Friday, May 11th, 1973

The Harrow Observer and Gazette carries an article titled "Keith Mooon knows Harrow well".

Transcript (not verified for accuracy):

 

That'll Be The Day

As the title song "That'll Be The Day" faded away after the film's Press showing last week, the audience headed towards the bar to discuss this reconstruction of the rock 'n' roll era of the fifties with the people behind it.

In the bar cinema managers and Pressmen jostled for drinks and introductions. David Essex, the star, was the centre of attention and David Puttnam, the film's producer, was lost in the mob.

But there, at the end of the bar, looking rather lost, was a denim clad figure of Ray Connolly, Evening Standard journalist and writer of the film.

"The idea came when I went to see David Puttnam and talked about a film" he said hesitantly, "I wrote and rewrote it about six times and we changed it as we went along." Filming took three months, and from the original plan to the time the film went into the cinema had been just over a year, he said.

ooo

One of the film's successes is the acting of Ringo Starr. Originally, said Ray Connolly, he had been cast as the rock 'n' roll singer at the holiday camp (the role now given a great lift by Billy Fury) but then he was asked to take the acting role of Mike, the fairground worker who spends his holidays as a waiter in the camp. Everyone was so impressed with his acting that the role was extended for him.

"That poolroom scene" said Ray Connolly, "was written one evening and filmed the next day." The punchline in the scene is one of the best in the film. "In fact" said its author, "the whole scene was written after we'd got the punchline."

There seemed to be no sign in the bar of Keith Moon, drummer with The Who and the man who supervised the film's music. "I'm told you'll know him from his clothes" a cinema manager told me. Whatever he was expecting, it probably wasn't the young man in the brown three-piece suit who flashed his gap-toothed smile as he arrived.

ooo

Keith Moon remembers Harrow and Wembley well — he went to Harrow Art School (when it was in Station Road). "I was there for about a year, until I decided I preferred music. I lived in Wembley you know." The Who was first "discovered" playing at the Railway Hotel, Wealdstone, "and we used to play Kodak Hall too". At that time they were under a different name ("We were called a lot of names").

The Who wasn't working at the time so they asked me to look after the music for the film. We got together people like Ron Wood, Nilsson, Jack Bruce, Stevie Winwood, Eric Clapton, and a couple of boys from Badfinger and went into a studio. We even had Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper — but you won't hear them on the soundtrack," said Keith Moon.

He even got a cameo role written into the film for him as a drummer backing Billy Fury. He gets to say two lines and works up a quick frenzy on the skins.

Former Harrow Art School student Keith Moon as he appears in the film "That'll Be The Day".