass break is important as it is one of the earliest bass solos (if not the first) captured on a rock record. A live recording of The Who exists from this period (c. 1965), with Entwistle playing a Danelectro on "My Generation", giving an idea of what that solo would have sounded like.

Late career[link]

In 1990 he toured with The Best, a short-lived supergroup which also included Keith Emerson, Joe Walsh, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Simon Phillips. Toward the end of his career, he formed "The John Entwistle "Project"" with longtime friend, drummer Steve Luongo, and guitarist Mark Hitt both formerly of Rat Race Choir. Out of that, came "The John Entwistle Band". Godfrey Townsend ("no 'h', no relation" [to Pete]) replaced Mark Hitt on guitar and took over lead vocals. In 1996, the band went on the "Left for Dead" tour with Alan St. Jon on keyboards. After Entwistle toured with The Who for Quadrophenia in 1996–97, the Entwistle band set off on the "Left for Dead – the Sequel" tour in late 1998, now with Gordon Cotten on keyboards. After this second venture, the band released an album of highlights from the tour, called Left for Live. In 1995 Entwistle also toured and recorded with Ringo Starr in one of the incarnations of Ringo's "All-Starr Band". This one also featured Billy Preston, Randy Bachman, and Mark Farner. In this ensemble, he played and sang "Boris the Spider" as his Who showpiece, along with "My Wife". Towards the end of his career he used a Status Graphite Buzzard Bass, which he designed. From 1999 to early 2002, John played as part of The Who. As a side project, John played bass in a country-rock album project of original songs called the Pioneers, with Mickey Wynne on lead guitar, Ron Magness on rhythm guitar and keyboards, Roy Michaels on vocals and John Delgado doing drums. The album was released on Voiceprint Records. Shortly before his death, Entwistle had agreed to play some US dates with the band including Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, following his final upcoming Who tour.

In 2001 he played in Alan Parsons' Beatles tribute show "A Walk Down Abbey Road". The show also featured Ann Wilson of Heart, Todd Rundgren, David Pack of Ambrosia, Godfrey Townsend on guitar, Steve Luongo on drums, and John Beck on keyboards. Between that tour and his prior tour with Ringo, Entwistle joked that he had played "Yellow Submarine" more often than Paul McCartney. That year he also played with The Who at The Concert for New York City. He also joined forces again with "The John Entwistle Band" for an 8 gig tour. This time Chris Clark was on Keyboards. In January–February 2002 John played his last concerts with The Who in a handful of dates in England, the last being 8 February in London's Royal Albert Hall. In late 2002, an expanded 2-CD Left for Live Deluxe was released, highlighting The John Entwistle Band performances.

Death[link]

Entwistle died in hotel room 658 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on 27 June 2002 one day before the scheduled first show of The Who's 2002 US tour. He had gone to bed that night with a stripper/groupie, Alycen Rowse, who woke at 10 am to find Entwistle cold and unresponsive. The Clark County medical examiner determined that death was due to a heart attack induced by cocaine.^[4] His funeral was held at St Edward's Church in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England, on 10 July 2002. He was cremated and his ashes were buried privately. A memorial service was held on 24 October 2002 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. Entwistle's enormous collection of guitars and basses was auctioned at Sotheby's in London by his son, Christopher Entwistle, to meet anticipated duties on his father's estate. Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook is among those who acquired some of Entwistle's basses at the auction.

His mansion in Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds and a number of his personal effects were later sold off to meet the demands of the Inland Revenue; coincidentally, Entwistle worked for the agency in 1962-3, prior to joining The Who. While the band – including Entwistle and Moon – recorded with a multitude of instruments, they always performed as a four-piece band. Following his death, Moon was replaced not only by Small Faces/Faces drummer Kenney Jones and later Simon Phillips and then Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr), but The Who also added keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick to the live band. Similarly, when Entwistle died, his place in the live band was filled by Pino Palladino, with second guitarist Simon Townshend (Pete Townshend's brother) having been added at rehearsals just weeks before Entwistle's death.

At least one aspect of Entwistle`s life came out after his death even for his closest fellows and The Who members. "It wasn’t until the day of his funeral that I discovered that he’d spent most of his life as a freemason", said Pete Townshend.^[5]

Welsh-born bassist Pino Palladino, who played on several of Pete Townshend's solo records, took over for Entwistle on stage when The Who resumed their postponed US tour on 1 July 2002.^[6] Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey spoke at length about their reaction to Entwistle's death. Some of their comments can be found on The Who Live in Boston DVD. Geddy Lee, of the band Rush, dedicated their performance of the song "Between Sun and Moon" to Entwistle on the opening night of their Vapor Trails tour which began the following night on 28 June 2002 in Hartford, Connecticut.^{[citation needed]}

Technique[link]

Entwistle performing at the Manchester Apollo in 1987

Entwistle's technique ranged from using fingers, plectra and tapping to using harmonics in his passages. He would change the style of play between songs and even during songs to change the sound he produced. His fingering technique would involve pressing down on the string hard and releasing in an attempt to reproduce a trebly, twangy sound. Note, however, that he would change his thumb position from pick-up, to the E string and occasionally even allowing his thumb to float near the pick-up. His plectrum technique would involve holding the plectrum between his thumb and forefinger, with the rest of his fingers outstretched for balance.

