Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon [Paperback]

When the young Keith Moon was beating the tar out of his drum-kit in Shepherd's Bush in 1964 it would have been unthinkable that this sparky little mod kid would have been the subject of a door- stopping 500-page biography. But young Keith soon mutated into Moon the Loon and joined the pantheon of legendary rock and roll wild men who lived fast and died young and 500 pages now seems the minimum space needed to cover his many excesses.

Tony Fletcher has drawn heavily on interviews with Moon's wife, his sister and his girlfriend for the last eight years of his life. Oliver Reed, Alice Cooper, and Larry Hagman also have their say and the picture that emerges is of a man whose outrageous antics sprung from an absurdly over- generous personality. The drink, the drugs and the trashed hotel rooms are all splendidly chronicled as is the music. His drug-fuelled demise is not a pretty sight but Moon had always walked the walk and so the fact that, unlike the other members of The Who, he actually did die before he got old, ultimately comes as no surprise. --Nick Wroe. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'Horrific and terrific reading' Q 'As his biographer, Tony Fletcher observes, Keith Moon, legendary drummer with The Who was one of the most flamboyant drummers in rock. Binging on drink and drugs, famously driving his lilac rolls royce into a swimming poo, Moon the Loon was an exploding time-bomb. SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

A biography of Keith Moon, the drummer with the Who, who died in 1978. Information was gathered from friends and family, and associates in the music industry such as Alice Cooper, Jeff Beck, and Kenny Jones, and the author suggests that Moon's substance abuse brought on schizophrenic tendencies.

Brief description of book
Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon is the result of a lifetime both as a Who fan and as a music journalist, the product of my own surprise that no one else had attempted a biography on the man, and in the short term, the outcome of three years spent retracing the steps of his short life steps and tracking down many of his contemporaries. It is written with love and admiration and, after a while, frustration, too. And while it celebrates his contribution as unique musician and inimitable character, it is also, reluctantly, something of a tragedy. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Tony Fletcher has written books on R.E.M and Echo and the Bunnymen and has contributed to magazines, newspapers and television shows all over the world and has worked extensively as a DJ and A&R consultant. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.