On This Day 10 December

Beyond amazing and into the realm of Magick.

10 December Jimmy Page's On This Day (published 2020)

1998 and 2007 - 10 December On This Day, Page & Plant at Amnesty International Show
and Led Zeppelin/Jason Bonham at Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, O2
Videos: Black Dog  Gallows Pole

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Bristol, England at Student Union, Bristol University
• 1968 Led Zeppelin - London, England at  Marquee Club
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - St. Helier, UK at Behan's Park West (guest appearance with pianist Norman Hale)
• 1998 Page & Plant, Amnesty International Concert - Paris, France at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
• 2007 Led Zeppelin Ahmet Ertegun Tribute - London,England at O2 Arena  

1975

Robert Plant was still recovering from his August car accident, and the four members of Led Zeppelin were in Jersey for a few weeks. John Paul Jones and John Bonham were at a club where the resident pianist, Norman Hale, invited the two onstage to jam. Instead the full band showed up a week later for a 45 minute set with Hale at the piano and Plant seated on a stool, performing to an audience of a few hundred lucky souls.

1975 Led Zeppelin - St. Helier, UK at Behan's Park West
(guest appearance with pianist Norman Hale)

1998
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant performed When the World Was Young, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Gallows Pole, and Rock and Roll at the last Human Rights Concert to benefit Amnesty International. The full 1998 performance with Page & Plant, among others, is available on Amazon.

1998 Page & Plant, Amnesty International Show, Paris

2007
Ahmet Ertegun (1923-2006) was a powerful figure in Led Zeppelin's career. He was founder and president of Atlantic Records and was a chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After hearing Led Zeppelin's demo recording, Ertegun immediately signed the then unknown band to his label.

At age 83 Ertegun was backstage at a Rolling Stones' concert at the Beacon Theater in New York when he tripped and fell, hitting his head on the cement. During the Led Zeppelin induction to the UK Music Hall of Fame on 14 November, 2006, Jimmy Page announced that Ertegun had gone into a coma. Ahmet Ertegun died on December 14, 2006 and was buried in his native Turkey.

The remaining members of Led Zeppelin organized an Ahmet Tribute Concert to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey. Although other performers were to share the stage, it was the reunion of Led Zeppelin, with Jason Bonham taking his father's place, that stole the headlines.

Over 20 million people tried for tickets.

2007 February, Led Zeppelin statement on passing of Ahmet Ertegun

2007 10 December, Led Zeppelin reunion, with Jason Bonham,
at Ahmut Ertegun Tribute concert, O2 Arena, London

2007 O2 ticket

2007 Dave Grohl with Scarlet Page and the "secret" setlist, before the show
(Ross Halfin photo)

Setlist:
Good Times, Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time of Dying
For Your Life
Trampled Under Foot
Nobody's Fault But Mine
No Quarter
Since I've Been Lovin' You
Dazed and Confused
Stairway To Heaven
The Song Remains the Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir

Encore:

Whole Lotta Love

Rock and Roll

2007, the Concert of the Century

2007 Jimmy Page at the mic, O2

2007 Jimmy Page, O2 (Ross Halfin photo)

2007 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, O2

2007 John Paul Jones, Jason Bonham, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant at O2 (Scarlet Page photo)

2007, the Concert of the Century

It's rock and roll, baby.  It's Jimmy Page.  It's Magick.

♪

♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube

♪  When the World Was Young (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube 

♪  Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube
♪ Gallows Pole (Page & Plant, Amnesty International Paris 1998) YouTube
♪  Good Times Bad Times with concert intro (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♪  Black Dog (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♪  Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♪  Kashmir (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube
♪  Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham, Ahmet Tribute Concert at O2, 2007) YouTube

♫  Rolling Stone review by David Fricke

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

Soundcheck

Eight years ago today, just about now (allowing for the time difference and when you read this), the final O2 rehearsal/soundcheck was happening.

Tickets for the show itself, available through a lottery system, had been snatched up by some 16-18,000 lucky devils, with literally millions of us losers sobbing about it.

Some lucky suckers had gotten access to the rehearsal/soundcheck, too.

2007 Led Zeppelin O2 rehearsal

Meanwhile, back home millions of us remained crying into our beer (or wine, in my case), not having won
one of those precious concert tickets or an invitation to the soundcheck. But we were not idle. No we were not. We were searching online for every scrap of information, any report - first or second hand, or even rumor. Anything at all.

Much had been kept secret, but in this day and age, there are always leaks. What was out there was hard to distinguish from rumors, but you had to find trustworthy sources and, well, trust them. Early feedback from Cameron Crowe (who was not there but had heard from someone who was) was that the soundcheck was thrilling.

