MORE than four decades after he “packed it all in”, a rocker who played alongside legendary drummer Keith Moon is performing again – aged 69.

Rhythm guitarist John Schollar, of Ferndown, might be one of the oldest rockers in town, but he’s still pleasing the crowds with his new band Beyond Redemption, which formed in January.

Now semi-retired John has come full circle from his first music career in the early 1960s, when he was playing with Keith Moon, who was then just 16, in the Beachcombers.

But when the teenager, who would soon shoot to stardom with The Who, left the band after two years John gave up too.

He said: “I didn’t think I’d ever play again. The band wasn’t the same without him. I just packed it in. He was such a funny guy – you never knew what was going to happen next with him.”

The pair remained firm friends until Keith’s death in 1978, but John said he couldn’t keep up with his hell-raising friend as he settled down to a more conventional family life and an engineering career.

He added: “It was just manic. I couldn’t do it. We went to a club once and Keith had a jug of brandy and Mateus Rose and we all had to drink it – he was very into excess. I felt awful in the morning!”

John’s new bandmates, Steven Brown, Ralph Moore, Trevor Watson and Craig Shafer, the youngest of whom is in his 40s, are perhaps more sedate, but on stage they deliver a rip-roaring set including songs by The Who, The Rolling Stones, Queen and Whitesnake among others.

They can next be seen in The Lord Nelson on Poole Quay on Sunday, September 6.