On this day 06 July

 A band like Led Zeppelin really did need a manager like Peter Grant.

1969 06 July On This Day Led Zeppelin at Newport Jazz Festival

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Newport, RI at Newport Jazz Festival
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL at Chicago Stadium
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Barcelona, Spain at Sports Palace
• 2000 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Bristow, VA at Nissan Pavilion 

1969:
Led Zeppelin was scheduled to close the Newport Jazz Festival but "...in the interests of public safety" the festival promoter, George Wein, attempted to knock Led Zeppelin off the bill. He had not considered Peter Grant. The band went on at 1 a.m. and as NME reported, proceeded to "completely destroy the audience".

Bill Harry created the weekly Mersey Beat in 1961, writing about the Liverpool music scene. Harry had gone to art college with John Lennon, and the Mersey Beat was the first to cover the Beatles. He was a publicist for Led Zeppelin 1969-1970. 

Harry recalled, "The point was - no publicity. It was carefully managed by Peter Grant that [Led Zeppelin] wouldn't do TV. I remember doing just one show with them for TV. They wouldn't do interviews. It was part of a thing he created which was successful. While everyone else was giving interviews for every other paper, the laws of trying to get as much publicity as possible, they didn't. It was more like keeping the press off them."
~ Bill Harry, in an interview with Gary James

1969 Backstage at Newport Jazz Festival

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Newport Jazz Festival (Photo P Tarnoff)

1973:
There was so much audience noise and fighting during this show that Robert Plant had to constantly ask for peace and quiet. Not that it did any good.

1973 Led Zeppelin at Chicago Stadium

♪  You Shook Me (Led Zeppelin, Newport Jazz Festival 1969) YouTube

♪  Led Zeppelin (Newport Jazz Festival 06 July1969) 

♪  Around and Around (Led Zeppelin cover Chuck Berry, soundcheck Chicago Stadium 1973) YouTube

♪  The Rover (Led Zeppelin, soundcheck Chicago Stadium 1973) YouTube
♪  Led Zeppelin (Chicago IL at Chicago Stadium, 06 July 1973) 
♪  Page & Plant Unledded Tour (Barcelona Spain at Sports Palace, 06 July 1995)

On this day 05 July

 Sometimes life is just a riot.

Led Zeppelin, Milan 1971

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Malvern, Worcestershire, England at Winter Gardens
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Hampton, GA at Atlanta International Pop Festival
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Milan, Italy at Vigorelli Velodromo
• 1980 Led Zeppelin - Munich, Germany at Munich Olympiahalle 
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour -  Madrid, Spain at Sports Palace 
• 2023 Jimmy Page backstage at KISS concert, London (photos below)

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Atlanta Pop Festival (Photo Phillip Raul)

1971:
Security couldn't tell the difference between an enthusiastic crowd just digging Led Zeppelin and a riot.  So out came the tear gas. 

1971 Led Zeppelin in Milan before it got nasty

1971 Led Zeppelin in Milan after it got nasty

1980:
Munich, next to last show of the European tour. Simon Kirke of Bad company joins in on second drum kit on Whole Lotta Love.

1980 Led Zeppelin at Munich

1980 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Munich

2023:

Jimmy Page was photographed behind the scene before a KISS concert in London

Paul Stanley & Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page & Shannon Simmons

♪ Led Zeppelin(Hampton GA at Atlanta International Pop Festival, 05 July 1969) 

♪  Led Zeppelin (Milan Italy at Vigorelli Velodromo, 05 July 1971) 

♪ Led Zeppelin (Munich Germany at Munich Olympiahalle, 05 July1980) 
♪ Page & Plant Unledded Tour (Madrid Spain at Sports Palace, 05 July 1995)

On this day 04 July

Celebrate the day in the US safely and TURN UP THE VOLUME!

On This Day 04 July 1985 

On This Day 04 July 1985 Jimmy Page with Beach Boys at Philadelphia and Washington

• 1985 Jimmy Page with Beach Boys and others, Philadelphia and Washington, DC 
• 1998 Page & Plant - Toronto, Ontario at Molson Amphitheatre
• 2000 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Raleigh, NC at Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek
• 2014 Jimmy Page receives Silver Clef Award

Jimmy Page with Bruce Johnson  04 July 1985

1985 Jimmy Page with The Beach Boys

2014 Jimmy Page with Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell at Hyde Park (Photo Ross Halfin)

2014:
The Nordoff Robbins Silver Clef Awards recognize outstanding talent across the music industry. Nordoff Robbins is a music therapy charity dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable children and adults.

2014 Jimmy Page with his Silver Clef Award (Photo Dean Fardell)

2014 Jimmy Page at Silver Clef Awards

♪  Jimmy Page with the Beach Boys (Philadelphia & Washington DC, 04 July 1985)

♪ Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes (Raleigh NC at Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek, 04 July 2000)

♫  Jimmy Page on the healing power of music, the Silver Clef Awards, and the future of guitar music  YouTube

On this day 03 July

Jimmy Page got a passport stamp to enter the US, Led Zeppelin was scheduled to play the Atlanta Pop Festival on the fifth, and JP was planning on meeting up with an old drinking buddy probably to consume a fifth.