Entwistle's playing style was rarely captured well in the studio. He was better heard in concert, where he and guitarist Pete Townshend frequently exchanged roles, with Entwistle providing rapid melodic lines and Townshend anchoring the song with rhythmic chord work. Indeed, Townshend noted that Entwistle did the rhythmic timekeeping in the band, fulfilling the role of the drummer. Moon, on the other hand, with all his flourishes around the kit, was like a keyboard player. In 1989, Entwistle pointed out that, according to modern standards, "The Who haven't a proper bass player."^[7]

Entwistle also developed what he called a "typewriter" approach to playing the bass. It involved positioning the right hand over the strings so all four fingers could be used to tap percussively on the strings, causing them to strike the fretboard with a distinctive twangy sound. This gives the player the ability to play three or four strings at once, or to use several fingers on a single string. It allowed him to create passages that were very percussive and melodic. He used this approach to mimic the fills used by his drummers in band situations, sometimes sending the fills back at the drummers faster than the drummers themselves could play them.

This method is unique and should not be confused with the hammer-on tapping techniques of Eddie Van Halen and Stu Hamm or the slapping technique of Larry Graham, and in fact pre-dates these other techniques. A demonstration of this approach to bass playing can be seen on a video called John Entwistle – Master Class, part of Arlen Roth's Hot Licks instructional series, as well as Mike Gordon's film, Rising Low, where Entwistle can be seen frequently using his fore, middle, and ring fingers on his right hand when playing. This allowed him to create "clusters of notes" in his bass lines, as well as play triplets with relative simplicity. Notable in his left-handed technique is his use of slides, positioning the left hand for octaves and his use of the pentatonic scale.^{[citation needed]}

Influence[link]

Entwistle identified his influences as a combination of his school training on French horn, trumpet, and piano (giving his fingers strength and dexterity). Musicians who influenced him included rock & roll guitarists Duane Eddy and Gene Vincent, and American soul and R&B bassists such as James Jamerson.^[8] In turn, Entwistle has been a massive influence on the playing styles and sounds used by generations of bass players that have followed him, including Geezer Butler,^[9] Steve Harris, Matt Freeman, Krist Novoselic, Ian Hill, Geddy Lee,^[10] Billy Sheehan,^[11] Victor Wooten,^[12] Tom Petersson,^[13] and Chris Squire.^[14] Entwistle continues to top 'best ever bass player' polls in musicians magazines. In 2000, Guitar magazine named him "Bassist of the Millennium" in a readers' poll.^[15] J. D. Considine ranked Entwistle no. 9 on his list of "Top 50 Bass Players".^[16] He was named the second best bassist on Creem Magazine's 1974 Reader Poll Results.^[17] In 2011, a Rolling Stone reader poll selected him as the No. 1 bassist of all time.^[3]

Equipment[link]

This is a list of Entwistle's amps and guitars in chronological order of which he used them:

• Fender Precision Bass (sunburst, refinished to white in 1965)
• Gibson EB-2 semi-acoustic bass (natural)
• Mosrite Ventures Bass
• Danelectro long-horn bass
• Fender Jazz Bass (sunburst)
• Rickenbacker 4001S bass
• Gretsch 6070 Hollow Body Bass
• Gibson EB-3 bass
• Fender Bass VI
• Vox Cougar Sidewinder IV V272 bass in a burgundy-grain finish
• Custom “Axe” Jazz bass – seen using one with a thunderbird neck in "Tommy"
• Custom-made “Spider” bass
• Fender Precision Bass (slab body) in Olympic White, with maple neck
• Sunburst Fender Precision Bass with rosewood fretboard and tortise shell pickguard
• “Frankenstein” Fender Precision Bass with maple neck (made from several different Fender basses, and Entwistle's main stage and studio bass from 1967–1971)
• Vox Violin Bass
• Fender Precision Bass with rosewood fingerboard (black)
• Rickenbacker 4005 hollow body bass
• Gibson Thunderbird IV bass (both "Reverse" and "Non-Reverse"-styles)
• "Fenderbird" basses (consisted of Gibson Thunderbird bodies (mostly "non-reverse" styles) and maple Fender Precision bass necks)
• Rickenbacker 4005LS "Lightshow" hollow body bass
• Alembic Series I basses
• Fender “Explorer-Bird” (studio only)
• Rickenbacker 4001 prototype 8-string bass (white)
• Alembic Series I Exploiter basses, 4 & 8 string
• Custom Peter Cook “Lightning Bolt” bass
• Modulus Buzzard graphite bass (with Warwick body, green)
• Warwick custom Buzzard JE
• Alembic Spyder Bass
• Status Graphite JE Buzzard Bass
• Mellophone (Marching French Horn)

