John Bonham

Born: John Henry Bonham

Nickname: Bonzo

Date Of Birth: May 31, 1948

Place Of Birth: Redditch, Worcestershire U.K.

Passed Away: September 25, 1980

Before Led Zeppelin- Played For: Terry Web And The Spiders Crawling King Snakes A Way Of Life Band Of Joy (III)

In Led Zeppelin- drums, percussion, baking vocals

Born John Henry Bonham (named after his father and grandfather) on May 31st, 1948, at Redditch, Worcestershire.

John enterance to the world was not trouble free. After 26 hours of labour, baby John's heartbeat had stopped and the drunken doctor on duty had left.

Thankfully, the nurse had quickly called another doctor who managed to revive him.

The nurse said, "it was a miracle".

It seems John Bonham was destined to be a drummer almost from birth and as with all great drummers in his very early year he used to beat on his mum's pots and pans with knitting needles and alike.

Then he adapted bath salt containers and coffee tins with wire attachments before being given a proper snare drum when he was 10. By the time he was given his first full drum kit, when he was 15 1/2, he had already decided where his future lay.

"When I left school I went into the trade with my Dad. He had a building business and I used to like it. But drumming was the only thing I was any good at, and I stuck at that for three or four years. If things got bad I could always go back to building. I was so keen to play when I left school, I'd have played for nothing. In fact I did for a long time, but my parents stuck by me."

Someone else who stuck by him in his ambitions was his wife Pat, whom he met at a dance and married at the tender age of 17.

The couple lived in a small caravan, and at one point things were so bad that Bonham had to give up smoking to pay the rent.

On the bright side, his work with local bands around the Birmingham area, like Terry and The Spiders and A Way Of Life, was getting him something of a reputation. It also got him banned by several club managers, who felt his playing was too violent for the delicate ears of their customers.

For a short while Bonham played with The Crawling King Snakes who had a singer by the name of Robert Plant, and after spells with The Nicky James Movement and Steve Brett & The Mavericks, the two met up again in The Band Of Joy.

This venture lasted about a couple of years until 1968, during which time the group released three singles, went through several changes of musical direction, and toured the country supporting American singer-songwriter Tim Rose.

Robert Plant recalls: "Eventually we were getting between 60 and 75 quid a night. But it didn't keep improving. In the end I just had to give it up. I thought "Bollocks; nobody at all wants to know about us"."

When The Band Of Joy broke up, Bonham accepted an offer to join Tim Rose's backing group for another British tour, and for the first time in his career he was earning regular money... albeit only 40 pounds a week.

By now his fame in musicians circles was such that he was being sought by Chris Farlowe and Joe Cocker, both fairly tempting positions at the time, when Robert Plant crossed his path yet again, with a proposition that was to increase his standard of living even more dramatically.

At that time a twist of fate handed to guitar wizard Jimmy Page heralded the opening door for Plant and Bonham, and ultimately all four musicians who were soon to don the title of Led Zeppelin as though a free flowing garment. Jimmy Page recalls,

"At this time a number of drummers had approached me and wanted to work with us. Robert suggested I go hear John Bonham, whom I'd heard of because he had a reputation, but had never seen. I asked Robert if he knew him and he told me they'd worked together in this group called Band Of Joy."

Bonzo was the last Zeppelin member on board ~ as drummer and percussionist ~ just in time for the debut performance on October 15, 1968 at Surry University.

The group changed names only once (originally The New Yardbirds) as they scaled upward to the heights, where their unmistakable star shines today.

They contributed 10 albums during their collaboration (including Coda, posthumously in 1982) and a variety of other musical delights featuring their own signature film, THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME.

Each band member designed their own visual and musical fantasy theme within the whole performance format the dream sequence patterns by Bonham carried a textural quality somewhat akin to a classic home movie.

The song most associated with Bonham, "Moby Dick", is married to images of his wife and son Jason, who is also an accomplished musician brought to the circle of drummers.

On the recent Led Zep DVD the drum solo within Moby Dick that John plays at the Royal Albert Hall gig is probably the greatest rock n roll drum solo ever!!

The love of Motorcross racing also shared by father and son, flashes across the screen like a stroke of lightning during TSRTS racing scene.

Jason donates proceeds from his CDs to "John Bonham Memorial Motorcycle Camp for Kids".

Although Zeppelin's presence was so powerful the music world expected the band would play into infinity, the destiny path scored for this prolific group looms as large and unique as the individuals comprising it.

On September 23rd 1979 going into the early hours of the following day, John began the infamous drinking bout that was to end with his death.

Shortly before Christmas of 1980 the surviving band members came to the conclusion they wouldn't be a viable entity any more without Bonham as their drummer and disbanded. John Bonham's brother recently announced a very personal 30th anniversary photo collection of pictures off stage, from behind the curtains.

Jason Bonham continues to perform with the biggest names in Rock 'n Roll.

The 'How The West Was Won' ~ CD and DVD was made in 2003 adn in an Interview on May 27, 2003

Jones says: I really missed Bonzo when I was watching the DVD. Everything on stage revolved around him. Whenever we started to improvise or change direction musically, you'd see everyone move towards the drums.

Page says: There was footage of John I hadn't seen before, and it was so exhilarating to hear him play. I lost a dear friend in him, but beyond that, the world of music lost a very important person. Time has just reinforced that. He's the greatest rock drummer who ever lived.

Not many would argue with that. Rest in Peace John