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Robert Plant - Pre-Zep History


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Very cool articles and pictures and concert ads Sam, thanks! I like those early pictures of Robert Plant!

In the "Flower Protest" article it looks like Robert Plant was part of the 'legalize pot' group, but he was not correct? He was just there because of a fender bender right?

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On 2/8/2023 at 4:03 PM, luvlz2 said:

In the "Flower Protest" article it looks like Robert Plant was part of the 'legalize pot' group, but he was not correct? He was just there because of a fender bender right?

August 10, 1967  Magistrates Court in Wednesbury, England  

Robert Plant and friends advocate legalization of marijuana outside before his court appearance for careless driving…the charge was dropped on account of insufficient evidence.

1967 08 10  001.jpg

1967 08 10  002.jpg

1967 08 10  003.jpg

1967 08 10 Magistrates Court in Wednesbury England.jpg

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7 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

August 10, 1967  Magistrates Court in Wednesbury, England  

Robert Plant and friends advocate legalization of marijuana outside before his court appearance for careless driving…the charge was dropped on account of insufficient evidence.

1967 08 10  001.jpg

1967 08 10  002.jpg

1967 08 10  003.jpg

1967 08 10 Magistrates Court in Wednesbury England.jpg

That letter is awesome. Hard to make out some of it. But that it is great. 

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So, Shel Talmy just posted this on Facebook

BLUEPRINT OF . . . ONE THAT GOT AWAY!
I think most people who have been following my vignettes know of my early association with Jimmy Page-- how we met and, having recognized his excellence, how I booked Jimmy on guitar continually for sessions I was producing right up to when he joined The Yardbirds and eventually formed Led Zeppelin.
But I doubt you are aware of another connection I had to the biggest rock band of the 1970s!
I was reminded of it recently and felt it was worth writing about.
In the mid-1960s, I was exceptionally busy producing many different acts, along with running my own label, Planet Records.
I had so many people coming through the door at my offices in Greek Street in London’s West End that it would have been miraculous if I was able to recall all the hopeful acts and all the discussions that took place-- all miracles appear to have occurred elsewhere!
In early 1966, I was approached by a group from Wallsall, near Birmingham, looking for a record deal. They were called Listen, and were in the “mod” mode similar to other bands I produced such as The Who and The Creation.
Listen was a quartet and the members were as follows: John Crutchley on guitar, Geoff Thompson on drums, Roger Beamer on bass and, on lead vocals, Rob Plant, who turned out to be a terrif lead singer.
I liked what I heard and so I decided to sign them to Planet.
The songs that were to be recorded were an original by the band entitled ‘Everybody’s Gonna Say’, and ‘Two By Two’, composed by Jimmy Stewart and Gerry Langley, a songwriting team that I had under contract.
The group was excited and even announced to a local paper in Birmingham that the single would be released in May 1966.
I need to digress briefly here to say that, almost without exception, I never had problems with an artist, and have always had respect for musicians and creative talents.
That was not however the case with their management!  Generally speaking, managers were not music people, but invariably they "knew it all", and were very forthcoming in informing all of us what we needed to do about everything they knew nothing about!
So their manager and I had a dispute that became heavy-duty and remained unresolved, with the result that Listen never recorded for Planet.
The group did later make a single for CBS, after which lead singer Rob went solo, under his given name Robert Plant. Robert had a couple more unsuccessful records, and finally was selected by Jimmy Page to sing for his new group, Led Zeppelin. And the rest as they say is history!

 

Listen.jpg

Edited by thozil
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On 2/12/2023 at 12:42 PM, SteveAJones said:

August 10, 1967  Magistrates Court in Wednesbury, England  

Robert Plant and friends advocate legalization of marijuana outside before his court appearance for careless driving…the charge was dropped on account of insufficient evidence.

1967 08 10  001.jpg

1967 08 10  002.jpg

1967 08 10  003.jpg

1967 08 10 Magistrates Court in Wednesbury England.jpg

Very cool Steve, thanks so much!!!