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Entwistle

• JohnEntwistle.com
• John Entwistle Photo Galleries
• The John Entwistle Foundation
• The Who's Marshall history
• John's gear reference

v t e The Who Roger Daltrey Pete Townshend John Entwistle Keith Moon Kenney Jones John "Rabbit" Bundrick Pino Palladino Doug Sandom Zak Starkey Simon Townshend Studio albums My Generation A Quick One The Who Sell Out Tommy Who's Next Quadrophenia The Who by Numbers Who Are You Face Dances It's Hard Endless Wire Extended plays Ready Steady Who Tommy Won't Get Fooled Again Wire & Glass Live albums Live at Leeds Who's Last Join Together Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 BBC Sessions Blues to the Bush Live at the Royal Albert Hall Live from Toronto View from a Backstage Pass Greatest Hits Live Encore Series Encore Series 2002 Encore Series 2004 Encore Series 2006 Encore Series 2007 Compilations Magic Bus: The Who on Tour Direct Hits Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy Odds & Sods The Story of The Who Phases Hooligans Who's Greatest Hits Rarities Volume I & Volume II The Singles The Who Collection Who's Missing Two's Missing Who's Better, Who's Best Thirty Years of Maximum R&B My Generation: The Very Best of The Who The Ultimate Collection Then and Now The 1st Singles Box Greatest Hits Soundtracks Tommy The Kids Are Alright Quadrophenia Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who Filmography Tommy The Kids Are Alright Quadrophenia Who's Better, Who's Best Thirty Years of Maximum R&B Live Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 Classic Albums: The Who – Who's Next The Who & Special Guests: Live at the Royal Albert Hall The Who Special Edition EP Live in Boston Tommy and Quadrophenia Live The Vegas Job Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who The Who at Kilburn: 1977 Discographies The Who discography Roger Daltrey discography Pete Townshend discography John Entwistle discography Two Sides of the Moon Performances 1968 tour 1969 tour 1970 tour 1971 tour 1972 tour 1973 tour 1974 tour 1975 tour 1976 tour 1977-1978 performances 1979 tour 1979 concert disaster 1980 tour 1981 tour 1982 tour 1985 and 1988 reunions 1989 tour 1996–1997 tour 1999 performances 2000 tour 2001 The Concert for New York City appearance 2002 tour 2004 tour 2005 Live 8 appearance 2006–2007 tour 2008–2009 tour Related people Personnel Jon Astley Chris Charlesworth Bill Curbishley Bob Heil Glyn Johns Kit Lambert Peter Meaden Bob Pridden Chris Stamp Bill Szymczyk Shel Talmy Musicians Mitch Mitchell Dave Golding Julian Covey Chris Townson Scot Halpin Tim Gorman Steve "Boltz" Bolton Simon Phillips Jon Carin Damon Minchella Steve White Brian Kehew J.J. Blair Jon Button Related articles The Boy Who Heard Music Lifehouse The Who's Tommy Who's For Tennis? The Roots of Tommy The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard A Tale of Two Springfields Musical equipment Personnel Track Records Double O Ramport Studios The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus CSI franchise Las Vegas Miami New York No Plan B Kim McLagan The Wick Chapel House, Twickenham Ashdown House, Oxfordshire Tara, Chertsey Quarwood Holmshurst Manor Categories Albums Associated people Compilation albums EPs Live albums Members Songs Soundtracks Templates Category

Keith Moon
Keith Moon in 1975
Background information
Birth name	Keith John Moon
Born	(1946-08-23)23 August 1946 Wembley, Middlesex, England
Died	7 September 1978(1978-09-07) (aged 32) Westminster, London
Genres	Rock, art rock, hard rock, power pop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer, actor
Instruments	Drums, percussion, vocals, bugle, trumpet, tuba
Years active	1964–1978
Associated acts	The Who, Plastic Ono Band, Jeff Beck Group

Keith John Moon (23 August 1946^[1] – 7 September 1978) was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon joined The Who in 1964. He played on all albums and singles from their debut, 1964's "Zoot Suit", to 1978's Who Are You, which was released three weeks before his death.

Moon was known for dramatic, suspenseful drumming—often eschewing basic back beats for a fluid, busy technique focused on fast, cascading rolls across the toms, ambidextrous double bass drum work and wild cymbal crashes and washes. He is mentioned in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the greatest of all rock and roll drummers,^[2] and was posthumously inducted into the Rock Hall as a member of The Who in 1990.

Moon's legacy, as a member of The Who, as a solo artist, and as an eccentric personality, continues to garner awards and praise, including a Rolling Stone readers' pick placing him in second place of the magazine's "best drummers of all time" in 2011,^[3] nearly 35 years after his death.

Early life[link]

Keith John Moon lived in Wembley, Middlesex. As a boy he was hyperactive and had a restless imagination. As a youth, the one thing that could hold his attention was music. Moon failed his eleven plus exam, and thus went to a secondary modern school, where in a report his art teacher commented: 'Retarded artistically. Idiotic in other respects'.^[4] Teacher Aaron Sofocleous praised his music skills and encouraged his chaotic style, even if one school report noted "He has great ability, but must guard against a tendency to show off". Often on his way home from school Keith would go to Macari's Music Studio in Ealing Road and would take instruction and practice on the drums there, where he learned his basic drumming skills. He left school in 1961.