1969 03 July On This Day Jimmy Page arrives in US

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Blackpool, Lancashire, England at North Pier Pavilion
• 1980 Led Zeppelin - Mannheim, Germany at Eisstadion am Friedrichspark
• 1998 Page & Plant - Cleveland, OH at Gund Arena

1969:
Led Zeppelin arrives for a two month tour in the US, including three festivals where they got to mingle with some of the musical movers and shakers of the day.

Jimmy Page passport

1980 Led Zeppelin at Mannheim (day 2)

♪  Led Zeppelin (Mannheim Germany 03 July 1980) 

♪ Page & Plant (Cleveland OH at Gund Arena, 03 July 1998)

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)

On this day 01 July

 Train just kept a-rollin'

The Yardbirds 01 July 1967

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Chislehurst, England at Chislehurst Caves
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Chalk Farm, London, England at Roundhouse
• 1980 Jimmy Page with Santana - Frankfurt, Germany at Festhalle 
• 1998 Page and Plant - Pittsburgh, PA at Pittsburgh Civic Arena

1967:
The Roundhouse is a former railway engine shed built in 1847 in Chalk Farm, London, England. It was only used as a railway turntable for 10 years. It fell into disuse but has been used since 1964 as a performing arts venue.

1980 Jimmy Page jams with Carlos Santana in Frankfurt - bootleg album cover

1980:

Carlos Santana had been in the audience for Led Zeppelin's show the night before, and on July 1, Santana dedicated one of the songs to "all the members of Led Zeppelin".  Jimmy Page joined Santana on the stage for the encore. The story goes that staying late at the Santana concert made Jimmy Page late to get to the Led Zeppelin venue in Mannheim on July 2.

1998 Robert Plant and Jimmy Page rehearse for Pittsburgh show

♪ Jimmy Page with Carlos Santana (Frankfurt Germany at Festhalle, 01 July 1980)
♪ Page and Plant (Pittsburgh PA at Pittsburgh Civic Arena, 01 July 1998)

On this day June 30

 "Please give us a chance..." 

 

Plant & Page, Nordoff Robins Silver Clef concert 1990

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Shrewsbury, Shrops, England at Shrewsbury Music Hall
• 1979 Led  Zeppelin visit Knebworth House 
• 1980 Led Zeppelin - Frankfurt, Germany at Festhalle Frankfurt
• 1990 Page & Plant - Knebworth for Nordoff  Robbins Silver Clef Winners Charity Concert 
• 2000 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Holmdel, NJ at PNC Bank Arts Center

1979:

"Led Zeppelin, arguably the world's most popular hard rock band, came down before the (1979) festival to meet us and look around Knebworth House. Guitarist Jimmy Page was a fan of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, who lived in the House in the early 1800's. They shared an interest in the occult, and Jimmy wanted to see all our Bulwer Lytton memorabilia. He used to have a resident medium living at Knebworth and we have his crystal ball and books on magic and witchcraft. It is his ghost that roams the passages at night!

"Drummer John Bonham was more interested in the gardens and singer Robert Plant nearly took a swim in our pool but decided his hairdresser wouldn't be happy about it if he did."
--Chryssie Lytton Cobbold, Knebworth Rock Festivals

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803 – 1873) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He wrote a number of bestselling novels that were very popular in his day. If you've come across any of the following phrases, you've read some of his words: "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", "dweller on the threshold", and yes, "It was a dark and stormy night".

Zanoni is a story of love and occult aspiration.
A Strange Story, with its supernatural theme, was an influence on Bram Stoker's Dracula 

1980:
The Frankfurt audience was so loud that Jimmy Page had to stop playing White Summer when he couldn't hear himself and had to ask the audience to please give them a chance. Those were the days before in-ear monitors.

Phil Carson, then senior vice president at Atlantic Records, joined Led Zeppelin for an encore version of Money.  Carson started out his musical career with Dusty Springfield.

1980 John Paul Jones & Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Frankfurt (Photo Hans P Kirsch)

1980 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Frankfurt

1990:

The Knebworth Festival is held on the grounds of the Knebworth House in England. The Nordoff Robbins Silver Clef Award Winners Concert was held there in 1990. The awards recognize outstanding talent across the music industry. Nordoff Robbins is a music therapy charity dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable children and adults.  

Robert Plant, who was awarded a Silver Clef that year (Jimmy Page received it in 2014), did a set for that show and Jimmy Page joined him on stage for three songs. As one person said who was there, when Jimmy walked on the stage the volume of the audience went up 1000%. The concert is available on DVD Live at Knebworth.

 

1990 Jimmy Page with Robert Plant at Knebworth

1990 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page at Knebworth

Knebworth House

♪  White Summer/Black Mountain Side (Led Zeppelin, Frankfurt Germany 1980) YouTube

♪  Led Zeppelin (Frankfurt Germany 30 June 1980) 

♪  Wearing and Tearing (Page with Plant, Knebworth 1990) YouTube

♪  Rock and Roll (Page with Plant, Knebworth 1990) YouTube

♪  Full show (Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes, Holmdel NJ 2000) YouTube