h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Come on h2g2 - why oh why don't we have anything on The Who? Still going after all these years, and with Top-40 chart success across four decades, they must be in the running for third-best band ever (after the Beatles and the Stones - let's not argue, eh?).

Original line-up was Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend (let's focus on the music here, okay?), John Entwistle and the late, great Keith Moon. They *invented* trashing guitars on stage and one band-member died tragically. *That*'s how Rock 'n' Roll they are.

So tell us everything else you know about these musical legends.

Very Loud.

Tommy.

They were the Detours for a bit, then the Who, then the High Numbers, then the Who again. I think. Initially managed by a bloke called Pete Meaden, they were never actually a Mod band, but more a band that was very popular with Mods... Meaden's idea was to market them at that audience - and they were certainly very good at using the old imagery and the Pop Art stuff, particularly in the early days.

Keith Moon turning up for his first gig and tying ropes around pillars in the venue to secure his drums - they asked why, and they soon found out.

I can probably help a bit with this one, I've got the 30 Years of Maximum R & B box set and the sleeve notes are pretty comprehensive. The trouble with me and the Who is that when an extremely good single called 'Dogs' flopped in 1967, Pete Townshend decided to change the direction of the band and that's where they go all rockist and for the main part I kind of lose interest.... never been that keen on concept albums and heavy rock although of course there was still the odd bright spot.



Erm, I don't know if it's true, but there's a story about Keith Moon being knackered and out of his head and wanting to get back into his hotel room on tour, but a roadie was using it to have relations with a groupie, had got loud music on, and wouldn't let him in. So Keith goes down to reception, checks into the room next door, and using just a knife and fork removes some wallpaper from the party wall, and starts chiselling away at the bricks and mortar. It takes hours, but by the morning he's somehow removed enough bricks to make a sufficiently Keith-sized hole, leaving just the wallpaper on the other side of the wall as a barrier. So then he crashes through the wall and frightens the life out of the roadie.

Nice. But probably not true.

There's also the Keith Moon story quoted in Graham Chapman's autobiography.

Keith is playing The Who tapes in a hotel lobby. The manager tells him to turn off "that noise". Keith obtains some form of explosive and sets it off in the hotel, telling the manager, "*That's* noise, mate; this is The Who"

Chapman's 'A Liar's Autobiography' contains a number of Moon anecdotes, which I can't remember at the moment. If anyone takes this Entry on, I'll happily look them up

I might have a go eventually, but I've got my entry on the Jam to get through first... how did Moon and Chapman get to be mates?

A shared love of alcohol

Beyond that, I'm not exactly sure. The Pythons seemed to have various connections with the music biz. - Idle and George Harrison; Chapman (and DNA) and Ringo Starr

I heard on some TV show about the Muppets that Animal, the Muppet drummer, was base on Keith Moon Which is why he is mental and one of my favourite Muppets.

You're not wrong there I remember hearing the same thing on the BBC's 'I Love the Muppets'...

I've never bought a Who record.

However, I do know that there's a story behind the cover of Who's Next. The big concrete monolith they're all standing around or walking away from is reputedly one of the columns holding up the elevated section of the M4. The album was originally released in 1971 though, and to the best of my knowledge the M4 was built a few years earlier than that. No matter - whatever piece of concrete it is, they've all just had a slash up against it... or have they? there are *three* wet marks on the concrete, not four, and only Roger, Keith, and Jon are fiddling with their flies. Pete is standing by the pillar with his head bowed.

Perhaps he can't go if there's anyone watching

Well, er, only one band member died tragically? Now would that be Keith or The Ox because I seem to remember both of them having a fond love for the lighter side of medication.

And I dig the front page being full of Who lyrics

Keith actually died from an overdose of Hemineverin,a drug popular at the time for helping people "dry out" from alcohol dependency.