On this day 06 August

 

1998 06 August Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at Tom Kenny wedding in Ireland
♪  Roisin Dubh by Innisfree Ceoil

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Chicago, IL at Chicago Civic Opera House
• 1969 - Led Zeppelin - Sacramento, CA at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
• 1998 - Page & Plant - County Kerry, Ireland at Tom Kenny's wedding reception

1998:

Tom Kenny, an Irish lighting designer, has worked with many bands over the years including Led Zeppelin. In 1994, Bill Curbishley, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's manager, asked Kenny to do the lighting for the Page and Plant tour.

In Tom Kenny's words:  “This was the first time Jimmy and Robert had worked together in years and both were jaded with the typical concert. ... My ever-changing live lighting approach really suited the band's emotionally inspired, fiery performances every night. We did another amazing tour in 1998 and I've worked with both Jimmy and Robert on solo projects since. 

Later that year Jimmy Page and Robert Plant performed at Tom Kenny's wedding.  

2012:

Adidas Underground was a series of events "popping up" in varying London locations.  They combined art, music, fashion and other unique experiences.  In 2012, twelve different evenings were put on to celebrate the London 2012 Games.  One of them was held on this day, with the Stone Roses performing in front of celebrities, VIPs, competition winners and Olympic medalists - not to mention Jimmy Page.  And, as so often happens when JP is around, everybody had to get their photo taken with him.

2012 06 August Jimmy Page at Adidas Underground for a surprise one-off Stone Roses performance

Olympic rower Pete Reed & Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page & fashion designer Pam Hogg

Here's some Robert Johnson for you because why not.

♪  Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Crossroad (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Kind Hearted Woman Blues (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Travelling Riverside Blues (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Travelling Riverside Blues (Led Zeppelin) YouTube

On this day 05 August

Can you imagine Jimmy Page playing in a department store?  Those were the days...

1966 05 August Jimmy Page with Yardbirds in Minneapolis
♪  Psycho Daisies (The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page bass 1966) Soundcloud

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Minneapolis,MN at Dayton Department Store,8th Floor Auditorium 

1966

Or maybe 1966 wasn't the only time.. Jimmy Page played "Whole Lotta Love" at the New York Stock Exchange opening bell on May 11, 2005 in support of Warner Music Group. Not a lot of difference between that and a department store, I think. 

Looks like not a lot of noteworthy stuff was going on in Jimmy Page's life on this day, so I'm taking the day off, too. The music links below are not necessarily from 05 August.

1966 Jimmy Page with Yardbirds in Minneapolis

Jimmy Page July 2015 Toronto (Moe Doiron photo for Globe and Mail)

♪  Psycho Daisies (The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page bass 1966) YouTube
♪  Baby Come On Home (Led Zeppelin  Coda) Dailymotion
♪  How Many More Times (Led Zeppelin, Royal Albert Hall 1970) YouTube

On this day 04 August

 Always a good idea to play it safe when you're sexing.

1986 04 August On This Day Jimmy Page - San Antonio,Ibiza at Heartbreak Hotel

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Dallas, TX at Texas State Fair Arena
• 1979 Led Zeppelin - Knebworth House 
• 1986 Jimmy Page - San Antonio,Ibiza at Heartbreak Hotel 
• 2009 Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck & friends at pre-Hall of Fame session

1975:
Robert Plant was seriously injured in a car accident while on vacation in Greece on this day in 1975 and all concerts for the rest of the year were cancelled.

..my kind of vision, or the carefree element I had, disappeared instantly when I had my automobile accident in 1975. That kind of ramshackled "I'll take the world now" attitude was completely gone.
~ Robert Plant - In His Own Words 

1979:
Dave Lewis has written a whole book about Knebworth, so there’s not much more I can add except even after all these years the Knebworth concerts are still emotional events. 

1979 04 August Jimmy Page laser music magic at Knebworth (photo Alan Perry)

1979 04 August Jimmy Page at Knebworth (Photo Alan Perry)

1979 04 August Led Zeppelin backstage

1986:
The Spanish island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea is known for its nightclubs and white sand beaches. Ulysses was lured there by the song of sirens and Nostradamus predicted it would be the final refuge of humanity at the end of the world.

In 1986 it wasn't the celebrity party hot-spot it is today, but it was already a destination for those in the know.  In 1985 Robert Plant filmed the video for his single “Sea of Love” (Jimmy Page guitar) on Ibiza, and Jimmy Page was back the following year to play with the jam band, Safe Sex, at the Heartbreak Hotel in San Antonio.

1986 Jimmy Page with Safe Sex at Ibiza
[Note this bootleg cover photo for Safe Sex is actually from the Les Paul birthday party]

2009

Jimmy Page & friends practicing safe sex - no, sorry!  On this day they were practicing for Jeff Beck's Hall of Fame induction.

♪  8mm film (Led Zeppelin, Knebworth 1979) YouTube

♪  Led Zeppelin Knebworth 04 August 1979 

♪  Sea of Love (Robert Plant with Jimmy Page guitar, 2006 remaster) YouTube

♪  Jimmy Page with Safe Sex (Jimmy Page, Ibiza 1986) YouTube

On this day 03 August

 A great guitar is a thing of magic in the hands of a great guitarist who wields great magic.

2009 03 August On This Day Jimmy Page checks out the Gibson Les Paul "Number Two" prototype

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Racine, WI at New Sound Dance ClubYMCA
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Houston, TX at Houston Music Hall

2007 Q Magazine cover (Ross Halfin photo)

2007:
Ross Halfin on the Q cover Guitar Heroes issue and how it was done.

