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Keith Moon and Cass Elliot died in the same “bad vibrations” apartment
The Mamas & The Papas singer Mama Cass Elliot and The Who drummer Keith Moon died in the same apartment and in the same bed, but 4 years apart. The apartment belonged to the singer Harry Nilsson and was located in the fancy district of Mayfair.
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Nilsson was American and reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s with the hits “Everybody’s Talkin ‘” (1969), “Without You” (1971), and “Coconut” (1972). A Grammy winner, he was one of the rare artists of his era to achieve considerable commercial success without doing major concerts or regular tours.
His two-bedroom apartment was decorated by the company “Ringo or Robin”, drummer Ringo Starr and interior designer Robin Cruikshank. Being located close to Apple Records, the Playboy Club, the Tramp club. Also near the home of friends and other musicians. Nilsson spent long periods in the USA and ended up lending the apartment to numerous musician friends.
Keith Moon and Cass Elliot died in the same apartment that had “bad vibrations”:
Mama Cass Elliot death at Harry Nilsson’s apartment
During one of these absences, singer Cass Elliot from The Mamas & The Papas along with some members of her touring band stayed in the apartment. It was during a season when she was performing solo at the London Palladium. She had the hit “Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore”). After an exhausting performance on the night of July 29, 1974, Elliot was found in one of the bedrooms, lying dead from a heart attack (she was only 32 years old).
Keith Moon death at Harry Nilsson’s apartment
On September 7, 1978, The Who drummer Keith Moon stayed in Harry Nilsson’s apartment, in the same room, after a night out and died at the age of 32 from an overdose of Clometiazole (a sedative known in the treatment of acute alcohol withdrawal symptoms). The night before, Moon and his girlfriend (Annette Walter-Lax) had dinner with Paul and Linda McCartney. They went back to Nilsson’s apartment and slept. Moon woke up at 7:30 in the morning, but went back to bed. At 15:40 in the afternoon, Walter-Lax tried to wake him up and saw that he did not respond. At some point last night or that morning, he took 32 tablets of the medicine).
Nilsson, devastated by the death of another friend in his apartment, decided in 1980 to sell it to Pete Townshend (Moon’s badnmate). After that, he moved permanently to Los Angeles. He declared that he already felt bad vibrations there, from the beginning. When he saw a mirror with an image of a gallows, it gave him a bad feeling (“like a whistle from the cemetery”).
Mayfair (the neighborhood) is in the west area of London. Near the east end of Hyde Park, in the Westminster district. The region is very commercial, with many offices, corporate headquarters, embassies. Also exclusive shopping centers, restaurants. It has the largest concentration of 5-star hotels in the capital. Rentals there are among the most expensive in London (and the world).
