On This Day 02 January

The show must go on

1963 02 January On This Day Diamonds, featuring Jimmy Page acoustic guitar, released
AUDIO: Diamonds (Jet Harris, feat. Jimmy Page acoustic guitar 1963) YouTube

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Los Angeles at Whisky A Go Go (day 1 of 4)
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Sheffield England at Sheffield City Hall

1969:
Led Zeppelin opened for Alice Cooper, and was promoted as “featuring Jimmy Page, formerly of the Yardbirds". Jimmy Page was sick with the flu but went onstage anyway with a raging fever. The band could only perform one set and were docked in pay. Alice Cooper recalled that there were only about 100 people in the audience, since no one had heard of either him or Led Zeppelin at that point. Cooper also recalls tossing a coin to see which act would perform first.

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Los Angeles at Whisky A Go Go 

1973:
According to Dave Lewis, John Bonham and Robert Plant drove together to the Sheffield gig in Bonzo’s Bentley, which broke down. The two were forced to hitchhike in the rain the rest of the way to the show. Unfortunately – and coincidentally, given the 1969 show on this day - Robert took sick from the adventure and had a rough time singing. The next two days’ shows were cancelled while he recovered.

Jimmy Page on stage - where we expect to see him in 2016

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♪  Dazed and Confused  (Led Zeppelin, Sheffield England 1973) YouTube
♪  Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin, Sheffield England 1973) YouTube
♪  Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin, Sheffield England 1973) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
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On This Day 01 January

Mage Music wishes you a Zoso New Year

2021
Audio: Happy New Year (Beverley Martyn, feat. Nicky Hopkins & Jimmy Page, 1966)

2018

2016

2012
Audio: The One That Got Away

2013

2014

2015

1970

1998

2015 Classic Rock Awards (John McMurtrie photo)

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On This Day 31 December

New Year's eve - one step closer to new Jimmy Page music!

1968 31 December On This Day Jimmy Page on the road on New Year's Eve

2015 Classic Rock "Best of the Year" cover

2009 March Jimmy Page (Ross Halfin photo)

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♫  BBC 2 Johnnie Walker interviews Jimmy Page 12/30/15 (MP3)

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On This Day 30 December

Dazed thinking of the music to come in 2016

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 but 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)

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

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On This Day 29 December

Getting ready for a new year

2005 29 December Jimmy Page vacationing in Goa

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Portland, OR at Portland Civic Auditorium

2007 Jimmy Page (Ross Halfin photo)

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RIP Lemmy Kilmister

December 24, 1945 - December 28, 2015

2011 Lemmy & Jimmy (Ross Halfin photo)

BBC obituary

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.

2005 Goa (Jimmy Page photo)

2005 Goa (Jimmy Page photo)

2005 Goa (Jimmy Page photo)

2005 Goa (Jimmy Page photo)

2005 Jimmy Page visa to enter India

2012 Jimmy Page on cover of Sound on Sound magazine (Ross Halfin photo)

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