Mooning Around Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The Who were famous for the destruction of their instruments at the end of live shows, and the most notable at this were Pete Townshend's guitar smashing and Keith Moon's overturning of his drum kit complete with smoke bombs. They appeared on "The Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour" in September of 1967 and, whilst the songs they performed were mimed, the finale wasn't. It should have played out as per normal except that Keith was deliberately over-zealous with the flash powder in his kit. The resulting explosion blinded the TV cameras, caused Bette Davis (off-stage) to faint and nearly blew away the band.

Out of sheer boredom, Moon would dress up in costumes and stroll into town. On one occasion he was dressed as a bald headed vicar, walking down Oxford Street, and frightening people by shouting obscenities at them. Two gangsters suddenly appeared and dragged him, kicking and screaming, into a waiting Rolls-Royce. Police were called and they soon intercepted the car to find that the whole event had been staged. The Rolls belonged to Moon and the gangsters were members of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Whilst staying in a luxurious hotel in Copenhagen in 1972 Moon had the insane idea to haul the waterbed out of his room, dump it in the elevator and then send it down to the lobby below. The issue that arose was that the bed exploded and sent waves of water across the hallway. The band was looking down the barrel of tens of thousands of dollars in damages. Moon, however, was immediately onto the phone, abusing management that the bed had exploded and destroyed thousands of dollars of his equipment and costumes... and what in (expletives) name did they plan to do about it. The hotel apologized and shifted him to the Presidential suite.

The trouser test was an elaborate set-up that saw Larry Smith (Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band), as Moon's accomplice, walk into Marks and Spencer's menswear section and ask for their toughest pair of men's trousers. Smith then expressed doubts as to their suitability for his purpose. At this point, Moon walked into the store, and he and Smith, each grabbed a trouser leg and proceed to pull. The trousers tore in half in front of the horrified sales assistant, who immediately called for security. At the point of them being arrested, Moon's chauffeur walked in and declares "One legged trousers, exactly what I needed". Moon's biographer, Tony Fletcher, revealed that in an interview with Smith, he was advised that Moon made peace by purchasing the trousers though he did ask for each leg to be wrapped separately.

Sometimes Moon did care. While making the film "Stardust" (1974) Moon made a conscious effort to pay for everything when the cast went out together. He, also, took under his wing a young actor named Karl Howman, who'd later make a name for himself as the lead actor in the British sitcom "Brush Strokes" (1986-91). On this particular evening Karl insisted that he cover the tab instead of Keith and nearly had a stroke when he saw the size of the bill. Moon saw the look on his face and suggested that they do a "runner". Whilst Howman was mortified about the crime he followed the advice and bolted. Moon later revealed that, prior to their dash, he'd already settled the bill.

Peter Frampton's band, The Herd, were supporting The Who during a UK tour in 1967 and they were continually at the mercy of Moon's pranks. Amongst the many stunts performed, Keith, and bass player John Entwistle, rigged up a wire and pulley system to the gong used by The Herd's drummer, Andrew Steele. Every time Steele went to bang the gong, Moon would pull on the wires so that it shifted out of the unfortunate drummer's reach.

Affectionately known as "The Ox", John Entwistle was the reserved member of the band but that didn't mean that you could mess with him. During a stay in Paris, in the midst of their European tour of 1972, an inebriated Moon stormed into Entwistle's room just as the bass player had settled down to a lovely meal with his wife Alison. Moon ate a good deal of Entwistle's steak, spilled a bottle of vintage Bordeaux on the floor and urinated on the wall before passing out. Big mistake! The Ox collected Moon and moved him back into his own (Moon's) room and then proceeded to destroy absolutely everything in it. Moon woke up the next morning amidst the carnage. He had no recollection of the event but believed that it was his own doing. He would take that belief to his grave.

Sometimes Moon's antics bordered on being bad taste, sometimes they went beyond the pale. The Nazi dress-up caper was a prime example of the latter. Keith and Viv Stanshall, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band's frontman, dressed up as Nazis for a record company photo shoot. After that they went drinking, still dressed in their uniforms. That was fine but, where it crossed the line was the duo goose-stepping into the bar. Staying in the uniform for almost a week is (somewhat) understandable but, hiring an open-top Mercedes Benz and then cruising the Jewish neighbourhood of Golder's Green was definitely in poor humour.

For one of Keith's recurring pranks, he had wired up a number of his cars with hidden amplifiers and speakers. He would then drive the modified cars, with the tinted windows up so that he couldn't be seen, through small villages, broadcasting news of (non-existent) impending disasters. These ranged from approaching tidal waves, advancing throngs of poisonous snakes and the government re-locating the entire immigrant population to the borders of their towns.

Oliver Reed felt that his reputation as a wild man was unmatched... until he met with Keith Moon and his attitude changed. The pair first met on the set of the film "Tommy" (1975) after which he said "Keith showed me the way to insanity." That same year Reed attended a red-carpet affair for the premiere of a new film in Hollywood when he was approached by a stranger. The stranger hit him in the face with a lemon curd pie and then handed Reed a card and an envelope. The card declared "Pie in the Face International". The envelope revealed a certificate that said "You're now a member... sponsored by Keith Moon."

The incorrect answers were not made up, they were real pranks performed by other artists, but not by Keith Moon. It was Michael Jackson who regularly prank called Russell Crowe, despite the two never having met. Elton John crashed the Iggy Pop gig wearing a gorilla suit, Johnny Cash let loose over a hundred chickens on various floors of a hotel, Ritchie Blackmore and Cozy Powell tried to brick up the door to a hotel room, which would have sealed up their keyboard player, Tony Carey, in his room and Dee Dee Ramone passed urine into one of Johnny Rotten's beers.