On 17 March 1966, Moon married his pregnant girlfriend Kim Kerrigan in secrecy. Their daughter Amanda was born on 12 July 1966. Kerrigan left him in 1973. She took Mandy with her to live in the house of Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan, with whom she was having an affair, and divorced Moon in 1975. (Kerrigan and McLagan married in October 1978, one month after Moon's death. She was killed in a car crash in Texas in 2006). Before his divorce Moon dated Georgiana Steele, a British-born former fashion model who worked in their quadrophonic recording studio, Ramport, in Battersea, and in 1974 Moon began a relationship with Swedish model Annette Walter-Lax.

Early musical career[link]

At age twelve, Moon joined his local Sea Cadet Corps band as a bugle player but traded his position to be a drummer.^[5] He started to play the drums at age fourteen after his father bought him a kit. He received lessons from one of the loudest drummers at the time, Carlo Little, paying him ten shillings a lesson.^[6] During this time he joined his first serious band The Escorts.^[4] He later spent 18 months as the drummer for The Beachcombers, a London cover band notable for renditions of songs by Cliff Richard.^[7]

Moon initially played in the drumming style of American surf rock and jazz, with a mix of R&B, utilising grooves and fills of those genres, particularly Hal Blaine of Wrecking Crew. However, he played faster and louder, with more persistence and authority. Moon's favourite musicians were jazz artists Gene Krupa and Sonny Rollins.

Moon also enjoyed singing, particularly giving backing vocals that involved a light-sounding falsetto, and he adored the vocal styling of Motown soul music.^[8]

The Who[link]

Roger Daltrey and Keith Moon, 1967

At age 17, Moon joined The Who, replacing Doug Sandom after the band received the news that they could not expect a recording contract without a better drummer. Early in The Who's career, as they gained a following, they sought to set themselves apart from other bands of the time. When their live sets culminated in what they later described as "auto-destructive art", with Pete Townshend (and Moon delightedly following suit) destroying their equipment in elaborate fashion, they made a name for themselves in the press and gained the attention they had lacked. It was an act that was imitated by other bands and artists including Jimi Hendrix (who had just signed with the same label) in his break-out performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Moon showed a zeal for this, kicking and smashing his drums. During the end of their 1967 appearance performing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Moon had explosives loaded into one of his kit's two bass drums. During the finale of "My Generation", he kicked the other drum off the riser and then set off the charge, with the intensity of the explosion surprising even himself. He singed Townshend's hair and embedded a piece of cymbal in his own arm. The blast has been speculated as starting Townshend's tinnitus,^{[citation needed]} though Townshend himself attributes his hearing loss to years of headphone use in the recording studio.^[9] During one of his few drum solo performances on television, Moon filled clear acrylic drums with water and goldfish, and dressed as a cat, playing them for the audience. Antics like these earned him the nicknames "Moon the Loon" and "Mad Moon". Cultivating publicity for his behaviour, he became one of the most well-known drummers in his generation, and the other members of the Who benefited from the exposure as well.

His propensity for making his bandmates laugh around the vocal microphone whilst recording led them to banish him from the studio when vocals were being recorded. This led to a game, Moon sneaking in to join the singing. He can be heard singing lead on several tracks, including "Bell Boy" (Quadrophenia, 1973), "Bucket T" and "Barbara Ann" (Ready Steady Who EP, 1966), and the high backing vocals on other songs, such as "Pictures Of Lily".

Moon, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto 1976

Moon was credited as composer of "I Need You", which he also sang, and the instrumental "Cobwebs and Strange" (from A Quick One, 1966), the single B-sides "In The City" (co-written by Moon and Entwistle), "Dogs Part Two" (1969) (sharing credits with Townshend's and Entwistle's dogs, Towser and Jason), "Tommy's Holiday Camp" (1969), "Waspman" (1972), and "Girl's Eyes" (from The Who Sell Out sessions; featured on Thirty Years of Maximum R&B and a 1995 re-release of The Who Sell Out). He also co-composed the instrumental "The Ox" (from the debut album My Generation) with Townshend, Entwistle and keyboardist Nicky Hopkins. "Tommy's Holiday Camp" (from Tommy) was credited to Moon, who suggested the action should take place in a holiday camp. The song was written by Townshend, and although there is a misconception that Moon sings on the track, the version on the album is Townshend's demo. However Moon did sing it in live concerts, and on the film version of Tommy. He also produced "Baba O'Riley"'s violin solo (which he had suggested), performed by Dave Arbus, a friend.

Daltrey said Moon's drumming style held the band together; that Entwistle and Townshend "were like knitting needles... and Keith was the ball of wool."

Many rock drummers have cited Moon as an influence, including Neil Peart^[10] and Dave Grohl^[11] The Jam paid tribute to Moon on the second single from their third album, "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", in which the B-side of the single is a cover song from The Who: "So Sad About Us", and the back cover of the record is a photo of Moon's face; the Jam's record was released about a month after Moon's death.

