Pageia Obscura: When Pagey met Percy

One of the most iconic aspects in Rock and Roll is the interplay between the lead guitarist and the lead singer. Through history there are an array of examples of this dynamic, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry, Axl Rose & Slash, but the granddaddy of them all is Jimmy Page & Robert Plant. This is the story of how they met...

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When the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, Jimmy Page was granted the rights to the name of the band, and determined to continue on under the moniker of "The New Yardbirds. He envisioned a whole new lineup of musicians to make up the group with possibly retaining Chris Dreja on bass. The Yardbirds were booked for a tour of Scandinavia in September of 1968, so Jimmy had only a short period of time to fill out the New Yardbirds.

At the top of his agenda was finding the appropriate lead singer, and at first he attempted to lure in more established names. Jimmy was ultimately rejected by everyone he contacted, however after speaking to singer Terry Reid, Reid suggested he check out a chap he knew up in the Black Country. Jimmy made his way to teachers training college in Birmingham with Peter Grant, his manager, in tow to hear this unknown prospect for himself.

Terry Reid

The band that this unknown singer fronted was named Hobbstweedle, which doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. The first thing Jimmy noticed upon entering the venue was the size of the blonde haired roadie, which he remarked upon to Peter Grant. Shortly thereafter the "roadie" hopped onstage, grabbed a microphone and began to sing. Jimmy was floored by singers performance and vocal abilities. He introduced himself after the show and thus met Robert Plant. There was one thing however that stuck out for Jimmy, he was completely perplexed at how this talented guy could be completely unknown...

Jimmy Page: "When I auditioned him and heard him sing, I immediately thought there must be something wrong with him personality-wise or that he had to be impossible to work with, because I just could not understand why, after he told me he'd been singing for a few years already, he hadn't become a big name yet. So I had him down to my place for a little while, just to sort of check him out."

Robert Plant circa 1966

Jimmy invited the Plant to his boathouse, Pangbourne on the Thames River in London to check him out. Robert came down shortly thereafter and they spent the day going through Jimmy's extensive record collection as well as listening to a few of the albums Plant had brought down with him. At the time Plant was very much into the U.S. west coast psychedelic groups, Moby Grape in particular, which Jimmy had seen up close and personal from his days with the Yardbirds and wasn't too impressed by. However they started to play old blues albums and really hit it off. Jimmy also brought out the Joan Baez number, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and described to a receptive Robert Plant about how he'd like to re-work it.

Pangbourne, Jimmy's Boathouse

After the meeting Jimmy was convinced that Robert Plant was just the man he needed to fit into what he wanted to do in his new musical venture. Jimmy invited Plant to become the lead vocalist for The New Yardbirds, to which Plant, after years of slogging it out in dead end groups readily agreed. Not too long after becoming Jimmy's lead singer, Plant suggested to Page that he check out his friend for the opening drummer's slot in the band. Jimmy acted upon the suggestion and headed back north to check out a fellow named John Bonham.

That fateful day in a teachers training college in Birmingham and the subsequent meeting in Jimmy's home on the Thames would have far reaching implications. On that day a friendship and a partnership was born that would last for decades to come, and would truly change Rock and Roll, and pop culture forever. For however good a group Jimmy might have put together without Robert Plant, it was only with the vocal abilities of the "Golden God" that Led Zeppelin was able to reach the heights that it did.

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant at the New Yardbirds first gig