Robert Plant Signs Guitar Sculpture for London GuitarTown

by Staff.

Leave it to legendary Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant to add a folklore twist to the 10-foot Les Paul guitar sculpture he recently signed for the Gibson GuitarTown charity effort. The fiberglass guitar, with a look specially designed by Plant and hand-painted with acrylics by visual artist Mauricio Ortiz, has been named Armes Prydein, a reference to a 10th century poem written by an eccleisiastic who longed to see Wales unite with Cornwall, Ireland, Strathclyde, Brittany and the Danes of Dublin to oppose the English king and drive the English from Britain.

Said Plant in June of this year, "My earliest recollections in childhood are of huge waves of inquisitive excitement as I was drawn more and more to characters of myth and the incredible. The sailors and pirates who talked of creatures half woman, half fish: were these the same characters who inhabited the Mediterranean? Ulysses was saved from the lure of these sirens by the pouring of hot wax into his ears whilst lashed to the mast of his ship off the island of Vedra. I extended this idea onto the graphics of my 2003 album Dreamland. The design was appropriate because the album included a version of the magnificent Tim Buckley piece 'Song To the Siren' which contained some of the most evocative and beautiful lyrics relating to the blindness and helplessness of broken love.”

This unique guitar sculpture forms part of the Gibson Guitartown London charity campaign, which can be seen on public display around More London, South Bank, SE1 by City Hall through September 12, 2007. Following the display, Robert Plant’s signed guitar along with 29 other specially hand-painted 10-foot Gibson Les Paul sculptures will be sold to raise money for The Prince’s Trust, Teenage Cancer Trust and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy at a charity auction on November 8 in Central London. An additional 30, regular-sized Gibson SG guitars signed by artists such as Ronnie Wood, Slash, The View, Kaiser Chiefs, Depeche Mode, Mark Ronson, Lemmy, Corinne Bailey Rae and others are on display at The O2. These instruments will also be part of the charity auction.

Bidding for all the featured guitars will go live soon on www.juliensauctions.com/londonguitartown.

For more information on Gibson Guitartown London please visit www.londonguitartown.com.

For more information on Robert Plant please visit www.robertplant.com.

For more information on visual artist Mauricio Ortiz please visit www.mauritium.com.

Robert Plant about to sign 10-foot fiberglass Les Paul guitar sculpure. Photo by Jessica Long.

Robert Plant and Mauricio Ortiz pose with 10-foot fiberglass Les Paul guitar sculpure. Photo by Jessica Long.