Artist: BONHAM [LED ZEPPELIN]
Album: MAD HATTER RE-ISSUE (CD)

Release date: 1992/ 2012
Media type: CD

There was, nevertheless, to be a second Bonham album – 1992’s ‘Mad Hatter’, which you hold in your hands here. The three years that passed since ‘…Timekeeping’ had seen a major climate change in the rock world. Nirvana and the grunge wave was blowing so-called ‘hair metal’ out of the window. There appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel when Sharon Osbourne became Bonham's manager and according to MacMaster she ‘was really great for the band, she kept us in check.’ But the union proved tantalisingly brief. ‘If she had continued on with us things may have turned out differently...’

‘Mad Hatter’ was written in Spain and recorded in England by the same line-up as the first album, the multi-talented Smithson also contributing violin. Additional musicians included the Tower of Power horn section who beefed up the title track, and percussionist Craig Neil. The band co-produced with Tony Platt, whose former clients included Uriah Heep and Motцrhead.

‘Bing’ opens the album in combative fashion, and it’s hard not to be transported back to the halcyon days of Zep. The title track precedes ‘Change Of A Season’, the longest and most ambitious track on the album. MacMaster highlighted ‘The Storm’ as his favourite song, with its overtones of ‘Kashmir’. It’s impossible not to think Zeppelin with the discordant chords of ‘Ride On A Dream’, while the acoustic-intro’d ‘Good With The Bad’ is similarly evocative of ‘Stairway To Heaven’.

‘Backdoor’ was one of three tracks to feature vocal sweetening from backing singers Gordon Grody (ex-Riot) and Terry Brock. ‘They turned out all right,’ said MacMaster, but the songs were not able to cross over to radio in the same way ‘Wait For You’ from the first album had.

Guest harmonica-player Jimmy Zee added variety to ‘Los Locos’, while the closing ‘Chimera’ was a moody, emotional song MacMaster had written for his mother (all songs bore the four musicians’ names). But it was also the singer’s major disappointment. ‘I really like the song but I guess its one of those (that), when its finished, its never really finished. Sometimes you beat yourself up as a writer ‘cos you’re like “it’s done…no…it is…it isn't.”’

The same indecision was felt about the album as a whole by Bonham’s record label Epic. They heard the finished article and, possibly sensing heavy rock’s temporary unfashionability, were only partially impressed. They wanted a few more commercial numbers on the album, which meant that, having completed recording with Tony Platt, Bonham had to return to the studio and record more songs with US producer/remixer Ron Saint Germain.

Reviews of the album reflected the Zeppelin influence, inevitable given the singer’s Plant-esque tones, the prominence of drums in the mix, the drummer himself and the instrumental format. Unsurprisingly the consensus was that the result, while impressive in many respects, did not challenge the ‘real thing’. So who could blame Jason Bonham for accepting the inevitable and closing the chapter?

TRACKLIST:

01 Bing
02 Mad Hatter
03 Change Of A Season
04 Hold On
05 The Storm
06 Ride On A Dream
07 Good With The Bad
08 Backdoor
09 Secrets
10 Los Locos
11 Chimera