Keith John Moon was born and raised in Wembley (northwest London) on 23 august 1946.

Keith attended Alperton Secondary Modern School after failing his eleven plus exam, which precluded his attending a grammar school. His art teacher said in a report: "Retarded artistically. Idiotic in other respects"; His music teacher wrote that Moon "has great ability, but must guard against a tendency to show off".
Moon joined his local Sea Cadet Corps band at the age of twelve on the bugle, but found the instrument too difficult to learn and decided to take up drums instead. He was interested in practical jokes and home science kits, with a particular fondness for explosions. On his way home from school Moon would often go to Macari's Music Studio on Ealing Road to practise on the drums there, learning his basic skills on the instrument. He left school at age fourteen, around Easter in 1961. Moon then enrolled at Harrow Technical College; this led to a job as a radio repairman, enabling him to buy his first drum kit.


Moon learned from one of the loudest contemporary drummers: Carlo Little. His early style was influenced by jazz and surf music. His first serious band was the escorts. Then in 1962 he joined The Beachcombers, a cover band.

In April 1964 he auditioned  for the Who as a replacement for Doug Sandom. The Beachcombers continued as a local cover band after his departure.

A commonly-cited (although disputed) story of how Moon joined the Who is that he appeared at a show shortly after Sandom's departure, where a session drummer was used. Dressed in ginger clothes and with his hair dyed ginger (future bandmate Pete Townshend later described him as a "ginger vision"), he claimed to his would-be bandmates that he could play better; he played in the set's second half, nearly demolishing the drum kit in the process. Moon later claimed that he was never formally invited to join the Who permanently; when Ringo Starr asked how he had joined the band, he said he had "just been filling in for the last fifteen years"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBruYbPzxOw

In the video you can apreciate Moon's agressive style in a song (Bell Boy)he wrote for the album Quadrophenia (1973). His style was  unique; however some critics consider he was unable to keep the time.

Moon had a particularly destructive lifestyle. In The Who's early days he started taking amphetamines and he spent lots of time in London's night-clubs, then he beacame drug addict and alcoholic. Once his drug consumption (a mix of tranquilisers and brandy) led him to pass out on stage and eventually being replaced by a fan during the rest of the show. He also was (indeed all the band) pioneer in destroying their instruments in the gigs.

His behaviour caused lots of inconvinients to the band, they got kicked of every hotel they stayed, because Keith would blow up the toilets and they got banned from all Holiday Inn hotels, beacause on 23 August 1967 Keith caused great damages to the hotel and the guests(like destroying a piano, starting a food fight, throwing guests and objects to the swimming pool and driving a Lincoln Continental into the pool).

"If you don't like it, you can fuck off!" were Keith's last words, said to Walter-Lax at Moon's flat. He died because of a mix of a huge dose of clomethiazole and alcohol in his flat in Curzon Place