Behaviour[link]

Moon led a very destructive lifestyle. He laid waste to hotel rooms, the homes of friends and even his own home, throwing furniture out of high windows and setting fire to buildings. In one case, the band were due to perform at The Valley (home of Charlton Athletic F.C.), and were waiting in the dressing room for Moon to arrive. A witness described the drummer's sudden entry: "Suddenly, there was a great crash and Keith Moon dropped through the ceiling, having smashed his way through the corrugated iron roof."^[12] Moon even crashed a milk float he had purchased into his own property.^[13]

Along with his drum sets, Moon's infamous (and favourite) calling card was to flush powerful explosives down toilets.^[7][14] It has been estimated that his destruction of toilets and plumbing ran as high as UK£300,000 (US$500,000).^[15][16] His levels of destruction forced The Who to stay outside of New York City when the band performed there, and his repeated practice of blowing up toilets with explosives led to Moon being banned for life from lodging at several hotel chains around the world, including all Holiday Inn, all Sheraton, and all Hilton Hotels,^[17] as well as the Waldorf Astoria.^[18] Moon became so notorious for this practice that when Nick Harper was asked about his childhood memories spent around The Who, his first recollection was, "I remember Keith blowing up the toilets."^[19]

According to Tony Fletcher's biography, Moon's toilet pyrotechnics began in 1965, when he purchased 500 cherry bombs.^[7][21] In time, Moon would graduate from just cherry bombs to taking out toilets with M-80s. Eventually, Moon began using sticks of dynamite, his explosive of choice, to destroy toilets.^[22] "All that porcelain flying through the air was quite unforgettable," Moon recalled. "I never realised dynamite was so powerful. I'd been used to penny bangers before."^[7] In a very short period of time, Moon developed a reputation of "leaving holes" in bathroom floors, completely annihilating the toilets, mesmerising Moon and enhancing his reputation as rock and roll's premier hellraiser.^[7] Fletcher goes on to state that, "no toilet in a hotel or changing room was safe," until Moon had detonated his supply of explosives.^[7]

Unknown to many people at the time, Moon was often able to cajole John Entwistle into helping him blow up toilets. In a 1981 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Entwistle confessed, "A lot of times when Keith was blowing up toilets I was standing behind him with the matches."^[23] Incidents between Moon and hotel management included an occasion in which Moon was asked to turn down his cassette player because The Who were making "too much noise." In response, Moon asked the manager up to his room, lit a stick of dynamite in the toilet, and shut the bathroom door. Following the explosion, Moon informed the startled manager, "That, dear boy, was noise." Moon then turned the cassette player back on and proclaimed, "This is The Who."^[24][25] On another occasion in Alabama, Moon and Entwistle loaded a toilet with cherry bombs when they were told that they could not receive room service. According to Entwistle, "That toilet was just dust all over the walls by the time we checked out. The management brought our suitcases down to the gig and said: 'Don't come back...'"^[26]

The acts, though often fuelled by drugs and alcohol, were his way of expressing his eccentricity, as well as the joy he got from shocking the public.^[7] In Moon's biography, Full Moon, longtime friend and personal assistant Dougal Butler, observed: "He would do anything if he knew that there were enough people around who didn't want him to do it."

According to Townshend, Moon's reputation for erratic behaviour was something he cultivated. Once, on the way to an airport, Moon insisted they return to their hotel, saying, "I forgot something. We've got to go back!" When the limo returned, Moon ran to his room, grabbed the television while it was plugged in, threw it out the window and into the pool. He then jumped back into the limousine, sighing "I nearly forgot".

In 1967, Moon set in motion events which would become one of rock's most famous legends. According to the book Local DJ, a Rock & Roll History, after The Who opened for Herman's Hermits, Moon celebrated his 21st birthday party at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan. Already intoxicated, he began the celebration by lighting a stick of dynamite in the toilet of his room. When the dynamite did not flush, Moon leapt out of the bathroom at the last possible moment to avoid porcelain toilet shards from the blast.^[27] He then allegedly drove a Cadillac (according to Moon's own account, it was a Lincoln Continental) into the hotel pool. While Holiday Inn management had begrudgingly tolerated Moon's notorious history of blowing up toilets at other locations as long as the damage was paid for, they decided after the car incident that they had had enough; Moon and The Who were subsequently banned from all Holiday Inns for life, as well as from Flint. Author Peter C. Cavanaugh, who was there and witnessed the event firsthand, recalled the events for a documentary on the 1960s rock scene.^[28] According to the book, The Who In Their Own Words, Moon said the Holiday Inn incident was how he broke his front tooth. Other people who attended the event, including Entwistle, cast doubt on the veracity of the car-in-the-swimming-pool story, but confirm some other parts of the tale. Another version of the night was recounted by Moon biographer Tony Fletcher in the book Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend; "It was (after a cake fight) that the cry came to 'debag' the birthday boy... Various members of (Herman's Hermits and The Who) launched themselves on Keith, pinned him to the floor and successfully pulled his trousers down... As the teenage girls began gasping and giggling and the cops started grunting their disapproval, Keith, naked from the waist down, made a good-natured dash for it out of the room...and smashed one of his front teeth out".(p210) It was after Moon went to the dentist and the party was disbanded that the 30 to 40 guests filed out, a few taking fire extinguishers to cars and dirtying the swimming pool. According to VH1's Behind the Music, the broken tooth came from Moon diving into the pool at the Flint Holiday Inn when there was no water in it.

