Pete Townshend recalls Keith Moon

Pete Townshend shed some new light on the late Keith Moon's early days with the Who, while posting excerpts from his upcoming autobiography, titled Who He?, on his blog petetownshend-whohe.blogspot.com. He recalled Moon's entry into the band in 1964, writing that, "We tried a few drummers including Mitch Mitchell who went on to play with Jimi Hendrix. But Keith Moon appeared one day at one of our regular dates at the Oldfield Hotel in Greenford and as soon as he began to play we knew we'd found the missing link."

Townshend went on to describe Moon's wildman antics, explaining that, "Keith was an eccentric player, and seemed to be showing off all the time, pointing his sticks up in the air and leaning over the drums with his face thrust forward as if to be nearer the front of stage. But he was loud and strong. Slowly too we realized that his fluid style hid a real talent for listening and following, rather than just laying down a beat."

He went on to describe how Moon, as the new member, interacted with the rest of the band: Roger (Daltrey) tried to befriend Keith, perhaps in an effort to mold him, but Keith was tricky -- and saw Roger's success pulling girls at our gigs as a challenge. They sometimes chased the same girls in these early days, and it was never clear to me who was winning... I'm not sure how Keith saw me in the first few months he was in the band, but I sensed in him yet another challenger to the evolving arty manifesto I was developing for the Who."

Townshend added that it was the band's rhythm section, with Moon on drums and John Entwistle on bass, that struck up an immediate friendship, remembering that, "Keith's main pal in the band was John Entwistle. They were hysterically funny together, and shared an apartment for a while. One got the impression that they did almost everything together, including having sex with girls. It must have been mayhem."

Townshend also posted on his blog that the Who have begun rehearsals for their European tour which kicks off next week, on May 16th in Lisbon, Portugal.
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