Music The strange connection between Jimmy Page and Michael Caine
Celebrity circles can often turn out to be a lot smaller than most people realise, which comes with the territory when the high-flying and jet-setting rich and famous operate on an entirely different plane of wealth and existence to almost everyone else. As a result, Michael Caine and Jimmy Page established an unlikely connection rooted in the quiet surroundings of the countryside.
Of course, Caine was no stranger to finding himself surrounded by unlikely associates, having once told the story of how he went out of his way to avoid becoming friends with the notorious Kray twins, who were born a matter of miles away from Maurice Micklewhite in the very same year before they became regular fixtures of London’s nightclub scene in the 1960s.
Around the same time, following the breakup of The Yardbirds, Page would go on to form Led Zeppelin, which saw him become a part of one of the best-selling musical acts of all time, a titanic presence in the history of rock, and a legendary guitarist who would go on to inspire multiple generations.
Unfortunately, the link between Page and Caine would result in not just tragedy, but a seismic moment in the former’s personal and professional life. In 1980, the guitarist purchased a home from the esteemed actor for £900,000 in Clewer, roughly 25 miles west of London. Dubbed Old Mill House, the property was enshrined in Led Zeppelin folklore for all the wrong reasons the very same year.
After rehearsing for an upcoming tour of America, the band retired to Old Mill House for the evening, with drummer John Bonham discovered unresponsive the following day and declared dead at the age of 32 on September 25th, 1980. Stricken by grief, Led Zeppelin was disbanded in the aftermath and have largely resisted any and all temptations and/or offers to stage a full-blown reunion ever since, bar the very occasional one-off performance featuring Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones.
Page would eventually sell the property – but ended up purchasing it again – and then selling it on once more. These days, Old Mill House finds itself available for rental on Airbnb, with the listing making a point of noting that the Led Zeppelin legend and two-time Oscar-winner Caine are among its former owners.
Bonham’s death had a monumental impact on the life and career of Page, but it wasn’t until a decade after his friend and bandmate had passed away inside the property that he put it on the market. Even at that, the fact he bought it for a second time indicates there’s a connection to Old Mill House that he couldn’t shake. Nonetheless, he’d have never ended up as its owner in the first place had he not purchased it from one of the most distinguished actors of the modern age.