Passing out on stage[link]

Moon's penchant for the wild life was not only outwardly detrimental; it began to take a toll on his health while he was still in his twenties, as well as on his drumming and his reliability as a band member. On the 1973 Quadrophenia tour, at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, Moon took a large mixture of horse tranquillisers and brandy. He passed out during "Won't Get Fooled Again" and again in "Magic Bus". Townshend asked the audience, "Can anyone play the drums? – I mean somebody good". An audience member, Scot Halpin, filled in for the rest of the show. Townshend later said in an interview that Moon had consumed large tranquilliser pills, meant to be shot at animals, with the brandy.^[29] During the band's recording sabbatical between 1975 and 1978, Moon put on a great deal of weight. Nonetheless, Entwistle maintained that Moon and The Who reached their prime live peak during 1975 and 1976. That tour earned them Rolling Stone's 'red suspenders' for best live rock band.

Moon's close friend Ringo Starr was seriously concerned about his lifestyle and told Moon that if he kept going the way he was he would eventually kill himself. Moon simply replied "Yeah, I know."^[30]

Personal life and relationships[link]

From 1971 to 1975, Moon owned Tara, a home in Chertsey. He and his wife Kim and their daughter Mandy moved into the home, where the couple maintained an extravagant social life.

A darker side to Moon's behaviour, tentatively diagnosed as caused by a borderline personality disorder in Fletcher's biography, resulted in the eruption of physical violence towards his wife Kim. Although he never hit his later girlfriend Annette, he was verbally abusive toward her. Moon loved his daughter Mandy, but he had not been prepared to be a father, and this translated to an uneasy relationship with her as a very young girl, as he was not quite sure how to relate to her. When Kim at last left him, his jealousy towards his wife was powerful enough that Moon was even prepared to pay someone to break the fingers of Faces keyboardist Ian "Mac" McLagan who became Kim's boyfriend after the marital break-up. It was not until a month after Moon's death that the two married. Kim was married to McLagan until her death in a car accident in 2006.

Annette Walter-Lax described his Mr Hyde-like change into a growling, uncontrollable beast as something out of a horror movie. She begged Malibu neighbour Larry Hagman to check Moon into yet another clinic to dry out, (as he had tried more than once before) but when doctors recorded Moon's intake at breakfast (a full bottle of champagne along with Courvoisier along with amphetamines), they concluded there was no hope.^[31]

Alice Cooper remembers their drinking club, The Hollywood Vampires, commenting that Moon ("the Puck of Rock 'n' Roll") used to enter dressed up as the Pope, one of many costumes he wore to elicit humour from others.^[32] Joe Walsh recorded chats with Moon, finding it remarkable how witty and alert the inebriated drummer managed to stay, ad-libbing his way through surrealistic fantasy stories à la Peter Cook, which Cooper reaffirms, saying he was not even certain he ever knew the real Keith Moon, or if there was one.

Keith Moon showing off atop his drumkit Toronto, 21 October 1976

In the documentary Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who, Daltrey and Townshend state that Moon had a real talent for dressing up in a variety of various characters and embodying them; they recount how Moon often dreamed of getting out of music to be a Hollywood actor.^[8]

The Hollywood Vampires was also attended by the likes of John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood all of whom Moon maintained friendships with. Another of Keith's friends was Larry Smith, who was regularly seen partying with Moon.

In 1974, Moon struck up a friendship with actor Oliver Reed, while working on the movie version of Tommy.

Aside from his romantic relationships, although his behaviour was outrageous, it was in the humorous vein^[7] as his friend Vivian Stanshall, of the Bonzo Dog Band claimed. Moon produced Stanshall's version of Terry Stafford's Suspicion.

Moon owned a lilac-coloured Rolls-Royce, painted with house paint. On Top Gear,^[33] Daltrey commented that Moon liked to take upper-class icons and make them working class. The car is now owned by Middlebrook Garages (based in Nottinghamshire).

Car-pedestrian death[link]

On 4 January 1970, Moon was involved in a car-pedestrian death outside the Red Lion pub in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Trying to escape hostile patrons from the pub who had begun to attack his Bentley, the drunk Moon attempted to take control of his car, which in the melee ran over and killed his friend, driver, and bodyguard, Neil Boland. Although the coroner said Boland's death was an accident and Moon was given an absolute discharge having been charged with driving offences, those close to him said Moon was haunted by the accident for the rest of his life. Boland's daughter spent a significant amount of time investigating and questioning each witness from the police blotter, and concluded that Moon was not the person behind the wheel of the car.^[34][35] However, Moon never recovered from feelings of guilt. According to Pamela Des Barres, a groupie with whom Moon had had a three-year relationship, Moon would have nightmares that would wake them both during the night. Immediately after waking, Moon would be convinced that he had no right to be alive.^[36]

Work outside The Who[link]

It was Moon who recommended the name "Led Zeppelin" to Jimmy Page who intended to name his new band 'Mad Dog'. According to Oxford lexicographer Susie Dent, Moon and Entwistle were speculating with Page about the possible formation of a supergroup when Moon remarked that a particular suggestion had gone down like a "lead zeppelin" (i.e. "lead balloon"). Page remembered the odd expression and later adopted it as the name for his newly forming band, however manager Peter Grant, while doodling with the name on a pad of paper, spelled "lead" as "led" because he thought otherwise it would be mispronounced (as /li:d/ -lead).^[37] Although Moon's work with The Who dominated his career, he participated in minor outside projects. In 1966, he did his first work with Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck, session man Nicky Hopkins, and future Led Zeppelin members Page and John Paul Jones to record an instrumental, "Beck's Bolero", released as a single-double later that year. He also played timpani on another track, "Ol' Man River" (credited on the back of the album as "You Know Who").

