On This Day 12 October

And now's the time, the time is now

1999 12 October Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes -  NY at Roseland Ballroom

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - London, England at Lyceum Ballroom
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Ames, IA at Hilton Coliseum
• 1999 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - NY at Roseland Ballroom
• 2012 Jimmy Page with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jason Bonham at Celebration Day London premiere 

Not that numbers matter to anyone who knows and loves Jimmy Page's music but...

1969:

Led Zeppelin was paid the highest fee for a one night performance in the UK at that time. Freddie Mercury was in the audience. 

1969 Led Zeppelin backstage at London's Lyceum Ballroom (Chris Walsh photo)

2012:
The initial screening of the Celebration Day movie in more than 1,500 theaters in 40 countries, grossed over $2 million US.

2012 Jimmy Page at the Celebration Day movie premiere in London

2012 Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and Jimmy Page at the London premiere of the Celebration Day movie

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♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, London 1969) YouTube
♪  Thank You (Page & Plant,  Ames IA 1995) YouTube
♪  Oh Well (Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes, rehearsal Roseland Ballroom 1999) YouTube
♪  Full set  (Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes, Roseland Ballroom 1999) YouTube
♪  Ramble On (Led Zeppelin, 1969/2014 remaster) YouTube
♫  Jimmy Page interview with Absolut Radio at London premiere of Celebration Day 2012
Note:  I've got Ramble On on this playlist just because I love it so much. Doesn't really have anything to do with today's On This Day but it rounds out the playlist nicely.

On This Day 11 October

Kashmir. Let me take you there.

11 October 1994 Unledded premiers 
published On This Day 2020

1994 11 October Unledded Project premiers at Beacon Theater, NY
♪ Kashmir (Page & Plant) Soundcloud

• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Oakland, CA at Oakland-Alamada County Coliseum Arena
• 1994 Page & Plant Unledded Project premier - NYC at Beacon Theater and Londong at Planet Hollywood

1995:

The London Studios (a.k.a. The South Bank Studios, The London Television Centre and Kent House) is a TV studio complex in Central London, and are the main studios for ITV, the UK's main commercial TV network, and London Weekend Television (LWT).  The complex currently has six studios, but has housed up to nine in the past.  One of those studios was where Jimmy Page and Robert Plant recorded Kashmir for the Unledded Project.

Kashmir:
"It originated from playing around on the tuning," Jimmy Page said in It Might Get Loud.

Jimmy Page says he had a sitar before George Harrison did, though he acknowledged when he said it that Harrison was the better sitar player. Jimmy Page obtained a tanpura (stringed drone instrument) in India in 1967. Back in the UK he recorded White Summer on his Simon home recorder, playing and overlaying the other instruments. Jimmy Page then used a sitar on the Muareeny Wishful album (with folksinger John Williams and guitarist Big Jim Sullivan) released in 1968. He was no stranger to alternate tunings when he turned his genius loose on Led Zeppelin.

DADGAD tuning is credited to Davey Graham, a songwriter/musician, who was inspired by the oud music of Morocco. The open strings of DADGAD tuning evoke the drone of traditional Scottish and Irish pipe music, northern African music and the Indian sitar, depending on the song. With Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page used DADGAD tuning in Kashmir, Black Mountain Side, White Summer and the unreleased Swan Song (later released as Midnight Moonlight, with The Firm).

Thanks to Dave Lewis' TBL for this photo of Jimmy Page

♪

♪  Page & Plant (Beacon Theater, NY  11 October 1994) YouTube

♪  Kashmir (Page, Plant, Jones, Jason Bonham,O2 2007) YouTube

♪  Kashmir (Jimmy Page, It Might Get Loud 2009) YouTube

On This Day 10 October

Led Zeppelin, Page & Plant, Scarlett Sabet

2019  10 October Catalyst, by Scarlett Sabet released (produced by Jimmy Page)
published 2019, 2020

1969 10 October Led Zeppelin at Paris Olympia

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Paris, France at L'Olympia Music Hall
• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Kyoto, Japan at Kyoto Kaikan Hall
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Salt Lake City, UT at Delta Center 

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, Paris

2012 (Ross Halfin photo)

2018 (Rebecca Cabage photo)

2019
Catalyst, a spoken word album written and performed by Scarlett Sabet and produced by Jimmy Page, is released today on a special 12-inch etched vinyl via JimmyPage.com.

