On This Day 28 January

Jimmy Page: The greatest hit of them all.

2008 28 January On This Day Jimmy Page promoting Mothership in Tokyo

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Brisbane, Australia at Brisbane Festival Hall
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Edinburgh, Scotland at King's Theatre
• 2008 Jimmy Page in Tokyo promoting release of Mothership

2008:
Mothership is a collection of "greatest hits" chosen by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones from the first eight studio albums. It was released in digital format in November 2007 in the US and the UK, in vinyl in August 2008, and the remaster was released November 2015. Mothership (digital) includes 24 selections from the studio albums and a DVD of 20 live performances from Royal Albert Hall 1970, Sydney Showground 1972, Madison Square Garden 1973, Earls Court 1975 and Knebworth 1979. With nearly 7 million albums sold world-wide, Mothership is certified 2X platinum.

 

2008 Jimmy Page, Tokyo

2008 Jimmy Page, Tokyo (Koji Sasahara photo)

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♪  Mothership (Led Zeppelin, 1969-1979) YouTube
♫ Live-Soup Led Zeppelin Television Special (Jimmy Page Interview) 2008

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

On This Day 27 January

He rocks

1996 27 January On This Day Page & Plant in Rio
VIDEO

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Melbourne, Australia at Melbourne Festival Hall
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Dundee, Scotland at Caird Hall
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at Hollywood Rock Festival  

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Dundee Scotland

1996:
In a Brazilian interview, Robert Plant stated that the Rio performance was Page & Plant's 100th show.

1996 Jimmy Page in Rio

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♪  Since I've Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin, Dundee 1973)  YouTube
♪  MTV footage (Page & Plant, Rio 1996) YouTube
♫  Page & Plant interview 

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

On This Day 26 January

2015 26 January On This Day Jimmy Page attends Scarlett Sabet poetry reading

2009 26 January On This Day Jimmy Page visits Myanmar

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Melbourne, Australia at Melbourne Festival Hall
• 1968 The Yardbirds - Birmingham, England at Bingley Hall for All Night Rave
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Boston, MA at Boston Tea Party (day 4 of 4) 

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Boston Tea Party

1969:
From NME:

John Paul Jones: “As far as I’m concerned, the key Zeppelin gig, the one that put everything into focus, was one that we played on our first American tour at the Boston Tea Party. We’d played our usual one hour set, using all the material for the first album and Page’s White Summer guitar piece and by the end, the audience just wouldn’t let us offstage. It was in such a state that we had to start throwing ideas around, just thinking of songs that we might all know or that some of us knew a part of and work it out from there.

So we’d go back on and play things like “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Please Please Me”, old Beatles favorites. I mean, just anything that would come into our head and the response was quite amazing. There were kids actually bashing their heads against the stage – I’ve never seen that a gig before or since, and when we finally left the stage, we’d played for four plus hours.

Peter (Grant) was absolutely ecstatic. He was crying, if you can imagine that, and hugging us all. You know with this grizzly bear hug. I suppose it was then that we realized just what Led Zeppelin was going to become.” – (NME, Feb. 1973).

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♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Boston Tea Party 26 January 1969) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

On This Day 25 January

Should the song remain the same? Or should it change?

On This Day 25 January 1996 (published 2021)

Video - Wanton Song

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Adelaide, Australia at Centennial Hall
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Boston, MA at Boston Tea Party (day 3 of 4)
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Aberdeen, Scotland at Aberdeen Music Hall
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Indianapolis, IN at Market Square Arena 
• 1995 Page & Plant – record Black Dog at The Depot Studios in London for later broadcast at the American Music Awards
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Buenos Aires, Argentina at Estadio Ricardo Etcheverry 

1973    Aberdeen Scotland

1975 Led Zeppelin at Indianapolis (Neil Preston photo)

1995:
On this day Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, with Michael Lee, Charlie Jones and didgeridoo players recorded Black Dog in London's Depot Studios to be broadcast at the American Music Awards on 30 January in Los Angeles. John Paul Jones would accept the International Artist Award for Led Zeppelin in person.

