On this day 24 December

Wishing you a joyful holiday season

with all good things:

Health and Prosperity

Happiness and Peace

and

the music of Jimmy Page

2015 Jimmy Page, London (Ross Halfin photo)

On this day 10 December

 Beyond amazing and into the realm of Magick.

2007, the Concert of the Century

It's rock and roll, baby.  It's Jimmy Page.  It's Magick.

10 December Jimmy Page's On This Day (published 2020)

1998 and 2007 - 10 December On This Day, Page & Plant at Amnesty International Show
and Led Zeppelin/Jason Bonham at Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, O2
Videos: Black Dog  Gallows Pole

On this day 2023

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Bristol, England at Student Union, Bristol University
• 1968 Led Zeppelin - London, England at  Marquee Club
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - St. Helier, UK at Behan's Park West (guest appearance with pianist Norman Hale)
• 1998 Page & Plant, Amnesty International Concert - Paris, France at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
• 2007 Led Zeppelin Ahmet Ertegun Tribute - London,England at O2 Arena  

1975

Robert Plant was still recovering from his August car accident, and the four members of Led Zeppelin were in Jersey for a few weeks. John Paul Jones and John Bonham were at a club where the resident pianist, Norman Hale, invited the two onstage to jam. Instead the full band showed up a week later for a 45 minute set with Hale at the piano and Plant seated on a stool, performing to an audience of a few hundred lucky souls.

1975 Led Zeppelin - St. Helier, UK at Behan's Park West
(guest appearance with pianist Norman Hale)

1998
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant performed When the World Was Young, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Gallows Pole, and Rock and Roll at the last Human Rights Concert to benefit Amnesty International. The full 1998 performance with Page & Plant, among others, is available on Amazon.

1998 Page & Plant, Amnesty International Show, Paris

2007
Ahmet Ertegun (1923-2006) was a powerful figure in Led Zeppelin's career. He was founder and president of Atlantic Records and was a chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After hearing Led Zeppelin's demo recording, Ertegun immediately signed the then unknown band to his label.

At age 83 Ertegun was backstage at a Rolling Stones' concert at the Beacon Theater in New York when he tripped and fell, hitting his head on the cement. During the Led Zeppelin induction to the UK Music Hall of Fame on 14 November, 2006, Jimmy Page announced that Ertegun had gone into a coma. Ahmet Ertegun died on December 14, 2006 and was buried in his native Turkey.

The remaining members of Led Zeppelin organized an Ahmet Tribute Concert to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey. Although other performers were to share the stage, it was the reunion of Led Zeppelin, with Jason Bonham taking his father's place, that stole the headlines.

Over 20 million people tried for tickets.

2007 February, Led Zeppelin statement on passing of Ahmet Ertegun

2007 10 December, Led Zeppelin reunion, with Jason Bonham,
at Ahmut Ertegun Tribute concert, O2 Arena, London

2007 O2 ticket

2007 Dave Grohl with Scarlet Page and the "secret" setlist, before the show
(Ross Halfin photo)

Setlist:
Good Times, Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time of Dying
For Your Life
Trampled Under Foot
Nobody's Fault But Mine
No Quarter
Since I've Been Lovin' You
Dazed and Confused
Stairway To Heaven
The Song Remains the Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir

Encore:

Whole Lotta Love

Rock and Roll

2007, the Concert of the Century

2007 Jimmy Page at the mic, O2

2007 Jimmy Page, O2 (Ross Halfin photo)

2007 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, O2

2007 John Paul Jones, Jason Bonham, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant at O2 (Scarlet Page photo)

♪

♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube

♪  When the World Was Young (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube 

♪  Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube
♪ Gallows Pole (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube
♪  Good Times Bad Times with concert intro (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♪  Black Dog (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♪  Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♪  Kashmir (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube
♪  Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♪ Led Zeppelin Celebration Day (Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, London at O2, 10 December 2007)

♫  Rolling Stone review by David Fricke

On this day 27 October

 MSG makes your experience tastier

1995 27 October On This Day Page & Plant at Madison Square Garden (day 2)
Video:  ♪ Achilles Last Stand (Page & Plant, Atlanta 1995) YouTube

• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden (day 2) 

1995 Page & Plant chillin' at MSG (Ross Halfin photo)

2013:

On this day musician, singer and songwriter Lou Reed died from liver disease. Just a few weeks before Jimmy Page had attended the London launch of the photobook, Transformers, a joint project by Reed and Mick Rock.

