This month, in honor of what would have been his 80th birthday, The Who This Month concentrates on Keith Moon.
Page updated August 1, 2026. This is a highly abridged version of what happened to and around The Who in August. Click for access to the full history.
August 1946
New music (U.S.): "Five Minutes More" - Frank Sinatra; "To Each His Own" - Freddy Martin & His Orchestra; "To Each His Own" - The Ink Spots; "South America, Take It Away" - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
On the 23rd, Keith John Moon is released on an unsuspecting world by Kathleen and Alfred Moon of 224 Tokyngton Avenue, Wembley.
August 1964
New music releases: "Oh, Pretty Woman" - Roy Orbison; "You Really Got Me" - The Kinks; "Fly Me to the Moon" - Frank Sinatra; Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan
On the 8th, Boyfriend magazine does a one-page feature on The High Numbers, naming the members as Roger Daltry (ex-sheet-metal worker), Peter Townsend (ex-art student), John Allison (ex-tax officer) and Keith Moon (ex-trainee salesman). Keith says his ambition is "to be free and do nothing!"
On the 9th, The High Numbers open for Gerry & The Pacemakers at the Hippodrome in Brighton. This is the first of a series of bookings supplied by Arthur Howes that provide the band exposure as they warm up the stage for better-known acts. Howes may have almost immediately regretted supplying the gigs after he enlists the High Numbers to not only play a set of their own but also to provide backup for singer Valerie McCullam. Moon develops a loathing for the singer and buys a toy cymbal to make a loud "plink" at inappropriate points in her act.
August 1966
New music releases: Revolver - The Beatles; Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan; "Reach Out I'll Be There" - Four Tops; "Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby" - The Beatles
The 30th begins two days of recording at IBC Studios and Pye No. 2 Studio in London. During the sessions The Who record The Everly Brothers' "Man with Money," Martha and the Vandellas' "Heatwave", the theme to the then smash hit TV show "Batman," and The Regent's "Barbara Ann," the last with a Keith Moon vocal. The tracks are intended for a new album tentatively titled Jigsaw Puzzle. Kit Lambert produces and Paul Clay engineers. Also around this time, Kit Lambert directs a promotional video, similar to the earlier "Substitute" video, of The Who performing "I'm A Boy."
August 1967
New music releases: "Never My Love" - The Association; Gentle on My Mind - Glen Campbell; The Byrds' Greatest Hits - The Byrds; Album 1700 - Peter, Paul & Mary
The Who catch up with the Herman's Hermits tour at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto (9th) followed by the Civic Center in Baltimore (11th) and the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey (12th). Before that show Keith jumps off a pier into heavy surf and almost drowns.
During the afternoon of the 23rd Keith and The Who are photographed outside the Holiday Inn which is advertising the fact that Keith is this day 21 years old. Keith then stops by WTAC-AM to bring birthday cake to the local DJ's. The Who apparently get into a mood onstage that evening, describing Flint as a "dump" and cursing in front of the attending teenyboppers.
The night that follows the show becomes one of the most famous and notorious nights in The Who's history. Unfortunately the reality doesn't quite match the legend. Premier Drums and Decca Records provide a cake for a celebration of Keith's 21st birthday at the Holiday Inn. The revelries turn into a food fight with the cake and then extends to the parking lot as cars are sprayed with fire extinguisher foam. When a sheriff comes to stop the shenanigans, Keith slips on some of the cake (or, according to Tom Wright, falls off the diving board into an swimming pool surprisingly empty in the middle of August) and knocks out a tooth.
The sheriff takes Keith for emergency dental surgery accompanied by Pete and John. With time and imagination Keith amplifies this story into a full-scale bacchanalia highlighted by his deposit of a Cadillac into the hotel swimming pool and a lifetime ban on The Who's presence in Holiday Inns worldwide (if this happens it is quickly rescinded; The Who will stay at Holiday Inns on their 1968 tour). The only confirmed results are some cars with paint damage, a ruined carpet, and a $5000 bill (or $50,000 depending on the source) paid by Decca as a blanket coverage for damage.
The night of the 24th, a groggy Keith climbs back into the drum seat at the Civic Center Convention Hall in Philadelphia.
August 1968
New music releases: "Hey Jude" - The Beatles; Cheap Thrills - Big Brother & The Holding Company; Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits - Frank Sinatra; "Piece of My Heart" - Big Brother & The Holding Company
On the 6th, The Who are at the Music Hall in Boston. Quill opens. During the show, Jon Rubin shoots silent 8mm color footage of Keith throwing his drums into the crowd. It later appears in the movie The Kids Are Alright.
