John Bonham

by Mick Bonham

  “I rang Jimmy when I read he was going to form a new band, because I was doing sessions at the time, and I asked him if he needed a bass player. He told me he was going up to Birmingham to see a singer who knows a drummer and that we might have a band by the time he gets back,” he recalls of how he finally jumped aboard the Zeppelin express. “When he got back he rang me to say that John was playing with Tim Rose, and at that time, I think, he was making either £100 a week; or was it £40? Anyway, could we top it? John didn’t really want to leave Rosy because he thought it was steady work so it took a lot of time and trouble to get him to leave.

  “The first time I ever met John was in a tiny basement room we had rented in Lyle Street. We just had loads of amps and speaker cabs there that had been begged, borrowed or stolen and it was literally, ‘This is Robert, this is John’.

  ‘How do you do? What shall we do now?’

  ‘What do you know?’

  “I’d said I’d been playing sessions and knew nothing at all so Page just said, ‘Well I don’t know, do you know any Yardbirds songs?’ And we went with ‘Train Kept A Rollin’ in E, and he counted us in and there was like this instant explosion and an instant recognition that this would be a really good outfit to be with. The first thing to strike me about Bonzo was his confidence, and you know he was a real cocky bugger in those days. Still, you have to be to play like that. It was great, instant concentration. He wasn’t showing off, but was just aware of what he could do. He was just rock solid.”

  I had to jump in here and tell Jonesy what Tim had told me about John’s timing being erratic in the early days. What did he think? “I never saw John play with Tim, but I suggest you look elsewhere in that band for poor timing. John was rock solid and because drummers and bass players have to work so closely together you soon get to recognise each other’s ability. You soon know if you’ve got a duffer onboard. When you’re young and come up through the bands you know immediately, well he’s not up to much or my God, I can’t work with this bloke. With Bonzo and I, we just listened to each other rather than look at each other and we knew immediately because we were so solid. From the first count in we were absolutely together.

  “I must have still been doing some arrangements or had some other commitments left over because, after a short break at rehearsal at Page’s house by the river in Pangbourne, I had to go back and finish off a PJ Proby record which I had already done the arrangements for. So to keep the coffers full (because no one was earning any money), I booked all of us onto the session. I told them, ‘You know Jimmy and I have this great new drummer you ought to have’, and I even got Percy in on tambourine just so he wouldn’t feel left out. So our first professional engagement was that PJ Proby record.

  “We knew straight away it was going to be good and we would become a great rhythm section. Plus John wasn’t influenced by other rock bands. Neither of us really listened to other rock bands. Maybe John did a bit with the Brum bands and he liked The Beatles, but he was more into soul music and loved songs. Funnily enough, I was at the hairdressers this morning when one of the old Delphonics songs came on the radio and I thought of him, as it was a song he used to like. Actually all the best drummers listen to the lyrics, believe it or not, and he always listened to the lyrics. Bonzo would play Beatles songs and many other songs and sing and play drums because all the phrasing has to do with the lyrics. If you ever need to know the words to a song ask the drummer. We also had a love for James Brown and soul music in general. I don’t really like rock drummers because they’re all a but ‘tippy tappy’ with nothing really ‘booty’ underneath and no real understanding of what James Brown called ‘The One’. Bonzo did.”

  Jonesy and I chatted for a long time that afternoon and he told me many funny stories about John and the time they had together, which will appear later on in the book as to fit in with the time they happened. When we arrived back at the office, he had to busy himself signing photos, so sheepishly I asked if I could have one. This he did then put it straight into an envelope. We said our goodbyes then I set off back down Ladbroke Grove. As I walked along the road I took out the photo to have a quick look and was moved by what he had written:

  To Mick

  Do the lad proud…

  John Paul Jones

  Three weeks after that initial meeting the boys left this country and headed for Scandinavia, where on the 14 September 1968, and performing under the name The New Yardbirds, Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham took to the stage for the first time. They were away for just over a week playing in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, before hurrying home to record their first album. Time was of the essence as their first UK tour was due to kick off at Surrey University on 15 October, so it was off to Olympic Studios in Barnes, Surrey to record what was basically the playlist from Scandinavia plus a couple of new numbers. The album was produced by Jimmy with help from Glyn Johns, a young rock engineer who had worked with Jimmy on several occasions.