♪

♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Paris Olympia 1969) YouTube
♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Kyoto 1972) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant Salt Lake City 1995) YouTube

[edited 10/10/20]

On This Day 9 October

He really is a musical genius, you know.

1999 09 October On This Day Jimmy Page at NetAid

• 1966 The Yardbirds-Southampton, England at Southampton Gaumont Theatre
• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Osaka, Japan at Osaka Festival Hall
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Boise, ID at BSU Pavilion
• 1999 Jimmy Page - East Rutherford, NJ at Giants Stadium - Net Aid

1999:
NetAid is an anti-poverty nonprofit organization to raise awareness of and money for anti-poverty projects. It was created in 1999 as a joint venture between the United Nations Development Programme and Cisco Systems and is now a part of Mercy Corps.

NetAid was launched with concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, Giants Stadium in New Jersey and the Palais des Nations in Geneva.  The concerts were broadcast live on MTV, VH-1, the BBC and other broadcasters to 60 countries, as well as radio broadcasts that would reach 120 countries, making the concerts the widest heard live musical performances in history. The shows were meant to promote NetAid's website, where donations could be accepted. The website got 2.4 million hits, and the $830,000 for NetAid was the largest amount raised online to date.

Jimmy Page soloed, with Michael Lee, Chris and Rich Robinson (from The Black Crowes), and Guy Pratt as his backup band. He also joined Puff Daddy for the song Come With Me.

The Giants Stadium NetAid show generally got poor reviews - except for Jimmy Page.

"Thank God, then, for Jimmy Page. After reuniting Led Zeppelin to mixed results at Live Aid, Page made up for it here as he ripped into an instrumental of Dazed and Confused that showed no signs of age. Page evoked the golden age of the Guitar Hero and stadium rock -- complete with the scent of many a burning joint. And it only got better when Black Crowes Chris and Rich Robinson came out for a rejuvenated In My Time of Dying and brutal Whole Lotta Love.
~Marian Montgomery NetAid concert review  

Jimmy Page debuted Domino (later to become Embryo No. 2 in It Might Get Loud) at NetAid. Domino was never officially released and this was its only live performance. I wonder if we'll get to hear it on Jimmy Page's next album.

NetAid Setlist
1. Come With Me (with Puff Daddy)
2. Dazed And Confused
3. Domino
4. In My Time Of Dying (with The Black Crowes)
5. Whole Lotta Love (with The Black Crowes)

1999 Jimmy Page NetAid (David Atlas photo)

2012 Jimmy Page at Celebration Day movie premiere in NYC

2014 Jimmy Page in Tokyo for an author book signing (stamping, in this case) Ross Halfin photo 

♪

♪  Stand By Me (Led Zeppelin Osaka 1972) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Boise 1995) YouTube
♪  Come With Me (Jimmy Page, Puff Daddy, NetAid 1999) YouTube
♪  Domino (Jimmy Page, Net Aid at East Rutherford 1999) Youtube

♪  Whole Lotta Love (Jimmy Page et al, NetAid 1999) YouTube

♪  Embryo No. 2 (It Might Get Loud, 2009) YouTube

On This Day 8 October

A model in so many ways

1999 08 October On This Day Jimmy Page – NetAid sound check at Giants Stadium, NJ

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Cardiff, Wales at Capitol Theater
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - San Diego, CA at SDSU Open Air Amphitheatre
• 1999 Jimmy Page – NetAid sound check at Giants Stadium, NJ
• 2012 Jimmy Page photo shoot with Ross Halfin, also attending Joe Walsh show at the Iridium Club in NYC 

1999:

Jimmy Page worked with Chris Robinson (vocals), Rich Robinson (guitar), Guy Pratt (bass) and Michael Lee (drums) for the NetAid concert. (More on NetAid tomorrow).

Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson were the founding members of The Black Crowes, an American band formed 10 years before NetAid, but with five albums already released. The Black Crowes joined up shortly after the NetAid concert for a tour and put out Live at the Greek.  The band has broken up three times over the years, the most recent (and possibly final) time in January of 2015.

Guy Pratt is an English session bassist, who has worked with Pink Floyd, Gary Moore, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Robbie Robertson and others, and who had already worked with Jimmy Page in 1991 for the Coverdale-Page album and tour.

Michael Lee (1969 – 2008) was an English drummer, who, like John Bonham, used large drum sizes, from which he, like Bonzo, got big sound. Lee was Robert Plant's drummer for the 1993 Fate of Nations album and tour and stayed on for the Unledded and Walking Into Clarksdale Page & Plant collaborations and tours.

2012:

Jimmy Page and Ross Halfin had flown to New York on 05 October 2012 for promotion of the Celebration Day concert movie.  On this day Ross did a photo shoot with Jimmy Page at the Armani Store in New York City and later on the building's roof - the only place they could be outdoors where people would not mob them.  

Later that Monday evening the two went to see Joe Walsh at the  Iridium Club where from 1996-2009 Les Paul was a regular performer. The club now puts on Les Paul Mondays, reserved for guest guitarists to honor Les and perform on the same stage.  A portion of the clubs sales go to The Les Paul Foundation. 

2012 Jimmy Page at Armani Store in NYC (Ross Halfin photo)

2012 Jimmy Page in NYC (Ross Halfin photo)

2012 Joe Walsh & Jimmy Page after Walsh's show at Iridium Club (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

No playlist today, sorry!

On This Day 7 October

Man of many surprises and talents

1966 07 October On This Day Jimmy Page sessions for Cliff Richard

2013 07 October On This Day, Led Snooppelin (2008 Led Zeppelin / Snoop Dog mashup)

• 1966 Release of Time Drags By, by Cliff Richard, feat. Jimmy Page on harmonica
• 1966 The Yardbirds-Bristol, England at Colston Hall
• 1967 The Yardbirds-Holyoke, MA at Amusement Park Ballroom
• 1981 Jimmy Page overdubbs orchestra track for Death Wish II at Edmonton Odeon studio
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Inglewood, CA at The Forum
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheatre
• 2008 Mashup of Snoop Dog's Drop It Like It's Hot & Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love
• 2014 Jimmy Page and Paul Smith launch a limited edition line of scarves at Paul Smith’s Tokyo store

1966:

Cliff Richard, born Harry Webb, is a British pop singer, musician, actor and philanthropist. He is the third-top-selling singles artist in UK Chart history after the Beatles and Elvis Presley. His backing band, The Shadows, grew from 1950s UK skiffle groups. They started out as The Drifters with Harry Webb on vocals and guitar and using the stage name, Cliff Richard. Cliff Richard and the Shadows dominated British pop music in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Jimmy Page would have been quite aware of them. The Shadows split in 1968 but reformed with new members a few years later and continued to to perform and tour through a final tour in 2010.

In 1980, Richard changed his to his stage name legally and also that year he received the O.B.E. from the Queen for services to music and charity. In 1995, Richard was appointed a Knight Bachelor, the first rock star to be awarded that honor.

Jimmy Page wasn't needed for his guitar or bass talents on the Cliff Richard songs, but he was called on for his skills with harmonica. The video below for Time Drags By is from the movie referred to in the On This Day post - you don't need me to tell you that the actor pretending to play harmonica isn't Jimmy Page.  Don't confuse La La La Song (a.k.a. La La La La) with Led Zeppelin's La La, either. They don't sound at all alike. But interesting about the name.

