On This Day 29 October

The stairway goes far beyond a glittery heaven

1988 29 October On This Day Jimmy Page/Outrider, Worcester at Centrum
♪ In My Time of Dying (Soundcloud)

• 1966 The Yardbirds Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour - Dallas Memorial Auditorium 
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Chicago, IL at The Cheetah Club
• 1969 Jimmy Page & Robert Plant with Joe Walsh- Kent, OH at JB’s
• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Montreux, Switzerland at Pavilion Montreux
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Worcester, MA at The Centrum
• 2014 Jimmy Page interviewed on French TV, plays a few seconds of acoustic

1968:

Chris Dreja is an excellent photographer as well as a musician. He knew Jimmy Page from the Yardbirds, but in fact had performed on stage years before then with Yardbirds co-founder, Top Topham, and British blues musician, Duster Bennett - along with a young Jimmy Page on guitar. (Jimmy Page signed Bennett to the Swan Song label in 1975).  Dreja was with Jimmy Page and Peter Grant in 1968 when they were auditioning prospects - including Robert Plant and John Bonham - for the new band that would become Led Zeppelin. In 2010 Dreja told Carol Miller on her show Get The Led Out, "John Bonham was an absolute must-have. A little iffy about Robert". 

Dreja took the photo of Led Zeppelin that is on the back cover of the band's first album and a few other photos that you've no doubt come across over the years. Check out his website and click on the link "People" to see a few of them.

1968 Chris Dreja photograph of Led Zeppelin for the back cover of their first album

1969:

Joe Walsh had given Jimmy Page (or Jimmy Page had bought from Joe Walsh) the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard 'Number One' in April of 1969. By October Number One had already taken the place of Jimmy Page's 1959 Fender Telecaster as his primary guitar on stage.  

If there are photos or any recordings of the jam that night with half of Led Zeppelin and Joe Walsh at the bar in Kent, Ohio, I haven't come across them. (If you have, dear reader, please share!).  Led Zeppelin was in that part of the country, having played in Boston on the 25th and being scheduled to play in Buffalo the 30th, so it's not unlikely that the jam did take place. It would be interesting to know what guitar Jimmy Page might have jammed on that night.

Oh, for a time machine.

1972 Led Zeppelin at Montreux

1972 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Montreux (photo Gilles Chateau)

1988:

1988 review of Outrider show

2013:

2013 Jimmy Page with fans, London

2014:
Jimmy Page did an interview on French TV, Le Grand Journal, during which he played an acoustic guitar for a few minutes, reportedly Ramble On. The clip and the full interview are not available in the US but I'd sure like to see them (hint hint).

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♪  Stairway To Heaven (Jimmy Page, Worcester 1988) YouTube