KEITH RICHARDS’ idea of rock ’n’ roll used to be crashing cars, injecting heroin in front of groupies and trashing hotel rooms.

On Thursday night he shuffled to the front of the stage at London’s O2 Arena to light up in defiance of the smoking ban.

Hardly the wild man of old. So whatever happened to our legendary misbehaving music stars?

Today’s acts still have a taste for Class A drugs — witness the shambling wrecks that are Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty.

But the over-the-top bizarre behaviour that fascinated millions of fans seems a thing of the past.

Richards puffing a roll-up to wild cheers from the £150 corporate seats — telling fans it contained cotton wool — would have Keith Moon turning in his grave.

The Who’s drummer — known as Moon the Loon — was the undoubted king of the swingers.

He was famous for destroying his drum kit, dressing as a Nazi, blowing up toilets and throwing TV sets out of hotel windows.

But his most famous moment — later immortalised on an Oasis album cover — was when he drove a Rolls-Royce into a hotel swimming pool during The Who’s first US tour in 1967.

Moon was celebrating his birthday drinking with cronies at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, the party culminating with a naked Moon sending the posh motor to a watery grave.

Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne runs Moon close.

Among his excesses were biting the heads off a bat and a dove, snorting a line of ants and trying to kill his wife Sharon after one too many.

But in February 1982 he reached a new low.

Drunk in his hotel room, he grabbed the only clothes he could find — one of his wife’s dresses.

He then decided to visit the Alamo, a US national shrine and, caught short, relieved himself against a wall.

He spent the night in jail and was banned from San Antonio for ten years.

Led Zeppelin were notorious for their insatiable appetite for groupies.

But what took place at Seattle’s Edgewater Inn in 1969 has gone down in rock legend.

The band’s entourage, including drummer John Bonham, discovered they could fish from their hotel room window.

They caught several small sharks and hung them in the wardrobe.

But after tiring of this, they decided to involve a groupie in their antics.

The rumours were that the groupie had sex with one of the sharks.

Years later, road manager Richard Cole was happy to clear up the misunderstanding.

He explained: “It wasn’t a shark, it was a red snapper.

“And it wasn’t some big ritualistic thing; it was in and out and a laugh and the girl wasn’t sobbing — she was a willing participant.”

Elvis Presley was not only the king of rock ’n’ roll but also the king of rock excess.

His favourite snack was the Fool’s Gold Loaf, a speciality of a Denver restaurant — a whole loaf, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of grape jelly and a pound of bacon.

One night, Elvis got the munchies so he rang the restaurant from his Memphis mansion and ordered 22 of the loaves.

He then flew the 877 miles to Colorado with two buddies on his private jet to tuck in before flying back.

Punk also spawned its own rebels.

The Sex Pistols caused national outrage by swearing on teatime TV.

Guitarist Steve Jones called interviewer Bill Grundy a “dirty f*****” and a “f****** rotter”.

The Clash’s Paul Simonon and Topper Headon were arrested for shooting racing pigeons while The Stranglers appeared on stage with strippers.

The last great wild Lead man is Liam Gallagher.

The lead vocalist of Oasis spent ten years drinking, doing drugs and getting into scrapes with the law.

The most notorious was in December 2002, when Gallagher and two other band members began fighting each other in a Munich hotel nightclub.

One fell into a table where five or six large Italians were sitting. They joined in.

The band’s security men came to help.

The police arrived and, possibly in an attempt to restore calm, Gallagher kicked one in the chest.

The fight continued outside, where Gallagher lost two front teeth.

He narrowly escaped a GBH charge and a two-year prison sentence.

To date, he’s been banned from an airline, four hotel chains and Channel ferries.

Sadly, since Gallagher settled into fatherhood, hell-raising has been a dying art.

source: The Sun

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