On the 23rd, The Who are in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma playing the Wedgewood Village Amusement Park. Greg Wells, is sent to pick up the band at Will Rogers World Airport: "Townshend had a recorder and he was real quiet. He was way, way to himself. I guess he had a lot of music going on in his head. Entwistle was a regular guy, Moon was crazy, and Daltrey was carrying a ditty bag. And as he got off the plane we started walking down the concourse and he unzipped the bag and pulled out about a four-foot snake and wrapped it around his wrist and his arm and put his thumb in his pocket and walked out with a snake on his arm. And I guess it was a fashion statement, but it was something he did." As the 23rd is Keith's 22nd birthday, the park owner gives him a cake that he proceeds to tear apart and throw at the audience.
Before the next night at The Amusement Park, Pete asks to meet an American Indian (they pass off an Italian park employee to Pete's unknowing delight) and Wells takes Roger, John and Keith on a tour of the local 7-Elevens where they buy hundreds of dollars worth of junk food.
August 1969
New music releases: "Suspicious Minds" - Elvis Presley; Green River - Creedence Clearwater Revival; Santana - Santana; Blind Faith - Blind Faith
On the 2nd, Keith denies to Record Mirror that he plans to leave The Who.
On the 9th, The Who play their first outdoor show in the U.K. since 1966 at the Plumpton Racecourse in Lewes, Sussex as part of the 9th National Jazz Pop Ballads & Blues Festival. Yes, King Crimson and Roy Harper are among the opening acts. Keith sits in with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band playing drums as "The Lone Arranger." Melody Maker in their review of the festival calls The Who "the most exciting rock band in the world."
Five days after Woodstock, on the 22nd, The Who are back in England performing at the Music Hall in Shrewsbury. Afterwards Keith begins an early celebration of his 23rd birthday and ends up breaking his foot after falling down the stairs.
The Who were to have played at the Grays Festival Marquee in the Brentwood Road, Grays, Essex on the 23rd but they show up only to apologize for having to cancel because of Keith's busted foot.
With a new supply of high-powered painkillers, Keith accompanies The Who to Hamburg, Germany on the 26th for two days of recording a Beat Club television special about the new rock opera, miming to the record over chroma-keyed pinball tables and stills from the Tommy booklet. Pete is also interviewed in English at some depth about the meaning of Tommy.
On the 29th, The Who play the Pavilion in Bournemouth to see if the drugged Keith can still play well enough to earn that Isle of Wight fee.
August 1970
New music releases: "Paranoid" - Black Sabbath; Close To You - The Carpenters; Gold - Neil Diamond; Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Vol. 1 - Elvis Presley
Pete and Keith, along with Ronnie Lane on bass, form the one-off group "Tommy and the Bijoux" recording the backing track for the song "Warm Heart Pastry" for the LP Smiling Men with Bad Reputations by Mike Heron of The Incredible String Band.
On the 29th, The Who make their second appearance at the Isle Of Wight Festival, with one of the greatest ever line-ups including what would be the last performances of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. The promoters envision it as a British version of Woodstock.
In a bad bit of concert scheduling, quiet folk music act Melanie ("Brand New Key") follows The Who. Keith Moon spends an hour talking to her to calm her down and get her ready to perform after hearing she is too nervous to take the stage.
August 1971
New music releases: A Space in Time - Ten Years After; "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" - Joan Baez; "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" - Paul & Linda McCartney; "Superstar" - The Carpenters
On the 14th, Keith appears in a taped performance on Viv Stanshall's BBC Radio One program Radio Flashes. Other Keith appearances occur on the 21st and 28th.
August 1972
New music releases: "Burning Love" - Elvis Presley; "Everybody Plays the Fool" - The Main Ingredient; "Back Stabbers" - O'Jays; "Black & White" - Three Dog Night
On the 13th, Keith flies back to London from Hamburg to film a brief cameo in a warehouse at the Surrey Docks for Ringo Starr's comedy-horror film Count Downe, later retitled Son Of Dracula. Keith is seen miming drums to Harry Nilsson's studio version of "Jump Into the Fire."
August 1973
New music releases: Goat's Head Soup - The Rolling Stones; American Graffiti - Original Soundtrack; (Pronounced 'Leh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) - Lynyrd Skynyrd; Killing Me Softly - Roberta Flack
On the 21st, Keith's radio series A Touch Of The Moon premiers on BBC Radio 1 at 11:02pm.
