16 Jun 2019
‘Dougal’ Butler, my life and times working for Keith Moon
For six years in the 1970s Peter ‘Dougal’ Butler worked for Keith Moon as his personal assistant. Or to be a little more precise, Dougal was Keith’s personal assistant, his butler, his nurse, his housekeeper, his man servant, chauffeur, batman, chamberlain and steward, co-conspirator, calming influence, valet and old retainer.
Dougal’s stories about his time with Keith are legendary. He began working for The Who as an 18-year-old Mod back in the mid-60s and after a stint as Who roadie and then chauffeur to John Entwistle, he begin working directly for Keith in September 1971.
And now Dougal is on the road himself giving a series of talks and kicking off with an appearance on Thursday 20th June at the Palace Drum Clinic in the Studio at the Palace Theatre in Redditch, Worcestershire. Tickets are £10 and the evening kicks off at 7.30pm. Tickets and further details can be found here.
It promises to be a really great night. Here’s Dougal and Keith in 1977.
And this, believe it or not, is Keith as a mad professor (left) with Dougal at the UCLA Film School in Los Angeles in 1977. What on earth were they up to? Well, you can find out on Thursday at the Palace Drum Clinic.
PS: If you can’t make it to Dougal’s talk in Redditch, we interviewed him for thewho.com back in 2016 at the Crown & Cushion, Keith’s old hotel in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and the interview can be found in the fan club section of this site.
I went to watch Dougal talk in Redditch (a place where I used to teach) and had a wonderful evening. At first I questioned why Redditch but was then informed of its rich drum history with the mighty John Bonham coming from there. A fact Dougal had to point out to me, I taught there for so long and he had to point out the tribute slab to him in town!
The talk was excellent and Keith Moon was the main subject obviously. So great to hear tales from someone that was there with Keith for many of those legendary tales! Others were discussed as well though and great names such as John Lennon, John Bonham and Steve McQueen were thrown into the conversation.
Dougal was such a top man and a real legend who had time for everyone. I saw him talk to everyone in the crowd at different points as he made a huge effort to talk to all, young and old. After he invited me and others to have a few drinks in the local Wetherspoons. In years gone past I’m sure these would have been stronger but we all enjoyed cola or a cup of tea. Rock N’ Roll ha ha!
I’d love to meet Dougal again as I suddenly thought of about 400 questions I wished I’d asked him about Keith and the whole scene. As is the way you leave and think I wish I’d asked that and that. I would go see him do further talks again in a heart beat as he must have millions of more wonderful tales that I could listen to all night.
Thanks for the signed book Dougal (I was lucky enough to win the raffle), the cup of tea, the conversations and a really top night.
Ps. well done to the really pleasant guys at the drum clinic Redditch who put the talk on.