Express & Star

Jason Bonham beats it to the Black Country

Black Country by name Black Country by nature. When Jason Bonham sits behind his drum kit for new rock supergroup Black Country Communion's debut concert at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, he knows it will be an emotional occasion.

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Black Country by name Black Country by nature. When Jason Bonham sits behind his drum kit for new rock supergroup Black Country Communion's debut concert at Wolverhampton Civic Hall this month, he knows it will be an emotional occasion.

"I think I'll be a teary eyed lump!" laughs the 44-year-old Dudley-born drummer, son of Led Zeppelin's sticks man, the legendary John 'Bonzo' Bonham, who died, aged 32 in 1980.

"It's just nice to come home to my mates. They all texted me and they all went out and bought the album themselves and bought the tickets. They didn't ask me for anything. They just said 'We weren't going to miss you'.

"So to me just to start it there where we always joked with the two Yanks 'We've got to start there' - I think that night will be particularly emotional."

The two Yanks he refers to are guitarist Joe Bonamassa – already a leading light with his own hugely successful blues rock solo career – and Derek Sherinian, former keyboard player with Dream Theater.

Fronting Black Country Communion is Cannock-born "Voice of Rock" Glenn Hughes, famous for his time in Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and for stepping in to help Heaven & Hell celebrate the life of Ronnie James Dio at this summer's High Voltage festival.

Bonham family legend has it that Jason was already following in his father's footsteps from the age of three and that he would regularly play drums for whichever rock star friends were staying at the family home near Droitwich.

Was one of those Glenn Hughes?

"Well, apparently he was," says Bonham, now based in Florida, his memory clearly not stretching back that far.

"My biggest memory was Bad Company. I was playing Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy, from Desolation Angels, and they'd just played Birmingham Odeon (in 1979, so Bonham would have been 13). I remember playing it and Paul Rodgers turned to Simon Kirke and said 'Your fired'! "

Although he may not remember playing drums for Hughes, he adds: "Glenn is an old family friend. Mum knew him from the old Lafayette days, going back many, many years. I'd met him on different occasions in LA back in our 'dark past' when I really don't remember much about it."

But following the breakneck recording session for the debut Black Country Communion album Hughes paid Jason "one of the greatest compliments I could ever have asked for".

"He said 'I've got to play with both Bonzos - you and your Dad'. To be classed a Bonzo is a compliment to me."

The album was been critically and commercially well received, with plenty of praise for Bonham's contribution.

"I'm very grateful," he says. "It's been a long process since I was three. When you're living in the shadow of one of the greatest drummers in the world, if not the greatest rock and roll drummer of all time, to have any kind of identity is difficult. I always like it if I'm doing something on my own and doing something without the Led Zeppelin camp – which I love - it's a very nice proud moment when you do something of your own."

So what would Dad have thought of the album?

"I think he would have liked it. I think we'd have had a conversation about some of the things that go on in the last track Too Late For The Sun, and the jam at the end. Somebody said to me you can tell it's a different era, you can tell you now have other influences."

When he was approached to join Black Country Communion by producer Kevin Shirley, Bonham admits that at first he treated it as "just another session".

It was in the aftermath of the Led Zeppelin reunion concert at the O2 Arena in London in 2007 where Jason stood in for his father on drums and after which he, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones – but crucially not Robert Plant – began working on new material. That project fell apart however.

"That's how I kind of took it," says Bonham, "as a kind of a session. I was still in the doldrums of what could have been and what had just happened. I'd been working with Jimmy and John even though Robert wasn't going to work.

"We were starting to do stuff and I'm still hoping to come up with one of the ideas I had for that to be finished with this project. Much as I would love to finish it with Jimmy and John I would just like to continue with it.

"It was really fun times, even though nothing really happened with it. I treasure playing with them as an adult

"The O2 was a good one, I've got it all in my head. The '88 one I did (at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert) I remember counting it in and then I remember the ending song! And that wasn't because I was out of it. I don't know why but I don't have any great memories of that one.

"But I remember the O2 from every point where I thought to myself 'I wish I hadn't done that' or 'I'm glad I did that'. Everyone said how did you cope with the pressure? The pressure was just trying to impress the three guys on stage and not worry about anybody else. Everyone played on top of their game. I think it was a hungry Led Zeppelin again.

"For me to be classed as Led Zeppelin's drummer was the proudest moment of my life. Having one night, and if it does come out on DVD, to have a product with my name on it would give me a real sense of accomplishment.

"Since I lost Dad it was really one of my golden dreams to sit in his seat and just feel what he felt."

But now his whole focus is on Black Country Communion's concert at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Wednesday, December 29, 2010, apart from two industry showcases, the first full fee-paying concert of the band's career.

"The whole Black County thing, I'm so looking forward to that gig. We've got a few surprises planned. There are things in there that will bring the place to a crescendo and craziness. So I really, really am looking forward to it.

"And the family's going to be there . . . it'll be another of those 300+ guest lists, all my cousins from the Heaths and the Brierley Hills and the Halesowens and the Quarry 'Bonk's, he laughs.

"To everyone in the Midlands and to everyone who has supported me, I'm just really looking forward to coming home."

* Black Country Communion play Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Wednesday December 29, 2010. Tickets are £45 and £40 plus booking fees.

By Ian Harvey

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