(Gibson) On this day in 1976, Keith Moon played his last show with The Who at the end of a North American tour at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto. On September 7, 1978, Moon died from an overdose of the sedative Heminevrin, which had been prescribed to prevent seizures induced by alcohol withdrawal. Gibson takes a look back: Back in the mid-to-late-'60s, Keith Moon gained fame and fortune as the exuberant and innovative drummer for the English rock band, The Who. Moon's off-stage antics also brought him a truckload of well-deserved notoriety, too, which earned him the nickname "Moon the Loon". But despite all of his antics and tomfoolery (including his prodigious talent for blowing up hotel toilets with explosives), there is no questioning Moon's lofty perch in the pantheon of rock and roll drummers; he was simply one of the greatest and most dynamic rock and roll drummers of all time.
Born Keith John Moon on August 23, 1946, Moon grew up in Wembley, London and was drawn to music very early in life. He was a restless child with a wildly fluctuation attention span, and music seemed to be the only thing capable of holding his attention for any substantial amount of time. One of Moon's secondary school teachers went so far as to remark that he was "retarded artistically. Idiotic in other respects." There were, however, other educators who saw Moon's natural musical gifts and did their best to nurture his love of music. One even wrote that Moon "…has great ability but must guard against a tendency to show off."
Moon started playing the drums after his father bought him a drum kit when he was 14. Soon after he joined his first real band, The Escorts, then moved on to The Beachcombers, a London-based cover band fond of playing Cliff Richard songs. more on this story
