Plant and Son Logan in The Sunday Times

[chillumpuffer]

Plant and Son Logan are in The Sunday Times Magazine today in the "Relative Values" bit. Plant takes his usual swipe at the arse end of the Zeppelin era. "a Lacklustre tour of the U.S in 1977 and " we did one more album and a couple of sloppy tours" - er 1 I think mate? Interestingly it's Logan's brewing which is a better read. 

[the chase]

He's not wrong. But it's odd he would say it that way. 

[Boleskinner]

Plant has always been candid about Zep's peaks and troughs and I admire his honesty; unlike other band members who want to re-write history and gloss over any negatives.

He's in the enviable position of having a very decent solo career behind him, so he has some distance from the whole Zeppelin legacy and can afford to be objective. Effectively, he's moved on (despite playing Zep songs in his set).

I don't think he's been disrespectful to Zeppelin's legacy - he's always lauded the early-middle years, and dissed 77 onwards.

 

 

[the chase]

2 hours ago, Boleskinner said:

Plant has always been candid about Zep's peaks and troughs and I admire his honesty; unlike other band members who want to re-write history and gloss over any negatives.

He's in the enviable position of having a very decent solo career behind him, so he has some distance from the whole Zeppelin legacy and can afford to be objective. Effectively, he's moved on (despite playing Zep songs in his set).

I don't think he's been disrespectful to Zeppelin's legacy - he's always lauded the early-middle years, and dissed 77 onwards.

 

 

No i agree.  He also had so much bad go on in his life at the time, no wonder he doesn't look back on it fondly.. If he just threw it out there, that would seem odd and unnecessary. But if he was asked, he's just being honest. I'd like to read the article.

[luvlz2]

1 hour ago, the chase said:

I'd like to read the article.

It's available online, but you have to register to read the entire article. It's free. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/relative-values-former-led-zeppelin-front-man-robert-plant-and-his-son-logan-a-brewer-vqvq52fqc

[the chase]

10 minutes ago, luvlz2 said:

It's available online, but you have to register to read the entire article. It's free. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/relative-values-former-led-zeppelin-front-man-robert-plant-and-his-son-logan-a-brewer-vqvq52fqc

Thanks

[timothy5151]

20 minutes ago, luvlz2 said:

It's available online, but you have to register to read the entire article. It's free. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/relative-values-former-led-zeppelin-front-man-robert-plant-and-his-son-logan-a-brewer-vqvq52fqc

Thanks for the link.

 

What an interesting read that was. I cannot imagine what Robert and his family went through during the later years of Zeppelin. 

[bluecongo]

Robert paid a terrible price for his success, and it has shaped his life and career since.  

Zeppelin brought him enormous fame and wealth, it only cost him his voice, his 

leg, his son, and his best friend.  

 

[76229]

Interesting to see Robert Plant say "in 1977 it felt like we were getting to the end of Zeppelin". Certainly puts in perspective the theory that had "the 1980s part one" tour gone ahead, it would all have carried on for several more years.

If that really is the case, that it felt like "the end" that early, then I wonder, was it the car accident / bad vibes around the band? Or a feeling that creatively they'd peaked with Physical Graffiti and it could only go downhill from there?

[Boleskinner]

1 hour ago, 76229 said:

Interesting to see Robert Plant say "in 1977 it felt like we were getting to the end of Zeppelin". Certainly puts in perspective the theory that had "the 1980s part one" tour gone ahead, it would all have carried on for several more years.

If that really is the case, that it felt like "the end" that early, then I wonder, was it the car accident / bad vibes around the band? Or a feeling that creatively they'd peaked with Physical Graffiti and it could only go downhill from there?

In the Aussie 60 minutes, Plant basically said that when he agreed to come back after the death of his son they had "lost the keys to the kingdom", music had moved on and they had said all they needed to say musically. A frank acknowledgement that their best years were behind them.

[IpMan]

I always figured had Bonham lived they would have done the NA tour, put out a final album to fulfill their commitment, and break up in late 81'. Plant was done, Bonham did not want the road, and Jones was ambivalent. Bonham's death just cut the band's tenure by a year...if that.

