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Keith Moon |
West End | News | Westminster| Who drumming legend | Keith Moon | plaque | English Heritage
ENGLISH Heritage has released a list of suggestions for commemorative blue plaques it has turned down, revealing how proposals to honour The Who guitarist Keith Moon, who died in a flat in Mayfair, were rejected.
Moon was 32 when he died in 1978 from an overdose of medication meant to be treating alcohol withdrawal in a flat in Curzon Street that he had borrowed from his friend Harry Nilsson, the singer.
A panel assembled by English Heritage turned down the application last year on the grounds that his reputation needed to be judged alongside other musicians of his era including fellow band members.
Moon played the drums in The Who, best know for hits such as My Generation and The Kids Are Alright.
His former bandmate Roger Daltrey is reportedly making a biopic of Moon’s life, set to be released next year.
Documents held by English Heritage – seen by the WEE – read: “It is felt that further time should be allowed to pass so he (Moon) can be considered alongside his contemporaries. The panel noted many of his contemporaries, including other members of The Who such as Pete Townshend, were still living.”
The conservation body also refused to fit a tribute at the former Apple recording studios at 3 Savile Row in Mayfair where The Beatles famously gave an open-top performance on the roof.
As they overlooked the West End, the Fab Four belted out their hit Get Back, but the address was not considered significant enough to be fitted with one of the plaques, part of English Heritage’s programme of marking the former homes of notable people who have been dead for at least 20 years.
English Heritage also rejected an application for a plaque to be erected to honour Arthur Koestler, the campaigning journalist who wrote a powerful indictment of General Franco’s terror tactics after he suffered imprisonment and torture during the Spanish Civil War. Koestler died in a flat in Bloomsbury in a suicide pact with his wife Cynthia in 1983.
He was revered for speaking out against the Nazis, nuclear arms and capital punishment, but his glowing reputation changed in 1998 when biographer David Cesarani accused him of assaulting women and raping actress Jill Craigie, wife of former leader of the Labour Party Michael Foot.
Ms Craigie did not report the attack in 1951 because she was worried about negative publicity, the biographer said in his book A Lonely Mind.
English Heritage’s minutes read: “The panel acknowledged the importance of Koestler’s contributions to the field of literature and penal reform, but felt the consideration of the proposal should be deferred for 10 years to allow for the publication of new research and possible reassessment of his controversial reputation.”
Asked on Wednesday whether he thought one of Koestler’s former homes should be honoured, Carl Rollyson, Ms Craigie’s own biographer, said: “No. Koestler wrote on a variety of subjects and his views were controversial, but I assume that it is his treatment of women that is the issue.”
The make-up of individual decision panels has not been revealed, although they normally consist of historians and writers. AN Wilson and Stephen Fry are notable names to have served. The names of people making the suggestions are also anonymised in the minutes.
Tim Robertson, chief executive of The Koestler Trust, said: “We are disappointed that they didn’t go ahead, but we can understand he had a controversial reputation. At the Koestler Trust we are a charity that celebrates the best achievements in the terrible mistakes of people capable of good – so Arthur Koestler is an appropriate figurehead.” |
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