AS family, friends and fans brace themselves for the funeral of Stourbridge musician John Cooke, it has been revealed that the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham once gave him a surprise helping hand during a charity ‘drum-a-thon’.

The funeral of Mr Cooke, of The Broadway, Norton, who died suddenly on July 30, aged 67, is set for September 1 at 12.20pm at Stourbridge Crematorium, followed by a wake in the upper ballroom at the town's Talbot Hotel, in High Street, from 1.30pm.

Meanwhile, Mr Cooke’s old friend Paul Humphreys recalled how he was well into his non-stop drumming session at Stourbridge Cricket Club when the iconic Zeppelin man turned up.

Mr Humphreys, aged 66, of Stourbridge, recalled: “It was all very low key and not many people were there when John Bonham came in.

“Mr Cooke stood up from his drum kit, continuing to tap on the cymbal, while John Bonham treated us to a little bit of a lesson and a solo.

“They had a drumstick in one hand and a pint of beer apiece in the other and he stayed for about one and a half hours.

“Then off he went.”

Mr Humphreys, who learned to drum with Mr Cooke, cannot recall the exact year of the charity drum-a-thon but thinks it was around 1969.

He said the appearance of Mr Bonham came about through Martin Lickert, former chauffeur to Beatle Ringo Starr, who got in touch with the Zeppelin drummer.

It is not known for which charity Mr Cooke was raising money but Mr Humphreys believes he carried on playing for two to three days non-stop and raised £200 or £300 - a lot of money in those days.

Another Stourbridge musician, Dave Vale, played bass guitar with Mr Cooke in a band called English Rose in 1976, releasing a record ‘Why Shouldn’t I’ through The Electric Record Company, a label which had produced for Marc Bolan, of T-Rex fame.

Mr Vale, who now has his own band ‘Highway Dave and the Varmints’, said: “Radio 1 wouldn’t play it so Martin Lickert, who was hawking our demo tape around, decided we were being sent to Coventry and arranged for our female singer, who was also a model, to wear a body stocking and ride her horse like Lady Godiva up and down outside Royal Ascot for publicity.

“It didn't make any difference – it was still a one-miss wonder.”

Mr Vale added: “John was just the warmest, most eccentric person I ever met.”

Mr Cooke, who was well-known for riding his bicycle around Stourbridge wearing his trademark bandana, taught drums in the area and, during the 1970s, was in a progressive rock band called Salamander, which produced an album called ‘The Ten Commandments’.