Former LED ZEPPELIN Singer Returns To Solo Roots

BBC News has issued the following report:

Rock legend Robert Plant has paid homage to the recording studio which helped him launch his solo career.

The former LED ZEPPELIN frontman returned to Rockfield, near Monmouth, to mark the 25th anniversary of his debut album after the group broke up.

He was reunited with guitarist Robbie Blunt and keyboard player Jez Woodruffe for a book on the studio.

Plant said: "Rockfield was an absolute dream because it was pastoral, funny and had a fantastic musical history."

The visit was arranged by journalist Jeff Collins, who is compiling a history of the studio, which was founded in the mid-1960s by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward.

Plant, 57, recalled how he arrived at Rockfield 25 years ago this week, in the wake of ZEPPELIN's split following the death of the band's drummer John Bonham.

But he told Collins he had not been sure he would make the transition from globe-trotting rock star to a musician with a solo career.

He said: "As far as expectation went, I mean at the age of 32 when your career is finished, anything that came after that was a bonus really.

"I really enjoyed my being in this Rockfield environment. I had lived in this goldfish bowl in LED ZEPPELIN.

"All we knew about were shadowy figures that came in the night with bags of gear, and security blokes, so it was fantastic to come here and find this whole culture [of musicians] around Monmouth.

"You'd go down to the Nag's Head pub in the town and come wobbling back up here.

"So I moved here and became one of these dismal, happy, sad, failed musicians that other people cross the street to avoid."

Read the rest of the article at BBC.co.uk.