On this day 09 February

UNDER CONSTRUCTION FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG. I'm working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been fully updated yet and links may not work properly. Thank you for your patience.

Jimmy Page walks onstage and the place erupts.  As it should.

2002 09 February On This Day Jimmy Page
with Paul Weller's band at Teenage Cancer Trust, Royal Albert Hall
AUDIO: Wild Wood - Paul Weller (Soundcloud)

• 1968 The Yardbirds - Cardiff, Wales at Top Rank Ballroom
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour – Tokyo at Nippon Budokan
• 2002 Jimmy Page with Paul Weller's Band - Teenage Cancer Trust at Royal Albert Hall  

2002:
On this day Jimmy Page and Robert Plant appeared separately at the Teenage Cancer benefit at Royal Albert Hall. The event was billed as "The Paul Weller Band with guests Jimmy Page, Gary Moore, plus Robert Plant & Strange Sensation".

This was Robert Plant’s first London appearance in over three years and Jimmy Page’s first for over two. Furthermore, while it had been seventeen years since Jimmy Page had last performed at RAH for the ARMS shows in September 1983, Robert Plant had not performed there since the Led Zeppelin days: 09 January 1970.

Dave Lewis' take on Jimmy Page at the 2002 show:

"[it was] as if someone had picked up the remote and switched the TV over everything changes.
"You can see the Gibson…Weller goes off, his band mates mill around, lights flash down…and there on stage is Jimmy Page.
"Cherubic smile, well cut shirt, slimmer than in very long time, low slung Gibson Les Paul and sure enough it’s Dazed And Confused the instrumental…
"The place erupts and throughout the eight minute performance there is no doubt that we are in the presence of a living legend..."
~ Dave Lewis, TBL

2002 Jimmy Page, Teenage Cancer Trust benefit at Royal Albert Hall (Freda Hyatt photos)

2002 Jimmy Page, Teenage Cancer Trust benefit at Royal Albert Hall (Freda Hyatt photo)

♪

♪  Dazed And Confused (Jimmy Page with Paul Weller band, RAH 2002) 

I forgot to post this the other day
♫   NBC News report with a brief comment by Peter Grant 07 February 1975

On this day 08 February

UNDER CONSTRUCTION FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG. I'm working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been fully updated yet and links may not work properly. Thank you for your patience.

Please listen to the song. And I don't mean the "popular" version.

2009 08 February On This Day a Grammy for Please Read The Letter
AUDIO: Please Read The Letter (Soundcloud)

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Chicago at Kinetic Playground
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Philadelphia at The Spectrum
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Tokyo at Nippon Budokan 

1969 Led Zeppelin at Kinetic Playground, Chicago

1975 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at The Spectrum, Philadelphia

1996:

Jimmy Page kind of bumbled his way into the two songs I've linked to below from the Tokyo show on this day. As Robert Plant said, though, about Tea for One it wasn't a song that Led Zeppelin had every played live in its entirety, and it was the first time that Robert Plant had performed it with Jimmy Page on guitar. 

Back in 1976 when Tea for One was recorded for Presence, Robert Plant's leg was still in a cast. Two versions were recorded at that session, one with a guitar solo and one without. I'm soooo glad that the one with the solo is the one that ended up on the album.  

2009:
I've provided links below to two versions of Please Read the Letter.  I fail to see why the Plant/Krauss version was the one that got the acclaim, but then, I am into rock music not syrupy folk love songs. No accounting for taste.

2010 January Ross Halfin and Jimmy Page

♪

♪  Rain Song (Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy 1973/2014) 
♪  Rain Song (Page & Plant, Tokyo 08 February 1996) 
♪  Tea For One (Led Zeppelin, Presence 1976)  
♪  Tea For One  (Page & Plant, Tokyo 08 February 1996) 
♪  Please Read the Letter (Page & Plant, Walking into Clarksdale 1998) 
♪  Please Read the Letter (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss) 

♪ Led Zeppelin (Philadelphia at The Spectrum, 08 February 1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a31SIfygbfM&list=PLf62FjbXtD1JI5oPg0Xe4aZnxtokP5Xl-&index=95&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB

♪ Page & Plant Unledded Tour (Tokyo at Nippon Budokan, 08 February 1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wr5_HJn7bw&list=PLf62FjbXtD1LDupHDsQYI3arCDZ2klemr&index=28&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB

On this day 12 January

 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame

• 1969 Led Zeppelin I released
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - San Francisco, at Fillmore West (day 4 of 4)
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Brussels, at Vorst Nationaal
• 1995 Led Zeppelin - inducted in Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame 

1995

Twenty-six years after Led Zeppelin I hit the world, Led Zeppelin finally got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Aerosmith's Joe Perry and Steven Tyler did the induction honors, Tyler opening with a poor imitation of Robert Plant, prompting the latter to whisper, "You wish." 

