THE drive to create a permanent memorial to John Bonham in Redditch was born in the old Cafe Mambo in Church Green East.
There was a music studio upstairs at the venue run by Redditch stalwarts Sam and Clem Dalloway.
“We were talking about Redditch and Sam was saying the town had so much going for it, with famous people like John Bonham, but nothing was ever done about it,” said Ros Sidaway of Vintage Trax record shop in Headless Cross.
“And then we thought that maybe we could do something, and so we started raising awareness and fund raising. That is coming up to five years ago.
“I contacted the family and after a while, because they’ve had a lot of false calls, they gave it their backing, and I spoke to Deborah Bonham, John’s younger sister and a great singer/songwriter in her own name.
“We had different ideas and then through Deborah we started to receive donations from people the family knew before someone donated the final, big amount.”
The group contacted the sculptor Mark Richards who came up with an idea which was refined with input by the family.
Planning permission was approved by Redditch Borough Council in October 2017 and it was then a race against time to get it in place on Church Green in time for John’s 70th birthday.
The plan now is to hold a music festival in September in Redditch in honour of its famous son and the hope is it will become an annual event.
JOHN Bonham was born on May 31, 1948 at the Birchfield Road home of midwife Violet Jones.
It was lucky she was there in those pre-NHS days as the newly born baby’s heart stopped beating and although a doctor was called for Violet was on hand to bring him round and make sure he lived.
“He was a big baby and in those moments Joan saved his life,” said Ros.
The family home was in Meadow Hill Crescent at what is now Riverside.
They were a well to do family, his father Jack was a builder in the family firm.
He and his brother were educated at Wilton House in Worcester Road just off Evesham Street.
He then went to Lodge Farm Secondary School, now Woodfield Academy, where headmaster Gordon Anstis, famously said young John ‘would make nothing of himself’.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
“HE lived around Redditch all his life,” said Ros. “He met his wife Pat when he was 16 and they married early, their son Jason was born in 1966.
“His mum ran a shop in Hunt End and Pat and John lived in a caravan in their back garden for a while.”
The couple then bought The Old Hyde in Cutnall Green, which is still owned by the family.
In September 1980 they were rehearsing for what was to be their final tour of America, but John didn’t like to be away from home and his family.
“He liked a drink and they did the rehearsals at Jimmy’s house and then carried on drinking,” said Ros.
“He was taken to bed and when he hadn’t appeared by lunchtime the next day they went to find him and sadly he had died.”
