Bonham-Bullick Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers.

BonhamBullick

The Spirit Lives On!

Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers Photography by David Cunningham (except where stated).

“ ... it’s my brother, I’ve got to do him proud, but I’ve no business being in this business if I can’t do it myself ...”

Deborah Bonham is a woman on a mission and as she reveals in the following interview, it is one simply just “to make great music”. Bonham has been achieving this goal since releasing her debut album, ‘For You the Moon’, back in 1985, but even back then, it was clear that this ferociously talented singersongwriter with a voice capable of turning self-penned songs and always interesting choices of cover version alike to gold was never going to be one to rely on her brother John’s career and legacy as the drummer of one of the greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll bands to ever grace the planet, Led Zeppelin.

Following three further explorations of her seemingly boundless talent in the form of ‘The Old Hyde’ (2004); ‘Duchess’ (2008) and ‘Spirit’ (2014), 22nd April this year sees Bonham and husband / long-term collaborator Peter Bullick release their first album under the name “Bonham-Bullick”. This Blues, Rock and Soul-inspired eponymous release for Quarto Valley Records finds Bonham and Bullick, along with drummer Richard Newman; bassist Ian Rowley and keyboardist Gerard Louis putting their own masterful stamp on thirteen songs spanning the last seven decades and to promote the album, the band are raring to get out on the road for an extensive tour, which begins on 6th April at Barnoldswick Art Centre in Colne.

Firstly, hello Deborah, we hope you are well and thank you for agreeing to our interview, it is lovely to speak to you. Let’s start at the here and now, because 29th April sees the release of ‘Bonham-Bullick’, your collaboration album with your

husband, Belfast-born guitarist Peter Bullick, on Quarto Valley Records. Before we talk more in-depth about the album, how did you and Bullick start making music together?

I’m good, thank you! Thank you for calling me and doing the interview! Oh gosh, well, we met [laughs] thirty-one years ago! He was in a band at a wedding and he was a friend of the bride and I was a friend of the groom. And as a wedding present for them, his band played for them at the wedding evening and I was there and I got up and sang with them and that’s how we met. And that was it! And we got together and then, it was pretty quickly that we started being in a band together. And, yeah, it was as quick as that, as simple as that. I sort of stood at the back of the room [at the wedding] and I heard him play guitar and I’m really short-sighted [laughs], so I turned to my friend and I said, ‘Who the heck is that?’ Because I just heard him play one note and he had this incredible feel on the guitar and I just said, ‘Who the heck is that playing guitar? He sounds amazing!’ And then, the bride came over and I said, ‘Great band, who’s the guitarist?’ and she said, ‘Oh, it’s my friend Peter!’ [Laughs]. She introduced me and that was it!

Moving onto the ‘Bonham-Bullick’ album, this is a Blues, Rock and Soul inspired thirteen track album consisting of your own interpretations of songs from the last seven decades, so how did you decide which songs you wanted to put your own unique spin on and could you tell us a bit about the recording process of the album?

Well, that was quite a difficult process to find the songs, because, you know, when you’re doing these type of songs, when you’re covering people’s songs and some of them are big songs ... you know, there’s an Albert King song, there’s a song that Sam Cooke did ... you’ve got to really dig deep and do your own version but do it proud, you know [laughs]. So, it was difficult finding the songs, because every song that I heard, I kept saying ‘No, no, no,

that song is too precious!’ [Laughs]. So, it was a long process finding the songs and then, once we did find the songs, the recording process, because I’ve never done this before ... we’ve only ever recorded our own songs, so from the minute I kind of write them, I’ve got a pretty good idea about where the song is going to go. But with this, it with this, it was like ‘Okay, let’s take this song and let’s try it like this’. It was a process of like just trying to find out which way it worked the best. So, we would try it one way and I’d be like ‘No. No, that’s not working’ [laughs], so then we’d like try ... Some of them just came together instantly. The Sam Cooke song was a difficult one and I think because I felt it heavy on my shoulders that I’d got to do him proud, because I’m such a huge Sam Cooke fan. So, you know, we went through a few different ways and I just went, ‘No, you know what? Let’s just stop, don’t anybody play’. And Marco Giovino, who was playing the drums and he’s played with everyone [including Robert Plant and John Cale], he’s a top, top drummer, I said ‘Can you just drum and I’m going to sing? Just do me a straight drum and I’ll sing’ and that’s how it came about. So, yeah, it was very organic, you know, we just let it work it’s way and then when it was right, we went ‘Yeeeaaaah!’ [Laughs].

