ROBERT PLANT: Unofficial Biography Due In February

[eternal light]

I was talking about BEFORE that, when he was 15 & 16! The book states he was in bands and working as early as 1963. I assume there are people on this forum from all over the world, and I'm not familiar with European norms for these things.

For example in the US most kids go to "high school" through "12th grade" and graduate at 17 or 18.

The terminology in England seems different (public and private have different meanings as far as types of schools, for example). They use terms such as "grammar school" and so on in England.

And I don't know how many "levels" they complete (like our "grades"?), and at what ages.

The book made it sound like Plant started college earlier than we do in the US. Is that the norm in England?

Here's what the book said about Plant's education:

"It was jam sessions at places like the Seven Stars Blues Club that Plant looked forward to, not his next test result and a pat on the back from his teacher. So at the tender age of fifteen, Plant had some tough decisions to make...His parents wanted their only son to settle into a secure office job, so he began training classes in chartered accountancy at Kidderminster College. However, he found the rudiments of the training so utterly boring that he soon quit and returned to an academic institution to acquire some O-levels. After several months of disinterest in college work, he packed the whole lot in." (p. 28)

and then:

"As Plant approached the age of seventeen [which I assume means he was still 16], he was moving from one demoralising job to the next and had already left home..." (p. 30)

I am just curious as to how things work over there (as a kind of translation) and whether Plant's experience was typical or not.

Yeah, that's true, but life in the entertainment business for young people is sometimes different, even in the United States. They still must complete their schooling, but their academic schedule is balanced into their stage activities.

Bill Bojangles Robinson and Shirley Temple

I'm sure that you can find 15 and 16 year olds working in bands in the United States today. That is not unusual. Sometimes they are barred from clubs where they serve alcohol. But Bobby Bland or James Cotton (I forget which one) hung around blues clubs at age 10 and got started informally that way. It just happens.

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"By his ninth year both of his parents had passed away and Cotton was taken to Sonny Boy Williamson by his uncle. When they met, the young fellow wasted no time - he began playing Sonny Boy's theme song on his treasured harp. Cotton remembers that first meeting well and says, "I walked up and played it for him. And I played it note for note. And he looked at that. He had to pay attention." The two harp players were like father and son from then on. "I just watched the things he'd do, because I wanted to be just like him. Anything he played, I played it," he remembers.

There were dozens of juke joints in the South at the time and Sonny Boy played in nearly every one in Mississippi (pronounced "miz-sip-ee") and Arkansas. Now he had an opening act! Because Cotton was too young to go inside he would "open" for Sonny Boy on the steps of these juke joints, sometimes making more money in tips outside than Sonny Boy did at the gig inside."

.jamescottonsuperharp.com

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As far as "demoralising" jobs, Robert Plant may have steered clear of factory work, which was not uncommon then. He seemed to naturally seek a spotlight in entertainment. He could sing with a strong force of passion, and he has always had a high sense of drama.

Robert Plant performed in the teen clubs when he started.