A rare drum artifact from late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham is attracting big attention at auction.
Heritage Auctions is auctioning the only known bass drumhead featuring Bonham’s personal symbol. The auction is April 17 and online bids are currently being accepted on the Heritage Auctions website. As of this publication, bidding is up to $21,000 on the rare rock music artifact
Bonham, singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones formed Led Zeppelin in 1968 and the group disbanded in 1980 after the drummer’s untimely death at age 32.
According to Heritage Auctions, the drumhead featuring Bonham’s symbol of interlocking rings was used throughout Led Zeppelin’s iconic 1973 and 1975 North American tours.
“The drumhead earned rock immortality in The Song Remains the Same, the band’s iconic concert film shot at Madison Square Garden in July 1973,” a Heritage press release noted. “It last saw the stage during the group’s legendary five-night run at London’s Earls Court in May 1975, and then disappeared into storage.”
During a bonfire set to destroy abandoned gear at the warehouse, Heritage noted, Bonham’s drumhead was rescued from the flames.
“John Bonham is widely considered the greatest rock drummer of all time,” said Garry Shrum, Heritage Auctions’ director of Music Memorabilia and Concert Posters said in a statement. “And this is the most significant Bonham artifact ever to come to public auction. It’s astonishing that it survived – and now it’s here.”
Heritage noted in its press release about the Bonham bass drumhead that “with authentication, photo matching and provenance included, this museum-worthy relic could set a new auction record for Bonham memorabilia.”
The timing of the auction, coincidentally, comes just after a new documentary about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group — Becoming Led Zeppelin — debuted on digital streaming. The film is the first-ever documentary about Led Zeppelin authorized by the band and includes new interviews with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.
Rated PG-13, Becoming Led Zeppelin opened in an IMAX-only engagement on Feb. 7 and expanded to additional theaters on Feb. 14.
Directed by Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty, Becoming Led Zeppelin debuted on digital streaming via premium video on demand on April 4. The auction for Bonham’s bass drumhead ends on April 17.
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