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Who are You??? That time Keith Moon OD’d onstage and was replaced by a member of the audience

4kmoondru.jpg
 
It’s like a Boy’s Own story. You’re at a concert with your best friend, watching your favorite band, when the drummer collapses on stage. The call goes out, “Is there a drummer in the house?” Next thing you know, your buddy has pushed you into the spotlight and there you are playing the drums with your rock star heroes.

This actually happened to one Scot Halpin when he turned up to see his favorite band The Who open their Quadrophenia tour at the 14,000 seater Cow Palace in Daly City, San Francisco, back in November of 1973. Halpin and his buddy arrived twelve hours before the concert was set to begin. They wanted to ensure they had the best seats in the house up near the front of the stage. This was to prove fortuitous for both Halpin and for the band themselves, for an hour into The Who’s gig—during “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in fact—Keith Moon passed out at his drums and was carried off the stage.

The house lights came up. Guitarist Pete Townshend announced:

“We’re just gonna revive our drummer by punching him in the stomach. He’s out cold. I think he’s gone and eaten something he shouldn’t have eaten. It’s your foreign food. The horrible truth is that without him, we aren’t a group.”

There was a thirty-minute intermission while Moon was revived backstage with “a cold shower.” The Who returned to the stage and resumed playing. But not for long. Moon collapsed again and this time he he could not be revived so easily.
 
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Moon the Loon.
 
It was later discovered what had actually transpired: Moon had ingested a massive quantity of veterinary tranquilizers, which he then washed down with his customary bottle or two of brandy. The rest of the band: Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle carried on performing—Daltrey filling-in for Keith’s drums with a tambourine. It wasn’t exactly working. Townshend once more stepped toward the mic and asked:

“Can anybody play the drums? I mean someone good!”

This was the moment when Halpin’s buddy started yelling at the stage crew that yes, his friend was a drummer and boy could he play. Which was true up to a point. Halpin could play but was out of practice as he hadn’t picked up his sticks in nearly a year.

What happened next surprised both band and audience and has become the stuff of legend. Concert promoter, Bill Graham approached Halpin and pulled him up onto the stage.

“Graham just looked at me and said, ‘Can you do it?’ And I said ‘Yes,’ straight out. Townshend and Daltrey look around and they’re as surprised as I am, because Graham put me up there.”

A roadie then gave Halpin a shot of Moon’s brandy.

“Then I got really focused, and Townshend said to me, ‘I’m going to lead you. I’m going to cue you.’”

Townshend introduced him simply as “Scot” and launched into a couple of blues standards “Smokestack Lightning” and “Spoonful.” Halpin acquitted himself well. He kept good time and followed Townshend’s lead. Next up was the Who’s “Naked Eye” which proved far more tricky with its contrasting tempos. Halpin kept his cool and managed a steady beat throughout.
 
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Scot Halpin fills for Moon with The Who.
 
It was the band’s last number. Halpin deservedly took his bow alongside Townshend, Daltrey and Entwistle. Backstage they thanked “...the skinny kid from the audience for stepping to the plate” but who “didn’t hang around long after the show.”

“They were very angry with Keith and sort of fighting among themselves,” Halpin said. “It was the opening date on their ‘Quadrophenia’ tour, and they were saying, ‘Why couldn’t he wait until after the show (if he wanted to get high)?”

Daltrey, who’d begun drinking Jack Daniels from the bottle at that point, told the substitute they’d pay him $1,000 for his efforts, and a roadie gave him a tour jacket on the spot. “Then everyone split,” Halpin said. “My friend and I both had long drives ahead of us, so we loaded up on all the free food that was put out for the band, and we both headed for home.”

In the meantime, someone stole the tour jacket that Halpin had just received as a gift.

Halpin received favorable mention in the next day’s Chronicle review. He received a nice letter from the band but no money - not that it mattered.

The event was commemorated by Rolling Stone magazine who honored Halpin with “Pick-Up Player of the Year 1973.”  Interviewed at the time, Halpin praised The Who’s stamina, saying:

“I only played three numbers and I was dead.”