  ‘Led Zeppelin’ the first album would only take 30 hours of studio time, from start to finish, and would cost less than £2,000 to produce. I didn’t get to see too much of John during this period, due to him being here, there and everywhere, but when I did catch up with him he was like a kid with a new toy. He was just so excited about the band, the album, the tour and the fact that maybe, just maybe, his dream of making it might be coming true. The band started the tour as The New Yardbirds, but would finish it at London’s Fishmonger Hall as Led Zeppelin.

  Chapter 9

  WHAT NOW? AMERICA!

  “I can’t say how long Led Zeppelin will last, but we’ll go on for as long as we can. When I first joined the group, I didn’t know Jimmy, and I felt a bit shy. He was the big star, and had been around for ages with The Yardbirds. Now the group is closer than ever, and there is a lot of scope for all of us.”

  – John Bonham

  While the lads had been working hard, the fifth member of Led Zeppelin had been working even harder. Peter Grant, a rather large Englishman who had learnt his trade through the early 60s as tour manager for a lot of American Rock’n’Roll artists, had come back to this country thanks to the foresight of Don Arden. Peter had also been a wrestler, which gave him an aura, which let people know he knew what he was doing and that he didn’t take any shit from anybody. As manager of Led Zeppelin he had flown to New York and secured a very lucrative record deal with Atlantic Records and booked the boys on a tour of the States. They would debut in Denver, Colorado on 26 December.

  With only a couple of days to get packed, John was rushing around in a state of excitement. Christmas presents needed to be bought and a heap of other things had to be sorted. The worry of leaving his wife Pat and young son Jason alone over Christmas had taken his mind off his other great worry – flying, a dread he would have for the rest of his life. Still, bags packed and farewells exchanged, John boarded the plane in search for his El Dorado on 23 December. Accompanied by Robert, Jimmy, Jonesy and Peter Grant, they set off for America. Landing in Los Angeles, they were met by Richard Cole, an employee of Peter’s who had been working with Vanilla Fudge but was now to become tour manager for Led Zeppelin, a job he would not only do for many years, but also do very well.

  Ricardo, as he was known to most, would look after his lads like a shepherd and with his ‘I can get you what you want, when you want it’ attitude, he soon became an integral part of the band. Cole’s job started in earnest on 26 December, when he had to get the band to their first gig at the McNicholls Arena in Denver and then to Boston to play The Tea Party two days later, as support to Vanilla Fudge.

  “John became very close to Carmine Appice when we first toured with Vanilla Fudge,” recalls Jonesy. “That’s where he got the gong idea from. I became good friends with Tim Bogart because he was such a good bass player. The bastard had only been playing bass for two years when I met him. He’d been a sax player up until then. I could have killed him because he had a bloody good voice too. Anyway, there was this bit in ‘Dazed and Confu
sed’ where we all stop to let Page and Plant do all the screaming and high bits, then we come back in with the fast riff. Well, we did the stop, then there was the ‘Baby, baby, baby’ scream stuff and then in came the riff. It’s a real hard, fast riff, and when Robert and Jimmy turned round they found Bogart and Appice and not Jones and Bonham. We’d swapped places while they were out front and because we were always in the dark at this point, no one had noticed!”

  ‘Drummer Carmine Appice remembers being so impressed with this young English drummer, that he helped secure him a drum sponsorship.’