Organic is always the best way to do it, isn’t it?

It is! And it is totally, totally organic, completely! You know, if you try and force these things, they don’t work, you’ve just got to do it and see if it comes together and when it does, it’s brilliant and sometimes it just really doesn’t and we did have about sixteen songs and three of them, we just went ‘No, okay’. We knew it was a good idea to get more songs and then just whittle it down, because you can’t always know if they’re all going to work, you know [laughs].

I really loved your cover version of Sparklehorse’s ‘Painbirds’ (‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’, 1996) on your 2014 album ‘Spirit’, it was amazing!

Aaw, thank you! Yeah, well, you know, I’m a big Mark Linkous fan and I don’t know how it came about that we decided to just to do that song. We’ve always done one cover on each album. I think we did a cover on the ‘Duchess’ [2008] album [The Sutherland Bros. Band’s ‘Chains’, aka ‘I Was in Chains’, ‘The Sutherland Bros. Band’, 1972] and I think we did a cover on ‘The Old Hyde’ [2004] album [‘The Old Hyde’ features Bonham’s covers of Jerry Ragovoy and George David Weiss’ ‘Stay With Me Baby’, originally recorded by Lorraine Ellison for her 1966 album ‘Heart and Soul’; Little Wille John’s 1955 single ‘Need Your Love So Bad’ and Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘Black Coffee’ from the 1972 album ‘Feel Good’], there’s always been one and the Sparklehorse one, it was really left-field, I was listening to it and I thought ‘this would be great!’ And it’s one of our best songs live. When we do it live, it’s just ... oh, I love that song! And that was another one where we did it and, as we were doing it, we put our own take on it, but with total respect to Sparklehorse and Mark Linkous, you know, and it’s just one of my favourite songs, yeah. That’s great, I’m really pleased you liked that!

I did, I really loved it, because I remember buying Sparklehorse’s ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’ back in 1996 and I always really loved that album and Sparklehorse, so to hear somebody else other than Mark Linkous do that song was really good.

Oh, I’m so glad! Yeah, I don’t think anybody else has covered it to be honest and it’s such a great song! The original version is amazing and that album was amazing. So, yeah, it was great and we’ve played it in every live show, we always play that song and we always just let rip on it and it’s brilliant, I love it!

‘Bonham-Bullick’ features quite an array of special guests, including John Baggott (Robert Plant, Portishead, Massive Attack); Paul Brown (The Waterboys, Ann Peebles,

Bobby Rush); John Hogg (Magpie Salute, Moke) and Marco Giovino (Robert Plant, John Cale) alongside drummer Richard Newman; bassist Ian Rowley and keyboardist Gerard Louis from your live band and Paul Rodgers’ Free Spirit. This leads us to ask, when you set out to make a record, how important do you feel that collaboration with a wide and varied range of musicians is to the creative process?

I don’t particularly think about it when we start, it just presents itself. You know, when you’re recording, you suddenly go, ‘This needs this’. Like on this record and the previous ones, like on ‘Spirit’, I needed a pedal steel guitar and our band doesn’t have that. So, you just suddenly hear that and we go, ‘You know, it would be great to have a bit of pedal steel on it!’ and so that’s how the collaborations come about, so B.J. Cole is a great friend and one of the greatest pedal steel players. So, that’s how it happens and again, on this record, there was a particular Hammond [organ] sound that I wanted

Deborah with Robert Plant

and our keyboard player, Gerard Lewis is an amazing piano player, Wurlitzer player, Rhodes player and he plays Hammond live for us, but it’s not the great big Hammond with all the draw bars and he will happily say, ‘No Deb’ ... it’s great to work with people who know, who just don’t try and say ‘Yeah, yeah, I can do it’ and Gerard will say to me, ‘No, I’m not comfortable doing that’, so we then called our dear friend Paul Brown, who is just one of the greatest. He plays with The Waterboys and he played with Ann Peebles and Bobby Rush; great, great player. And that’s his thing, he is totally 100% a Hammond player. So, that’s how it happens. You know, you sort of hear parts and it needs that. So, it’s not that we sort of pre-think or I pre-think ‘let’s do this collaboration’, you know. Again, it’s all a bit organic, you know, it all sort of ‘We need that sound, who’s the best at that?’ [Laughs]. And luckily, they’re friends! We’ve got some great friends!

