KERRANG Magazine
Issue #152 August 1988

Physical Resemblance

OR: the voice remains the same. Is Robert Plant lookalike/soundalike MICHAEL WHITE the genuine item, or is he nothing but a misty mountain rip-off?

'MOBY' DEREK (OLIVER) dons a 'Kashmir' sweater and rambles on...

YOUR FACE or mine? Put it down to some bizarre quirk of nature if you must, but the similarities between vocalist Michael White and ex-Zepper Robert Plant are pretty damn spooky if you ask me. Take a gander at Michael's picture here, then pull out your old Led Zeppelin posters and compare the two.

The pout, the snarled lip, the high and mighty glazed expression and the mass of golden curly hair make for the perfect living replica of the world's greatest rock'n roll frontman.

Yet it doesn't just end there. Infiltrate the shrink-wrapping of Michael White's self-titled debut album, slap it down on your turntable and... confront yourself with classic Robert Plant vocals circa, say, 'Led Zeppelin IV' or perhaps, more accurately, Plant's first post-Zep solo LP, 'Pictures At Eleven'. It's a sound that initially gives you the creeps, but after a couple of spins there's a definite feeling of admiration and once that's established itself there's no stopping the enjoyment to be had. Kicking up a civilized storm, Michael White rocks his way through an amazing ten power-packed tracks of curious designer mayhem.

Often complex in structure, his material rambles around a variety of moods and tempos, never coming to rest in one particular niche. From gross-out and grandiose Metal such as standout track 'Dirty Dancer', to the light and airy-fairy wittering of 'One Good Turn', this is an album that will shock and stun.

White's voice, on the face of it a superb pastiche of every Robert Plant cliche you've ever heard, can hardly be criticized for lack of identity or indeed impact, despite the fact that it's not exactly unique!

However, listen closer and you'll eventually come to the conclusion, as I have, that poor ol' Michael is nothing but the victim of... yup, you've guessed it, a freak of nature. Delve deeper into those 'oohs' and 'yeah, babes' and you'll detect the very essence of wild 'n' wacky Stax men like James Brown and Wilson Pickett, geezers who Plant himself freely admits to be influences.

But what about the songs? Personally, I've yet to explain their similarity to a vast cross-section of Zep material. From stop-start jerky riffs to the lush orchestrated ballads and complex timings, most of the songs can be conveniently compared and contrasted to a plethora of Zeppelin material. Take, for example, the majestic swell of 'Matriarch', a song that manipulates a solid funk beat leading us to make the inevitable comparison with 'The Crunge' a Zeppelin number located on their wonderful 'Houses Of The Holy' album. There is no way, I feel, that all this could be entirely coincidental, although, I suppose it is possible...

So Michael, what have you got to say for yourself?

"TO BE truthful, and I know you'll find this hard to believe, I really don't deliberately try to sound like Robert Plant it just comes out that way. That's the truth and I wouldn't try to pretend otherwise."

Fair enough, but what about the aforementioned 'Matriarch' and the Robert Plant pose on the LP sleeve? "No way. I'm not going out of my way to model myself on him, but I can't deny that I do look like him. I mean, my hair is absolutely natural I haven't permed it or brushed it that way."

"As far as the album sleeve goes, I didn't have any say in choosing that particular photo it was one of over 200 shots taken and the record company (Atlantic) had the final choice. The stance wasn't contrived, it just happened to be the best shot so naturally it was used."

"Personally, I don't think 'Matriarch' is that similar to 'The Crunge'. Sure, it's got a corresponding progression but I wrote it more as a tribute if anything, to James Brown, so it's kind of difficult for me to think of it having anything in common with Zeppelin."

I'll give 'im one thing, he's certainly not afraid to stick up for himself! No way is he about to drop everything and freely admit, hands up, to being an active imposter.

But, as I hinted earlier, it really isn't that important anyway because Michael has delivered an absolutely stunning hard rock record, something that, in real terms, is actually better than the last couple of Robert Plant solo albums. Unwittingly (perhaps?), Michael White filling a perfectly marketable gap left open by the absence of any new Zeppelin product.

Even Robert Plant has effectively given the elbow to the earthy hard rockin' side of his roots, opting instead for a hi-tech minimalistic style, a factor that has seen his solo popularity decline considerably.

Frankly, I don't give two hoots whether Micjhael White is ripping off Robert Plant or Led Zeppelin because he's basically playing a type of music that I love dearly and playing it better than the originators.

Another interesting factor that you may wish to consider at this juncture is the success of Whitesnake's 'Still Of The Night' single, a song that more or less stripped the carcass of Zeppelin, utilizing every significant Jimmy Page riff possible. But we all liked it, didn't we?

