The night an audience member filled in for Keith Moon (2016) | Hacker News Reader

The night an audience member filled in for Keith Moon (2016)

loudersound.com

186 pointsthunderbong43 comments

The greatest instance like this that I've seen on the internet: https://youtu.be/TjVOWOKa-lY

also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll7lfZZjR4A

but if you want to see something truly mind blowing, here's Danny Carey, quite possibly the greatest living drummer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FssULNGSZIA

RIP Pete Zeldman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69md7aLuo2I

One more, here's 10-y/o Collier doing Enter Sandman w/ them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-NkVcJiqPo

More of these can also be found at https://old.reddit.com/r/CrowdPulledOnStage/top/?t=all.

Pure joy! Thank you for sharing this, what a trip.

"He brought his own pick!"

I was at this show, and it was just as enjoyable as you'd imagine.

Knew this was gonna be Kiss Guy before I even clicked it. Yayo's a legend!

Dude your face is falling off!

Excellent share, thank you!!

This is the first thing I thought of, too! Just amazing.

This reminds me of the amateur hockey goalies that stand in reserve for NHL hockey in the US.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/30/598263399...

Another example. Emergency goalies can also be called in to play against their home team.

https://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2020/2/24/21150841/carolina-hur...

The reason this is needed is that the goalie has tons of specialized equipment (and training) and you can't play without a goalie.

The training is a much bigger deal than the equipment IMHO. The equipment is clearly important and an experienced goalie is going to prefer their specific equipment, but it wouldn't be hard to have a small pile of extra goalie equipment that would fit a range of players.

Not sure about NHL rules, but in youth hockey, you have to start with an equiped goalie, but you could continue without one, although it's not very advisable except in certain circumstances (which is why sometimes teams pull their goalie). In friendly leagues, you can put a 'shooter tutor' on the goal as a goalie replacement, but that doesn't fly in competitive leagues.

Tangential: I can't for the life of me understand why The Who chose Kenney Jones as the replacement drummer after Moon died, and kept him for nearly ten years. While competent, his playing on It's Hard is about as inspiring as a metronome, and if that's the way he played live, it would have really taken away the dynamism that The Who were famous for. Live at Leeds (1970) is one of the most driving, passionate live rock albums ever recorded, and other Moon-era live recordings (check out "Thirty Years of Maximum R&B") underline how important Moon's drumming was to the band.

They would have been better off with this kid.

Yeah I always wondered too. I assume they chose him because they wanted a "peer" from the old days that had its own thing rather than an anonymous player/fan that could replicate Moon's style. Also at this point I guess they were ok with a change in style.

Similar to, for example, Metallica picking Rob Trujillo, Dio in Sabbath or maybe Dave Navarro in Red Hot Chili Peppers.

He's not too bad live, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0RB6A9vak I still miss Keith Moon, though.

True. The online articles all note that he was a peer and friend from the Mod days. And being able to "get along" counts.

OTOH the names you mentioned are arguably brilliant in their own right. I just don't see that spark in Moon's replacement.

For me, Dio really took Sabbath to the next level. The albums they put out together are amazing, and some of my favorite albums to this day.

I was lucky enough to see them in Athens as Heaven and Hell, and it was a once in a lifetime experience.

I like Dio era Sabbath a lot, but it really does feel like a different band in a lot of ways. To some extent that's probably a product of developing musicianship and musical interests among the whole group, but Dio as the frontman definitely is a major vibe change from Ozzy and the sludgy occult warbles of the first few Sabbath albums.

For my money, though - thank God we got both versions. I really like Heaven and Hell and also Dehumanizer had some great tracks. And I wouldn't trade Paranoid or Master of Reality for the world.

I agree with all of that, I just prefer Dio. I definitely wouldn't want War Pigs to not have existed, though, or to not have been sung by Ozzy.

Could it be the case of hiring an uninspiring player so that the surviving members can enjoy the limelight and preserve their existing brand? Think of how, after Bill Berry retired from R.E.M., that band hired various drummers who were supposed to remain quietly in the background, not represent the band in the press, etc.

He replaced Keith moon first on Face Dances, and you’re right, he is nothing more than a metronome.

Keith Moon was a one-of-a-kind drummer. He pushed the drums up from the background to a first-order instrument. He didn’t keep time and didn’t maintain a steady beat.

