Rock and Pop: Preview - Band of Joy - Led Zeppelin legend Robert Plant set to play at HMV Forum, Kentish Town
Published: 26 August 2010
by ROISIN GADELRAB
LOOK at that lion’s mane. How could anyone resist catching a glimpse of the all-powerful one when he’s lurking so close by?
Lay out the red carpet, bow your heads and soak up the glory – Robert Plant, big cat of rock, is coming to Camden and bringing his Band of Joy along for the ride.
Plant, the one with the lungs from Led Zeppelin, plays a rare live show at HMV Forum in Kentish Town on September 2.
The gig precedes the release of his hotly anticipated 10th solo album, Band Of Joy, recorded in Tennessee and co-produced by Nashville legend Buddy Miller. It is his first album since the Grammy-winning Raising Sand in 2007.
So tickets are a little pricey, up to £50, but these occasions are rare and it’s always wise to catch a legend while they’ve retained their flowing locks.
Of course, it won’t be the original Band of Joy line-up, which included the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
Plant formed Band of Joy in 1967 with Bonham, later getting together with guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones to become The New Yardbirds, an early incarnation of Led Zeppelin – before they became great.
Years of explosive, guitar-driven, lung-busting, blues-rock followed as they worked their way to becoming the biggest band in the world.
Guitarists across the world spent their waking hours trying to emulate Plant’s intricate riffs, to the point where Stairway to Heaven became a joke in the 1992 movie Wayne’s World – remember it being banned in the guitar shop scene?
After the Led Zep era ended with Bonham’s death in 1980 neither Page nor Plant were ready to hang up their instruments and they went off to record with a wide range of artists, as well as performing as a duo and working on their own solo projects.
And then came Band of Joy.
Although rock is always present, Band of Joy seem to err on the folk side, reinterpreting old songs and are solely focused on Plant as frontman.
He said: “I really wanted this record to be A Band of Joy – you hear voices all around my voice.”
And he’s got no qualms about any confusion caused by the resurrection of his old band name: “In the Band of Joy, when I was 17, I was playing everybody else’s stuff and moving it around, and it’s kind of time to reinvoke that attitude and sentiment.”
Band of Joy is Darrell Scott (acoustic guitar, mandolin, octave mandolin, banjo, accordion, pedal steel and lap steel guitar), Byron House (bass), Marco Giovino (drums and percussion), and Buddy Miller (electric guitar, baritone, 6-string bass, mandoguitar).
• Album Band of Joy is released on September 15.