Jason Bonham

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Friday, October 15, 2004

Robert Plant and Strange Sensation preparing new album

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Robert Plant is said to be involved with his Strange Sensation backing band on a new album. It would be the follow-up to Plant's studio album Dreamland, released in June 2002. This June, the Web site of Strange Sensation member Justin Adams, www.justinadams.co.uk, hinted that the band had begun working on Plant's next album and that it could possibly be released in spring 2005.

On Dreamland, the singer covered seven songs that had haunted and inspired him for years. "I wanted to put myself and the musicianship of the people around me into these tunes and breathe some new life out of them," Plant said upon the album's release. The following August, he submitted eloquent words for liner notes in his career- spanning two-CD retrospective album, Sixty Six to Timbuktu. Expounding on his admiration for a lifetime of influences, he wrote: "I heard the voices of the high Atlas and pre-Saharan Morocco, the sound from the last juke-joints of south-side Chicago and the buzz of after-hours backstreet Bombay, performances so beautiful, remote and contrasting that I was never to recover."

Dreamland also included two new band compositions (the U.K. version also included a third), each of which is credited to Robert Plant and band. He has alluded to other songs having been written two years ago but not included on Dreamland. He also speaks proudly and extensively about the way Strange Sensation writes fresh material. "The musicians make this thing work," he said. His diverse and powerful band is currently made up of Justin Adams and Liam "Skin" Tyson on guitars, Clive Deamer on drums, John Baggott on keyboards, and Billy Fuller on bass.

In a message penned in August 2003 and included in the liner notes of Sixty Six to Timbuktu, Plant states bluntly that more creative output is on the way: "With abundant new material developing rapidly and connections in Morocco and West Africa moving at a pace unimagined back in '71, the future is ahead - bright ahead."

About the author

Steve "The Lemon" Sauer is a writer and musician based in Boca Raton, Fla., who has dedicated a portion of his life researching the history of rock group Led Zeppelin and monitoring the ongoing careers of the band's surviving members. Although he was barely a year old when Led Zeppelin broke up and it took him until his teen years to appreciate the music, it didn't take long to make up for it.

Steve is currently a contributing writer and consultant for Get the Led Out, a weekly syndicated radio program hosted by Carol Miller and syndicated in 100 U.S. markets including New York and Los Angeles. He also provides content for a Web site associated with the radio show, www.LedZepOnline.com.

In 2007, Steve launched Lemon Squeezings: Led Zeppelin News to cover the lead-up to the band's reunion concert at the end of that year. Since then, he has closely examined every rumor of a followup tour since then, often dispelling or clarifying misinformation perpetrated by the mainstream media. Using his journalistic training, Steve has also uncovered some facts and accounts previously unreported elsewhere.

At age 18, he began publishing On This Day In Led Zeppelin History, a daily newsletter detailing the interactions of members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, and their manager, Peter Grant. The newsletter is located at www.OnThisDayInLedZeppelinHistory.com.

He enjoys uncovering stories and has employed various methods to communicate those stories to Led Zeppelin's vast fan base, utilizing terrestrial radio and the many facets of the Internet: from Usenet newsgroups to plain e-mail and now Facebook and Twitter. Steve also connects with live audiences when performing as a backup vocalist and keyboard player with various bands, including past onstage appearances with three cover or tribute acts performing the music of Led Zeppelin.

Do you have a news tip to share with Steve? Do you have something you would like him to write about? Would you like to book him for a speaking engagement? He can be contacted by e-mail at Steve at LedZeppelinNews.com.

Other Led Zeppelin information from Lemon Squeezings

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