John Bonham

John Henry " Bonzo" Bonham (May 31st 1948 with Redditch, close to Birmingham, in England - September 25th 1980), was one of the most famous beaters of the Années 1970. Its name is especially associated with the group hard rock Led Zeppelin.

Biography

Beginnings

Bonham was born in England with Redditch in the Worcestershire. Very young person, John already starts to strike pots and pans with rather artisanal sticks by copying the style of his idols, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. At the 10 years age, his/her mother offers a drum to him which it never released. At 15 years, it receives its first worn battery; a gift of his/her father, gift of which it always took care. It was a Premier which very quickly rusted.

After having left the public school Wiltan House , he works for his father, Jack Bonham, in the sector of construction while contributing as a beater to various local groups. In 1964, its first official group of music, Terry Web and The Spiders , is a group of students of the secondary. At the time, it did not acquire yet its style described as aggressive for which it will be considered and recognized later. He plays then with a series of local English groups such as The Nicky James Movement , has off Way Life and Steve Brett and The Mavericks . At the 18 years age, it meets with Kidderminster that which will become his wife, Pat Philips, reticent to marry it during a certain time, fearing that it does not make a success of its career like beater. Bonzo then continues to reassure without stop on this subject. He plays for other groups of Birmingham as The Blue Star Trio and The Senators which publishes individual with relatively modest success, She' S.A. MOD . Bonham appreciates the experiment and decides to entirely devote the battery. Two years later, it joined has Way Of Life but the group quickly becomes inactive. In order to secure a more constant income, it joined a group of blues named Crawling King Snakes whose singer is the young person Robert Plant. During this period, Bonham is famous to be one of the noisiest beaters of all England: it often breaks the skin of its instruments and the clubs require sometimes that it stop playing during concert. At a session in a studio of Birmingham, the owner asks him to leave the places because he plays too extremely and that there is no future for such a noisy beater. Ten years later, Bonham will send a note with the mention " Thank you for the council on the carrière" , accompanied by a gold disc of Led Zeppelin.

In 1967, has Way Of Life request in Bonham if it can return in the group, which it accepts while remaining in contact with Plant. When this last decides to form a new group, Band Of Joy , Bonham integrates the formation naturally. The group recorded a certain number of demonstrations but any album. In 1968, the American singer Tim Pink starts a round in Great Britain and invites Band Of Joy to ensure the preview in its concerts. When Rose begins a new round later a few months, Bonham is officially engaged as a beater of the group of Rose. Other singers like Joe Cocker spaniel and Chris Farlowe will ask Bonham to join them.

Led Zeppelin

After the rupture which marks the end of The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page decides to form a new group and seeks a singer. Its first choice, Terry Reid had already signed with Mickie Most for a career solo. Reid proposed that he addresses himself to Robert Plant which in its turn advised to engage Bonham which had known Page at a session. The low one as for it was to be assured by John Paul Jones. Page was however undecided as for the beater and on its list were reproduced in particular B.J. Wilson of Procol Harum, Clem Cattini and Aynsley Dunbar. It is by seeing the service of Bonham for Tim Pink, with Hampstead in July 1968 that Page and its manager Peter Grant were convinced to have taken down the perfect beater for their project.

During the first round of Led Zeppelin to the the United States in December 1968, Bonham binds friendship with Carmin Appice, the beater of Vanilla Fudge . Appice presents to him the instruments manufactured by Ludwig-Musser, a mark that Bonham will adopt for the remainder of its career. Bonham uses the longest rods and heaviest available and that it calls the " arbres". Its powerful striking adapts well to the complex sound of the songs of Led Zeppelin. Thereafter, Bonham develops other styles influenced by the Latin music and the funk, as in the pieces Royal Orleans or Fool in the Rain . The sound engineer Tom Drowd remembers that Bonham was a solid beater, but whose sound came for much the use of the dynamic ones. Admittedly, he played extremely, but it was not a “noisy” beater, which would have been pejorative. Many thinks that its volume came mainly from the large case Ludwig of 26 inches. However, the large sound does not have often anything to see with the muscular force which one puts in the blow, it is more often a history of gesture. Bonham indeed was during a time the pupil of Keith Moon, the beater emblematic of the group The Who. It would be this same Keith Moon which would have found the name “ Led Zeppelin ” for the group: it would have compared the brutality of the sound of Bonham with the crushing of a " zeppelin of plomb" (" lead zeppelin" in English).

Its famous solo of battery, at the beginning called Pat' S Delight then Moby Dick lasts often more than 30 minutes and Bonham does not hesitate to use its hands to obtain other sonorities. After 1969, Bonham increases its panoply of instruments: Conga S, Timpani and a gong. Bonham is also one of the first to use the sound of battery resulting from a synthetizer (at the time of a concert in 1977). Its rates/rhythms will be sampled thereafter by various groups, of which the Beastie Boys ( When The Levee Station-wagons ).

In 1974, Bonham appears in the film Its off Dracula (produced by Ringo Starr) where he plays of the battery in a group. It also ensures the band of film while collaborating with Keith Moon and Ringo. Bonham also appears in the film The Song Remains the Same . As impassioned mechanical sports, it collects old sport scars and motor bikes in its family farm The Old Hyde . Its musical activity is not restricted in Led Zeppelin, it plays for Screaming Lord Sutch on the album Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends like for his/her friend Roy Wood on the album One the Road Again (1979). He collaborates with Paul McCartney, then member of the Wings for the project Back to the Egg . He ensures the rhythmic one of Everbody' S Got To Clap the Lulu, a song written by Maurice Gibb and Billy Lawrie.

Death

Unfortunately, its career as well as does not finish those of its fellow-members. Although he was always recognized like a heavy drinker, John, whereas he leaves for one evening sprinkled well, the September 24th 1980, only drinks according to rumor 40 shooters of Vodka in 4 hours. A little struck and more or less in its normal state, it calls a taxi to go to the country house of Page where a friend is who helps it to put himself at the bed. During the night, he vomits whereas he is unconscious and chokes himself. The next morning, Benji Lefevre, the assistant of Robert Plant finds it without life in his bed. Bonzo leaves in mourning his Pat wife, her son Jason and its Zoe daughter, in addition to the three other members of Led Zeppelin , who, starting from this date, will reform themselves never again officially to make music under the name Led Zeppelin . The beater Tony Thompson had been suggested, but the group announces its separation in December 1980. It makes some representations nevertheless: birthday of Atlantic Records and with the Live Aid, with different beaters, of which the son of Bonzo, Jason Bonham and Phil Collins

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Anecdotes

It would be John Bonham who would have composed the topic of the Kashmir song, but in a a little particular way: with its bouche.
John at the time of certain concerts a solo (of the music " played; Moby Dick") of Battery which lasted approximately 20 minutes and whose passage was done with naked hands. It thus posed its rods (its trees) in a corner to quickly take them again for the continuation of the solo. But this day there impossible to find its rods; he sought hopelessly on the left and with doite but always nothing. Then it continued to play with its hands while seeking where it could have put them. A few minutes later by raising the head towards its public, he sees the other members of the group, with the first rank, the rods with the hand which are marraient well. This day there, the solo lasted more than 40 minutes.

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