Going right back to the beginning, where did your love of music all

began and can you remember realising that you had a gift for singing and making music yourself?

Well, it just all began with my brother, you know, being in Led Zeppelin and from when I was six years old, so that was the band that completely ... I saw them when I was about seven years old and that changed my world [laughs], you know. It was that moment where it was like ‘oh my goodness!’ [laughs] and I’ve been trying to do that ever since, you know! [Laughs]. It was just incredible and so, yeah, that was the moment where I knew, it was mindblowing! And then I grew up in so music, you know, my parents used to play a lot of great, great music ... Big Band music and Blues and both my brothers, John was fourteen years older than me and my other brother, twelve years older, so my big brothers were always playing music and so, you know, all through Motown and all of that, the great Soul singers and then it would go into the West Coast music of Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Fleetwood Mac and all of that and so I just grew up with this incredible, eclectic mix of music. As to when I ... I don’t know if I ever realised I had a talent [laughs], I just always wanted to do it, you know! I don’t think there was a pivotal moment where I suddenly went, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a talent I can do this!’ I just had a moment of ‘I want to do this’ and that’s what I’ve been doing. Yeah, I mean, I’ve just always done it, so I don’t think I ever really thought about that, I just knew that was what I wanted to do.

When you started out on your long career in music, you probably would have been forgiven for going down the route of building a career on the back of the success of your brother John and Led Zeppelin, but it goes without saying, this was a route which you were very keen to avoid, wasn’t it?

It was, yeah. I mean, everybody’s tried it, you know, all the record labels I’ve been with, or people that wanted to sign me up, everybody wanted to do that. I mean, even from people chasing me to

do an album of Led Zeppelin Disco versions [laughs] to people wanting me to do a female-fronted Led Zeppelin cover band and ... oh my goodness! The offers have been out there and it’s just like ‘Nah!’, ‘No, of course not, no!’ I mean, the yardstick for me has always been Led Zeppelin, it’s always been my brother John and the talent, the amazing talent and the amazing music that Led Zeppelin, all four of them, made and to be honest with you, I sort of thought to myself, you know, ‘it’s my brother, I’ve got to do him proud’, but I’ve no business being in this business if I can’t do it myself, you know. I kept the name [Bonham]. You know, when I was very young, when I first started, it was mentioned to me, you know, ‘You’re going to come up against this, do you want to think about your name?’ But the thing is, I’m proud of who I am and I’m incredibly proud of what John did and what John achieved, so that was my goal, you know, to do him proud and, you know, if I can’t sing and I can’t do it on my own ... I know I’m going to get the whole Led Zeppelin thing, I know that’s going to come and I know people are going to ask me about that, but I thought ‘at the end of the day, I’ve no business being in this business if I can’t do it and stand up on my own two feet’. So, I made that decision to keep my name, but to go my own way, you know, and that’s sort of where I’ve gone. And it’s been a difficult road, you know, there’s no two ways about that, it’s not been easy, but that’s fine, nothing worth doing is ever easy. So, you know, it’s fine, I’m proud of what he did, it’s just that I want to do what I want to do. The goal has never been to be famous, the goal is to make great music. That’s all the goal has been. It’s never been to be rich and famous, it’s to be make great music. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do and even just trying to do that is [laughs] hard in itself! It’s not an easy thing, but, you know, I’m really proud of what we’ve done and I’m proud of this new album. And it’s the first time I’ve ever produced something totally on my own. And yeah, the Zeppelin thing is there, of course it is, he’s my brother. I can’t ever run and hide. Even if I had

changed my name, it would have come out. So, it was taken on-board, taken on the chin, ‘you are John Bonham’s sister; John Bonham who was the greatest drummer ...’ You know, I was only watching him last night and thinking ‘what a band Led Zeppelin were!’ and, you know, it’s part of me, so that’s it, you know, it’s always there, but it’s not all of me, it’s a part.

‘Bonham-Bullick’ follows ‘For You the Moon’ (1985); ‘The Old Hyde’ (2004); ‘Duchess’ (2008) and ‘Spirit’ (2014) and you were just saying there that this is the first album that you have produced yourself. How did you find this experience?