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12 hours ago, thozil said:

So, Shel Talmy just posted this on Facebook

BLUEPRINT OF . . . ONE THAT GOT AWAY!
I think most people who have been following my vignettes know of my early association with Jimmy Page-- how we met and, having recognized his excellence, how I booked Jimmy on guitar continually for sessions I was producing right up to when he joined The Yardbirds and eventually formed Led Zeppelin.
But I doubt you are aware of another connection I had to the biggest rock band of the 1970s!
I was reminded of it recently and felt it was worth writing about.
In the mid-1960s, I was exceptionally busy producing many different acts, along with running my own label, Planet Records.
I had so many people coming through the door at my offices in Greek Street in London’s West End that it would have been miraculous if I was able to recall all the hopeful acts and all the discussions that took place-- all miracles appear to have occurred elsewhere!
In early 1966, I was approached by a group from Wallsall, near Birmingham, looking for a record deal. They were called Listen, and were in the “mod” mode similar to other bands I produced such as The Who and The Creation.
Listen was a quartet and the members were as follows: John Crutchley on guitar, Geoff Thompson on drums, Roger Beamer on bass and, on lead vocals, Rob Plant, who turned out to be a terrif lead singer.
I liked what I heard and so I decided to sign them to Planet.
The songs that were to be recorded were an original by the band entitled ‘Everybody’s Gonna Say’, and ‘Two By Two’, composed by Jimmy Stewart and Gerry Langley, a songwriting team that I had under contract.
The group was excited and even announced to a local paper in Birmingham that the single would be released in May 1966.
I need to digress briefly here to say that, almost without exception, I never had problems with an artist, and have always had respect for musicians and creative talents.
That was not however the case with their management!  Generally speaking, managers were not music people, but invariably they "knew it all", and were very forthcoming in informing all of us what we needed to do about everything they knew nothing about!
So their manager and I had a dispute that became heavy-duty and remained unresolved, with the result that Listen never recorded for Planet.
The group did later make a single for CBS, after which lead singer Rob went solo, under his given name Robert Plant. Robert had a couple more unsuccessful records, and finally was selected by Jimmy Page to sing for his new group, Led Zeppelin. And the rest as they say is history!

 

Listen.jpg

Very interesting, thanks!

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  • 1 month later...

I've been to Scunthorpe for work several times. While there, I was asked if I was 'the man who put the 'c*nt' in 'Scunthorpe'. They make their own amusement, obvs. 
Bizarrely, the Open Hearth is still there and it's still got that name. Mind you, it's probably still 1967 in Scunny, too...

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  • 2 months later...
On 2/8/2023 at 3:01 PM, sam_webmaster said:

April 14, 1967

67414-bojads.jpg

 

 

August 10, 1967

67810-flowerpower.jpg

 

 

Oct. 18, 1967

671018-rp.jpg

 

 

We've know for years Plant was a huge fan of What It's Worth (referred to above as What's That Sound? But I've never ever heard Plant or Zeppelin covering Bluebird (unless I missed it along the way). Bluebird is one of my favorite songs and The James Gang does a great version as well. If there's a Plant version in the vault somewhere, I'd love to hear it someday before I die. 

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8 hours ago, The Only Way To Fly said:

We've know for years Plant was a huge fan of What It's Worth (referred to above as What's That Sound? But I've never ever heard Plant or Zeppelin covering Bluebird (unless I missed it along the way). Bluebird is one of my favorite songs and The James Gang does a great version as well. If there's a Plant version in the vault somewhere, I'd love to hear it someday before I die. 

The only reference I can think of is from this show: https://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/okeefe-centre-november-2-1969

Robert sings some of Bluebird during the Communication Breakdown jam.

 

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13 hours ago, The Only Way To Fly said:

We've know for years Plant was a huge fan of What It's Worth (referred to above as What's That Sound? But I've never ever heard Plant or Zeppelin covering Bluebird (unless I missed it along the way). Bluebird is one of my favorite songs and The James Gang does a great version as well. If there's a Plant version in the vault somewhere, I'd love to hear it someday before I die. 

He covered it on the 93 tour, and it was killer. If you hunt around on YouTube, you can find a number of performances. The one I saw was in Mountain View. Bluebird is one of my own favorites as well (along with Rock and Roll Woman). The James Gang version is indeed fantastic. That first album is such a hidden gem ..

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On 6/9/2023 at 12:32 AM, sam_webmaster said:

The only reference I can think of is from this show: https://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/okeefe-centre-november-2-1969

Robert sings some of Bluebird during the Communication Breakdown jam.

Nice work!

On 6/9/2023 at 5:52 AM, 1975NQ said:

He covered it on the 93 tour, and it was killer.

He did indeed, and yes it is.

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  • 7 months later...
8 hours ago, sam_webmaster said:

Robert found his first self-made poster from 60 years ago, for his band The Blacksnake Moan:

 

1964 - RP Blacksnake Moan flyer.jpg

Yeah, I saw it this morning on his Instagram account. I was going to post it. :D

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