On This Day11 September

Catching up with past events

2010 11 September On This Day Jimmy Page discusses BBC Sessions with Shaun Keaveny for BBC Radio 6 Music
♪  Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin, BBC 1971) Soundcloud

• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Rochester, NY at Rochester Community War Memorial
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Houston, TX at The Summit
• 1998 Page & Plant - Concord, CA at Concord Pavilion

1969:

Jimmy Page may well have discussed the Led Zeppelin BBC sessions with Shaun Keaveny of BBC Radio in 2010, but the original Keaveny interview about the Sessions took place on 10 December 2009, and the show was broadcast in two episodes on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (25 and 26 December 2009), and has been rebroadcast several times since then.  It is not currently available to be viewed.

The BBC interview was billed as "the inside story of Led Zeppelin's BBC sessions, told exclusively by Jimmy Page....Jimmy Page chooses his personal highlights from the music, and shares his memories of an extraordinary time in Led Zeppelin's history."

While the British Broadcasting Company might be the first and largest broadcasting company in the world, as a publicly funded entity its existence is never certain. In early 2010 BBC management recommended that Music 6 be shut down. The BBC trust overruled the recommendation later that year, partly due to an aggressive public and media campaign as well as intervention from David Bowie.

The documents presented on Jimmy Page's website On This Day were from the BBC’s written archive and were published for the show, which also aired BBC Session music that hadn't been commercially released. One of the songs was a Whole Lotta Love medley (1971).

"For those who were hearing it for the first time, there was a certain guitarist who was really wincing at the out of tune part, because the string had dropped and it was out of tune," he said.

"I was gyrating on the chair here wishing I could tune it up.

"Anyway it got tuned and it got back in, but I could hear then it was putting my playing off. It’s interesting." 

As to the cheque made out to Jimmy Page for six pounds:  It bounced.

"It just so happened that quite a number of years ago I was going through some old papers and things in a tea chest, and I found this cheque that said, 'Ordered not to pay'," he explained. "It’s from the Zeppelin era, so one of these sessions. 

"I’ve actually got it on the wall at home and I should have looked at the date before I came here. It was probably for that out of tune guitar on that medley, and that’s fair do's."

~ Jimmy Page, Shaun Keaveny BBC Radio interview 2009

BBC reissued the check and presented it to Jimmy Page during the interview.

1969 Led Zeppelin Top Gear audition report

1969 cheque from BBC

Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions chronology

2013:
Jimmy Page was at the Queens of the Stone Age concert on another day, but I was slacking off so didn't include a photo.  Here's one.

2013 6 September Jimmy Page with Queens of the Stone Age at the Roundhouse, London

2013:
Jimmy Page has been supporting Thailand's Care for Kids Gala Party Night for some time now. The fundraiser is organized by the Jester's Motorcycle Club of Pattaya.

In 2013 Jimmy Page donated a guitar to the cause that he signed and played a riff from Kashmir on. It was auctioned at the 21 September 2013 Gala amidst fierce bidding. Jimmy Page was there that year and a couple others, and on those days I'll post more photos.

2013 Jimmy Page with the guitar he autographed and donated to the Jesters for their auction in Thailand

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♪  Since I’ve Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin, Rochester 1971) YouTube
♪  Going to California/Tangerine (Page & Plant, Concord 1998) YouTube