When John Paul Jones took the mic, he made the famous statement that's been quoted so often over the years: "Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number", referring to the fact that Jones had not been invited to join the Page/Plant Unledded project.

“Well, for my part of this, I must say it's a great honor to be inducted. Actually it's the second time for me, 'cause actually, earlier when I was inducted with the Yardbirds. It's almost like, inducted, induced, and this time it's the forceps. Some of you will get that. But anyway, thank you very much everybody.”
~ Jimmy Page accepting Rock and Roll Hall of Fame award

  

1995 Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Zoe Bonham, Jason Bonham, Robert Plant, Joe Perry, Steven Tyler
Led Zeppelin induction into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

1995 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Jason Bonham

1995 Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Neil Young at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (San Francisco at Fillmore West - day 4/4, 12 January 1969)
♪  Led Zeppelin (Brussels at Vorst Nationaal, 12 January 1975)
♪  Train Kept A-Rolling (Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1995) 
♪  When the Levee Breaks (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jason Bonham, Neil Young 1995) 
♫  Joe Perry and Steven Tyler induct Led Zeppelin into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1995) 

On this day 11 January

 What's a few years among friends?

1975 11 January On This Day Led Zeppelin at Rotterdam

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - San Francisco, CA at Fillmore West (day 3 of 4)
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Rotterdam, The Netherlands at Ahoy Rotterdam 

1975

The Rotterdam show was the first performance after an 18 month sabbatical.  Robert Plant was nervous or rusty enough to have forgotten some of they lyrics to Stairway to Heaven.  

JP came onstage in the same outfit he wore at Madison Square Garden in July 1973, then changed jackets after a few songs. He changed into different pants for the encore. 

There seems to be some confusion about photos from the show, including what is on Jimmy Page’s website on this day. The photos on the website are from a pre-show soundcheck on 27 May 1972 at Oude Rai in Amsterdam, Netherlands. On the photographer's website the photo is listed as taken in 1972 and is offered for sale "starting" at $1050.

Holland-Belgium Press (Jan. 1975)

1975 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Rotterdam

2014 Jimmy Page (Julian Broad/Vanity Fair photo)

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (San Francisco CA at Fillmore West - day 3 of 4, 11 January 1969)

On this day 05 January

A stairway but not THE Stairway

1977 05 January On This Day Jimmy Page traveling to Mexico & South America

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Los Angeles at Whisky A Go Go (day 4 of 4)

1969 Led Zeppelin at Whisky a Go Go

1977
Led Zeppelin spent January and February 1977 at Manticore Studios preparing for the next US Tour. The band's first show was to be Ft. Worth TX on February 27 but Plant came down with laryngitis.  The tour's actual start was in April. But then on 26 July 1977, Robert Plant's son Karac died, and Led Zeppelin did not perform again until 23 July 1979 in Copenhagen for a warmup for Knebworth.

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (Los Angeles CA at Whisky A Go-Go, 05 January 1969) 

On this day 30 December

 Dazed thinking 2023 is about over

1968 30 December On This Day Led Zeppelin at Gonzaga University, Spokane WA
AUDIO: a minute and a half of Dazed and Confused (MP3)

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Spokane, WA at Gonzaga University 

1968

The House of Gonzaga was the ruling family of Mantua, in Northern Italy, from 1328 to 1708. The most famous son was Aloysius Gonzaga, who was canonized in 1726. In 1729 Pope Benedict declared Aloysius to be the patron saint of young students. 

Gonzaga University is a private Jesuit university located in Spokane, Washington, founded in 1887.

As noted in today's post: The audience recording of Dazed and Confused from Gonzaga (9 minutes and 42 seconds long) was training for a number that would run much, much longer in later years.  According to Jimmy Page, the song had "all the movements of a classical symphony".  Note that Led Zeppelin performed Dazed and Confused  more than 200 times over the years, with the longest being nearly 45 minutes at The Forum in LA, 27 March 1975.