August 1974
New music releases: So Far - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; "Kung Fu Fighting" - Carl Douglas; Can't Get Enough - Barry White; Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits - Alice Cooper
Pete decides to accompany Eric Clapton on his comeback concert tour of the United States to provide support for the still shaky musician. That bastion of sobriety, Keith Moon, also tags along. The two join Eric onstage at The Omni in Atlanta on the 1st for performances of "Layla," "Baby Don't You Do It" and "Little Queenie." After the show, Keith's new girlfriend Anette Walter-Lax witnesses her first hotel room destruction as Keith remodels a room at the Omni Hotel.
On the 2nd Pete accompanies Eric at the Greensboro, North Carolina Coliseum for "Willie And The Hand Jive" and "Get Ready". Keith joins them for "Layla," "Badge" and "Little Queenie." Then on the 4th they all appear at the Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida and are joined by Joe Walsh. Clapton, Townshend and Walsh perform "Layla" and "Little Queenie" and Keith comes out to sing "I Can't Explain."
After this show, Pete returns to London and Keith and Anette go to the Beverly Wilshire as part of Keith's plan to become a tax exile. Although the British press assume that Keith is another tax exile, Keith says the real reason is that all his friends have now moved to California.
Keith agrees to appear in a UCLA film student's movie for $1,400 in cocaine and a television. He plays a mad professor for a few seconds in the short comedy Sonic Boom. Director Eric Louzil shoots his scenes at the Burbank Court House.
On the 19th, the Harry Nilsson album Pussy Cats, produced by John Lennon and featuring drumming by Keith on some tracks, is released in the U.S. It peaks at #60. The U.K. edition is released on the 30th but does not chart.
On the 23rd, Keith celebrates his 28th birthday at a party at the Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles. Attending are Rod Stewart, Linda Blair, Linda Lovelace, Brian Wilson (barefoot and wearing a bathrobe) and 1500 others. MCA Records gives Keith the suit Robert Redford wore in the movie The Sting. The Stampeders perform, joined at one point by Keith, Jesse Ed Davis, Harry Nilsson, Nikki Barclay and Patti Quatro who perform terrible renditions of "Don't Worry Baby" and "Good Golly Miss Molly" before the hotel management pulls the plug to everyone's relief.
On the 29th, Keith flies back to London for further dubbing work on Tommy: The Movie.
August 1975
New music releases: Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen; "Born to Run" - Bruce Springsteen; The Best of The Statler Bros. - The Statler Brothers; "Walk This Way" - Aerosmith
On the 9th, Keith and Roger are both presenters at the First Annual Rock Music Awards at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Tommy: The Movie receives "Best Rock Movie or Theatrical Production." Keith receives an award on behalf of The Beatles.
On the 14th, Keith Moon joins Eric Clapton on stage at the Los Angeles Forum to play on "Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?" and "Eyesight To The Blind." It is later bootlegged as Stormy Monday Blues.
On the 23rd in New Musical Express, Roy Carr provides the first printed version of the story about Keith lecturing a hotel manager on sonics. It goes like this: Keith is blasting the new Who album on a portable tape player in the lobby of a swank hotel when the manager says, "will you turn off that noise?" Keith switches it off, takes the manager back to his hotel room and has him wait outside while he demolishes the room ending with the blowing of the door off its hinges with a cherry bomb. "That was noise," Keith explains. "This," as he switches the tape player back on, "is The Who."
On the 25th, Keith tapes an appearance on the talk show The Merv Griffin Show at Television City in Los Angeles.
August 1976
New music releases: Boston - Boston; "Dancing Queen" - ABBA; "Rock'N Me" - The Steve Miller Band; This One's For You - Barry Manilow
On the 7th, The Who play The Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida. The promoter screws up the promoting and only 30,000 attend the 80,000 capacity stadium. Naturally, The Who are very angry and it makes for one of their best shows climaxing in a tremendous instrument smashup.
On the 9th, The whirlwind tour winds down at Miami Baseball Stadium, this venue only 200 shy of a sellout. Another show is penciled in at the venue for the 11th, but it has to be cancelled after Keith Moon goes on a drinking and drugging spree ending with his arrest for destroying his hotel room at the Fontainebleau and being found in an incoherent state. Who manager Bill Curbishley bails him out but has Keith immediately put into Hollywood Memorial Hospital in Hollywood, Florida for "psychiatric evaluation." With the extra time, the other members of The Who remain in Miami enjoying the sun and some deep-sea fishing before heading back to London. Keith is released from hospital on the 19th and flies home to Los Angeles.
