40 Year Itch : Moon the Loon Collapses

Keith Moon feeling better, 1976

    On March 8, 1976 in Boston, on the first night of The Who's North American tour, drummer Keith Moon collapsed on stage just two songs into the concert. It happens at about 6:30 into the video below.  

   A writer for the Boston Globe wrote that Moon “stood up, knocked over a pair of cymbals, careened off his gong, and subsided into the arms of two roadies.”

   In the video, John Entwistle is heard saying "We've got a little bit of a problem. Keith Moon is in very, very bad shape and this is not bullshit really...so we're going to try and work something out."

   

   With that, the band left the stage. Later, Roger Daltrey came back on stage and announced that Moon was really ill and The Who would try to do a makeup concert. The crowd booed. Some yelled "Get another drummer!" ( which is what The Who did at the Cow Palace in 1973). Someone started a small fire. By all accounts, the make up concert was a great one.