Also in 1968

Not on this day but interesting: In 1964 Jimmy Page, along with Big Jim Sullivan, had worked with PJ Proby on Proby's first studio album, I Am P. J. Proby. Four years later all four members of Led Zeppelin recorded together for the very first time -- but not on a Led Zeppelin album, on PJ Proby's final album Three Week Hero. The recording sessions took place starting August 1968 and the album was released in April 1969. Read more... 

According to Proby in a 2012 interview by Corbin of Finding Zoso:

"...we recorded that album, I think it was in two days. We even undershot, we recorded it with about thirty-five minutes left over, and so Roland yelled down, “Why don’t you all busket*? We shouldn’t waste the studio time.” I told the boys, “Y’all start picking and I’ll write as you pick.” So the three last numbers on the album, It's So Hard to Be a Nigger/Jim's Blues/George Wallace is Rollin' in This Mornin’, I just made up as the boys played."

Jimmy Page - Acoustic guitar, electric guitar

John Paul Jones - Bass guitar, keyboards, arrangements

John Bonham - Drums, conga

Robert Plant - Harmonica

* Re: "busket": Roland must have said "busk it", meaning improvise.

2008 Jimmy Page (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (Spokane WA at Gonzaga University, 30 December 1968) 

♪  Jim's Blues (PJ Proby with Jimmy Page guitar recorded 1968 released 1969) 
Note: PJ's first name was Jim
♪  Mery Hopkins medley (PJ Proby with "The New Yardbirds" released 1994) 
Note: Proby calls out each member of the band, who then plays a little solo

On this day 11 December

 Oh yes, the spirit of the band was shining bright

2007 11 December On This Day O2 afterglow

2023

• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Cardiff, Wales at Capitol Theatre (day 1)

2007

A great description of the rehearsal and the concert itself by Frank Smith in the comments section of the 09 December post, Soundcheck, 

2007 Mojo Magazine cover

2007 Q Magazine cover

2007 Robert Plant & Jimmy Page, O2 concert (Ross Halfin photo)

What I love about the above photo, besides that it's a great photo by Ross Halfin, is the look on Jimmy Page's face. He so clearly loved playing together as Led Zeppelin again. 

♪

♫  BBC Breakfast Show Interview (11 December 2007) YouTube
♫  Jimmy Page Interview about after the O2 concert: A nightmare (Blabbermouth news)

On this day 12 November

 I get a thrill in the sea of his music

1988 12 November On This Day Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - New York at The Ritz Ballroom

2013 12 November On This Day Jimmy Page attends Scarlett Sabat's poetry reading, London

Purchase and listen to Catalyst, produced by Jimmy Page

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Akron, OH at Akron Civic Center & Athens, OH at Ohio University 
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Newcastle at Mecca Ballroom
• 1984 Robert Plant release, The Honeydrippers Volume One feat. Jimmy Page on Sea of Love and I Get a Thrill 
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - New York at The Ritz Ballroom
• 1998 Page & Plant - Zagreb, Croatia at Dom Sportova
• 2007 Led Zeppelin - Mothership released
• 2014 Jimmy Page interview by Chris Cornell, Los Angeles 

1971:

Originally scheduled for Sunderland, England at Locarno Ballroom, the venue was changed to Newcastle-On-Tyne at the Mecca Ballroom.

1984:

What's a honeydripper?

Dave Lewis talks about Sea of Love in his book, Led Zeppelin: A Celebration (Omnibus Press, 1991), "The solo which graces this Fifties do-wop cover is a lovely string-bending affair..."  

1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - New York at The Ritz Ballroom (Neal Preston photo)

2014:

Jimmy Page was interviewed in LA by Chris Cornell on this day.  According to Ross Halfin, it was less stuffy than the Jeff Koons New York interview.  Chris was funny and his choice of photos was from a more musician-like perspective.  

Gavin Edwards' Rolling Stone article, 13 favorite moments in the interview.

2014 Jimmy Page interview by Chris Cornell, Los Angeles (Jill Jarrett photo)

2014 Chris Cornell, Jimmy Page, Los Angeles (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪  Sea of Love (The Honeydrippers feat. Jimmy Page 1984) YouTube
♪  I Get a Thrill (The Honeydrippers feat. Jimmy Page 1984) YouTube
♫  Chris Cornell interviews Jimmy Page - Guitar World episode 1, 12 November 2014

♫  Chris Cornell interviews Jimmy Page - Guitar World episode 2, 12 November 2014

♫  Chris Cornell interviews Jimmy Page - Guitar World episode 3, 12 November 2014
♫  Chris Cornell interviews Jimmy Page - Guitar World episode 4, 12 November 2014