Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The Beat of a Different Drummer

I am sad to learn, via the current issue of MOJO, that Scott Halpin passed away last month. Halpin, you may recall, was the lucky 19-year-old fan/audience member who got to sit in with The Who for three songs at a 1973 concert after Keith Moon passed out in a pill induced stupor.

Always wondered how he turned out; nice to know that he had an apparently happy and productive life after his brief encounter with greatness.



I have to admit though that I'm still kind of amazed said encounter is now available on YouTube.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Subbing for Keith Moon is as cool as pinch hitting for Mickey Mantle!

ROTP(lumber)

TJWood said...

I suppose the biggest mystery from this night is how Keith Moon was able to take the stage at all for this concert--and that everything wasn't over for him then. He had to be at least on the sixth of his nine lives at that point.

I'd seen other footage from this show in the past in various Who documentaries, which the YouTube videos are obviously taken from. Not Keith Moon, obviously (who was?) but commendable considering he hadn't played for a year. Our condolences from PowerPop to Mr. Halpin's family. I don't know how much Scott and his friend ended up paying for those tickets, but I would imagine if asked he would have called it a bargain--the best he'd ever had. RIP, Scott.

Cleveland Bob said...

Wow. What a great story. I had never heard of this before now.

Simels is super.

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Man! Yes. What Cleveland bob said. And here I thought I knew something about The Who. Thanks Steve.