Snapshots of the Past
| SECRET MILLIONAIRE |  | | | VIEW FROM THE HILL | | | | YOUR HEALTH | | |
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Who-ligans!
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| PARTY: At the Carlton Hotel |
ORIGINAL London Mod Irish Jack - famously Pete Townshend's inspiration for the Quadrophenia album and film - is no stranger to wild nights with The Who.
The wildest though, was after the band's 1981 show at Poole Arts Centre.
Today, Irish Jack hosts public readings of his stories about growing up in '60s London, following the only band "that ever mattered" and the miracle of his own survival.
Here's his version of what happened that fateful night in 1981 as posted on thewho.net.
"The wildest Who post-party that I can recall had nothing to do with the post office. It was an end-of-tour party after we played the Arts Centre in Poole, Dorset in March '81.
"I had brought along a second-generation Mod friend of mine from Cork called Mike Moynihan.
"To this day he is still reeling from the experience of not only seeing The Who but also sitting down drinking with Pete and meeting Roger, John and Kenney Faces drummer Kenney Jones took over the drum stool after Keith Moon's death in 1978.
"The support band were Paul Young and his band Q-Tips. It was the first time I ever met Paul Young and he turned out to be a very nice man.
"However, the rest of the band, I soon discovered after the show when we returned to our hotel, were a bunch of party animals.
"They were very friendly, but quite mad. Because it was an end-of-tour party everybody was expecting High Jinks. But High was not invited, though Jinks did certainly turn up with his perennial namesake Drinks.
"As the party in the Carlton Hotel began to get into swing, John Entwistle smiled at my friend Mike Moynihan and asked if he had remembered to bring an umbrella.
"Mike looked unsure of what he meant and barely five minutes later Mike's head and shoulders were drenched in an avalanche of champagne, squirted around the room courtesy of a Who roadie.
"Somebody turned up the music and the members of Q-Tips displayed a knowledgeable penchant for cutting- edge dance trance.
"In another room, far away from the madness, a team of dedicated engineers' with a dignified respect for the object, quietly removed an elegant Georgian mantelpiece from its fittings.
"There wasn't as much as a single scratch on the antique as three of The Who's roadies displayed amazing finesse in the art of dismantling.
"You might be interested to know that I later wrote a story about that particular evening which I called Pete Townshend And The Cure (no reference to the UK band).
"I actually read it in one of my readings in New York but later dropped it from my set because it was too long.
"The main content of the story was largely to do with Mike Moynihan and Pete when the three of us met up for an early drink the following morning.
"The story goes in another direction entirely. Pete was going through a bad spell at the time and I wrote about this.
"The story ends with a brilliant almost-quote from Mike but rather than spoil the story I won't use it here."
11:19am Tuesday 24th June 2008
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