Keith Moon

According to Wikipedia, Keith Moon and his partner of three years, Swedish model Annette Walter–Lax, were guests of Paul and Linda McCartney at a preview of a film (The Buddy Holly Story) on the evening of 6 September 1978. After dining with the McCartneys at Peppermint Park in Covent Garden, Moon and Walter–Lax returned to their flat. He began to watch a video (The Abominable Dr. Phibes), but fell asleep, "zonked by a combination of pills, wine and the late hour."

He woke in the morning, and asked Walter–Lax to cook him a breakfast of steak and eggs. When she complained at being asked to get up in order to cook another meal, Moon snapped, "If you don't like it, you can fuck off!" These were his last reported words.

Walter–Lax cooked the breakfast; Moon ate it, along with some clomethiazole tablets (brand name Heminevrin), and they both went back to sleep. That afternoon, when Walter–Lax tried to wake Moon, she discovered that he was dead.

As well as Wikipedia, this article borrows material from an article in the Telegraph (published in 2001 and archived on the Wayback Machine). This names as a source a 1998 biography by Tony Fletcher, entitled Dear Boy: the Life of Keith Moon.

© Haydn Thompson 2023