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Mr Moore in his younger days. |
Hellraiser who stole girl from a Rolling Stone dies
Daughter’s tribute to ‘Guru’ who ‘lived 3 lifetimes’ with legends of the Sixties
ROBERT Moore, known to friends as “The Guru of Kentish Town”, made his final journey dressed in one of his favourite pieces of clothing.
His coffin was taken in a motorcycle sidecar to East Finchley Crematorium last Wednesday where he was cremated wearing a T-shirt of Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
It was a fitting end for Mr Moore, a man who raised hell with the legendary Keith Moon, stole one of the Rolling Stones’ girlfriends and even worked as the Duke of Devonshire’s manservant.
He died last month at the age of 59 after a four-year battle with Korsakoff’s Syndrome, a brain disorder which causes memory loss and physical impairment.
His daughter Jessica Moore said: “He was my hero, the most astute and intuitive person I’ve ever met.
“I never had to put a face on for him. I hope that all fathers can be as honest and as open as my father was.”
Mr Moore was born in Toxteth, a deprived area of Liverpool. His mother was a factory worker who moonlighted as a nightclub singer; he only met his father, a ship’s captain, once.
Mr Moore left school aged 10 to train as a printer’s apprentice before coming down to London at 15 as a bassist with rock band The Fruit Eating Bears.
In the Sixties he drifted away from playing music to become, in the words of his daughter, “a purveyor of fine powders and potions – occasionally flying below the radar of the law”.
He was with The Who drummer Keith Moon the night he crashed his Rolls Royce in Soho and got out naked except for a pair of cowboy boots.
Mr Moore’ s first wife was Catherine Violet Maud Tweedie, an Irish fashion model whom he wooed away from Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones guitarist.
They lived a scattershot, bohemian lifestyle, staying in communes and moving from town to town. When Jessica was born the family was so poor an open chest of drawers made do for a cot.
Catherine was a cordon bleu cook and they eked a living blagging work with wealthy families. For several years Mr Moore was the gentleman’s gentleman for the Duke of Devonshire.
The marriage broke down after 10 years and Mr Moore moved into Una House in Prince of Wales Road, where he was to remain until his death.
He resumed lithography, working for the Print in Time shop in Fortess Road, where he handprinted the first editions of Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van.
He moved to another printers in Camden Road before technology forced his redundancy.
“Computers took over his job,” said Jessisa. “It was a fact that never failed to piss him off – that a trained, skilled artist could be replaced by a hunk of plastic.”
“In his life he lived three lifetimes. Keith Richards is probably the only person who has lived better. It was either that or the heavy metal from the printing which got him in the end. But he never got old. Right to the end, he rocked.” |
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