RIP Lou Reed (1942-2013)
Jimmy Page, Lou Reed, Mick Rock in London shortly before Lou's death

2014

Financial Times, London (Anna Huix photo)

♪

♪  I'm Waiting For My Man (The Yardbirds feat. Jimmy Page, Lou Reed cover 1968) YouTube
♪  Page & Plant (New York, NY at Madison Square Garden - day 2, 27 October 1995) 

On this day 24 October

 A long time ago

in a decade far, far away

1963 24 October On This Day Carter Lewis & The Southerners release
Your Mama's Out of Town and Somebody Told My Girl

• 1963 Carter Lewis & The Southerners feat. Jimmy Page release Your Mama's Out of Town
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Cleveland, OH at Clevalnd Public Hall 
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Philadelphia, PA at The Spectrum  

1963 Jimmy Page with Carter Lewis & The Southerners

1963 Jimmy Page with Carter Lewis & The Southerners

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Cleveland (Michael Pierson photo)

1969 Cleveland Chronicle Telegram review of Led Zeppelin show

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Cleveland (Michael Pierson photo)

2013 Jimmy Page backstage with Baroness, Electric Ballroom London
(Ross Halfin photo)

2014

2017

2017

2018

♪

[2023: I haven't checked all the links but I'm posting this anyway]

♪  Your Mama's Out of Town (Carter Lewis & The Southerners 1963) YouTube
♪  Somebody Told My Girl (Carter Lewis & The Southerners 1963) YouTube
♪  Black Dog , Kashmir (Page & Plant, Philadelphia 1995) YouTube
♪  Full set ( (Page & Plant, Philadelphia 1995) YouTube

On this day 22 September

 Blues. Ya gotta love the blues. Unless it's Kashmir.  You can love Kashmir, too.

1965 22 September On This Day John Mayall single produced by Jimmy Page

• 1965 John Mayall single produced by Jimmy Page released
• 2012 Jimmy Page at Jesters’ Care for Kids Gala 

I'm Your Witchdoctor & Telephone Blues singles produced by Jimmy Page

1965:

By this time, Jimmy Page had been around the block for a while. He was no pushover. Can you imagine his voice when he made his "suggestions" to the recording engineer? 

Jimmy Page's website has referred to his stint with Immediate Records a few times in the past couple of months. I posted about that on this blog HERE, HERE and HERE.

2012:

Different year, same event: The Jesters Care for Kids Gala. I posted about the 2013 event yesterday. In 2012 Jimmy Page donated a guitar that he had himself videoed playing to authenticate its provenance. The guitar sold for 423,000 Thai Baht (nearly $12,000 or  £7600 at today's exchange rate) in the auction at the annual Jesters Gala held in the tourist resort of Pattaya, Thailand on this day in 2012. I posted about this donation in another post earlier, and got the year wrong. Sorry.

2012 Jimmy Page plays Jesters Care For Kids Gala donation guitar

2012 Jimmy Page in Thailand signing guitar to be donated to Jesters

Happy birthday David Coverdale, born this day in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, United Kingdom (72 years old in 2023)

Happy birthday David Coverdale

♪

♪  I'm Your Witchdoctor (John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers) 
♪  Telephone Blues  (John Mayall and the Blues Breakers) 
♪  On Top of the World (John Mayall and the Blues Breakers) 
♪  Double Crossing Time (John Mayall and the Blues Breakers) 
♪  Kashmir (Jimmy Page on guitar donated to Jester's auction, 2012) 

On this day 08 August

 Expect the unexpected.

1998 08 August On This Day Jimmy Page with Puff Daddy
♪  Come With Me/Kashmir(Godzilla soundtrack) Soundcloud

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Detroit Lakes, MN at Detroit Lakes Pavilion
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Ann Arbor, MI at The Fifth Dimension
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - San Bernardino, CA at Swing Auditorium
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Montreux, Switzerland at Montreux Casino Hall
• 1998 Jimmy Page with Puff Daddy 

The Yardbirds 08 August 1969

1969:
Jimmy Page broke a string right off the bat at this show, and it was so hot in the southern California auditorium that his guitar wouldn't stay in tune.

