These podcast programs are, unfortunately, no longer available on the BBC Radio 4 site. when Phil Daniels looks back at the outrageous life and times of The Who drummer. Featuring rare interview material from 1974.
However we managed to find two episodes on YouTube and two very rare video interviews on Reelin' in The Years- Reelin’ In The Years Productions has available for licensing over 30,000 hours of music footage spanning 90 years.-
I'm Keith Moon – What's Your Excuse? (Radio 2) would have been a rip-roaring celebration of the wild-living drummer.
This was also rather unsatisfying as it didn't authoritatively establish how good Moon was – other than to say that when the Who replaced him, it was with a drummer and three musicians – or measure his talent with a strong focus on the music.
One of Moon's favorite recurring pranks was to disk7rupt small British villages by blaring bogus public service announcements from a passing car.
Though he occasionally used a police bullhorn for these occasions.
He also had his own cars rigged up with hidden amplifiers and speakers, which allowed him to keep his windows rolled up while scaring the locals with bulletins about such nonexistent dangers as impending tidal waves or advancing throngs of poisonous snakes.
Or ruffling their feathers by informing them that the British government would soon be relocating the country's entire immigrant population to their neck of the woods.
Phil Daniels remembers The Who’s drummer Keith Moon, whose life was cut short after a prescription drug overdose on 7 September 1978. Moon packed a great deal into his thirty-two years. As one of the documentary’s key contributors points out, because he hardly seemed to sleep, Moon probably managed to pack an average lifetime into this brief spell.
This documentary tracks down contributors who were close to Moon at key periods of his life. Long-term PR man for The Who, Keith Altham, oversaw Moon’s early career with the band and witnessed the sometimes fractious nature of the band’s off-stage relationships.
Moon’s road manager, Peter “Dougal” Butler was a constant companion up until close to the drummer’s demise. Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones had the unenviable task of replacing him on The Who’s drum stool both during Moon’s lifetime and after he died. They provide a fascinating insight into the workings of “Moon The Loon’s” mind.
But the most revealing voice is Moon’s own. Interviewed by Stuart Grundy in Los Angeles in 1974, the sixteen-minute conversation provides a poignant and surprisingly reflective snapshot of the troubled drummer’s lifestyle.(Excerpt from 50thirdand3rd)
Apr. 8 2012 Olympic organizers specifically asked The Who manager Bill Curbishley if Keith Moon could play with the band during the closing ceremony. "If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him."
