I told the kids that when I kick the bucket, open it to the public – free of charge – just to see how many silly things there were down the line from 1966 to now: the journey.”
He added: “I don’t care what happens to it, it’s just great to hear it again.” When Everitt said, “One day … ,” Plant replied: “I don’t know whether there’s a ‘one day’ around the corner, to be honest!”
Plant said the process of arranging his archive was probably a case of “putting my house in order. … All the adventures I’ve ever had with music, tours, album releases, projects that didn’t actually get finished or whatever it is, I just put them, itemized them all and put everything into some semblance of order. ... I told the kids that when I kick the bucket, open it to the public – free of charge – just to see how many silly things there were down the line from 1966 to now: the journey.”
Plant said his collection also included “succinct” notes from Atlantic Records boss Ahmet Ertegun and that the pair had become “great friends” after John Bonham’s death brought Led Zeppelin to an end. One of those notes was a fax sent when Bonham had “won this really serious musician award alongside Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett and stuff like that, in Playboy magazine. … ‘Isn’t it amazing how, despite all the kind of rumpus that was Led Zeppelin, this guy transcended it?’” Plant reflected: “Bonzo went right across everybody’s appreciation of music. You could cut away all the clamor and just listen to how he was contributing his part to what we used to do.”
I was singing R&B very badly and living with the families of bands I was in. I wasn’t earning any money, so ended up tarmacking West Bromwich high street with other musicians walking past going: “Looks like you’re gonna be a big star!”
The Welsh landscape
I was an only child until I was 11, so my childhood was spent in this blissful otherworldly state, cycling with my dad through the Welsh borders, visiting castles and churches. (excerpt from The Guardian, to read the full article click here)
I was lusty to get away from family life, so ran away from home a couple of times and then left home, school and college in quick succession. I was singing R&B very badly and living with the families of bands I was in, such as the Crawling King Snakes or Listen. I cut my first record [Listen’s You Better Run, 1966] for CBS, which felt amazing. I’d met my future wife, Maureen, at a Georgie Fame gig and was working at the Plaza ballrooms in Birmingham. I was the opening act. Then I’d rush off and put on a suit to introduce the top acts. One night, I introduced Little Stevie Wonder, who was the same age as me. He sang I Call It Pretty Music But the Old People Call It the Blues, an explosion of craft, skill and soul. I ended up at all-nighters doing leapers [amphetamines] and jumping around, working behind the Coca-Cola machine and sometimes not sleeping for days.
I wasn’t earning any money, so ended up tarmacking West Bromwich high street with other musicians walking past going: “Looks like you’re gonna be a big star!” Then I went to see [British bluesman] Alexis Korner play in Birmingham. After one song, I asked if I could play harmonica with him, and he said: “Come and see me in the break.” Then it was: “Play me a bit of Sonny Boy [Williamson] … OK, get up in the second half.” Suddenly I became Alexis Korner’s harmonica player, and carried his bag in and out of gigs. I learned so much from him.
Terry [Reid, who turned down Led Zeppelin, recommending Plant instead] was like a brother, and we ended up doing shows together. We’d sing [Donovan’s] Season of the Witch at some debs’ ball in Chelsea and then attack the kitchen. Jimmy Page and [future Led Zeppelin manager] Peter Grant came to see me, by which time I was in Band of Joy with the drummer from the Crawling King Snakes. I’d first met Bonzo at the Plazas when he came up and said: “You’re all right, but you’d be twice as good if you had the best drummer in the world.” I said: “I’ve already got that, who are you?” That became the tone of our friendship all the way through Zeppelin: we loved each other, but would always have a shoulder-to-shoulder.
