Obs-Tweedle

Obs-Tweedle
Years active	1968
Status	Defunct
Origin	Walsall, West Midlands
Music genre(s)	Blues rock, Rock
Members	Robert Plant Bill Bonham Richard Brown Mac Bailey Barry Sargeant

Obs-Tweedle was a Walsall-based 1960s rock band notable for singer Robert Plant's appearance prior to joining Led Zeppelin. The band also featured Bill Bonham, a cousin of future Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, on keyboards and piano, and Noddy Holder as the band's "roadie".

Overview

Contrary to popular myth, the band name was never titled Hobbstweedle or connected with J. R. R. Tolkien literature. The name Obs-Tweedle originated from Bill Bonham's father, who randomly selected obscure words from a dictionary when they couldn't agree on any names. Obs is an abbreviation for 'obscure' and Tweedle for 'sound'.

The band were originally known as The Answer, a group which had toured Europe, and renamed themselves after ex-Band of Joy singer Robert Plant joined their line-up. Plant and his future wife Maureen Wilson were in the audience at one gig at Dudley Zoo to see The Answer perform, when Plant was invited to join the band after their singer Tommy Burton experienced a bout of food poisoning. Both Bill Bonham and Plant lived in upstairs rooms at the 3 Men In a Boat pub in Beechdale estate, a venue which the band also used for rehearsals. The 3 Men In a Boat pub was owned by Bill Bonham's father, and would also be the future destination in which manager Peter Grant would sent dozens of telegrams to get local John Bonham to sign-up with Led Zeppelin. As Plant recalled in Q magazine:

I had nowhere to live and the keyboards player's dad had a pub in Wolverhampton with a spare room. The pub was right over the road from Noddy Holder's father's window cleaning business, and Noddy used to be our roadie. We used to go to gigs with Noddy Holder's dad's buckets crashing around on top of the van!

Other members which passed through the Obs-Tweedle line-up included Richard Brown on guitar, Mac Bailey on drums, and Barry Sargeant on drums. Their music was influenced by the West Coast sounds of America, in particular Moby Grape and Buffalo Springfield, of which Plant was a fan. Plant later admitted 'the band overplayed and there was a lot of hubbub and flash but no real content'. The band recorded a number of songs for a demo on 15 May 1968, but these tracks have never surfaced since with their current status unknown. Songs recorded included covers of 'Mr. Soul', and 'Rock and Roll Woman', with local producer and engineer Terry Rowley (from The Montanas and Trapeze).

Led Zeppelin

It was whilst performing with this band at the West Midlands College of Education in Birmingham on 20 July 1968, that Yardbirds Jimmy Page, Chris Dreja, and manager Peter Grant first saw Plant. Page had been recommended Plant by Terry Reid, who had been Page's first choice vocalist for what would become Led Zeppelin. As Grant recalled later:

This big guy [Plant] with a University of Toronto sweatshirt appeared to let us in backstage and I remember Jimmy saying, 'Crikey, they've got a big roadie!' He came back and it turned out to be Robert Plant! Jimmy loved Robert straight away

After hearing him sing, Plant was subsequently invited to Page's home in Pangbourne, Berkshire to discuss musical ideas and was offered the job of vocalist at the end of July 1968. Obs-Tweedle folded after Plant left to join Led Zeppelin, with Bill Bonham eventually performing on keyboards and bass for Terry Reid and other artists.