Rolls-Royce is celebrating the 100th birthday of the Phantom, a model that was first created in 1925, built around the company’s legendary whisper-quiet 7.7-litre straight-six engine. Now, in 2025, we’re on the eighth generation of the Phantom – these days powered by a twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre V12 – and to celebrate, Rolls-Royce has sunk one of them.

What? Like, torpedoed it at sea?

No. You see, to mark the Phantom’s century, Rolls decided that rather than just have a parade of classic models, or some big bash at a fancy hotel, it would pay homage to the Phantom’s deep and indelible association with musical success and excess.

Specifically, it has taken a brand-new Phantom (a pre-production prototype which was destined anyway for the scrapper) and dunked it into the beautiful blue waters of the Tinside Lido outdoor swimming pool, in Plymouth on the south coast of England.

Not being thick or anything, but why?

Because it’s a very special day. The 23rd of August would have been the 79th birthday of infamous, legendary, mad-as-a-hatter drummer for The Who, Keith Moon.

Moon famously drove a Rolls Phantom into the swimming pool of a hotel amidst a drunken night out (Or did he? Reports differ – it may have been a Lincoln Continental, and it may not have happened at all, but it’s the legend that counts…) and so Rolls has decided to recreate the moment as a way of marking the Phantom’s involvement throughout 20th and 21st century music.

Oasis recreated the moment, albeit with a Silver Shadow, for the cover of their Be Here Now album.

Has the Phantom been producing albums on the side?

No, but a Phantom has almost always been there at the biggest musical moments. Go back to the great Marlene Deitrich, star of stage and screen, being presented with a brand-new Phantom I when she arrived at Paramount Studios in the 1920s.

Or what about Elvis Presley’s bespoke Phantom V with such eccentric fixtures as a microphone, a writing pad in the rear armrest, along with a mirror and clothes brush?

John Lennon celebrated the outrageous success of The Beatle’s A Hard Day’s Night by ordering a Phantom V himself, but this one was painted in a lurid yellow, with none-more-psychedelic floral motifs down the side.

Inside, there was a cocktail cabinet and a television, as well as a refrigerator in the boot. Later, Lennon traded that in for a plain white Phantom, complete with a sunroof, Philips turntable, eight-track player, telephone and television. That car appeared on screen in the Beatles film Let It Be, as well as Performance, which starred Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.

Who else has had Phantoms?

Almost everyone. How about Liberace? He had a Phantom V covered in tiny mirror pieces that he would use to drive on stage during his long-running residency at the Las Vegas Hilton, something recreated for the Michael Douglas-starring Behind The Candelabra film version of Liberace’s life.

Then there was Elton John, who swapped the Phantom VI he was being driven in to a gig in Manchester for a brand new one, spied in a dealer’s window as he motored past.

Elton also owned a Phantom V, which he later gave to his percussionist, Ray Cooper, as a payment for a tour of Russia when the Soviets tried to pay Elton in coal, not cash (yes, really). Cooper, as it happened, used to give lifts to and from school in that very car to a family friend, named Damon Albarn…

And more recently?

Phantoms, especially the Phantom VII and VIII, as built under BMW ownership at Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood factory, have been cropping up all over the modern music scene, such as with Pharrell Williams and Snoop Dogg in the video for Drop It Like It’s Hot.

50 Cent and L’il Wayne have also been Phantom enthusiasts, and that’s without mentioning the music moguls behind the scenes, who were driving Phantoms over the years, such as Brian Epstein (The Beatles’ manager) and the famed Berry Gordy, the genius behind Motown Records.