On the 23rd, Keith turns 30.
August 1977
New music releases: Live - Foghat; The Elvis Presley Story - Elvis Presley; "You Light Up My Life" - Debby Boone; "Blue Bayou" - Linda Ronstadt
On the 8th, filming of The Kids Are Alright resumes at Keith Moon's Malibu, California home. Shot this day is Keith's refusal to tell the truth. "As you want to hear it? You couldn't afford me", Keith in biker gear with a blow-up sex doll and a scene of Keith and Rick Danko of The Band playing cards. The latter sequence is cut out of the movie at the last moment due to a rights issue.
The 9th is taken up with more Keith interviews and the 10th with views of Keith taking in the nightlife of Los Angeles. The crew ends up at The Pleasure Chest, a sex equipment shop, where Keith dons a leather mask and is interviewed while being whipped by Mary Ann Zabresky.
On the 11th, filming takes place at a pre-birthday celebration at Trancas Restaurant and Bar in Malibu. A stripper pops out of a cake and somehow Keith ends up on his back, covered in cake, trying to get his trousers down.
The final day's shooting on the 12th sees Keith wearing a variety of costumes parading up and down the beach followed by a return to his house where Ringo Starr both interviews him and shoots an introduction for the film's trailer.
The shoot goes well except for 'Dougal' Butler who sparks a major row with Keith when he gets a job as a production assistant on the film. Dougal leaves Keith's employ and sees him for the last time.
Late in the month, Keith is videotaped at CBS Studios in Hollywood for Rolling Stone...The Tenth Anniversary special. Keith tells some of his hotel exploits then participates in a sketch in which Steve Martin helps him destroy a hotel room. The latter part also appears in the movie The Kids Are Alright.
August 1978
New music releases: Don't Look Back - Boston; Who Are You - The Who; "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" - Meat Loaf; "Got to Be Real" - Cheryl Lynn
On the 1st, an exhibition of Who memorabilia assembled by Who fans Steve Margo, Peter Johns and "Irish" Jack Lyons opens at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on the Mall in London. Pete and Keith Moon mingle with the fans looking at the exhibits. Accompanying Keith is the 12-year old son of Ringo Starr, Zak Starkey, who is then receiving drumming lessons from Keith. The exhibition runs through August 31st.
While John remains in England to complete the mixes for The Kids Are Alright soundtrack, Pete and Keith fly to New York City. They appear on ABC-TV's Good Morning America, introducing a clip from The Kids Are Alright. Later Pete and Keith tape a two-part interview with Joel Siegel that airs the next day on ABC-TV's Eyewitness News. These are Keith's last television appearances.
Roger, who is in America staying with his in-laws, joins Pete and Keith for an interview that afternoon with Scott Muni at WNEW-FM. Muni remarks that Keith is looking fit. Keith remarks, "Surprising, seeing as how I keep reading all those reports as how I'm supposed to be sort of close to death."
On the 10th, Roger, Pete and Keith arrive separately at Universal Studios, Hollywood for the press launch of their new album Who Are You. The party takes place on the set of the TV show Battlestar Galactica.
In his autobiography, Pete says, "In August I made a serious attempt to connect with Keith in Malibu while playing piano on a recording session there with Rick Danko and Eric Clapton, who were working with Bob Dylan."
Keith has a fight with his girlfriend Anette, so she calls Dr. Geoffrey Dymond to give him a sedative. Dr. Dymond agrees to see Keith as a patient and gives him a prescription for Heminevrin (chlormethiazole), a sedative-hypnotic, anticonvulsant drug used to control alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Although it is not clear what proper procedure was in 1978, this drug is now usually prescribed only in a controlled environment due to the danger of accidental, fatal overdose.
On the 30th, Keith is called in to CTS Studios in Wembley to re-record some of his drumming to cover up mistakes he made during the "Won't Get Fooled Again" section of the movie The Kids Are Alright. Keith is so completely drugged, probably from abuse of Heminevrin tablets, that he doesn't even recognize longtime Who staff member Cy Langston. Keith fails to provide any usable drum recordings during the session. It is the last known time he ever sits behind a drum kit.
August 2000
New music releases: Hotshot - Shaggy; Sing When You're Winning - Robbie Williams; Born to Do It - Craig David; Coyote Ugly soundtrack - Various Artists
On the 6th, the Sunday Mirror reports that Robbie Williams is considering playing Keith Moon in Roger's planned biopic of the late Who drummer.