Check out the harmonica on the Coverdale/Page track below, at approximately 1:46-2:36. That's Jimmy Page you hear.

1988 Jimmy Page Outrider promo photo

 2014:
Jimmy Page was promoting the remasters releases, and one of the events was the launch of a line of Led Zeppelin scarves at Paul Smith's Tokyo store.

2014 07 October Jimmy Page and Paul Smith at the Paul Smith Store in Tokyo (Ross Halfin photo)

2014 07 October Paul Smith and Jimmy Page at the Paul Smith Store in Tokyo (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪  Time Drags By (Cliff Richard and the Shadows, feat. Jimmy Page harmonica 1966) YouTube
♪  La La La Song (Cliff Richard and the Shadows, feat. Jimmy Page  harmonica 1966) YouTube
♪  Pride and Joy (Coverdale/Page 1993) YouTube
♪  Since I've Been Loving You (Page & Plant Mountain View 1995) YouTube
♪  Led Snooppelin (Led Zeppelin / Snoop Dog mashup 2008) YouTube
♪  La La Intro/Outro Rough Mix (Led Zeppelin II remaster 1969/2014) YouTube

On This Day 6 October

He's the only one

1976 (more likely 1972) 06 October On This Day, Jimmy Page visits Hong Kong

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Birmingham, England at Odeon Theatre
• 1972 Led Zeppelin visit Hong Kong (almost certainly incorrectly posted as 1976)

1972/1976:

Although the jimmypage.com website has posted that he visited Hong Kong ini 1976, it more certainly was during the Japan '72 tour. Jimmy Page said in the Led Zeppelin 1972 section (p. 203) of his photo autobiography Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page,  "I had this suit made in one of those 24-hour tailors on a visit to to Hong Kong", so we know he was in that city in 1972.  

Click on photo to read caption in Jimmy Page's autobiography

Jimmy Page also refers on his webpage to the ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth, which had been sold to a Hong Kong businessmen who had renamed the ship the Seawise University and who had begun to convert the ship into a floating university. In 1972 the Seawise University caught fire in the Hong Kong harbor and was capsized by the water used to fight the flames. Before 1976 the vessel had been declared a shipping hazard. It had already been dismantled for scrap and the remains of the hull were underwater by 1976, so Jimmy Page wouldn't have been able to take that photo of it shown on his webpage in that year.

October 1988 Guitar World Magazine

1988:
Jimmy Page was about one third of his way through the Outrider tour, so this seems to be a good time to post this Guitar World cover with his photo with the harp-guitar.

Today:
I haven't promoted my book, Mage Music: The Blog for a while, so I'm doing that today. I haven't been writing about Magick here since I started the daily On This Day posts, but that's what I focused on when I started out. For those who prefer lengthy reading in book form rather than on blogs, Mage Music: The Blog
is a compilation of selected posts from this blog of May 7, 2012 through November 22, 2014.

Book description from the Amazon page:  "The blog was begun with the intention of discussing and analyzing the music of the extraordinary guitarist, Jimmy Page. It evolved into a broader look at the creative nature of Magick and the connection of Magick with music and other forms of art. This book is the text of that blog. Mage Music: the Blog is not a grimoire. You will find no spells or instructions for making magical objects or invoking entities because the focus is the ur-Magick: the source of the energy and the fundamentals common to all specific practices of Magick. You will, however, find out how to connect with your own Magick, and to appreciate the Magick of the Mage Musician, Jimmy Page."

Mage Music: the Blog is also available for Kindle.

Mage Music: The Blog

♪

♫  8mm Hong Kong video (Jimmy Page 1972)  YouTube
♪  The Only One (Jimmy Page, Outrider 1988) YouTube
♪  Outrider