Meeting Robert Plant for the interview is a real state act. There are strict conditions regarding certain topics of conversation in which the artist is extremely sensitive (this of course includes everything around Led Zeppelin), the timeslots become shorter and shorter (from forty-five minutes in the early nineties to twenty minutes in 2017) and since recently there is even a plan (due to the copyright process of 2016) for an assessor from management or record company. Which provides for an unrestrained discussion situation and above all one clarifies: The man has not only one problem, but equal several. And all have to do with the past, with his twelve years as frontman of Led Zeppelin, as rock star and sex god. "Sometimes it really seems like a curse," he confessed at the last eclipsed interview. "Like a thing that's been following me my whole life and that I just can't get rid of. Which is bad.
Primrose Hill between Camden and Regent's Park is a preferred London residential area, especially among actors and musicians. Robert Plant, as he reveals in his favourite pub Princess Of Wales, has had a "nice little house" here for years, but he only uses it occasionally when he visits the capital. Otherwise, he lives in the country, near the Welsh border. And until recently, in Austin, Texas. But since the separation from US singer-songwriter Patty Griffin at the end of last year, he has turned his back on the states once and for all. Which is one of the main themes on Carry Fire. Just like his personal view of the USA under Trump and the world in 2017, he has little sympathy and even less understanding. Although he expresses this clearly in his texts, Plant does not want to discuss his views further. Which makes him an exhausting, sometimes stubborn conversational partner. Someone who in principle does not want to talk about the past, but also not about the present.
In the mid-seventies Led Zeppelin had reached their second artistic zenith and documented this in a unique way with "Physical Graffiti", the band's only double album. Until today it is Robert Plant's favourite record with the group, probably also because the formation before and after has never been more expressive and multi-faceted. Released on February 24, 1975, "Physical Graffiti" was the first record in rock history to achieve platinum status through pre-orders alone.
GENESIS - 40 years of "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"
It wasn't as if Genesis hadn't explored the idea of conceptual rock art before 1974. After all, the band had previously released "Supper's Ready", an epic that spanned an entire LP page, and in 1973 presented songs on "Selling England By The Pound" that were held together by a certain idea of Britishness. However, Genesis had not yet dared to produce a record that would tell a coherent story from beginning to end.
ROBERT PLANT - Escape to the front
Already at Led Zeppelin times Robert Plant has proven himself as a very versatile singer. But on his solo records or with Page & Plant he often painfully missed this ability to change. But in the last few years he has gradually regained his old class.
He speaks softly, coughs again and again, because he is suffering from a nasty cold. Which is not really good if you are on a tour for several months and have a lot of press dates. Robert Plant was about to cancel it. But because eclipsed travelled to his hotel in Birmingham especially for him, he turns good mines into evil games. At first he tries very hard, but seems more and more annoyed, the more the conversation shifts towards Led Zeppelin. However, the 66-year-old is not allowed to complain about this: After all, he continues to play the Seventies legend's pieces live, shoots at Page/Jones on stage and is the one who blocks the reunion tour in public perception. Time for clarifying words.
eclipsed: Robert, you've been working with new bands since the late nineties. At the moment it is the Sensational Space Shifters, most of whose members have been with Strange Sensation since 2002..
ROBERT PLANT
The showman must go on
62 years old, nominated for the BRIT Awards - Robert Plant doesn't give the impression that he wants to hang up the microphone so quickly. On 22 January, on the verge of his two appearances in Toronto, Canada, the legendary shouter talked about how he became the musician he is today and why a Led Zeppelin reunion would give him nothing.
JOE BONAMASSA
Blues traveller
JIMI HENDRIX
I don't live today
When Jimi Hendrix left the stage in Woodstock, he had 397 days left. The period after 18 August 1969 was marked by personal problems and attempts at musical reorientation. Protocol of a year that ended on 18 September 1970 in London with the tragic death of the guitar revolutionary.
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Pink Floyd 2.0
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eclipsed is a music magazine based in Aschaffenburg and has been on the German market since 2000. It is aimed at friends of sophisticated rock music who want to go on a new acoustic voyage of discovery month after month.
eclipsed deals in detail with the rock greats of the 60s and 70s in the areas of art rock, prog, psychedelic, blues, classic, hard rock and much more as well as with the current scene in these areas.
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