Band of Joy was originally formed in West Bromwich by Vernon Pereira, who later died in a tragic road accident when his then band’s (Possessed) van was in a road traffic accident.

The earliest formation of the group was formed in 1966 by Robert Plant and consisted of:

*Robert Plant (lead vocals)
*Pete Robinson (drums)

Plant had already issued one single with his former band and two solo singles for CBS records. Despite this, Plant got fired from BOJ the following year when the bands manager decided he couldn’t sing. He went on to try and form his own Band of Joy, but it didn’t last long and therefore rejoined the original line-up.

The 1967 line-up:
*Robert Plant (vocals)
*Former Crawling Kingsnake members, Kevin Gammond (guitarist) and John Bonham (drummer)
*Paul Lockey (bassist)
*Chris brown (keyboard)

This line-up recorded several demos intended for single release at Regent Studios in London. These included a version of Buffalo Springfield’s, ‘For What It’s Worth’ and Jimi Hendrix’s, ‘Hey Joe.’ One that did get released was, ‘Adriatic Sea’ on the American compilation, ‘Turds on a Bum Ride Volume 5′. However,the band broke up in May 1968 when a recording contract failed to materialise.

Plant and Bonham eventually joined Led Zeppelin. Gammond and Lockey subsequently formed the country-rock band Bronco, with singer Jess Roden, bassist John Pasternak, drummer Pete Robinson, and guitarist Robbie Blunt. They made two albums before breaking up after a serious road accident.

In 1977 Gammond and Lockey revived the Band of Joy with Pasternak, Robinson, and Michael Chetwood (keyboardist). The group released a second album in 1983 before breaking up.

Gammond later joined Plant in the Priory of Brion from 1999 to 2001.