He left school aged 15, and from his first job, working at a dairy factory in Acton, earned enough money to purchase a drumkit, on which he practiced along with Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa records.
[1] Cole was drawn into the music business after meeting Richard Green, journalist for the Record Mirror, at the Marquee Club in 1965.
[4] Cole was responsible for collecting box office takings and keeping receipts on behalf of the band for Led Zeppelin concert tours.
During Led Zeppelin's final show at Madison Square Garden in New York in July 1973 during their 1973 North American tour, more than US$203,000 disappeared from a safe deposit box at the Drake Hotel.
Cole was entrusted with the key to the safe deposit box at the time of the theft and he was the first person at the scene to discover that the money was unaccounted for.
[6] In 1977, manager Peter Grant gave his approval for Cole to hire John Bindon to act as security co-ordinator for the band's concert tour of the United States.
Upon arrival at the stadium, it was alleged that Bindon pushed a member of promoter Bill Graham's stage crew out of the way as the band entered via a backstage ramp.
However, Graham refused to honour the letter, and assault charges were laid against Grant, Cole, Bindon, and John Bonham when the band arrived back at their hotel.
He was fired from his position as road manager for Led Zeppelin's final concert tour of Europe in 1980 because Peter Grant was concerned about his drug and alcohol abuse,[9] and was replaced by Phil Carlo.
Sent to Italy to detox, Cole was mistaken for a terrorist involved in the 1980 Bologna railway station bombing and was temporarily imprisoned.
[10] After the end of his involvement with Led Zeppelin, Cole served as the tour manager for Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath, Lita Ford, Ozzy Osbourne, Edan Everly, Black Uhuru, and Three Dog Night, managed Fem 2 Fem and, most recently, toured with Gipsy Kings, Crazy Town and Fu Manchu.
[12]Cole also wrote his own book, an unofficial account of the band called Stairway to Heaven: Led Zeppelin Uncensored, with Richard Trubo.
[14] Despite the bitterness felt by Plant, Page, and Jones about their former road manager, Cole was invited to the VIP section of the Led Zeppelin reunion in 2007.