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Deborah Bonham, the younger sister of
the late John Bonham, the powerhouse drummer
for Led Zeppelin releases her new album ‘The
Old Hyde' on Track Records (Cat no. TRA1049) on
18th October.
Born 7th Feb 1962 in Redditch, Worcestershire, Debbie
attended the Holy Trinity Convent School for girls in Kidderminster.
She left with O levels and A levels and studied business
diploma in French and Spanish…
Her home was in the cottage at the back of The
Old Hyde Farm family home in Cutnall Green,
Worcestershire. Her brother John lived in the main building.
Her Father, brother’s Michael and John built the
house. It was while she lived there that Debbie and nephew Jason
Bonham started playing and recording their first
ever demos. Deborah was only five when John joined Led
Zeppelin, but this powerful introduction sparked in her
the overwhelming desire the write and perform music.
After her brother John died in 1980, when Debbie was 17,
she was invited to Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant’s house
in a nearby town in Worcestershire which is where she recorded
her first proper demos. Encouraged and advised by Robert,
she sent out the demos anonymously and soon landed her
first record deal with the major label Carrere Records,
for whom she recorded the critically acclaimed album ‘For
You and the Moon’. The album reached the
top 5 in the NME chart, was Simon Bates record of the week
on Radio 1 and sold extremely well in Europe, being voted "Record
of the Year" by Musik Mart
In the mid 90’s Deborah got a new band together,
rehearsed new songs for an album and toured regularly to excellent
reviews, honing a new direction for the forthcoming album.
The beginning of 1997 saw two extremely successful trips
to the US. Firstly, she performed live on LA's Rockline
radio to three million listeners throughout North America
and Canada, as a special guest of John's son, Jason Bonham.
This was followed by a special appearance with Jason and
his band at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles, where she
was incredibly well received.
The success of the first trip led to another visit to
the US with her band to open for Jason's shows in Dallas,
Fort Worth, Houston and New York. Subsequently, another
three month tour with Jason was secured.
Since then Deborah has been dividing her writing songs
for her new album, touring and working tirelessly for the Moorcroft
Race Horse Welfare Centre -
As well as being on the board of directors of the Moorcroft
Centre, she has put together two fund-raising concerts
where her band (with guest appearances of Surrey and England
cricketer Mark Butcher), Donovan,
Kenney Jones Gang, Tony Moore and others have
participated raising many thousands of pounds for this
charity that is dear to her heart.
Deborah’s new album is a stunning array of blues
mixed with ballads and rock, the title track being a ballad
written about the house that Deborah was raised on. Produced
by Mo Foster (of Phil
Collins, Jeff Beck and Van Morrison fame),
the album features guest appearances from, Mick
Fleetwod, Robert Plant guitarists Robbie
Blunt and Dougie Boyle, Pretenders/Paul
McCartney's guitarist Robbie Mckintosh and Jason
Bonham plays powerhouse drums throughout.
Deborah will be touring to support this release this Autumn
through December, by means of club dates and special
guest slot’s on the Jool’s Holland tour this
coming autumn. The live line up includes Jerry
Shirley ondrums (founder and
former member of Humble Pie).
Deborah enjoys a high profile on www.led-zeppelin.com and
support of LZ fanbase.She certainly keeps
good company. At the 2001 Memorial Concert for Stevie
Marriott she performed with Humble Pie (the original
line up, the drummer Jerry Shirley has sinced joined her
touring band), Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher and
original Small Faces men Ian Maclagen and Kenny
Jones. She went down so well that she was asked
back for the Ronnie Lane Memorial Concert
in 2004 at the Royal Albert Hall on the bill with Ocean
Colour Scene, Paul Weller, Pete
Townsend and Ronnie Wood, Kenney
Jones, Sam Brown and Slim
Chance.
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