Edge was shot in Dublin. He was very professional, turned up a half hour late, apologised and stayed on to make up the time. He asked if I'd ever shot them early on. I told him I'd discovered America and toured with Rush, ACDC, UFO, Ozzy, Aerosmith and that ilk. I liked Edge a lot. The U2 camp is like being in the army, it's run with military precision.

Jack White was in Nashville and we shot at 9am - he's got a daughter so he's up early.

Jimmy Page was in Fulham on the hottest day of the year. I shot quite a lot that wasn't used.

Johnny Marr was in sunny Manchester (look at the sky on the inside spread). I'd never met him, he was a good bloke - as they say in ancient Rome. We talked about Rory Gallagher and how he acted towards people, always gracious.

Slash was in LA, at the bar of the Sunset Marquis Hotel. He did the interview sitting under giant prints of himself.

Matt Bellamy was at the Soho Hotel in London. Terry Hall (Matt's sexy PR) told me I had 15 minutes in a tiny bedroom, with the backdrop taking up the whole room. Steve Peck from Q stepped in and stretched it to 45 minutes while Terry chain-smoked and wouldn't stop talking inbetween blowing smoke all over the room.

Dave Grohl was in Los Angeles. Diamond Dave was so hyper. I was useless, not focused, shot in the evening while I was so jetlagged - I just wanted to go to bed.. At the end of the day I think it worked out well. The Master can still work well, even when half asleep.

Joe Perry was in London inbetween taking a nap and eating at Nobu with Jimmy Page.

~ Ross Halfin Diary August 2007

Features of Gibson's Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul

Gibson's Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul guitar

2009:

Jimmy Page has played and owns bunches of guitars, and has played and owns bunches of Gibson guitars. His Les Paul "Number One" is the guitar he got from Joe Walsh in early 1969, and it quickly became his go-to guitar, bumping his Fender Telecaster from that position. "Number One" was used to record Led Zeppelin II and was in use through to the 2007 O2 concert and the 2008 Foo Fighters concert at Wembley Stadium. 

"Number Two" was purchased to supplement "Number One", possibly to avoid damaging the first guitar any further (just think about the force on a guitar when it's slapped with a bow) or maybe to have two guitars with very similar sound but with different tuning available on stage. "Number Two" was put into action after the initial modifications in the beginning of 1975 and was in use through to the 2007 O2 concert. 

From the Gibson website:

Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul.

Every musician knows that late ’50s Sunburst Les Paul Standards are hard enough to come by as it is. Obtaining a pristine and exemplary ’59 ’Burst and modifying it for heightened performance and vastly expanded tonal options? Unheard of… unless, of course, you’re Jimmy Page. That’s exactly what the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist, perhaps the world’s most iconic Les Paul player, did with his own ’59 Les Paul Standard, and now—thanks to the extreme efforts of Gibson’s Custom Shop and the intimate cooperation of Jimmy Page himself—the artist’s hallowed “Number Two” Les Paul is available to mere mortals, in the form of the Custom Shop Jimmy Page “Number Two” Les Paul. Produced in strictly limited numbers, with two levels of aging, this guitar captures the look, feel, sound, and versatility of one of the greatest artist-owned Les Pauls of all time, and it is likely to disappear from authorized Gibson dealers in record time.
[Mage Music note: this model is no longer available from Gibson]

Image from Gibson website for Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul guitar

♪  Rock and Roll (Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones with Foo Fighters, Wembley, 2008) YouTube
♪  Ramble On (Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones with Foo Fighters, Wembley, 2008) YouTube

On this day 02 August

 Under Construction

On this day 01 August

Building a legend

1969 Santa Barbara

1979 02 August On This Day Led Zeppelin stage setup at Knebworth

• 1967 Yardbirds - Vancouver, British Columbia  at Pacific National Exhibition Grounds
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Santa Barbara, CA at Earl Warren Showgrounds
• 1979 Led Zeppelin - Knebworth stage construction

1969

The band hadn't performed a full year's worth of shows yet, but Led Zeppelin already headlined the show with another English band, Jethro Tull (Aqualung), and the California band, Fraternity of Man (Don't Bogart That Joint)

1979

Building a stage set for a band like Led Zeppelin was a HUGE endeavor. 

1979 Knebworth amp stacks (Photo John Harrison, stage crew)

(Photo John Harrison, stage crew)

This is Rock, August 2008 (Ross Halfin photo)

Guitar Aficionado Magazine, August 2009 (Ross Halfin photo)

Guitar Aficionado Magazine, August 2009 (Ross Halfin photo)

On this day 31 July

 We always want more Jimmy Page!

1967 31 July On This Day The Yardbirds - Vancouver, British Columbia at Kerrisdale Arena
♪  Only The Black Rose (Jimmy Page home recording 1967) 

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Vancouver, British Columbia at Kerrisdale Arena
• 1973 Led Zeppelin NBC Nightly News appearance

1973:

Check out the video. The boys sure did ham it up for the news camera.

Jimmy Page, from NBC News report on rich rock stars

♫  1973 NBC report "Rich rock stars and the Industry that shares their wealth" 

2015:

Scarlet Page created a Kickstarter campaign for her photographic book project, Resonators.  I supported it and got signed copy of the book when it was published November 2015. 

Jimmy Page, photo by Scarlet Page from her book, Resonators

2015:
The last three of the Led Zeppelin studio remasters were released on this day. The remasters represent thousands of hours of Jimmy Page's effort to provide the music world with the best quality Led Zeppelin albums ever.

Presence

In Through The Out Door

Coda

♪ Only the Black Rose (Jimmy Page, 1967)