When did Dave Fanning interview Robert Plant?
In Dave Fanning’s new book, The Thing Is…, he mentions doing an interview with Robert Plant on RTE radio in “late 1983.” But there’s no exact date. (sigh)
The reason this matters is that, according to Fanning, Bono came to the studio to meet Plant and listen to the interview in person.
Would love to find an exact date on this. Otherwise, I’ll have to add it to the current list of unsolved mysteries.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Hi Matt,
I have searched high and low for information on this interview but have come up with no exact dates.
Even some of the excellent Robert Plant & Led Zeppelin archive sites I searched have no information on this interview.
What I did learn is that Robert Plant started his first solo tour in the U.S. on August 26th until October 1st.
The tour re started in the U.K. on November 22nd 1983, and concluded on December 24th.
This website has extensive archive material, but only has 1 interview from 1983 aired on MTV:
http://www.robertplant.com/index.php/multimedia/interviews/?pid=0
From the touring schedule,
http://www.robertplant.com/index.php/tours/1980s/the-eighties-big-tour/
http://www.robertplant.com/index.php/tours/1980s/uk-1983-tour/
it is most likely that the Dave Fanning Interview was done prior to the UK tour, and that would put the interview during the period of mid October to mid November 1983. The period of November 22nd to December 24th 1983 is extremely unlikely as he was gigging almost every night.
Thanks for this, Donal — nice find on the tour dates. You’re right that it’s not helpful for exact dates, so I’ll have to keep the listing vague. “Late 1983” will work, I think.