  Carmine Appice (Drummer with Vanilla Fudge and later with Jeff Beck)

  Drummer Carmine Appice remembers being so impressed with this young English drummer, that he helped secure him a drum sponsorship. “After watching Bonzo play I called up the Ludwig Drum Co. and said they should endorse this guy John Bonham. Then I sent them the album and said I thought the band was going to be big. So they gave John the endorsement, same kit as mine, gong and all. Two 26″ bass drums, a 12x15 marching tenor drum, a 16x18 and 16x16 floor toms and a 6½″ deep snare drum. All rare sizes in those days. As for the “I think they’re gonna be big” – understatement of four decades!

  “After getting the endorsement, John and I were testing out some new Ludwig stands while playing at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago. By the end of the night we had both broken the stands so we gave them back and said ‘They’re gonna need to be a lot stronger, we broke them’. You should have seen the look of shock on the faces of the people from Ludwig.

  “It was also John who told Tim and I that Jeff Beck wanted to form a band with us. That was right after he’d played with Jeff at the Singer Bowl and had taken all his clothes off while playing, which was really wild as my parents were backstage watching the show, which left me trying to explain to them why. What a night!”

  The band’s first tour of America was scheduled to finish on 8 February in Chicago, but John was very homesick, so while there was a break at the beginning of that month, he took the opportunity to fly home. I had taken over John’s job at Osbournes Tailors, a shop which can still be seen in Redditch town centre, albeit under its new name Jazz, so it came as quite a shock when John came marching into the shop to see me on 4 February. He told me he just had to get home to see his family and proceeded to tell me all about the exploits of the previous six weeks during my lunch hour. And then he was gone again. I only saw John a few times that year because Led Zeppelin played 139 gigs throughout 1969, and only 33 of them were here in the UK.

  ‘I only saw John a few times that year because Led Zeppelin played 139 gigs throughout 1969, and only 33 of them were here in the UK.’

  On 18 February I received a phone call from John, telling me that he was back home and that he had a copy of their first album. He was so enthusiastic about it all and asked if I’d like to pop over that night to hear it. Of course I did, but I’d made plans to go out. “That’s fine,” said John. “Bring them all over, we’ll have a bit of a party.”

  By now John and Pat were living in their own flat on Eve Hill in Dudley, West Midlands and as I’d arranged, I picked up my friends and headed over to Dudley. The one thing that worried me slightly was that me and my three mates were well into our soul music, and although I hadn’t heard any of the album, I knew it wouldn’t be soul. We arrived at the flat around 8.30pm and once all the introductions were over with, Pat took young Jason to bed, John poured everyone a glass of wine, then on went Led Zep 1. For the first couple of tracks we just sat there giving quizzical sideways glances at each other, as John eagerly gave a running commentary of who was doing what on each track. Slowly we warmed to the record. It gave Robert a platform to do what he did best, sing some raunchy blues. There was quite brilliant guitar work from Jimmy, some of those haunting Jonesy intros and it was all held together by John’s skill on the drums. I think it was John’s total enthusiasm for the band, the music and the unbelievable time he’d spent in America that really made me start to enjoy the work. Over the next couple of hours we drank wine and listened to his stories of touring the States, being able to play with such great bands as Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly and the MC5. But ultimately it was the fact that by the end of the tour, the band had made the breakthrough they desired. They were the band that everyone was talking about.

  June Harris of the New Musical Express had this to say: ‘The biggest happening of the 1969 heavy rock scene is Led Zeppelin! The reaction to the group’s first tour here, currently in progress, has not only been incredible, it’s been nothing short of sensational.’

  As that evening came to a close John told me he was hiring the Lafayette Club in Wolverhampton the following Monday, because he was throwing a party for Pat’s 21st. The band would be coming up to play and did we all want to go? John saw us out and as we were getting into the car he shouted, “Oi! What d’yer think of the new motor?” pointing to a beautiful black S-Type Jaguar and grinning large. “Bostin’, innit!”

  Chapter 10

  PARTY PARTY!

