Amazing Ludwig Drum Co. 1A drumstick used by Keith Moon during The Who’s raucous performance at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival. The stick measures 16.75″ in length and is partially splintered near the upper section, which shows toning from old tape remnants; additionally, the middle of the stick features numerous dents from Moon’s powerful playing. Also included is the very desirable original program for the Monterey Pop Festival, 8.25 x 10.75, 80 pages, which is filled with colorful psychedelic designs and images of the various performers, including: the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Beach Boys, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, Simon and Garfunkel, The Who, Bob Dylan, and others. The drumstick is in very good condition, with signs of use, and cracking to the tip end which shows light stains from once being repaired with old scotch tape; and the program is in fine condition.
Accompanied by a letter of provenance from the original owner, in part: “It was the last day of the festival and I was exhausted. We watched several groups including another performance from Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company...We had slowly worked our way toward the stage in order for me to get a better view of Janis Joplin…After a while, The Who were introduced...They played a few songs that I’d never heard of and then they went into their last song which was ‘My Generation’…it was such an explosive theme and their playing style became utter chaos that the crowd really began to get into it. Keith Moon broke several drumsticks and would throw the broken ones out into the audience. I was about four rows from the front when the band began to go crazy. They stopped playing music and began to generate feedback on their guitars…Several smoke bombs went off and all of a sudden men from backstage came out and started taking the microphones away. No one knew what was going on. The members of the band began to smash their guitars and Keith Moon began to kick and knock down his drums. He grabbed what seemed like hundreds of drumsticks and threw them out into the audience. Most of us ducked to avoid being hit. I dove to the ground and grabbed one of the sticks. It was broken near the top but it was an entire stick, not just a piece of one…in retrospect, I was more afraid than anything else. I’d never seen a band do something like this before and prior to their performance; the groups were rather ‘peaceful’ in nature…I brought the drumstick home and wrapped a piece of scotch tape around the broken part. I kept the stick and the program in an old suitcase for years…Considering it is over 50 years old, it’s in excellent condition, as is the program.”
A seminal festival that kicked off the 1967 'Summer of Love,' the Monterey Pop Festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, and Ravi Shankar, the first large-scale public performance of Janis Joplin, and the introduction of Otis Redding to a white audience. Although the Beatles did not appear (despite rumors), they were supporters of the festival and recommended that the organizers include The Who and Jimi Hendrix Experience in the lineup. Hendrix would famously close out his set by lighting his guitar on fire, which is widely believed to be his method of upstaging The Who; the two acts, well aware of each other's intimidating and crowd-stealing stage shows from their time in England together, flipped a coin to determine who would play first, with The Who ultimately losing the gamble. The influential Monterey International Pop Festival became an inspiration and a template for future music festivals, including Woodstock two years later, with Moon and his band mates leaving an indelible mark not simply on stage, but likewise upon their newfound American fans.