More on the night Moon the Loon was replaced by a member of the audience, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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04.18.2016
10:02 am
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Neil Peart of Rush walks you through his prodigiously huge stadium rock drum kit
11.13.2014
03:51 pm
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Neil Peart of Rush represents the “gear” end of the great spectrum of drummers. Love him or hate him, his drum kit is famous for having the most pieces of any major band. Peart’s drum kit is the arena rock drum kit par excellence.
 

 
Peart elicits strong feelings from music lovers. In Freaks and Geeks, Mr. Weir, played by Joe Flaherty, somewhat improbably blurts out to Rush fan Nick Andopolis (Jason Segel), “Neil Peart couldn’t drum his way out of a paper bag!”

The flip side of that finds Peart being voted “greatest drummer of all time” by the readers of Consequence of Sound earlier this year.
 

 
Either way, those with less skin in the game will appreciate CBC’s little presentation here of Peart explaining why he has so many goddamn drums. For what it’s worth, he seems like a super nice guy.
 

 
Thank you Roger Gibian!

Posted by Martin Schneider
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11.13.2014
03:51 pm
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Mingus, Monk and more: Portraits of jazz greats painted on drum skins
10.24.2014
08:54 pm
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Thelonious Monk drum skin art by Nicole Di Nardo
Thelonious Monk
 
Twenty-seven-year-old Toronto based artist Nicole Di Nardo says her desire to paint portraiture on drums skins was inspired by “tondos” or “circular” works of art whose origins have been traced as far back to 500 BC in ancient Greece, then were popularized again during the Renaissance in the 14th century and in the 15th century by Sandro Botticelli. Di Nardo gives used drum skins she obtains from the Humber College of Music in Ontario a new life by hand painting images of jazz greats, especially drummers, on skins that have been worn in a way that helps illustrate the musical passion that drove her subjects to create their music. Here’s a little bit more from Di Nardo’s bio on her creative process:
 

I source skins that are beaten to the point of near uselessness by eager young musicians. I then repurpose the skin by selecting it based on its unique design, which corresponds to the portrait I wish to render. I am interested in painting portraits of musicians who have fire in their bellies, those that reach a transcendental state while performing which is reflected in their expression. During these moments, I believe the tarnish of life fades away and the human spirit is evident most clearly.

 
Di Nardo’s subjects also include a few rockers like Janis Joplin and Tom Waits, but it’s her portraits of Charles Mingus, legendary percussionist Max Roach, and modern day timekeeper Questlove that really shine. Di Nardo’s works run around $180 dollars each over at her Etsy store.  Images of Di Nardo’s works follow. Dig it, Daddy-O.
 
Charles Mingus drum art by Nicole Di Nardo
Charles Mingus
 
Max Roach drum art by Nicole Di Nardo
Max Roach
 
Elvin Jones drum art by Nicole Di Nardo
Elvin Jones
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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10.24.2014
08:54 pm
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Rumbling 1965 drum symphony with Ginger Baker and eight session men
09.19.2010
03:44 pm
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Here’s an excellent short rhythm session featuring some of the best British drummers of the ‘60s.

It’s a scene from Gonks Go Beat, a dorky British sci-fi/musical fantasy film from 1965, featuring furry little puppets called Gonks and directed by Robert Hartford-Davis. It basically retells Romeo & Juliet on an Earth that’s been split into the freak-populated Beatland and the more straightlaced Ballad Isle. Shot on chintzy cardboard sets, the film is mostly a showcase for the all-star R&B band the Graham Bond Organisation, which featured the undersung keyboardist/singer Bond backed by a pre-Cream Ginger Baker on drums and Jack Bruce on bass, along with guitarist John McLaughlin.

Here Baker joins Bobby Graham, Alan Grindley, John Kearns, Bobby Richards, Ronnie Verrell, Andy White, Ronnie Stephenson and Arthur Mullard to pound out the jams.

YouTube ‘60s obsessive Alquit4 notes:
 

The late Bobby Graham was a top English session man. He played on thousands of records including early Kinks and Pretty Things hits. The late Ronnie Verrell was the drummer for Animal in the Muppets.
The late Ronnie Stephenson played with many top jazz stars and was also did many pop sessions.
Andy White is best known for playing on the Beatles first single ‘Love Me Do’.

 

 
Get: Gonks Go Beat (1965) [DVD]

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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09.19.2010
03:44 pm
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