1971:
The casino at Montreux was so packed that Peter Grant tried to talk Claude Nobs into piping music outside to the overflow crowd.

Montreux  08 August 1971

1998:

For some reason some people seem horrified that Jimmy Page collaborated with Puff Daddy (as he was then known) on this hip-hop rap version of Kashmir, yet it is an example of the wide-ranging musical mind of Jimmy Page to have done so. In fact, the song went platinum in the US. Jimmy Page and "Daddy" (as Jimmy Page refers to him on his website) performed the song on Saturday Night Live. In the censored version of Come With Me, Godzilla's roar masks Daddy's obscenities, yet Gozilla isn't given credit as a guest artist.

Note that while 08 August is the date stated on the website to be when JP first heard the final mix, the movie soundtrack, film, and single had already been released by then.

• Jimmy Page & Puff Daddy performed the song on Saturday Night Live 09 May 1998
• The soundtrack album was released 19 May 1998
• The film was released 20 May 1998
• The single was released 9 June 1998
• The single peaked at #2 on the Billboard chart on 25 July1998
• The remix maxi-single was released 28 July 1998

♪  Led Zeppelin, San Bernardino 1969

♪  Newsreel footage 16mm (Led Zeppelin Montreux 1971) YouTube

♪  Come With Me/Kashmir (Godzilla soundgrack, Jimmy Page with Puff Daddy, a.k.a Sean Combs, a.k.a. Diddy, a.k.a. P Diddy) YouTube

On this day 02 July

 The guitar is the primary event, at least when it's Jimmy Page's guitar.

1988 02 July On This Day Outrider hits the Billboard charts

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Brixton, London, at Ram Jam Club
• 1980 Led Zeppelin - Mannheim, Germany at Eisstadion am Friedrichspark
• 1988 02 July On This Day Outrider hits the Billboard charts
• 1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Munich, Germany at Munich Festival
• 2000 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Mansfield, MA at Tweeter Center

1980 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Mannheim (Photo Affendaddy)

1980 Led Zeppelin Mannheim

1988:
Released on 19 June 1988, within two weeks Outrider reached #26 on Billboard's Billboard 200 chart and #27 on the UK Album Chart. This album is highly underrated, even by Jimmy Page himself, who said, "Outrider's all right. It's demo-like compared with those overproduced albums that came out at the time. It didn't do very well - doesn't matter..." (Uncut Magazine, January 2009, p. 47).  

But there's more to the story, of course.

It's no surprise that Rolling Stone didn't like the album much. Reviewer David Fricke apparently didn't do any homework at all. The album was recorded at Jimmy Page's personal studio The Sol so there was no need for demo tracks. What was recorded could be used directly for the album. Fricke didn't bother mentioning that the tracks that appear on Outrider were all that was left after the theft of tapes from Jimmy Page's home. 

In a Guitar World interview in 1988, Jimmy Page said that the stolen tracks were very different from what ended up on the Outrider album.  He also talks about the recording process.

Interviewer: One of the more unorthodox aspects of your process was the fact that -- on the rock tracks, at least -- the vocals are part of the overlay rather than part of the nucleus of the song. In your work, the guitar is the primary element, and everything else is subordinate to it. 

"John Miles was the first vocalist to come in, and I had the tracks actually done when he came in. So it was quite easy, really, to hear it, to gauge the feel of what everything was about. And then we just discussed the lyrical content and such. And away we went. 'Cause I don't sing, so I think if a guy's doing the lyrics, he's gonna sing them with more conviction than if he's doing yours, so to speak. That was the concept there, anyway, with two rock 'n' roll tracks and rock 'n' roll lyrics. Whereas you 've got the other end of the scale, where Chris Farlow just made up the lyrics as he went along on the blues, just as I'll make it up when I'm playing, at the same time. That's totally spontaneous, and it's great."
~ Jimmy Page, Guitar World 1988

1988 Jimmy Page; Outrider promo photo shoot

1988 Lid Magazine #11 cover (Photo Peter Ashworth)

♪  Led Zeppelin (Mannheim Germany at Eisstadion am Friedrichspark, 02 July 1980) 

♪  Outrider (Jimmy Page, release date 02 July 1988) playlist

♪ Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes (Mansfield MA at Tweter Center for the Performing Arts, 02 July 2000)