MAGE MUSIC: On This Day 28 December

Monday, December 28, 2015

On This Day 28 December

Goan to Goa

2005 28 December On This Day Jimmy Page vacationing in Goa

1966 The Yardbirds - Peoria,IL at Expo Gardens Youth Building
1968 Led Zeppelin - Vancouver, Canada at Pacific Coliseum

1968

On this, Led Zeppelin's first American tour, Jimmy Page's name - as a former Yardbird - helped to attract an audience for the band. They also played as support for Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly. It must have been a comedown for Jimmy Page, since the Yardbirds were headliners and were paid in four figures whereas for one show on this tour Led Zeppelin was only paid $350. Led Zeppelin's name didn't even appear in some of the show ads.

"In Seattle, Portland and those places where we weren't ever billed, we just walked out and said, 'Well actually, we're Led Zeppelin'."

Not that it was like that for very long.

2005

Jimmy Page and Ross Halfin had spent Christmas in Cambodia. Ross left for home on 27 December (hauling along the five foot tall Buddhas that each of them had purchased in Bangor Wat) while Jimmy Page went on to Goa, a state on the west coast of India.

2005 Goa (Jimmy Page photo)

2005 Jimmy Page passport stamp

2005 Goa (Jimmy Page photo)

Bollywood, a.k.a. Hindi cinema, is the biggest movie industry in the world, averaging more than twice as many movies produced as Hollywood in the USA. The name comes from combining Bombay (Mumbai) and Hollywood, and describes the industry rather than a place. Bollywood films earn around $100 million a year in the US, and are often in the UK top ten.