"They think I'm a juicehead."
Drinking in Oliver Reed. Part 2
Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith is a reader-supported publication, with a Midweek Update full of news and recommendations, and a longer weekend post. Midweek posts are free. This interview is the second in a series ‘From the Keith Moon Archives,’ digging into the transcripts and back stories from the many incredible conversations I conducted for my 1998 biography Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon (a.k.a. Moon: The Life & Death of a Rock Legend in the USA), and follows on from my Alice Cooper interview and an extract from the biography. This particular Oliver Reed interview is for paid subscribers only, though a preview follows below for everyone. Subscriptions start at just $5 a month.
Part 1 of the interview - "I'm not THAT f***ing old, you know": Drinking In Oliver Reed - is here. If you have not read it yet, I suggest that you do, for the setting of our discussion. And also for the back story of how Oliver Reed, who at the time he was cast in Tommy in 1974 was one of the top British actors, and additionally successful in Hollywood (although already with a reputation for being a “hellraiser”) met Keith Moon, and for the friendship they immediately developed.
We pick up the conversation where that part left off, with Oliver offering to tell me tale of how Keith got him banned - and saddled with the bill - after Reed threw his brother a 40th birthday party at the Beverley Wilshire Hotel.
Oliver Reed: I'd just finished this film with Lee Marvin (The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday), and I thought I'd give my brother a wonderful surprise 40th birthday. I said, ‘Come across.’ I knew that Moon was in town, but it was after Pie In The Face (see part 1). So I invited some people that I knew. And Keith said, ‘Can I invite Ringo?’ and people like that. I said, Of course! I went to see people and they said what colour tablecloths and dinnerware, and I said, ‘Just do whatever you think we need to do it properly.’ ‘Would you like a bar?’ I said ‘Not downstairs, but we’ll have a bar upstairs in the room next to the dinner party’ - it was a secret. I sat downstairs at the El Pedrino bar, that's where Moonie sat in Ed Harris's booth (from part 1), because that's where I used to drink in those days. I didn't drink at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills because it was a little bit too theatrical for me. It was a little bit too much.
Anyway, it’s 10 o’clock, my brother David is here, I said to him, “Terribly sorry, I know a wonderful Greek restaurant we can go to, I’ve got five people, let’s get pissed here before we go down there, I know it’s your birthday but I hadn’t thought about it, I just thought you’d like to see Los Angeles.” And he looks next door and says 'Isn't that Ringo there?' and I said ‘probably is.’ 'Isn't that Moonie there?' I said ‘Yes, let’s get on to this Greek restaurant.’
I'd always heard about these girls jumping out of cakes, but I'd never seen one. So I got this girl who volunteered to jump out of the cake and introduced her to my brother beforehand at the cocktail party, and there was Keith rolling his eyes, he couldn't wait, couldn't WAIT! So they said, ‘Right we're going to serve dinner,’ and the girl next to David who was going to jump out of the cake… everything went fine, and I got a sign from the man and went into the kitchen, and Moon was up like a rat out of a drainpipe, and we went into the kitchen, and there was the girl that my brother had just been talking to very politely, took her clothes off… We had to do this very very quickly so that we wouldn't be missed, so when Moon got up, I said "I'd better just go up after him, just in case." And we went in and helped the chef. And the girl undressed and went into the cake. And the chefs helped ice her in.
We went back and sat down. The cake was dragged down, this huge great cake with 40 candles on it, and then boom! Up came the girl out of the cake, this naked girl, with her boobies hanging out of the top tier, and she said to my brother 'Surprise surprise!' (Reed imitates the girl with a Marilyn Monroe-like accent, laughing at the memory). And with that Keith picked up a bun or a bread roll and threw it at the girl. (But now he sounds surprised.) And with that the man that I used to travel with, his wife picked up a bread roll and threw it at her husband, and then the husband threw one at somebody else and then they all started throwing bread rolls about the place. And whatever was on the table. The girls screamed... Moonie then got up and started grabbing aJI the tablecloths - the pink ones that I'd ordered to go with the pink crockery -- and dragged them off the tables. All the crockery went up in the air. he then went and jumped on the table and he got these pink chairs and started smashing the chandeliers, and I just dived at him and dragged him across, the waiters were going crazy, I got him out through the door, into the kitchens... and he had gone completely berserk.
-Had you seen him go like that before?
Never never never.
-Have you any idea why he did that?
I would have thought he'd had some drugs. And he'd cut himself. He'd cut his hand. So I held it above his heart so my brother, who was always very efficient, called the ambulance. I was holding his hand above his heart, he was on the floor and someone was keeping his head down and his mouth shut. And then the ambulance fellows came in, gave him a jab, calmed him down and took him to hospital. After which I went back upstairs.