"The difference between myself and Whitesnake is that although I accept I sound like Robert Plant I would never be that blatant about it. That to me is very serious marketing... Y'know, like let's sit down and put something together and fill a niche! Atlantic signed me because I write good songs and not because I sound like Led Zeppelin.

BORN 'N' RAISED in Long Beach, California Michael's first introduction to music came from a selection of small radio stations hosted by crazy DJ's dishing out music by the likes of Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Smokey Robinson (Michael's ultimate hero).

From there it didn't take long for him to discover the heavier more aggressive tones of rock bands such as Cream, Jimi Hendrix and, natch, Led Zeppelin. From that moment his fate, it seems, was sealed.

Getting to grips with a cheap harmonica, Michael edged himself into Felix, a band whose biggest credit, so he reckons, was playing a particularly ace version of War's seminal 'Low Rider'. Learning to sing, he quickly moved to a band called 'The Boyz' who, funnily enough, featured both guitarist George Lynch and drummer Mick Brown, now of course both members of Dokken.

Suffering a multitude of problems such as lack of cash and places to play, Michael opted out of the Boyz, by then a sinking ship, teaming up with guitar man Randy Piper (ex-WASP) to form a group called LA Rocks, a pie in the sky outfit that lasted just a few short months.

Checking back through Malcolm Dome's superbly researched feature on London (issue 151), you might have been transfixed by the quantity of famous faces who have passed through the band since its inception.

One name Malcolm didn't mention, though, was Michael White, who joined the vocalist at roughly the same time as Nikki Sixx was in the band.

Michael, being a bit of a star child, was ceremoniously ordered to glam-out in the time-honoured London tradition, but he refused and promptly departed-all within the space of a couple of weeks.

At this stage, 1979 or there abouts, he formed The White, a remarkable and highly profitable Led Zeppelin inspired covers band that at one time during its many incarnations featured the rhythm team from long-forgotten Canadian rockers Reckless, that bassist Gene Stout and drummer Danny Bilan (also once a member of Moxy)

Touring extensively throughout the entire North American continent (he estimates they travelled at least 60 times across the country!) selling out 2-3000 seat venues, The White achieved, for a group without a recording contract of indeed an entire set of original songs, an incredible level of popularity.

Not surprising, it didn't take the Led Zeppelin organization long to get wind of the White and their antics, with the result that Phil Carson, a long time Zep associate and then UK boss of Atlantic Records, put a call through to Michael expressing a serious interest.

One thing led to another with the end result that Michael found himself the proud possessor of a bona fide, big time, record deal with Atlantic, ironically the same label as Zeppelin!

RECORDED IN Munich and produced by Mack (a man whose first name is apparently unknown but who has worked with Queen, Rainbow, Doc Holiday and Billy Squire amongst others), Michael White's album took a little longer to complete than expected... "Basically, we started recording last summer and by November we'd completed 12 tracks",he told me. "Mack got a great sound that I'm very pleased with, even though my approach would have been to make it a lot rawer."

"Anyway, after we'd finished, I flew back home and suddenly went though a very creative writing period over Christmas, coming up with some fantastic songs."

"We then decided to ditch seven of the original numbers and flew back to record to record the new material earlier this year. Actually we did five tunes in three days... it was intense, but I think we captured a lot of energy so it was worth it."

"I wrote the lycis to one song, 'Psychometry', in the studio it was entirely spontaneous. Y'see I picked an old 1930's martin acoustic guitar, started strumming away and suddenly I had this real amazing song. The lyrics were just a description of what was happening to me, because Pschometry is basically a phenomena that involves picking up vibes and feelings from other peoples possessions."

"I think a lot of people are comparing my sound to Led Zeppelin for the wrong reasons and, to a lesser extent, through real ignorance. I write modern songs but I structure them to have a seventies feel."

"There's no reason to think that just because Zeppelin recorded back in the seventies their particular sound is no longer valid."

Helping Michael to record the album were a variety of musicians (too many to be individually credited), including Randy Piper, key board player, Alan St.Johns (Billy Squire band), drummers Bobby Chouinard (ex-Gary Moore/Billy Squire band) and Danny Bilan, and bassist Scott Gaines (an original member of The White).

And his plans? Well, throughout the summer Michael will be touring America, mostly stopping off at old haunts visited during the White days. Surprisingly, he's determined not to play any support slots with major bands, preferring instead to get a buzz going at grass-roots level.

Led Zeppelin purist or not, I'd recommend anyone with half-an-ear for high quality rock to purchase Michael White's album immediately-and you can do just that come mid-August when Atlantic UK give it a full domestic release, so you won't have to pay those horrific import prices.