Robert Plant has hinted at plans to record an album with Saving Grace, the band he’s due to tour the UK with in December.
While being interviewed on “The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show” on BBC Radio 2 on November 23, Plant was asked whether he’ll release an album with Saving Grace or potentially a live recording with the band.
“Saving Grace is a bunch of friends back from on the Welsh borders, Worcestershire, and we do shows, very discreet, undercover shows,” Plant said.
“It’s a beautiful sound, a magnificent sound and it’s delicately tiptoeing its way to one day being yet another thing that we mustn’t know or talk about … so yes.”
Plant’s comments are cryptic, but they suggest that he does have plans to release material with Saving Grace, the band he’s been performing with since 2019.
Earlier in the interview, Plant used similar phrasing to discuss plans for further UK shows with Alison Krauss, saying “all through this morning’s show I’ve heard how many things are secret, how many things can we not tell anybody. So the answer is yes but the detail is at the moment vague.”
You can hear the full interview with Plant from 2:07:48 here.
Robert Plant has big plans for Saving Grace
LedZepNews revealed earlier this year that a British business owned by Plant secured trademarks for “Saving Grace” across Europe and the US in order to block anyone else from using that band name to release music or merchandise.
Plant has never taken out trademarks for his solo projects before, making this an unusual step that could indicate longterm interest in the Saving Grace project.
On January 23, 2020, lawyers representing a London company named Trolcharm Limited filed applications in Europe and the US to trademark “Saving Grace”.
Plant owns more than 75% of Trolcharm Limited, according to Companies House filings in the UK. His three surviving children are directors of the business along with Plant.
The business owns the copyright to much of Plant’s solo career and is frequently credited in the liner notes of his albums, including “Raise The Roof.”
The trademark applications, which were all eventually approved, include the following fields:
- Audio and video recordings including digital downloads and CDs
- Live music footage
- Posters, stickers and magazines
- Bags, wallets, umbrellas and luggage
- Clothing including footwear and headgear
Taking out trademarks for his musical projects is a rarity for Plant. He hasn’t applied to trademark the names of his previous solo bands Strange Sensation, the Band of Joy or the Sensational Space Shifters.
Plant hasn’t trademarked his own name, either, unlike Jimmy Page who does own trademarks to protect his personal brand including his name, his autograph and the word “ZOSO.”
The Saving Grace filings are the only trademark applications ever filed by Trolcharm Limited or any other business used by Plant to run his solo career.
The presence of trademark filings don’t always mean that the trademark holder will actually launch the product or service they have the trademarks for.
For example, we reported in 2018 that Led Zeppelin had gained the trademark for “The Led Zeppelin Experience” which covers the use of that name for a live show streaming service that could be used to allow fans to hear live recordings of shows from the seventies.
The band even asked Jason Bonham, the son of John Bonham, to change the name of his band from Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience to Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening to avoid confusion with the planned service.
But three years on, no such streaming service has launched and there haven’t been any further signs that it’s in the works.
It’s possible that Plant sees Saving Grace as his next major solo project, in the same way that he performed with members of Strange Sensation from 2001 to 2019.
Saving Grace was formed in 2019 when Plant teamed up with singer Suzi Dian in January of that year. The band had their debut performance on January 25, 2019 in Shropshire.
Since then, Plant has performed a number of shows with the band across the UK. They were forced to cancel a US tour due to the pandemic and scrapped the first half of a planned UK tour earlier this year.
The band has not released any music officially other than two black and white live performance clips it published to YouTube in 2020 on a channel named “nobody knows,” seemingly a quote from the band’s tagline used in its promotional material: “Nobody knows what it’s like.”
Robert Plant has 3 potential upcoming projects
A possible Saving Grace album now joins the list of Plant’s upcoming potential releases alongside the completed second album with the Band of Joy and a possible third album with Alison Krauss.
Last year, Plant’s website said that the song “Charlie Patton Highway (Turn It Up – Part 1)” from the “Digging Deep: Subterranea” compilation was the first track to emerge “from the soon to be released album Band of Joy Volume 2.”
Days later, Plant discussed the song in a BBC radio interview, saying “it’s just the three of us. There’s Buddy, Marco Giovino on drums and myself and it’s one of about 13 pieces from that session that is hidden away in my cupboard.”
But when the topic of a second Band of Joy album came up in an interview with Mojo Magazine, Mojo reported that Plant “winces at the notion of reconvening to complete it.”
And both Plant and Krauss have discussed the possibility of recording a third album together following the release of “Raise The Roof.”
Speaking to People magazine for its November 29, 2021 issue, Plant and Krauss were asked about the possibility of recording a third album together.
“I don’t see any reason why not,” Plant answered. “There’s a world full of beautiful songs that are waiting to be brought back into focus in a different way. I can’t see any reason why that shouldn’t work. What do you think about it?”
“Yeah,” Krauss replied before Plant jokingly added “Don’t get too excited.”
Krauss also hinted at plans for a third album in an interview with The Independent, saying there is “lots of talking, you never know! It has to be the right songs, so that’s what you wait for. If you get the right song…”
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