On the 20th, Roger tells a reporter for the Sacramento Bee that they are still trying to get a good script for the Moon movie and have approached Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid and Nancy) to direct. Cox will write a script with Tod Davies called "Keith Moon Was Here" that Roger will reject. Cox will later post the script on his website.
On the 26th, Channel 4 (U.K.) airs This Is Keith Moon, an hour-long documentary narrated by John Peel. Keith's girlfriend Anette Walter-Lax appears but none of the surviving members of The Who or his ex-wife Kim participate in the program.
August 2001
New music releases: "Chop Suey!" - System of a Down; 8701 - Usher; "U Got It Bad" - Usher; "Whenever, Wherever" - Shakira
On the 22nd, the Japanese Mod group The Cymbals releases an EP called Higher than the Sun featuring a track called "Keith & The Moon".
August 2003
New music releases: Greatest Hits, Vol. II - Alan Jackson; Final Straw - Snow Patrol; "Hey Ya!" - Outkast; Metamorphosis - Hilary Duff
Modern Drummer has Keith Moon as the cover story in remembrance and analysis plus interviews with replacements Kenney Jones and Zak Starkey.
August 2006
New music releases: "Before He Cheats" - Carrie Underwood; Back To Basics - Christina Aguilera; "Rockstar" - Nickleback; "Chelsea Dagger" - The Fratellis
On the 2nd, Keith Moon's ex-wife, Kim Kerrigan Moon McLagen, is killed in a traffic accident in Eastern Travis County, Texas. That same day Moon The Loon, a play written by Chas Early (who plays Keith) and Martin Keady and partially concerned with Keith and Kim's problematic marriage, opens at the Edinburgh Festival.
On the 15th, a 2 CD Deluxe Edition of Two Sides of the Moon is released featuring many of the outtakes from Keith Moon's various attempts at solo recordings.
August 2008
New music releases: The Fame - Lady Gaga; "Sex On Fire" - Kings of Leon; The Script - The Script; "So What" - P!nk
On the 19th, Judith Wills releases a memoir about her days in the early 1970's working for FAB magazine called Keith Moon Stole My Lipstick.
August 2013
New music releases: "All of Me" - John Legend; "Roar" - Katy Perry; "Hold On, We're Going Home" - Drake featuring Majid Jordan; "Wrecking Ball" - Miley Cyrus
On the 9th, Mauro Porcu delivers a hour-long lecture called "Mad on the Moon: La via e l'arte di Keith Moon" at the Centro di Servizi Culturali in Macomer, Sardinia.
August 2016
New music releases: "Side to Side" - Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj; "Let Me Love You" - DJ Snake featuring Justin Bieber; "Blue Ain't Your Color" - Keith Urban; Suicide Squad: The Album - Various Artists
On the 18th, the graphic novel Who Are You? The Life and Death of Keith Moon by Jim McCarthy is published.
August 2018
New music releases: "Sicko Mode" - Travis Scott featuring Drake; "Happier" - Marshmello featuring Bastille; "Moonlight" - XXXTentacion; "Sweet but Psycho" - Ava Max
On the 11th, Roger does a long interview with GQ magazine about Keith Moon and his attempt at making a film of his life: "I think he was possibly autistic, maybe even with a touch of Asperger’s. He had an incredible talent but was completely uncontrollable... finding that actor is not going to be easy because he’ll have to be one hell of an actor. When Keith died he was 32, but he looked 60. He really hammered it. When it came to hammering himself, he was a professional."
On the 28th, clothier Ben Sherman announces a collaboration with the Keith Moon estate, with a collection of seven shirt styles.
August 2021
New Music Releases: "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" - Elton John and Dua Lipa; "Fancy Like" - Walker Hayes; "Family Ties" - Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar; "ABCDEFU" - Gayle
Roger and his son Jamie along with business partners open the Lakedown Brewing Company taproom at Roger’s trout farm in Sussex.
August 19th was the date Roger was to begin a solo tour of the U.S., cancelled because of Covid-19 fears.
On the 24th, The Rolling Stones' drummer Charlie Watts passes away, age 80. Pete writes on Instagram: "Full Moon. Rainbow. Always a sign. Charlie Watts wept at Keith Moon’s funeral. I wish I was capable of such tears today. Instead I just want to say goodbye. Not a rock drummer, a jazz drummer really, and that’s why the Stones swung like the Basie band!! Such a lovely man. God bless his wife and daughter, and I’ll bet the horses will miss him too."
