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Toute l'histoire concernant ce batteur intérimaire des Who est là, extraitre du site www.quadrophenia.net... Il existe donc une version filmée de cette anecdote incroyable !
WHO'S DRUMMER?
Teen got his 15 minutes of fame
SAM WHITING, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thomas Scot Halpin has the greatest rock concert story of them all. He went to see the Who andended up onstage as the band's drummer.
It was Nov. 20, 1973, at the Cow Palace, opening night of the "Quadrophenia'' tour. That notoriousshow was the last Bay Area performance of the rock opera until this weekend, when the band returnsto perform it in San Jose.
Nobody caught his name, but everybody remembers the skinny kid plucked from the audience toreplace the legendary Keith Moon -- the one-man lunatic fringe who went down that night likeconcrete, passed out at his drum kit.
Halpin, then 19, in low-slung bell-bottoms, tight T-shirt and mod haircut, coolly took the seat of hisidol, picked up the sticks and laid down the beat for three songs. Then he took a bow, arms aroundPete Town shend and Roger Daltrey, as if he had belonged there all along.
"For some reason it keeps coming up,'' says Halpin, who had scalped a ticket to the sold- out show."It's like one of the few times you could play royalty.'' In the documentary "The Who: Thirty Yearsof Maximum R&B,'' singer Daltrey recalled that when Moon collapsed for the second time thatnight, Townshend called out for a substitute. A sea of hands shot up and a line of drummers formedat the stage entrance for auditions.
This doesn't square with the way Halpin remembers it.
Now 42 and a painter, Halpin splits his time between San Francisco and Bloomington, Ind., wherehe was tracked down earlier this month for one more go- round of every teenage garage drummer'sfantasy.
The Who was the most drum- driven band in rock, with Moon an unorthodox showman who didflips and walked on his drums. He would pound the air and contort his face, but he never missed abeat.
Though his playing was erratic that night, a bootleg recording of the show indicates that Moon madeit through 70 minutes and all the Quadrophenia material, including "Bell Boy,'' his drum and vocalshowcase.
Then the band went into "Won't Get Fooled Again.'' Moon reared back to hit his cymbal and wentright off his stool.
`SUDDENLY THEY PULLED THE CORD'
"The guy was completely a locomotive, and then suddenly they pulled the cord. I thought it wasKeith Moon theatrics,'' recalls Halpin, who was watching from the side seats with Mike Danese, ahometown pal from Muscatine, Iowa, who now lives in Lafayette.
Two stagehands picked up the slumping drummer and carried him offstage, feet up. This also wasnot beyond Moon's sense of drama, but then the houselights went on.
Backstage it was determined that he had probably overdosed, possibly on PCP, or angel dust. Aninjection of cortisone got him back onstage after a 20-minute delay, but it wasn't long before he wentdown again.
When Townshend called out, "Can anyone play the drums?'' Halpin and Danese were already at theedge of the stage.
"And my friend starts saying to the security guard, `He can play,' '' Halpin says. In truth, he hadn'tplayed in a year, but that didn't slow the braggart Danese, who made such a commotion thatpromoter Bill Graham appeared. "He just looked at me and said, `Can you do it?' '' Halpin doesn'trecall his answer, but Danese assured Graham that he could.
"The story was that I stepped out from in front of the stage, but that's not what happened,'' Halpinsays. "Townshend and Daltrey look around and they're as surprised as I am,'' he says, "becauseGraham put me up there.''
With a shot of brandy for his nerves, Halpin shook hands with Townshend, then sat down at his firstdrum set since he left Iowa, in front of 13,500 critics. "I get onto the stool. Was it still warm? Whoknows. I'm in complete shock,'' Halpin says. "Then I got really focused, and Townshend said tome, `I'm going to lead you. I'm going to cue you.'
"I'm laying down the beat. They're doing all their `Live at Leeds' kind of stuff, and then I don'tremember what happened. I guess I played a couple more songs. It was such a weird experience.''
The bootleg reveals that Halpin drummed through the traditional "Smokestack Lightning'' and"Naked Eye,'' from "Odds and Sods,'' closing with the anthem "My Generation.'' He wasonstage for about 15 minutes. "I played long enough with them that no one booed and no one threwanything at the stage,'' he says.
PARTYING WITH DALTREY
Afterward he was invited backstage and managed to get Danese back there as well. They wereescorted into a party room, and Daltrey gave him a tour jacket and promised him he'd be paid$1,000. Danese recalls that "Daltrey was drinking Jack Daniel's straight out of the bottle.''
Halpin remembers mostly the buffet table. "We were about the last ones to go,'' he says, "becausewe're eating all this food and tak ing food with us.''
To do so he put down his souvenir tour jacket and sticks, and somebody snatched them. Then hedrove his Volkswagen Beetle back home to Monterey, woke up his girlfriend and told her the story.
He might have passed anonymously into lore, but pop critic John Wasserman put out an all- pointsbulletin in a column titled "Mystery Drummer Into the Breach,'' and the mystery drummerresponded. Then Townshend sent him a thank-you letter from Los Angeles, but it did not contain the$1,000 Daltrey had promised. -- perhaps his memory was clouded by that Jack Daniel. As a result ofhis fame, Halpin got an audition (but no job) with Journey, and Rolling Stone magazine named him"Pick-Up Player of the Year.''
The Who returned in 1976 for a series of shows at Winterland, and Halpin went down there to seeabout some unfinished business.
Again without a ticket, he waited four hours at the limo entrance until he found a way into the show.Afterward, he found Graham, who took him backstage to meet Moon.
The drummer was his old self, changing clothes in front of everyone, blathering nonsense. "He saidsomething, and I couldn't even figure out what it was,'' Halpin says. Like many Who purists,Halpin lost his heart for the band when a drug overdose finally killed Moon in September 1978.
When the Who documentary aired on PBS a few years ago, Halpin got his moment of screen time,though he wasn't mentioned by name. Somewhere in the Bill Graham Presents archives, a video ofthe whole show exists. Halpin would like to see that, to fill in the gaps in his memory. He'd also liketo see the paycheck Daltrey promised him.
"That's $1,000 plus interest,'' he says. "Let's figure it out.''
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Certainement à cause d'un abus de Banga mélangé avec des picorettes...
C'était pas juste une boîte à rythme?
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