Full Moon: The Amazing Rock and Roll Life of Keith Moon by Dougal Butler

Author:Dougal Butler [Butler, Dougal]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780571295852
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2012-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND

It is strange how most of Moonie’s friends are celebrities in their own right (apart from me of course). There are plenty of other musos, film people and other show biz types who have a close clan around them of people they know from way back. And these are the people they can rely on, who they know aren’t interested in them just because of the fame or the money. In the time I know him, Moonie appears to have no one like this and, apart from the other geezers in the band, does not seem to have anyone from his childhood or his schooldays. For a time I consider that this is on account of Moonie has such a large ego that he can only rub along with bigshots, but eventually I come to the conclusion that it is not quite as simple as that.

Moonie’s rise to fame, and fortune does isolate him. It’s no use the average, punter saying:

‘I should be so lucky! All that money!’ But the average punter can no more handle this situation than Moonie can. The reason why there’s such a high casualty rate among stars is that most of them start off as average geezers—or bints—and they are just not equipped for the job, nor for the life they are just about forced to live.

Once they make it to the top they are expected to live in a certain kind of way. They can’t win. If Moonie decides to stay quietly at home with the Mrs, not that he ever does, he will be accused of being a skinflint and boring. If he goes out and about a bit, taking a few bevvies here and there, it is very hard not to go over the top and end up with a booze problem. Say he decides to knock off at midnight and go on home to kip. Then everyone will moan:

‘Ah, come on Moonie, don’t give us all that going to kip bollocks.’ Bearing all this in mind I soon see why it is only possible for Keith to rub along with people who have a similar problem, i.e. they are rich, famous and slightly bananas.

The main two of these people are Harry Nilsson, the singer, and Ringo Starr, former drummer with a popular singing act. There is a period around 1973 when these three are virtually inseparable and go around everywhere like the Three Musketeers. Most of the time I go along too, on account of Moonie must have someone along to drive him, plus he seems to like to have me around at all times in case he runs out of money. Then he can use my American Express card.

Moonie first becomes friendly with Ringo when they are both involved in the movie That’ll Be The Day. Ringo’s part in this movie is to play a Teddy. Boy, and he is most convincing in this role, what with the drape jacket, the thick crêpe-soled brothel creepers, the bootlace tie and the slick greased quiff in the barnet.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.