I hate to say this again but I really wish Plant would have just said post Europe tour 80'...ok, that's it, time to wrap it up and call it a day. At least Bonham would likely still be with us. Plant knew it was over, wanted a solo career, and was simply going through the motions post-77'. Not that anything is Plant's fault, hindsight is 20/20 and he probably figured, "shit, lets get this NA tour over with and then I am breaking the news, I am outta here."

[greengrass]

So , has anyone been to Beaverton for a pint off Neck Oil?

Great article too btw. Thanks

[For My Life]

Logan says he eventually got to see Led Zeppelin play live "at the 2012 reunion". Did he get confused and simply watch the DVD, not realising that the gig took place five years earlier?

[The Only Way To Fly]

On November 6, 2016 at 11:54 AM, chillumpuffer said:

Plant and Son Logan are in The Sunday Times Magazine today in the "Relative Values" bit. Plant takes his usual swipe at the arse end of the Zeppelin era. "a Lacklustre tour of the U.S in 1977 and " we did one more album and a couple of sloppy tours" - er 1 I think mate? Interestingly it's Logan's brewing which is a better read. 

Maybe he was talking about the 4 shows in 1979 as a tour?

 

[Matjaz1]

I didn't read the whole thing, but Plant and his son are enjoying it and some of the stuff Plant is talking about, is a very direct reference to how hard the life can be for all of us sometimes! I think that is pretty obvious and eloquently expressed heh!

Now if you excuse me, have to write an essay fro my philosophy class!

[76229]

On 07/11/2016 at 1:55 PM, Boleskinner said:

In the Aussie 60 minutes, Plant basically said that they had said all they needed to say musically. A frank acknowledgement that their best years were behind them.

That when they reconvened at Clearwell Castle in May '78, there was only one new song written (Carouselambra) suggests sadly, that Plant was right. Still, while music had undoubtedly moved on with punk here we are 38 years later discussing Zeppelin as opposed to say, the UK Subs or the Damned 

[dpat]

Relative Values:  Former Led Zeppelin front man, Robert Plant, and his son, Logan, a brewer

The rock god Robert Plant, 68, and his son, Logan, 37, who runs a north London brewery, discuss family tragedy, separation and “talking rubbish in the pub”

Robert
By 1977, it felt like we were getting to the end of Led Zeppelin. In 1975, I’d been in a serious car accident and spent months in a wheelchair. Then, in 1977, we embarked on a lacklustre tour of America, but in the middle of it I got a phone call from home saying we’d lost our boy, Karac [Karac Pendra Plant died of respiratory issues. He was five years old].

I dropped everything and rushed back home to Stourbridge [in the West Midlands]. Me, my then-wife, Maureen [Logan’s mum], and our daughter Carmen, who was eight, tried to maintain some sort of logic and just deal with each day. But the media hammered us. They even tried to break into our home. I thought: “How has it come to this?”

My mojo for life, for music, for everything just vanished. And, to a certain extent, it never came back. I gave up the jazz cigarettes and the other stuff. As far as I was concerned, I was finished with the band and I was going to retrain as a teacher. I just wanted to be close to the joy of children ...

It was Bonzo [Led Zeppelin’s drummer, John Bonham] and his wife, Pat, who encouraged me to carry on with the music, so I did. We did one more album, plus a couple of sloppy tours, but then we lost Bonzo [Bonham died in September 1980 after a heavy drinking session]. It was all over.

Logan was actually born in 1979. He appeared in the middle of this explosion of emotion and pain. When I look back, it was as if he arrived like some sort of phoenix, attempting to drag us from flames.

The loss of Karac made me and Maureen even more focused on being parents. All I wanted to do was stay around and try to make up for what had happened, but it became obvious that we could never get back to the golden days.

Maureen and I eventually said goodbye to each other when Logan was about four. Did it have anything to do with Karac? I just think we couldn’t continue to shoulder this grief. We sat down one day and said: “We can’t take any more.”

Logan lived with his mum and Carmen, but he spent holidays with me and used to come out on tour. He always brought his skateboard. While we were sound-checking, he’d be racing around Madison Square Garden.

