28 Nov 06
Continental stayed on dry land
Keith once bragged he'd driven a Lincoln Continental into a Holiday Inn swimming pool during his 21st birthday party in Flint, Michigan. But the story, which helped cement his 'Moon the Loon' reputation, is almost certainly untrue. And contrary to myth, Moon's Rolls never ended up in his swimming pool (although he did once back it into his garden pond for a publicity picture).
'Never happened,' insists Dougal. 'But it's still selling Keith today. Look at Oasis; they put it on their album cover.'
A 1974 move to Los Angeles led to a tsunami of reckless spending. Moon blew £350,000 building a beach house next to Steve McQueen's place, and then promptly bought an exclusive Cartier Lincoln Continental paid for with dollars stuffed in a suitcase.
Unsurprisingly, Moon was soon utterly broke. But his cashflow crisis didn't stop him trying to buy a vintage Rolls, once the property of General Franco, hired for the sleeve photo shoot for Keith's 1975 solo album Two Sides of the Moon.
'He didn't have the money to buy a packet of nuts at the time,' says Dougal.
With girlfriend Annette Walter-Lax
Always fond of dressing up, Moon also had taken to impersonating Nazis with disturbing regularity. So an Excalibur - a 70s interpretation of a 30s Mercedes Sports Tourer - was his next buy. Just weeks later he upgraded, buying Liberace's Excalibur; a diamante-studded monstrosity the piano player drove onstage in Las Vegas.
'I thought: "'Kin 'ell! I've got to drive this!'" says Dougal.
When he finally walked out of Keith's LA house for the last time, tired of the cocaine and cronies and exasperated by Keith's spiralling alcoholic self-destruction, Steve McQueen was standing outside.
'Lovely guy. He shook my hand and wished me well,' recalls Dougal, who now works in television, supplying location trailers for shows including Midsomer Murders.
Less than nine months later, 'Moonie' was dead at just 32 years old. And for Dougal, the decade-long rollercoaster of creative mischief he describes as 'an amazing, enlightening journey' was over.
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