I recently started teaching myself drums and when I listened carefully to Keith Moon, he doesn’t maintain any semblance of repeatable beat. But it’s beautiful and intimidating and ferocious. I wonder why others haven’t tried to imitate him because it’s so much more interesting than a regular drummer.

From my amateur ear, Moon and Bonham are the only ones who both played match grip but were exceptional and were members of popular bands. Even Peart is a bit of a yawner compared to these two. Compare to all those great drummers not playing match grip, like a dozen including Buddy Rich, Keith Carlock, Steve Gadd, other great jazz drummers, and with the exceptions I mentioned, match grip doesn't hold up as well to my ear.

One more match grip exception would be Tony Thompson, who exemplified why xor decisions suck for just about everything in life.

Oh yeah, Modula2 foundationally rules. Just needed some more iterations.

Good points.

I think Bill Bruford is another exception, matched grip, but IMO he also qualifies as being exceptional and not a yawner! :D

Keith Moon was the first and only drummer I've ever heard that played "lead drums."

Maybe they were ready to have someone that wasn't so volatile.

Probably the most amazing story like this in football (soccer): https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/sep/05/harry-...

A fan complains about a striker during a practice match of top flight team West Ham, coach actually puts him on the field, he ends up scoring.

Unfortunately the article is extremely long.

Wow, reading Pete Townshend’s message for the funeral gave me goosebumps. Thanks for the share!

I very much miss Pete Townshend’s articulate and incisive commentaries on music and society which were more frequent in the press many years ago. I knew this story but not the part where he wrote a message to the family on Scott Halpin’s death, very kindly.

He lives just up from my local, but now closed, record shop, Sleeve Notes, and popped in on the way back from shopping one afternoon to sign copies of the last album and chat with Ken, the owner. Top lad, old Pete. RIP Scott Halpin, immortalised in rock legend.

The Who gave Halpin an official The Who tour jacket after the show. Sadly, I'm told it was stolen from Halpin before he left the Cow Palace.

1. He passed in '08 of natural causes at 54. Set the life insurance to autopay.

2. "On a whim, Halpin’s wife Robyn wrote to Pete Townshend’s office to tell him her husband had passed away. But she was astonished when Townshend replied with a message to be read out at Halpin’s memorial.

“Scott is often in my mind and always with the greatest gratitude and affection,” Townshend wrote. “He showed such youthful courage and humour standing in for Keith Moon that fateful day. Scott played so well too… He played drums brilliantly, smiled and went home…

“I measure my life by great and good people I have occasionally met,” he said finally. “Scott is one of the great and good ones. I worked that out in 30 minutes. That must surely say something about the man.”"

I don't know if Townshend wrote that or not but what a marvelous sentiment to convey to a widow.

Here's a similar story from 1974, from the opera world, about an audience member finishing off a performance of Carmina Burana at the Proms after baritone Thomas Allen fainted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJAdGvFNncU

This story never gets old. It's a lot like the SR-71 air traffic control, and the battleship arguing with a lighthouse stories.They never get old.

T. Scot Halpin [not Scott!] was also a talented artist.

I roast my own coffee, and several years I saw print 1/50 of "Coffee Cup Angel X 4" on eBay. Of course I immediately bought it and it is in my wall now:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8pXdxf7e7isK9DqB9

It's not a great photo of the piece - the lighting isn't perfect - but zoom in and you will get the idea.

This is in my home office where I can see it as I work. I smile every time I see the four angels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scot_Halpin

That’s an incredible story, thanks for sharing it!

Agreed, perfect Sunday HN material.

See also Thiago Silva ft 'Dave' https://youtu.be/e1vlLJCr9Lo

We had something similar in London recently. A pub band was covering Green Day when Billy Jo walked in to the pub and decided to to go up on stage and sing his own song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhmrRqaM1s0

I hadn't heard about the end there, when Pete wrote a note for his widow to be read at his funeral. That's really touching.

Why does this website prompt Chrome to send me notifications? What the fuck sort of spam bullshit is this.

One need not be The Star; the key thing is to be qualified to stand by, as related in this anecdote.

Guess the old chestnut about talent being everywhere but not opportunity is true

the irony this and the central tenet of Baba O'Riley is palpable

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