Robert Plant: A Life (44 page)

Dave “Rowdy” Yeats, proprietor of the Groove Record Shop in Stourbridge, a regular haunt of Plant’s during the mid ’60s.

(© David Yeats)

Plant, top left, with Listen in 1966. “He was very popular with the girls,” said guitarist John Crutchley, top right.

(© John Crutchley)

Plant on his ill-starred Legalise Pot march, August 1967. Shirley Wilson is to his immediate left.

(© Redferns)

Plant and John Bonham (with moustache) with the third incarnation of the Band of Joy, circa 1968. “A number could go on for 10, 15 minutes—God help the poor audience.”

(© Redferns)

Plant and Jimmy Page on stage at the New Yardbirds’ first gig at Teen-Clubs in Gladsaxe, Denmark, September 7, 1968. “Straight away, we could see the power of it,” said Page.

(© Redferns)

Plant at the time of his joining the New Yardbirds. “He seemed sort of God-like.”

(© Redferns)

Led Zeppelin come together in London, 1968: from left—John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham.

(© Redferns)

On stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall, June 29, 1969. “It was like a rocket going up their fucking arses!”

(© Mirrorpix)

Plant somewhere in America during the heady days of 1969. “All around me galaxies were going, ‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’ I absorbed it all like moon dust.”

(© Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Zeppelin arriving in Hawaii in May 1969 with the Led Zeppelin II master tapes.

(© Redferns)

Shelter from the storm: Plant at home with his wife Maureen and their daughter Carmen, 1969.

(© Camera Press/© Randolph)

Plant and friend at his sanctuary, Jennings Farm. “I was incredibly fortunate to have the decompression chamber of that and my family.”

(© Camera Press/© Randolph)

The proverbial hippy and his bird at the Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, June 2, 1973. “It was like walking into the lion’s den.”

(© James Fortune/Rex Features)