ROCK stars of yesteryear were cut from a different cloth. As well as roaming the world like medieval princes in search of territory and conquest, they would often saddle up a horse and ride about abandoned castles with big swords looking for an enemy to vanquish.

No-one did the pomp and splendour of a rock juggernaut in its prime better than Led Zeppelin in the 1970s.

As frontman Robert Plant’s dream sequence in the mighty Zep’s concert film ‘The Song Remains the Same’ poignantly proved, you either go hard or you go home, and if you’re gonna go big, make it epic!

The singer - who lived in nearby Penallt for much of the 1980s – boldly went where no lead singer has gone before. And that’s on horseback, with a hawk, into the heart of Raglan Castle to battle some unknown and terrible foe.

For those not familiar with the scene, it involves Plant, all in flowing white garb like some sort of young Gandalf, thundering around the side of the castle on horseback.

If Plant’s horsemanship isn’t impressive enough, the fact that he has a hunting hawk perched on his arm as he rides is proof positive that here is a man of Arthurian stock!

As his cape and golden locks billow behind him, the viewer becomes aware that this is a person of purpose and a man on a mission.

As he halts his steed at the foot of the fortress and eyes the stone bastion’s seemingly impregnable walls with the experienced eye of a seasoned military man, Plant does not call in the siege engines or assemble a company of grizzled and battle-worn knights, he simply holds his arm aloft and lets the hawk take flight.

“What sorcery is this?” You might well ask.

It is simply the white magic of the rock god!

As the hawk flies through a small gap in the old castle, it, through some strange alchemy, turns into two guys in animal fur who look strangely like cavemen.

In a time before CGI, the process is laboured and somewhat clumsy, but it makes the point.

What that point is exactly, is anyone’s guess.

The 1970s were a peculiar time, especially if you were in a world-beating rock band prone to grand visions but weren’t particularly bothered about ironing out the niggling little things called details.

Anyhow, as the cavemen enthusiastically run into the castle like pit ponies into the sunlight, the scene shifts for no apparent purpose, and the viewer is confronted with the bizarre sight of Plant prancing around all in white, like a long-haired Luke Skywalker, and waving a sword at some black and red clad devil.

As Plant twirls and whirls in slow motion as if he’s in a shampoo advert rather than in a duel to the death, he finally pushes his foe into the moat.

Because he’s not one of those dark-hearted villains who gloats at his enemy’s demise, Plant quickly departs, and the next thing we know our hero is climbing one of the castle’s towers in the dead of night whilst holding a flaming torch.

Is it the stairway to Heaven one wonders?

Plant then looks quizzically at something at the top of the tower’s stairs and then the dream is over, the vision is gone, and the memory of what once was evaporates like dew in the morning sun.

Watch the whole thing below if you don’t believe us!