As a parent, I was overcautious. It didn’t matter if he was having a kip on the tour bus, someone always guarded him. There was guilt on my part, too. Guilt I wasn’t there all the time. Thank God Logan turned out to be a great kid.

The only time we disagreed was over his music taste. Bloody Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer constantly on the car stereo. And that Swedish band … Europe. The Final f****** Countdown. I was on the verge of strapping him in the back seat and driving off a cliff!

Even as a kid, he used to love coming to the pub with me, so I wonder if that set him off on the path to owning a brewery [Logan now owns Beavertown Brewery in north London]. There are some great breweries round the Black Country and he could definitely recognise the taste of decent beer.

My grandfather, another Robert, was a famous drinker. When my father became disenchanted with my career choice, it was Robert who encouraged me. He used to say, “When you’m finished a concert, make sure you get plenty of neck oil,” meaning beer. Logan never met him, but he loved that story and Neck Oil has become one of Logan’s bestselling beers.

I know that you’re only talking to me and Logan because I used to be in that band, but that band and my entire career have always fitted in around the family. Father to son, and now Logan to his son, Harlen. Family, roots and love. The great, unfolding story that we are all a part of. The only stuff that matters.

Logan
The reality of who Dad was didn’t hit me for years. I’d stand at the side of the stage, listening to 50,000 people screaming as they watched this golden god in the spotlight. Him and my dad didn’t seem to connect in my head. All I was interested in was when could I have a big pizza.

I can remember my mum and dad splitting up, even though I was only four. They’d met as teenagers, had my sister, Carmen, when Dad was 20 and then Led Zeppelin happened. Life went crazy for the next 10 years.

Looking back, I think losing Karac made them very emotionally attached to me and Carmen, and that played a huge part in how they handled the separation. It was completely amicable, a lot of love and respect, and us kids came first. Considering the hell they’d been through, they did a brilliant job.

We stayed in the West Midlands, but initially Dad moved away. I think he missed it, though, ’cos he eventually moved back. And that’s really what my old man’s all about. He doesn’t care about hanging out in LA or buying a castle in Spain; he just wants to connect with his family and the Black Country.

He’s supported Wolves all his life and it’s been passed down the line. It’s not always an easy job … driving four hours to watch an uneventful nil-nil draw. Stopping at some Chinese outside Lincoln. But I genuinely believe that’s where you’ll see the real Robert Plant. Talking rubbish in the pub.

Just the other week, he came back from America, had a kip, then drove straight to a Wolves away game. That’s far more important and precious to him than some story about Led Zeppelin and a fish. [According to rock legend, the band allegedly pleasured a girl with a fish in 1969.]

Do I like Zeppelin? After I got my first Walkman, Dad gave me this whole collection of albums on cassette. He just said, “This was a band I used to be in.” I didn’t know anything about them, but they became my favourite band. Still are.

I used to hassle him all the time. “Dad, why don’t you get Zeppelin back together?” I didn’t understand the weight of history, the loss of Bonzo and what it meant to him. I just wanted to see them play live. I did eventually at the 2012 reunion. There were lots of tears that night.

There have been some amazing moments. Being at the White House with him when Zeppelin were receiving an award. The Obamas, the Clintons … everybody was there. But there were also times when it annoyed me that Robert Plant was my dad. When I was about 8, I loved Guns N’ Roses and remember thinking: “I wish Axl Rose was my dad.” Life could have been so different!

STRANGE HABITS

• Logan on Robert He does fart a lot ... I think he got it from his mum
• Robert on Logan He farts a lot ... I think he got that from me

Logan's brewery website:  http://www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk/

TOP:  Logan shares a craft beer with his dad at his pub, the Duke’s Brew and Que in east London, which used to house his brewery in the BELOW:  basement; Father and son in 1985

[The Only Way To Fly]

^^ That's a great picture. 

[Boleskinner]

Thanks for posting that, Dpat, it contained some quite moving and candid thoughts from Plant. I was surprised, as the article is basically an advertorial for his son's beer, but it was put together very well. To have your son and best friend die within the space of three years must have been devastating. I'm surprised he managed to get out of bed, never mind launch a solo career.