ON THIS DATE (47 YEARS AGO) September 17, 1967 - For his bands appearance on CBS-TVs Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Keith Moon of the Who rigged his bass drum to explode at the end of their performance of My Generation. But a stagehand packed too much explosive into the drum. As they often did during that period, The Who destroyed their instruments at the conclusion of their performance of My Generation, with the usual addition of mild explosives for light pyrotechnic effect. The piece would end with guitarist Pete Townshend grabbing Tommys guitar and smashing it. On the Smothers Brothers show that night, a small amount of explosive was put into the small cannon that Keith Moon kept in his bass drum. But it didnt go off during the rehearsal. Unbeknownst to Moon, a stage hand had added another explosive before the taping, and later Moon added another charge so that now there were three explosive charges in the cannon instead of one. When Moon detonated it, the explosion was so intense that a piece of cymbal shrapnel cut into Moons arm; Moon is heard moaning in pain toward the end of the piece. Townshend, who had been in front of Moons drums at the time, had his hair singed by the blast; he is seen putting out sparks in his hair before finishing the sketch with a visibly shocked Tommy Smothers. Allegedly, the blast contributed heavily to Townshends long-term hearing loss. The Who
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:50:01 +0000
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