MAGE MUSIC: On This Day 13 July

Some things must end for other things to begin.

2011 13 July On This Day Jimmy Page jams with The Black Crowes

1969 Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham jam with Jeff Beck Group and others at Flushing Meadows, Queens, NY Singer Bowl
1973 Led Zeppelin - Detroit, MI at Cobo Hall (day 2)
1985 Led Zeppelin - Philadelphia, PA at John F. Kennedy Stadium -Live Aid – Jimmy Page with John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Tony Franklin & Phil Collins
1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Sheffield, England at Sheffield Arena
1998 Page & Plant - Boston, MA at Fleet Centre
2011 Jimmy Page jams with The Black Crowes at Shepherd's Bush Empire

1969 Backstage at Singer Bowl with Jeff Beck group (L-R: Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, unknown, Jimmy Page, Richard Cole)

1969:
Press Review – "Sunday’s (13th) Jeff Beck, Vanilla Fudge, 10 Years After, Edwin Hawkins Singers concert at Singer Bowl resulted in an unexpected jam amongst members of The Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. The music excited Zeppelin drummer John Bonham to the point where he started tearing his clothes off. He was carried offstage by friends before he could get past his underwear."

John Paul Jones was the only one of Led Zeppelin who didn't join Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Glenn Cornick (Jethro Tull) and Alvin Lee (Ten Years After) on stage at the Singer Bowl for what turned out to be a rowdy encore for the Jeff Group, Jailhouse Rock.

To be fair, Bonzo wasn't simply tearing off his clothes, he was also drumming The Stripper while acting it out.

"It was one of those riotous sorts of day, everyone's energy level was 100 percent ... It was just one of those animal things. Three English groups at the same place has to add up to trouble!"
~ Jeff Beck

1985:

"It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid ...."
~ Richard Skinner opening the Live Aid concerts.

The Live Aid concerts (two venues on the same day) were organized to raise funds for the ongoing famine in Ethiopia. The venues were Wembley Stadium in London, England and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, USA. It was broadcast via satellite and had an estimated audience of nearly 2 billion. The combined concerts lasted 16 hours, although with some performances occurring simultaneously, the actual number of hours of performance was longer than that.

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones' performance was referred to as a Led Zeppelin reunion. Tony Thompson and Phil Collins took John Bonham's place at the drums. The set list was Rock and Roll, Whole Lotta Love and Stairway to Heaven.

It was not a great show for the boys. Robert Plant was hoarse, Jimmy Page's guitar was out of tune, neither drummer had rehearsed with Plant, Page and Jones, and the monitors were malfunctioning. (Phil Collins' performed at both venues. He did a solo set at Wembley, then took a Concorde supersonic jet to JFK Airport and a helicopter to JFK Stadium, where he joined the Led Zeppelin reunion).

Led Zeppelin's wasn't the only reunion - prompting some to refer to the shows as "geezer events" - and theirs wasn't the only problematic performance. There was further criticism of the Live Aid effort as it appeared that a good amount of the funds raised ended up being siphoned off by corrupt Ethiopian government. The official four-disc Live Aid DVD set, released in 2004, contains only 10-hours of the concert. Led Zeppelin and Santana requested to be not included on the DVD set because they felt their performances were sub-standard. Because of the immense audience there are, of course, many recordings out there.

1985 Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Live Aid Philadelphia JFK Stadium

2011:
Although the 2011 Farewell to England tour was billed as the end of The Black Crowes, in fact they toured again in 2013. The band's guitarist, Rich Robinson, announced in January 2015 that the band had broken up. Chris Robinson, in an interview two weeks later, said the breakup was due to an unwillingness to write new songs.