John Henry Bonham
 

Would have been 76 today .
RIP God of thunder.

He was awesome.

Awesome drummer and a gearhead too!

……….

When I saw them in Greensboro NC in 1977 it was Bonham's birthday.
The show was delayed due to him arriving to town late - on a private flight.
The rest of the band was on site , on time.

Evidently the previous night was a night off and he chose to celebrate .... too much and too long.

When he arrived and they hit the stage , the sold out coliseum sang Happy Birthday Bonzo in harmony.
Never heard anything else like that before or after. It was wild.
I was a 13 yr old 7th grader.

He was really moved and really pumped by that.
Then they kicked it wide open until after 1am

More to the story , but the end result was the Gboro Coliseum banned Led Zeppelin from ever appearing there again.
Although that turned out to be their last tour anyway.

Not mine , but proof of date.
Its on eBay for $500
A lot of tickets didn't get torn in half or even checked when much of the crowd stormed the gates and doors and turnstiles upon forced entry.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/-AgAA...Fj/s-l1600.jpg

Good stuff, Baron!
I saw them at Madison Square Garden in June 77 (I grew up in NJ), must've been their next stop after Gboro. It was a school night; hopped the train into the city with my hooligan high school buddies & bought a ticket on the street from a scalper. Wild night, don't think I made it to school the next day.
Wish I had my ticket stub, but I still have an old concert t shirt & the program.

Cool story , thanks for sharing. Never heard that about the happy birthday.

Zep
 

I don't listen to Led Zeppelin often, but when I do, so do my neighbors.

Ties in well with the stereo thread that's been active.

My parents were very tolerant of Bonham and I thank them for that.

How many rock drummers have driven a top fuel dragster?

Happy belated heavenly birthday.

More often than not, when I drive my TA I'm listening to Zeppelin IV on the 8-track.

Does anyone here know any history about past cars he has owned?

One of my favorite stories to annoy one of my older sisters-
In ‘77 Zeppelin came to Chicago also. I was in 7th grade at the time, and lived in Chicago.
One day I get home from school and the phone rings. One of my older sisters, who was in high school at the time, figured it’s her boyfriend, so screams down that she’ll answer the phone. No big deal.
The next day at school my buddy asks very excitedly where I was after school. I told him I was at home. He said he called, my sister answered, and said I wasn’t home! Go figure.
Anyway my friends uncle was walking down the street in Chicago and found 3 Zeppelin tickets in an envelope for that night’s show. He called my friend and invited him, and said call a friend to come too! Well, I STILL rub this in my sisters face today, but jokingly. Back then, it was an ugly issue to bring up.
I also had tickets to their show in Chicago when I was in high school, but that’s the tour that got canceled because of John’s death.

That Model T sedan delivery street rod ( Built by Roy Brizzio) someone purchased after Bonham’s death and was untouched, think it had a freshen in the mid 2000’s and was for sale. Don’t know where it is now.

I was 15 in 1968 and Led Zeppelin was the first album I bought with my own money. Parents were not to happy when I played it, made me turn it down so only I could here it.
They are still in the top 5 favorite bands of mine.
Rest in peace John. Sad day

There is a YouTube video that chronicles some of Bonham's car collection.
He had many many cars of all sorts. But it doesn't show them all.
I came across the video a few weeks ago.

I think his dragster and Tbucket and Sedan Delivery and a chopper are shown in The Song Remains The Same movie.

I'm trying to honestly decide whether I would have torched her car , or poisoned her food , after that stunt. DAMN !

My cousin didn't get to go with us to see Lynyrd Skynyrd in 77 in Gboro because his mom searched his room that day (Friday) while we were at school and found a half ounce of pot hidden in his winter coat.
That was also their last tour.

Going off the rails here a bit -
But had another cousin and an uncle who were big Grateful Dead fans.
One year at a Gboro show the Dead came on stage just to announce that they would not perform due to the massive amount of counterfeit tickets that had been made/sold.
The coliseum was over packed in every square inch standing room only even in the breezeways and concession halls and entrance lobbies. (according to them)
There were still another estimated 5,000 -10,000 "ticket holders" waiting to get in.(according to newspaper)

The place went ballistic after the announcement and a wonder it was left standing.
Employees, Security, Cops - all abandoned the place as quick as they could.

Pretty sure the Dead was banned afterwards also.

No idea how to link a video..

Led Zeppelin is one of my all time favorite bands. Bonzo was one of the greatest drummers in rock history. I often wonder what other great music they would have made if John Bonham would have lived.

At Zeppelin in Gboro
The coliseum would not open the gates from the parking lot , or unlock the entry doors of the building.
Usually they would have opened up around 7:00 - 7:15 for an 8:00 show.

So we knew something wasn't right , right away.

The parking lot where probably 90% of us were waiting and waiting , was encased with a 7 or 8 foot tall chain link fence. Along the side where the entry gate to go to the building was , it had barb wire across the top.
It was a loooong looong walk to go back out of the parking lot and circle back to the building.
But there were people who did go to the building and banging on the glass doors.
We could see them doing it.

Finally about 8:15 they sent someone out with a bull horn to announce the show was being delayed but they expected it to play and would open up soon.
Rumors were floating about it being Bonham's Bday , and that their jet was definitely seen at the airport earlier in the afternoon.
Those were reports from the rock radio station people had heard in their cars.

About half hour later another bull horn announcement - the plane will be landing very soon and we will be opening the coliseum shortly.

Its almost full dark and starting to get real cool outside.
People are hollering BullSh*t and etc... because its already been said the jet was at the airport earlier in the afternoon. What the heck is going on.

Within a few minutes angry people are taking out anger on the gate more aggressively.
More join in , and they're pushing it and shoving on it.
My buddies want to join in - I told them NO WAY.
If it goes down there will be a stampede.

More join in , and more
Its bending more and more , then it goes down. Uprooted the poles.

We stay back and wait out the stampede.
A lot of people were trampled and injured and hospitalized.

The people who were already at the building and had been banging on the glass doors see the stampede coming.
They grab trash cans and bust the glass out of the doors.
All the doors get opened from the inside and people are pouring in.
Charging right past the turnstiles that were un-manned.
I knew quite a lot of people who still had their full ticket , un-ripped.

Ambulances and cops rolling in from every direction.
Some people were refusing to go to hospital so they wouldn't miss the show.
Just getting bandages and going onward.

We waited out most of the chaos and then we left the parking lot and went in.

That night none of us knew it was Bonham who was holding up the show and coming in on a private flight. I wonder if the Bday song would have went over as well if it was known to us.

But John knew , and I think he was probably extremely relieved when we sang to him.

The show didn't start until close to 10pm. iirc
But once everyone got inside there wasn't anymore anger at all.

The roof almost blew off the place when they took the stage.
Plant was trying to make some small talk over the crowd but it was useless.
They were all just bowing and laughing and glowing.
Finally he could speak
He announced Bonzo's Bday and asked if we would sing along - and he started out
Everyone joined in and you couldn't even hear Plant singing anymore.

He started banging the drums and then the night was on.
What would usually have probably been about a 90 minute show lasted almost 3 hours.

The coliseum was pissed about the delay , that caused the forced entry - but not a terrible lot of destruction. Just a damaged gate/fence and some broken glass.
But their manpower expense doubled due to the delay and the long performance.

That's why they banned Led Zeppelin