3 Goth Rock bands that Robert Plant said he likes

One of the most influential Hard Rock vocalists of all time, Robert Plant was a fundamental part of Led Zeppelin’s sound and songwriting. Beyond his incredible voice and technique, he was also a great partner to Jimmy Page when it came to writing lyrics.

Although he rose to fame through heavier music, Plant has always had a remarkably broad musical taste. To this day, he continues to pay attention to what new artists are creating — something he’s done consistently over the decades. He has even expressed admiration for Goth Rock bands, and Rock and Roll Garage selected three groups from that genre that he has praised.

3 Goth Rock bands that Robert Plant said he likes

The Cure

The first one is The Cure, the band led by the influential singer, guitarist and songwriter Robert Smith. One of his favorite songs by them is “Lullaby”, released on their album eighth studio album “Disintegration” (1989). “I love Robert Smith’s beckoning you into his vulnerability. It’s an interesting little world, like H.G. Wells’s History Of Mr Polly,” he told Q magazine in 1990.

Besides Smith, were also part of that song Simon Gallup (Bass), Porl Thompson (Guitar), Boris Willimas (Percussion) and keyboardist Roger O’Donnell. Curiously, years later in 1994, Porl Thompson (Who left the band a year earlier) played banjo and guitar on Page & Plant’s album”No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded”.

He once agreed with something important Robert Smith said

He also joined their touring band and the singer liked The Cure’s “Lullaby” so much that the song used to be included on the setlist from time to time. Porl worked again with Robert on the 2002 album “Dreamland”, playing the guitar. In 2022, when talking with Zanzana, the interviewer asked Plant if he felt like The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith, who had said: “I am to old to be alternative and too alternative to be old.

He liked the phrase and said: (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “That’s a very funny saying. Yeah, the thing is that I have no concept of age. I know that I’m not young in my years, but I know that my enthusiasm and my creative powers are stronger than they were for many years. So I can only exist doing what I do if really am compulsive and if I mean it, if I want it. And I want it badly. I want it because I’m a good singer and I want it because I have something to say. Robert’s (Smith) point is very good and very funny,” Robert Plant said.

Sisters of Mercy and The Mission

The other two bands are Sisters of Mercy and The Mission, who are actually related, since the second one was created by the two ex-Sisters members Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams. The Mission was even Plant’s opening act in the late 80s.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1988, Plant praised both bands and said they were really doing a good job. He mentioned them after being asked about bands that was supposedly imitating Led Zeppelin.

“The Mission are getting it right to me. The Sisters of Mercy too. They’re trying it, and they mean it. It’s not just a parody of a pastiche of a parody. If they nick a few chord shapes, that’s okay. But at least they’re doing it in the spirit of it. I prefer that to the pretty-boy-wailing department.”

“These guys, the Bon Jovis and company, when they weren’t selling anything, they saw the mechanism working. They saw they had to follow the now strongly dictated lines of the commercial process, to come up with the choruses and wiggle your ass at the right moment.”

He continued:

“There is nothing impromptu or accidental about it. It’s immaterial whether it’s hard rock or not. It could just as easily be – who’s that geezer with the really big nose you’ve got over there? – Barry Manilow. Fortunately, I had success before a lot of these new rules, so I can say, ‘F*ck it,” Robert Plant said.

Plant is a good friend of The Mission’s Wayne Hussey. But he also has a good relationship with Led Zeppelin’s bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones. He was the one who produced their praised album “Children”, released in 1988.

“It was no secret that we were big fans of Led Zeppelin. Especially me and that was a time when Zeppelin weren’t particularly fashionable. When we came to make the second record someone at the record company suggested John Paul Jones as he was looking to get into production.”

Wayne Hussey continued:

“We met up with him and got on great. (Jones) came to see us play at Elland Road in Leeds with U2 and we were diabolical. He saw enough in it to want to work with us. He was a lot of fun to work with and taught us a lot of valuable things. I haven’t seen John for about 10 years now. But I did see Robert Plant in São Paulo recently and it was good to catch up with him again.” Wayne Hussey told Metal Express Radio in 2013.

Both bands are still active, The Mission has released 10 studio albums so far, the most recent one being “Another Fall From Grace” (2016). Sisters of Mercy continues on the road but haven’t released a complete album since 1990. To this day the only records released by them are: “First and Last and Always” (1985), “Floodland” (1987) and “Vision Thing” (1990).

Wayne Hussey and Andrew Eldritch are the only original members still active in their respective bands.