Rock 'n' Rolls-Royce Phantom: The Who's pool stunt recreated for luxury saloon's 100th birthday
£500k luxury car goes for a dip as British firm celebrates how it became the vehicle of choice for rock stars intent on excess
Readers with any mechanical sympathies may want to look away now, because a £500,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom ended up in the Tinside Lido swimming pool in Plymouth.
However, this wasn’t the climax of a drunken billionaire’s wild night out. In fact, it was actually Rolls-Royce itself which deposited the six-metre long Phantom Extended – a retired prototype destined for recycling – in the pool.
The stunt is part of the British marque’s ongoing celebrations for the Phantom’s 100th birthday, and a tribute to the car’s role in music history over the past century – specifically, the debauchery and excess of rock ‘n’ roll.
The company was inspired by the antics of Keith Moon, the immensely talented and famously destructive drummer for sixties Mod legends The Who. The story goes that during his 21st birthday party, ‘Moon the Loon’, as he was known, drove a Rolls-Royce into the swimming pool of The Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan.
Accounts of the night vary wildly, and it’s possible no car went for a swim, but nevertheless the story has become the stuff of legend. Moon died in 1978, but 23 August 2025 would have been his 79th birthday, so now at least one Rolls-Royce has definitely ended up wet because of him.
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Rolls-Royce used the Tinside Lido not because it was the only place that would shut down its pool on a hot summer day. It was apparently part of the backdrop in a photograph of The Beatles taken in September 1967, when the Fab Four visited while filming for The Magical Mystery Tour.
John Lennon was, of course, one of the Phantom’s most famous owners, and in 1972 he unveiled his psychedelic yellow Phantom V. Countless other music legends have played a role in the car’s history, including Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire, Count Basie, Elvis Presley, Sir Elton John and Snoop Dogg. Today, Rolls-Royce is mentioned in rap and hip hop songs more than any other car brand.
“From the Golden Age of Hollywood to the rise of hip-hop, over the last 100 years, music artists have used Phantom to project their identity and challenge convention,” said Chris Brownridge, CEO of Rolls-Royce. “Their motor cars often became icons in their own right, with a lasting place in the history of modern music.
“This enduring connection reminds us that Rolls-Royce and the extraordinary people who are part of the marque’s story are united by one ambition: to make their presence felt.”
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