Ooh! [Laughs]. Challenging! Really challenging! But I absolutely loved it! I think Pete [Bullick] would say it’s because I’m a control freak! [Laughs]. I don’t think so, but he might be right, I don’t know! But it was very, very challenging, because the weight is on your shoulders, you can’t look to somebody else, you know, to blame [laughs] if you get it wrong! It was challenging, but gosh, it was brilliant! It was great to feel that pressure and to have to deal with it and to know that ‘okay, this is down to you!’ And also, it’s not just about producing the music, it’s about handling the people too, it really is a people thing, to get the best out of people and I’ve seen a lot of people do that the wrong way. I’ve worked with various people where I’ve seen them completely demoralise people because they’re not playing it the way that the producer feels that they should and that’s always angered me, you can never, ever ... what you’ve got to do is, you’ve got to let people ... if you believe that person is the right one to play that part, you’ve got to let them shine, you’ve got to let their soul come out and you’ve got to give them the space to do what they do. It’s why you want them on the record [laughs], you know, so let them do what they do! So, it’s finding a middle ground where you can encourage someone to play, rather than to tell them ‘I need you to play it like this’. You know, it wasn’t that type of production! People were bringing their thing to it, they were

bringing their game to it, you know, and I was going ‘Yeah!’, or ‘What about this?’ Yeah, it was a big challenge and one that I absolutely loved doing, at the end of the day. When I was in the middle of it, I was like ‘Okay, this is hard!’ [Laughs], but, now, at the end of it, no, I loved it and going forward, I’m always going to do it because I really, really enjoyed it.

So, it is something you will be doing again then? It hasn’t put you off or anything?!

No, no, no, I loved it! There’s new things I learned. It’s a learning process, it always is, you know, when you’re trying to make music or you’re trying to speak to people and deal with people who are bringing their thing to your record. Yeah, it was a learning process for me, but it was a great one! And, you know, I was just so lucky to have incredible people playing on that record.

Your first demos were recorded at Robert Plant’s house in a nearby village at the age of seventeen in 1979. You chose to send out the songs anonymously and this resulted in your first record deal with European label Carerre Records in 1985, for whom you recorded your debut album, that year’s ‘For You and the Moon’. How did recording those demos come about and what are your memories of recording those songs at Plant’s house?

At his studio, not with him, but he had a small studio in his barn and yeah, [laughs] I phoned him up and said ‘I want to have a go at singing [laughs], can I come over to your place?’ And I had my nephew, Jason [Bonham, John’s son], who was only about fourteen at the time, so we went over there ... you know, me and Jason just went over and Robert had told me that a couple of other local players would be there. You know, there was a guitarist and a bass player and my friend, who is on this album actually, Ian Rowley [bassist] and we just went over and did some demos and it was great, it was brilliant! Yeah, Jason,

good grief, even at his age, fourteen, he was an incredible drummer, [laughs] but he had a bag of crisps and Jelly Tots by the side of the drum kit and he was playing away and when it got recorded, the guy who was recorded us worked for Led Zeppelin ... he’s a guy called Benji Lefevre, he was the engineer and he’s a huge live engineer. He did all the live recordings for Led Zeppelin and he’s gone on to work for all manner of people. Back then, he said, ‘I’ll do it, I’ll record you!’ And it was brilliant, but when we listened back, he would say, ‘’What’s that rustling going on in the background?! I’ve got some noise going on!’ He couldn’t work out what it was, but what it was, Jason was playing drums with one hand and nobody noticed [laughs] because he was as good with one hand as most drummers are with two! So, he was playing with one hand and eating his crisps with the other hand [laughs], so we had this rustling going on from the crisp packet! Oh God, it was very funny! [Laughs]. So, yeah, that was the first demos. You know, it was a process. I looked at Robert and I said,

John Bonham with a young Jason

‘Well, do you think I can sing?’ [Laughs]. Poor Robert, he was looking at me, going ‘Well, of course I think you can sing! You know, you’ve got to progress it, you’ve got to work at it! It’s not that easy, you can’t just make a demo and think that’s it!’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay, so have I got to do some more then?’ And he was like, ‘Oh yeah! You need to get out on the road and go and show them your wares! Get out on the stage girl and, you know, hone your craft a bit!’ So, that’s what happened and we formed bands and went out and played gigs and he was so right! You know, I was very naive back then, because all I’d ever known was Led Zeppelin, so I thought ‘okay, you do a recording, it gets released and it goes to number one!’ [Laughs]. No, it doesn’t work like that! It didn’t work like that for Led Zeppelin either, they’d all been, you know, playing and doing their thing before Led Zeppelin existed. You have to go out there and hone your craft and it’s the live work that does it. It’s the live work for me that really is the key. It was just so hard during lockdown. Two years of not getting out

Deborah and mum Joan collect the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award for John at the Classic Rock Awards, 2009

there and playing!

