Elegant Birthday Party Turns Into Brawl (1976)

 

Elegant Birthday Party Turns Into Brawl

By Patrick Snyder

The Sun Telegram

March 8, 1976

    Actor Oliver Reed threw an elegant party for his brother David's 40th birthday recently at a private suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. But push came to shove when Who drummer Keith Moon (one of Reed's favorite drinking buddies since they met during the making of Tommy) arrived.

     A long table appointed with candelabras and hundreds of dollars' worth of flowers had been set up for the 24 guests. When the maitre d brought the first course, Reed, sitting at one end of the table, leered up at him and said, "Everyone hates this consommé," and Moon chucked his bowl down the table, upsetting one of the candle holders. The maitre d smiled and brought a new one. 

    Multiple toasts were drunk, and Moon threw his glass over his shoulder and down the table. As the food was brought, it quickly became airborne. For entertainment between courses, Keith snatched Ringo Starr's serving plate, held it on his head, and broke it. He broke his own over his own head.

     When the Prime Rib came, Keith picked it up in his hands and began gnawing on it. "I didn't eat," said one of the guests. "There was too much glass flying around."

     After a giant cake was rolled in and a woman jumped out of it, Keith and Oliver rolled around in the debris now covering the floor. The ever-indulgent maitre d finally succumbed when Moon picked up a table, lofted it into the air, and smashed a crystal chandelier, sending sparks cascading from the ceiling.

     The police were called, but Moon had already left, bleeding from various hand cuts. A small price to pay for an evening of fun.

     Now that the Rona Barretts and John J Millers have had their fun with Beatles reunion concert rumors, let's throw in a couple of facts. While promoter Bill Sargent has upped his concert guarantee from $30 million dollars to $50 million, Ringo Starr's lawyer Bruce Grakal said, "He didn't reply to Sargent by the February 20 deadline, and I'm sure no one else has." If the four of them ever got together, it will be because they want to, not because of dollar offers."

     About the report that lawyers for Ringo, John Lennon, and George Harrison would meet in Australia to discuss plans for a concert and a Columbia /Warner Brothers record deal. Grakal said, "I'm not going anywhere." He added that Harrison's attorney, David Braun, "Would leave shortly for Australia, but only to work with fellow client, Neil Diamond, who's touring there." Grakal said he had not been contacted by Columbia or Warner. 

A crazy night at the Rainbow Club

 November 21, 1973

The Hollywood Vampires cira '73

 Micky Dolenz shared this slide recently on social media and I realized that it is one that I do not have in the "uh-oh files."   One can only guess what they are talking about.  

Going out after seeing the Sgt. Pepper play

 

November 17, 1974

Hollywood Vampires strike again

Vampires come out at night

Clubbing with Alice

Everybody in the club gettin' tipsy

John on the Road with Sgt. Pepper

Just a few small articles about some lucky fans that saw John Lennon on the opening night of the Sgt. Pepper on the Road Broadway Play.  I never knew about John throwing the albums into the crowd on opening night.     I located these stories in the Nov/Dec 1974 issue of The Write Thing.   

'©ImageCollect.com/Photo by Robert Fitzgerald/Globe Photos,inc.

 

I’d like to tell you about my brief but exciting encounter with John Lennon.  You know the new play that just opened up in NYC, “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band?”  Well, opening nigh was Sunday, November 17 (1974) so we went up to NYC because we heard that John and Paul were supposed to attend, and we wanted to catch a glimpse of them.  When we got to the Beacon Theatre, there were hundreds of people lined up along the street and around the theatre.  And then the limousines started arriving, and the celebrities started piling in.  Paul never showed, but John did, just as he said he would.   His limousine pulled up, and right away, you could feel the excitement in the air, but the commotion didn’t start until he got out of the car, accompanied by May Pang.  Flash-cubes went off, reporters crowded in, people started screaming and running after him.   In his hand were three albums:  Walls and Bridges, Band on the Run and Ringo. He could barely make it to the door with all the people surrounding him, so that when he was a couple of feet away from the door, he must have just gotten so disgusted with the whole scene, that he took the albums,  and flung them out to the people.   But John had a few surprises up his sleeve.  Inside the albums were free tickets to the opening night of the play.  One man got one of the albums, and inside were 5 tickets.  He was so happy that tears streamed down his face.  If you didn’t know better, you’d swear that it was 1964 again, with all the hysteria going on.  When John finally reached the door, and was safely inside, the cops started shoving everyone past the barricades, and even hit someone over the head with their billy club.  When everything had finally calmed down, guess who arrived?   None other than Yoko Ono!   She looked very nice in her white silk gown and talked to the MC before going in.  Wonder what she was thinking, everyone was yelling, “We want Lennon!”  But alas, to no avail.

--Kathy D.  New Jersey

Let me start off by saying my two friends and I have been trying to meet and get to rap to any one of the “great ones” since they broke up.  Since Beatlefest, we have set goals to seek out all four, either by meeting them somewhere or see them in concert.   Well, we did get lucky.   It was the premiere of the play “Sgt. Pepper.”  Waiting outside, a limousine pulled up and out stepped John Lennon with May Pang.  From that moment on the crowd went crazy just like 1964.  We followed John inside with the rest of the crowd right to his seat.  From then on my friends and I were talking to him, asking for autographs and shaking hands with him.   By the way, the play is excellent, the way the different Beatle songs are blended in with the plot of the play.  If it comes around you, it is worthwhile seeing.  Feeling quite good after that event we really felt he would play with someone in concert soon.   Our request was answered when we heard that for the Thanksgiving Elton John concert John Lennon was to make an appearance and play a couple of songs.  As we waited, about halfway through the concert, Elton John proudly introduced John Lennon.  John started out by playing “Whatever gets you Through the Night” with Elton backing up.  Then John did one song for his “former finance”, meaning Paul McCartney, it was “I saw her standing there,” with Elton backing again on vocals.  Then Elton John came out with his new single, the Lennon-McCartney song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” with John playing backing guitar and vocals.  Finally on one of the encores, John, feeling really good, came back on to sing and play tambourine on “The Bitch is Back.”  It was quite a night!

--Peter P.  New Jersey

the Exorcist and the Genius

Alright....so THIS photo was taken on November 17, 1974!

John and May

Here is a photo that I have posted in the past, only now it doesn't have a watermark and it much larger.

The Lost Weekend....

I bought some fanzines from the mid-late 1970's on ebay that arrived today. They are really interesting to read and I really enjoy them (They are Magical Mystery Tour and PaperBack Writer for those who are interested in those things). It is amazing how Beatle fans keep up with the news and communicated with each other before the Internet age. I am old enough to remember those days, but I have gotten so used to getting my Beatles news online that I have forgotten how things used to be. Anyhow, these fanzines are a bit disappointing in means of fan photos and there aren't any stories, but I did enjoy these photos of John in 1973 at an L.A. bar. They were from the April-May 1977 issue of Magical Mystery Tour and the photo credit is given to Richard Creamer.

John and May Pang 1973-1974

May Pang is one of my all time favorite Beatle girlfriends. Say whatever you want about her, but I think she was very helpful to John during his time of "finding himself" from 1973-1975. I would love ot meet May Pang myself someday.