  As John was making arrangements for the party I was busy at work kitting myself out with a new suit, shirt and tie, ready for the big occasion. Come 7.30pm on the night of Monday 24 February 1969, I picked up Jacko and then set off for John’s flat in Dudley, calling for friends Alf and Sheila along the way. From John’s we set off for the club in the comfort of the new Jag. It seemed like a rather good start to what was to be a great night. Little did I know what was in store!

  The party itself was a great success. The place was full of friends and family so I spent most of the night dancing with Pat’s sister, Beryl and friends Ros, Jill and Joyce until the highlight of the night was about to commence. John took to the stage along with Jimmy, Robert and John Paul and they stunned the audience with some superb music. Like me, most people present had not seen the band before and were all as amazed as I was. I felt so proud of John. After all those years of traipsing around Brum it had finally happened for him. They left the stage to thunderous applause and everyone rushed to congratulate John and the rest of the boys.

  The following Saturday, Led Zeppelin started their second UK tour, consisting of seven gigs, starting at the Fishmongers Hall in London. As soon as they finished their last date, they flew to Scandinavia to do another seven appearances, including a Danish TV show in Copenhagen. Then it was back to Britain to finish off the tour. When they arrived back, it was into the Maida Vale Studio in London, to record for the BBC World Service, and then do their first TV appearance on the BBC show How Late It Is. On 22 March Led Zeppelin were booked to play at Mothers in Brum, so John phoned me to tell me to come along and see them, as it would be the only local gig on the tour. For Robert and John it would be a great return to their roots, as it would also be their first gig in Birmingham together since their Band Of Joy days.

  ‘In April, Zeppelin flew back to the States for a second tour. This time they were a headline act and earning a darn sight more money.’

  Mothers had been a long established venue for live music, situated above two shops in the Erdington High Street and had originally been called the Carlton Ballroom. It became the Carlton Club when Phil Myatt and associates took it over in 1963 and was a regular haunt for John throughout the mid-60s. With the direction of music changing, thus did the Carlton. With its name change to Mothers, it became one of the great progressive rock venues, playing host to the likes of Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Pink Floyd and Chicken Shack, to name but a few. Tonight it was the turn of Led Zeppelin, and with John and Robert back on home soil and in front of a lot of old friends there was no stopping them. The place was packed and as the band launched into their opening number the venue erupted. The end result of course, was a great night for band and audience.

  In April, Zeppelin flew back to the States for a second tour. This time they were a headline act and earning a darn sight more money. There would be 28 shows, ending on John’s 21st birthday at the Filmore East in New York. Upon their return to Britain, their alb
um had entered the Billboard Top Ten and they were dubbed the new Cream and heroes of British Rock. Within a week they’d begun a fourth tour of the UK and appeared on John Peel’s Top Gear radio show and Rock Hour for the BBC, recorded at the Playhouse Theatre in London. I followed the tour by reading whatever bits I could find in the music press and waiting anxiously for 28 June, when I would accompany John to the Bath Festival.

  On previous occasions I had travelled to gigs either on my scooter or on the bus, but this time it would be in style, to what had been advertised as the ‘Big One’. We drove down during the morning, meeting up with Jimmy, Robert and John Paul in the back stage bar. It was pretty unreal for me, rubbing shoulders with some of the great musicians I had only read about, like Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After and the man who’d launched so many great names from his Bluesbreakers, Mr John Mayall.

  The Recreation Ground and Pavilion was in a lovely setting in the centre of Bath, and on a warm summer’s afternoon I couldn’t think of anywhere I would rather be, along with 12,000 other people. I had taken a camera with me so, well before Zeppelin was to go on, I made my way out into the crowd and towards the front of the stage. Finding a nice patch of grass, I waited patiently for the emergence of Led Zeppelin. When the band took to the stage the audience surged past me, leaving me only enough time to take three photos before I was swallowed up by ‘The Ocean’. As the show finished and the crowd moved back, I was still on the floor, looking like one of those hedgehogs you see squashed on the road.