The Who’s riotous drummer Keith Moon was well-known for his wild behaviour, in particular his trashing of hotel rooms – but one time in Copenhagen he took it up several notches
The infamous tales of The Who and Keith Moon trashing hotel rooms are the stuff of legend.
Hotel owners would likely have held their breath at the sight of the band striding into their lobby, probably warning staff to brace themselves for overtime once the lads checked out. More often than not, these tales involved the group settling into their room, knocking back a few drinks, then proceeding to demolish everything in sight and hurl furniture out the window, leaving behind a bill running into the thousands.
But on one occasion, the band’s notorious drummer and renowned party animal took things to an unprecedented level of chaos.
Moon was famed for his practical jokes and wild behaviour, and no one – not even his regular drinking mate Oliver Reed could rein him in.
Whether he was flinging cake around like a lunatic or driving a Lincoln Continental into a swimming pool, it’s fair to say that “Moon the Loon” relished life on the road.
He had a peculiar fondness for blowing up toilets with explosives, especially cherry bombs and M-80 firecrackers. This odd pastime began when he discovered that a well-positioned explosive could cause a toilet to shatter dramatically.
It became a running gag for Moon, much to the chagrin of hotel staff and management, who were frequently left to deal with the fallout from these explosive antics.
However, one night, in a posh part of Copenhagen, Moon developed a curious interest in the waterbed in his room and concocted a scheme to shift the two-ton monster into the lift.
Recalling the incident on a chat show in 1977, Moon said that he was on the seventh floor of the hotel, and called his own personal boys to inform them of his vision.
Which was essentially to cram the bed into the lift, send it up two floors, and on arrival it would explode.
However, when the team assembled to carry out his plan, they only managed to get the mattress halfway out of the frame it was housed in.
He said it then burst, and revealed that at the time he had been sitting down giving instructions.
“The next thing I know, the water was up to there ( points to ankles),” he shared. “And the next thing the water disappeared, and the ceiling of the room below had given way, and then the ceiling in the room below that went too.”
He added: “So when people say, ‘Keith have you ever smashed up a hotel room’, I say ‘yes, well three in one fell swoop’.”
However, rather than offering his typical nonchalant apology and footing the bill, Moon chose to go on the offensive. He called the hotel manager, insisting that the bed had spontaneously burst, causing a flood that ruined all his pricey stage outfits.
He demanded to know what the manager planned to do about it.
His audacious approach paid off. The manager was so concerned about the prospect of replacing The Who drummer’s lavish wardrobe that he not only apologised but promptly relocated the rock star to the presidential suite.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