On 15 December 1969, Moon joined John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band for a live performance at the Lyceum Ballroom in London for a UNICEF charity concert. The supergroup also consisted of Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Nicky Hopkins, Yoko Ono, Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann. The band played Lennon's Cold Turkey and Ono's Don't Worry Kyoko. The performance was eventually released in 1972 as a companion disc to Lennon's and Ono's Some Time In New York City LP.

In 1973, Moon was featured in the film That'll Be the Day, playing J.D. Clover, the drummer in a fictional early-era rock-and-roll band called Stray Cats. He would reprise this role the following year in Michael Apted's sequel, Stardust.

In 1974 Track Records/MCA released a solo single: "Don't Worry, Baby" backed with "Teenage Idol", a reflection of his love of The Beach Boys.

On Valentine's Day 1974, Moon performed on drums with Jimmy Page, Ronnie Lane, Max Middleton and fellow drummer John Bonham on acoustic guitar for the gig premiering Roy Harper's album Valentine.

In 1974, he played drums on Harry Nilsson's album "Pussy Cats" produced by John Lennon.

In 1975, he released his only solo album, pop covers entitled Two Sides of the Moon. Although this featured Moon's singing, much drumming was left to other artists including Ringo Starr, session musicians Curly Smith and Jim Keltner and actor/musician Miguel Ferrer (Twin Peaks and Crossing Jordan). Moon played drums on only three tracks.

In late 1975, he played drums on the track "Bo Diddley Jam" on Bo Diddley's The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll all-star album.

In 1971, he had a cameo role in Frank Zappa's film 200 Motels. He acted in drag as a nun fearful of death from overdosing on pills. In 1973 he appeared in That'll Be the Day, playing J.D. Clover, the drummer at a holiday camp during the early days of British rock 'n' roll. Moon reprised the role for the sequel Stardust in 1974. The film co-starred Moon's friend Ringo Starr of The Beatles. He appeared as "Uncle Ernie" in Ken Russell's 1975 film adaptation of Tommy.

In a bar about 1975, he asked Graham Chapman and Bernard McKenna to do a "treatment" for a "mad movie". They asked a thousand pounds, Moon pulled the cash from his pocket and gave it to them. This was the start of the project that would become the movie Yellowbeard. Moon wanted to play the lead but the movie took many years to develop, and by that time he was in physically poor shape, and unsuitable.^[38] He had also been invited by the Monty Python group to join them in Tunisia for their filming of Monty Python's Life of Brian, where he was to play some of the smaller roles. He died shortly before filming started.

In 1976, he covered the Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four" for the soundtrack of the documentary All This and World War II.

He joined Led Zeppelin on stage and drummed with John Bonham for encores in a show on 23 June 1977 at the L.A. Forum (recorded on Led Zeppelin bootlegs, For Badgeholders Only/Sgt. Page's Badgeholders Only Club).

He impersonated a camp fashion designer in Sextette (1978), starring Mae West.

Moon once owned a hotel, the Crown and Cushion in Chipping Norton where he held "lavish parties". A receptionist at the hotel told a guest Moon bought it from Petula Clark.

Death[link]

Moon's plaque at Golders Green Crematorium

Moon was Paul McCartney's guest at a film preview of The Buddy Holly Story on the evening of 6 September 1978. After dining with Paul and Linda McCartney at Peppermint Park in Covent Garden, Moon and his girlfriend, Annette Walter-Lax, returned to a flat on loan from Harry Nilsson, No.12 at 9 Curzon Place (now called Curzon Square), Shepherd Market, Mayfair in which Cass Elliot had died a little more than four years earlier.^[39][40] Moon watched a film, The Abominable Doctor Phibes and requested Annette cook him a breakfast of steak and eggs. When she objected, he replied "If you don't like it, you can just fuck off!" These turned out to be his last words.

Moon then took 32 tablets of clomethiazole (Heminevrin).^[7] The medication was a sedative he had been prescribed to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms as he tried to dry out on his own at home; he was desperate to get clean, but was terrified of another stay in the psychiatric hospital for in-patient detoxification. However, clomethiazole is specifically contraindicated for unsupervised home detox because of its addictiveness, tendency to rapidly induce drug tolerance and dangerously high risk of death when mixed with alcohol.^[41] The pills were also prescribed by a new doctor, Dr. Geoffrey Dymond, who was unaware of Moon's recklessly impulsive nature and long history of prescription sedative abuse. He had given Moon a full bottle of 100 pills, and instructed him to take one whenever he felt a craving for alcohol (but not more than 3 per day). The police determined there were 32 pills in his system, with the digestion of 6 being sufficient to cause his death, and the other 26 of which were still undissolved when he died.^[7]

Moon died shortly after the release of Who Are You. On the album cover, he is seated on a chair back-to-front to hide the weight gained over three years (as discussed in Tony Fletcher's book Dear Boy); the words "NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY" appear on the back of the chair.

