Pulled From The Crowd, Scot Halpin Drums With The Who - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Pawpaw"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM you heard Daybreakers play their song Psychedelic Siren and I spoke a little bit about their hometown Muscatine, Iowa. Located in Eastern Central Iowa, the city was formerly known for its busy river port on the mighty Mississippi River. Although the port isn't as busy today, there are still plenty of things to check out in Muscatine. One such attraction is the Muscatine Art Center, which is located in the former Musser Mansion and serves as both a local history museum and a place for artistic expression. One of the highlights of the museum is The Mississippi River Collection which contains various artworks related to the history of the Mississippi River. The museum also appears to have a rotating collection of more modern works pertaining to the environmental and social issues of the area.

Scot and The Who

 

However, when it comes to musical exports, Muscatine is known as the hometown of Scot Halpin, a man that was famously pulled from the audience during a performance by The Who after drummer Keith Moon passed out on stage. The circumstances leading to the situation almost sound like an unlikely work of fiction. Our hero in this story, Scot, was visiting a friend in California when he heard that The Who's first concert in the US was going to be at the nearby Cow Palace in Daly City. Because Scot's buddy only had one ticket to the concert the pair had to show up early and find someone willing to scalp a ticket. After the pair procured a ticket, they made their way to the front of the stage where they eventually noticed a distraught and disorderly Keith Moon losing consciousness multiple times. Scot's pal pushed Scot to the side stage where he was spotted by promoter Bill Graham.

"Graham looked straight at me and said, ’Can you play?’ Next thing I knew Bill Graham took me backstage and turned me over to the drum roadie who sort of prepped me as to the drum setup."

Serendipity at its finest!

You can read more about the incident, along with Scot's recollections, on the Drum Magazine website and there happens to be a video of the event as well. The craziest part of the whole story is that Halpin considered himself more of a stringed instrument guy than a drummer yet he was able to perform on stage in front of a large crowd with zero preparation. Wild stuff.

 

You can listen to this episode's playlist below:

 

Pseudos - Back Door Man Bites The Dust
Akiko Nakamura and The Jaguars - Rainbow-Colored Lake
The Derby-Hatville - Scorched Sand