2018 saw you take part in the Stars Align Tour over in the US with former Free frontman Paul Rodgers; Jeff Beck and Heart’s Ann Wilson. Was that the last tour you did before lockdown?

No, we went back over there in 2019 and we played the East Coast, which was great. We played at The Cutting Room [New York City] and it’s such an iconic, cool place and we played at Daryl Hall’s ... you know, from Hall & Oates ... one of my all-time favourite singers, he has a place called Daryl’s House and it’s a fantastic place, up in Woodstock, and we went and played that and that was absolutely fantastic as well! So, yeah, we did that in 2019 and that was the last tour and we were about to go back to America in May 2020, because the album was coming out then, but of course the pandemic happened and so, there were a lot of my friends, we all had tours booked for America and it just all went out the window and that was it. We were all on the phone to each other going ‘What’s happened?!’ But, hey, that’s what happened and now we’re coming out of it and trying to rebuild it back, you know. But the Stars Align Tour, that was incredible. We did the whole of America then and it was just phenomenal! Huge amphitheatres and yeah, it was incredible. Going to places I’ve never been to ... I mean, we’ve toured America many, many times, but this was a massive tour for us, it was fantastic.

That was an amazing line-up, with yourselves, Paul Rodgers, Jeff Beck and Ann Wilson!

Oh yeah, we had to pinch ourselves, you know, when we were on stage! We were like ‘Wow! Okay, that’s Jeff Beck’s guitar!’ You know, it was real pinch time, it was fantastic! Yeah, it was quite wonderful.

Finally, returning to the here and now, starting on the 6th April at Barnoldswick Art Centre in Colne, you have quite a few tour dates

coming up in support of the ‘Bonham-Bullick’ album, so what can we expect from these shows and what aspects of this tour are you most looking forward to?

That’s a great question! In fact, they’ve all been great questions, but that’s a great question! Well, we’re putting the new songs into the show, so that’s the difference. We’re still going to play all the old favourites and, of course, Sparklehorse [‘Painbirds’]! [Laughs]. But yeah, we are adding new songs and what I noticed, because we’ve done two shows this year so far, in January, and we played the Great British Blues Festival up in Skegness and then we did Giants of Rock in Minehead and we were almost like horses coming out of the starting gates! We hadn’t played for two years and it’s just like ‘Come on!’ [Laughs]. We’re carrying the baton, sort of going out there, going ‘Come on!’ So, yeah, it really is exciting! Because we haven’t played for so long, we’re so fresh to it and it’s exciting again! It’s like starting again! I mean, it always been exciting and it’s always great, every show is, but we have an added little thing going on now because we haven’t played for so long because of the pandemic. Because of two years of not playing, there’s that pent-up two years of not playing and it’s all coming out now! Yeah, at the last show, I was like ‘Good grief!’, you know [laughs], it was really, really exciting! We were only talking about it yesterday that we can’t wait, you know, to get back in the tour bus and get back to doing what we do. So, yeah, I think it’s going to be really very exciting!

Yeah, it is going to be great! To be honest, I could talk to you all day, but I better let you go! Thank you for a wonderful interview, it has been lovely to speak to you. We wish you all the best for ‘Bonham-Bullick’, the upcoming tour and for the future.

Aaw, bless you Alice, thank you! It was a pleasure! It was lovely talking to you and thank you for the fantastic questions and for your time also. Come and see us if you can and I’ll dedicate ‘Painbirds’ to you!

‘Bonham-Bullick’ is released on 22nd April on Quarto Valley Records. For all upcoming tour dates and other Bonham-Bullick news, visit the links below:

deborahbonham.com

www.facebook.com/ DeborahBonhamOfficial