Keith Moon was cremated on 13 September 1978, at Golders Green Crematorium in London and his ashes scattered in its Gardens of Remembrance.

After death[link]

Keith Moon's blue plaque, at London's 90 Wardour Street, W1 Soho (Marquee Club).

• After his death, Moon was replaced by Small Faces/Faces drummer Kenney Jones as an official member of the band. Simon Phillips later toured with the band as an unofficial member. The Who also added keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick to the live band. The Who's drum position is currently occupied by Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr. Starkey was taught drumming by Moon and referred to him as "Uncle Keith".
• Daltrey recorded a song, "Under a Raging Moon", as a tribute to Moon and the "Middle Bar" in the London Astoria was named after him.
• A biography was written about Moon by Tony Fletcher, entitled Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon in the United Kingdom. "Dear Boy" became a catchphrase of Moon's when he started affecting a pompous English accent around 1969, particularly when ordering drinks.^[7] The book was released in the U.S. under the title, "Moon (The Life and Death of a Rock Legend)".
• In early 2006, Moon's signature Pictures of Lily drum kit was reissued by Premier Percussion under the name Spirit of Lily.
• Moon's ex-wife, Kim, was married to Ian McLagan of the Faces in 1978, the year that Moon died. She was killed in a traffic accident near Austin, Texas on 2 August 2006.
• Daltrey is producing a biopic about Moon called See Me Feel Me: Keith Moon Naked for Your Pleasure, which will be released in 2012. Comedian Mike Myers will play the main role and may have to take drumming lessons to suit the character.^[42] However, according to Daltrey, this project may currently be stalled.^[43]
• The London 2012 summer olympic committee contacted The Who manager Bill Curbishley about Moon performing at the games, 34 years after his death. Curbishley told the Times, "I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who's anthemic line 'I hope I die before I get old'...If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him."^[44]

Legacy[link]

Keith Moon is often cited by critics as one of the greatest and most eccentric drummers in rock music. Holly George-Warren, editor and author of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The First 25 Years, argues: "With the death of Keith Moon in 1978, rock arguably lost its single greatest drummer."^[45] According to Allmusic, "Moon, with his manic, lunatic side, and his life of excessive drinking, partying, and other indulgences, probably represented the youthful, zany side of rock & roll, as well as its self-destructive side, better than anyone else on the planet."^[46] In the words of Pete Townshend, "The production of our [The Who's] records has got nothing to do with sound. It's got to do with trying to keep Keith Moon on his fucking drum stool."^[47] Dave Marsh's The New Book of Rock Lists ranks Moon at No. 1 on its list of The 50 Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Drummers.^[48] Similarly, he was ranked at No. 2 on Rolling Stone's "The Best Drummers of All Time" readers poll in 2011.^[49]

Many notable rock drummers have been influenced by Keith Moon, including Dave Grohl, Neil Peart, Tommy Lee, Peter Criss, and Brad Wilk.^{[citation needed]}

Drum kits[link]

Premier's replica of the classic "Pictures of Lily" drumkit

The first kit Moon owned was a blue Premier kit bought on hire purchase (credit) and co-signed by his father, Alf. It was purchased at the suggestion of his friend and fellow drummer Gerry Evans. Throughout 1964 and 1965 he played typically four, then five-piece kits, but moved to a Premier double bass kit in June 1966. This new set widened his playing; he abandoned his hi-hat cymbals almost entirely and started basing his grooves on a double bass ostinato with eighth note flams, and a wall of white noise created by riding a crash or ride cymbal. On top of this he played fills and cymbal accents. This became his trademark.

Moon's Classic Red Sparkle Premier setup comprised two 14×22-inch bass drums, three 8×14 mounted toms, one 16×16 floor tom, a 5×14 Ludwig Supraphonic 400 snare and one extra floor tom of different sizes but mainly 16×18 or 16×16. Moon's classic cymbal setup consisted of two Paiste Giant Beat 18" crashes and one 20" ride. In 1973, Moon added a second row of tom-toms (first four, then six) and, in 1975, two more timbales. These huge kits became well known, notably the amber set in the films, Tommy and Stardust, and in footage shot by the BBC at Charlton in 1974. The 1975–1976 white kit with gold fittings, in which the gold was actually copper because of the weakness of gold, was given by Moon to a young Zak Starkey. His final kit, a dark metallic one, is seen in the footage from The Kids Are Alright at Shepperton in 1978.

Quotation[link]

NME – October 1971.^[50]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend by Tony Fletcher
• Anyway Anyhow Anywhere (Revised Edition): The Complete Chronicle of The Who 1958–1978 by Andrew Neill and Mathew Kent
• The Who: Maximum R&B by Richard Barnes and Pete Townshend, Plexus Publishing; 5th edition (27 September 2004)
• Before I Get Old: The Story of The Who by Dave Marsh, Plexus Publishing (16 September 2003)

External links[link]

• Further Information about Forthcoming Keith Moon Biopic