Robert Plant: A Life

Robert Plant: A Life: The Biography by Paul Rees
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Robert Plant: A Life

I have been a lifelong fan of the rock band Led Zeppelin and in particular the lead singer, Robert Plant. The Viking rock god as he liked to be known and a magnet to thousands of groupies and wayward women.

The 67 year old Robert Plant is surrounded by mystique and Paul Rees attempts to find a balance between the man, the myth, the music, and the darkness in this unauthorised biography. Perhaps one day Plant will write his own definitive version, although I doubt it.

Rees is the one-time editor of Kerrang! and Q magazines and has in my opinion conducted his research in exemplary fashion from other books and articles, as well as his own previous conversations with Plant and many of Plant's former classmates, band mates, and tour mates, some of whom were not afraid to speak candidly and critically. Nonetheless, for me this is a comprehensive record of Plant’s life from his early school years, through his early bands before being recruited by Jimmy Page to form Led Zeppelin with John Bonham and John Paul Jones. The band’s meteoric rise to stardom and idolization by so many music fans resulted in studio albums that I play to this day. Their seminal studio work: Led Zeppelin IV sold 25 million copies within months of being released in 1971. It contains their finest rock aria, Stairway to Heaven.

Groupies, drugs, and tragedy followed as Zeppelin's legend grew and the band dissolved after drummer John Bonham's death in 1980, choked on his own vomit after another mammoth drinking session. Plant reemerged as an ever-evolving solo artist who kept his distance from Zeppelin, rarely reuniting with his former band mates.

I have enjoyed most of Plant’s solo efforts, in particular his album Raising Sand with Alison Krauss. As Rees reports in detail, Led Zeppelin did finally reunite for one last concert in December 2007 at the O2 Arena. 20,000 fans were overawed with the performance, Plant and Page showing none of their on/off friction. Oh to have been there (I was one of millions of fans chasing down just 20,000 tickets without success).

This book is as good if not better than anything else I have read about Robert Plant. It provides insight into Plant as a man and a musician. I recommend it to any Led Zeppelin fan.

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A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ove’s heroic decency in the face of death and disaster is one of the most uplifting novels I have read this year. (His name rhymes with mover, but you probably know that). His misanthropy is initially very funny. His glass is half empty, people are disappointing, he fights a futile one-man war against traffic offences and he rails against bureaucrats, the "men in white shirts". Ove is fed up. So fed up that he intends to end it all. And how his efforts to exit this mortal coil are scuppered time and again are funny, tragic, heartwarming and related in short chapters, each of which stands alone as a beautifully crafted short story. Ove is a cantankerous, low-key, misunderstood man. I see much of him in me. Stitch these chapters together and you have the most uplifting, life-affirming and often comic tale of how kindness, love and happiness can be found in the most unlikely places.
Highly recommended.


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You Are Dead

You Are Dead by Peter James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Peter James does it again, just gets better and better. The chase for the unsub (sorry, I watch too much 'Criminal Minds') is as relentless as ever. The 'will they get there in time, won't they' chase is afoot. Is this getting just a little bit formulaic? Perhaps. I don't care. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is in usual 24/7 mode aided by sidekick Detective Inspector Glenn Branson - and the race is on! Around the streets and locations of my city, Brighton and Hove. Hang on a minute, characters living in Elm Grove? That's only a few streets away from me! It's the locality that gets me completely hooked - it's like travelling through the pages with my neural sat-nav switched on! Well, Peter James does it for me. And that ongoing event from Roy's past? Well, it's still an ongoing event from Roy's past. And that unsub? Probably the most diabolical that James has yet created. Is a serial killer at loose in Brighton? Do events get confusing? Are there plenty of red herrings? Are Cleo and Noah in danger? Did something happen in Hove Lagoon many years ago? Is English's Fish Restaurant mentioned? (Love that place!).
Buy it, settle down with a glass, or better still a bottle, of your favourite tipple and a bag of twiglets and embark on another helter-skelter ride with Roy Grace - and find out!

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The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy...

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like Tim Burton? This collection of nonsense poems is not Batman, or Edward Scissorhands, or even Sleepy Hollow. These creepy stories are unique. Twisted, bizarre, fantastic, even demented. But some are just so funny. Here's one:

SUE
To avoid a lawsuit,
we'll just call her Sue
(or "that girl who likes
to sniff lots of glue")
The reason I know
that this is the case
is when she blows her nose,
kleenex sticks to her face

Daft, and laugh out loud funny. Well, for me anyway!

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An Evening with JD

It's been a while. When was the last time I sat with a glass of JD Old No.7 over ice. I don't recall. I'm enjoying one now. Gentle aromas of caramel, vanilla, and butterscotch and that smooth smoky sweetness with a hint of licorice. A sippin' whisky. And as I enjoy this glass of Tennessee sour mash the memories come flooding back.... A magical night to remember...

A night in late April, back in the late 90s. A road trip from San Francisco to LA. A Pontiac Firebird, resplendent in red. Pacific Coast highway. Nights in SF, Carmel, St. Morro Bay, Santa Monica and Malibu. Malibu, a main street town on the beach. Malibu pier. The drive down was like living a dream.  Driving over the bridge at Big Sur...

Missing San José - always regret that. But my wife, my best mate Graeme, and I had a thrill ride down Highway 1. And in Malibu I realised a life-long ambition. To dine at Alice's Restaurant, the haunt of such legends as Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan. A pitcher of Margaritas,  some fine steak and a bottle of California's finest red. And the night was still young....

We had booked into a small, luxury hotel on Malibu seafront. Rooms with decks that reached over the beach. The tide came in below the decks. The hotel also had a seating area within the beautiful landscaped patio with a similar deck reaching over the beach. My wife went to bed. Graeme and I settled down on the deck with a bottle of JD and a large bucket of ice provided by the friendly proprietor. And we sipped whisky. We watched darkness come under a bright moon. We watched a flock of Sanderlings race backwards and forwards in front of the tide. We spoke little. And we sipped whisky over ice. And it was magical. An evening and night I will never forget.

Malibu, California, a hotel deck, Alice's Restaurant, Bob Dylan, Sanderlings, a racing tide and a bottle of JD Old No.7... Priceless...

The Crooked House

The Crooked House by Christobel Kent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had heard so much about this book by Christobel Kent that I had to jump it up my 'to read' queue. It has taken me much longer to read this than the usual time it takes me to finish a book, mainly because I have been occupied with other things. Reading this in a disjointed fashion has detracted from what is a pretty good, psychological thriller. The denouement come the end was somewhat unexpected but I found the last 40 pages or so rather tiresome. It would probably read much better over a couple of days rather than the amount of time it has taken me to complete. I won't comment on the plot or characters as so many others have done that and I would still recommend this as worth reading.

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The Taxidermist's Daughter

The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The year is 1912. I wonder why Kate chose that year. It's of no consequence however apart from setting the scene for a Gothic style chiller. 50 pages in, I stifled a yawn. Where is this going? What do birds have to do with this, apart from the theme of taxidermy. 100 pages in my curiosity was aroused. By page 200 I was hooked. Well and truly hooked. The pace quickened. The atmosphere darkened. The characters took on different guises. The location was wild and dark and chilling. A mesmerising plot line full of evil deeds. A Sussex location steeped in folklore and mystery. A horrid event comes back from the past to haunt the present. I raced through the last 200 pages, breathless, intrigued, spellbound. Well done Kate Mosse. The Taxidermist's Daughter is another classic that deserves my recommendation.

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