1996 Page & Plant, Buenos Aires

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♪  Rock And Roll (Led Zeppelin, Aberdeen 1973) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains The Same  (Led Zeppelin, Aberdeen 1973) YouTube
♪  Rock And Roll (Led Zeppelin, Indianapolis 1975) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains the Same  (Led Zeppelin, Indianapolis 1975) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Buenos Aires 1996) YouTube

♫ January 2021 GQ article on Jimmy Page, with interview

♫ Jimmy Page is featured on the cover of the March 2021 issue of Guitar World magazine, which features a new interview on a missing/recovered guitar - Black Beauty?

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

On This Day 24 January

Smashed up but not beaten down

2009 24 January On This Day Jimmy Page visiting Myanmar

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Adelaide, Australia at Centennial Hall
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Boston, MA at Boston Tea Party (day 2 of 4)
• 1970 Led Zeppelin - Leeds, England at University of Leeds, The Refectory
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Richfield, OH at Richfield Coliseum 

1969 jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin Boston Tea Party

1970 Led Zeppelin Leeds University

1970 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin Leeds University

1975:
Jimmy Page was playing with 3 fret fingers, having slammed his ring finger in a train door in England prior to leaving for the US Tour, breaking the tip.  He was getting used to his new technique by this point, although Dazed and Confused had been dropped from the setlist because of the injury.  That song was next performed at MSG on 03 February.

1976: 
Led Zeppelin was scheduled for a show at the Rose Bowl that had been rescheduled from September due to Robert Plant’s car accident.  The recovery took longer than  anticipated, so this and other shows through the middle of March were rescheduled to later dates or, like the Rose Bowl stadium gig, cancelled.

2009 Jimmy Page passport stamp

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♪  Rock And Roll (Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube
♪  In My Time of Dying (Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube
♪  Trampled Under Foot - Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

On This Day 23 January

When "The Tea Party" meant something different than it does today

1969 23 January & 1996 23 January On This Day

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Sydney, Australia at Sydney Stadium (day 2, 2 sets)
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Boston, MA. at Boston Tea Party (day 1 of 4)
• 1996 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour at Vina del Mar,Chile at Estadio Sausalito
• 2008 Jimmy Page with Jack White & The Edge - Burbank,CA at Warner Brothers Studio to record “The Summit” scenes for It Might Get Loud 

1969: 

Today was the first of four shows at the Boston Tea Party.  This set was only 40 minutes because of equipment problems.  The On This Day photo (above) is from Led Zeppelin's return to the Boston Tea Party in May, not from the January shows.

1969 January Led Zeppelin Boston Tea Party

1969 January Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin Boston Tea Party

2008:
"There's always that point when it might happen to you, when you're too old to pick the guitar up. And we're just trying to keep that day far, far away, and out of sight."
~ Jimmy Page, It Might Get Loud

Thankfully Jimmy Page has not at that point yet.

2013 Rolling Stone Germany article "The Last Magician" (Ross Halfin photo)

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♪  It Might Get Loud Premiere (Black Tree TV coverage, 2009) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Chile 1996) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

On This Day 22 January

1973 22 January On This Day Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Sydney, Australia at Sydney Stadium
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Southampton,UK at Southampton University
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL. at Chicago Stadium (day 3 of 3)

1971:
Note that the source for the one minute intro to Four Sticks (link below), with John Bonham's setting up the timing, may have been from a session at Headley Grange between 1970 December and 1971 January or from the 1971 February sessions at Island Studios in London.  Rumor has it that this and other outtakes were found in trash.

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at soundcheck, Southampton University

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

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♪  Four Sticks / intro only (Led Zeppelin, rehearsal 1971) YouTube
♪  Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin, Southampton 1973) YouTube
♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Southampton 1973) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube