Keith Moon: «THAT was noise. THIS is the ‘oo!»

Keith Moon was known for two things: his innovative and spectacular free-form drumming for The Who, the like of which the world has rarely seen since. There was also his rock’n’roll antics and behaviour off-stage, which was easily as spectacular – and, thankfully, also not really seen since.

Keith Moon embraced the rock star lifestyle fully, gaining the nickname “Moon the Loon” in the process. Hotels across the world were his playground. Moon was a jokester who never seemed to know or notice when things got too far. He was known to demolish hotel rooms and could be incredibly destructive. He would often throw furniture from high buildings and set objects on fire.

At some point he discovered cherry bombs and explosives, and for a while his favourite hobby was blowing up stuff – especially toilets. The blasts would destroy the toilet and often times disrupt plumbing to the hotel.

One time, Moon arrived back at the hotel with no apparent mischief in mind. He walked through the lobby with his portable cassette player, listening to some demos the band had been working on. He was proud of the music and focusing on the work the band had done.

Moon was rather let down when the manager stepped up to him and asked him to “turn that noise down”. Without a word, Moon turned it down and went to his room.

Five minutes later, a call was made to the reception, requesting the Manager’s presence in a guest’s room.

The manager arrived and knocked on the door. Shortly after, the door was blown to bits in a huge explosion. Bits were flying around and there was smoke everywhere.

From the other side of the door, Keith Moon emerged through the smoke. He walked up to the shocked hotel manager, who had been forced back by the blast and was leaning against the opposite wall. Moon pointed back towards where the door had been, and said “THAT was noise.”

Then he turned the cassette player back up, pointed to that, and said “THIS is the ‘oo!”

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