The few hundred or so blessed witnesses to this penultimate performance were not allowed to record, but yes, that happened anyway.

The setlist for the sound check included:
 Good Times Bad Times

 Ramble On

 In My Time Of Dying

 No Quarter

 Nobody's Fault But Mine

 D'yer Mak'er

 Communication Breakdown

It was already common knowledge that the band had been practicing For Your Life, a song they'd never played live before.

Afterwards, some of the blessed met up at the Pilot Inn/Pub for a Led Zeppelin fan club meeting arranged by Dave Lewis, who, after all was said and done, referred to the whole experience before, during and after, as inhabiting Planet Zeppelin.

Amazingly, after all these years I'm still upset that I wasn't there and I'm still green with envy even as I type this blog post. So go ahead, ticketholders.  Torture me. Post your story of O2 in the comments.

♪

♪  Rock and Roll (Shepperton Studio, 05 December 2007) YouTube

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

On This Day 12 September

Oh, oh, O2!

1976 11 September On This Day Jimmy Page and John Bonham record Bonzo's Montreux in Montreux Casino Studios
(2015 post date with different headline)
♪ Bonzo's Montreux (Soundcloud)

1976 11 September On This Day Jimmy Page and John Bonham record Bonzo's Montreux in Montreux Casino Studios
(2011 post date)
♪ Bonzo's Montreux (Soundcloud)

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm, Sweden at Tivoli Grona Lund,Stora Scenen
• 1976 Jimmy Page and John Bonham recording in Montreux Casino Studios
• 1998 Page & Plant - Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheatre
• 2007 O2 show announcement 

1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm, Sweden at Tivoli Grona Lund,Stora Scenen

1968 Billed as Yardbirds - not even the new ones

1976:
Bonzo's Montreux is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. Of course, I say that about so many of Led Zeppelin's and Jimmy Page's music, but this is different. Bonzo's Montreux is music at it's most basic, what humans have heard in the plink of raindrops and the slap of windshield wipers, the thing that makes toes tap and bodies sway.  This one song is music stripped to a fundamental component of human life, "the spacial representation of time as rhythm" (Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed).  It is truly, as Jimmy Page puts it, John Bonham's drum orchestra.

Keyboard mentioned in Jimmy Page's On This Day post

1998 Page & Plant - Poster for Mountain View, CA show

2007 Led Zeppelin announces O2 show

2007:
"O2" of course, refers to the one-off "Led Zeppelin Reunion" (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham).  The official name of the show was the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert.  It was a benefit to help raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey.

The 12 September announcements for the event mentioned a lineup that included Pete Townshend, Foreigner, Paolo Nutini, and Bill Wyman And The Rhythm Kings, with rumors of Mick Jagger playing the gig. Tickets for the show were £125 each, limited to two per person, distributed by ballot via online registration. Registration was supposed to close on Monday, 17 September, but in fact the website exceeded its bandwidth and crashed almost immediately upon the announcement.  According to Guinness World Records 2009, a world record was set for the "Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert". Depending on the source you believe, there were no fewer than one million or as many as 20 million requests for tickets.

Pete Townshend declined to perform, reportedly saying, "They really don't need me."  It didn't matter whether he or anyone else showed up. For most of the world there was only one band that was going to play that night anyway: Led Zeppelin.

2009 5 March, Jimmy Page/Ross Halfin studio photoshoot

2009:
I posted this photo today because I like it. Is there any other reason necessary?

♪

♪  Bonzo's Montreux (Led Zeppelin, Coda 1976) YouTube
♪  Bonzo's Montreux (mix construction in progress) (Led Zeppelin, Coda 2015 remaster) YouTube
♪  Ramble On (Led Zeppelin, O2 rehearsal Shepperton Studios 2007) YouTube
♪  For Your Life (Led Zeppelin, O2 rehearsal Shepperton Studios 2007) YouTube

On This Day 07 August

A joy to hear anytime anyplace

1971 07 August Led Zeppelin at Montreux

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Mentor, MN at Maple Lake Pavilion
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Berkeley, CA at Berkeley Community Theatre
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Montreux, Switzerland at Montreux Casino Hall

1971 Led Zeppelin at Montreux

1971 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Montreux

1971:
With the help of Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün of Atlantic Records,  in 1967 Claude Nobs, Géo Voumard and René Langel founded the Montreux Jazz Festival. Originally a jazz festival, it opened up to other music genres in the 1970s.  Led Zeppelin played Montreux that year and the next.

In British slang, a nob is an important person, a person of social distinction.  In 1970 Eva Von Zeppelin threatened to sue the band for making money off her family name.  “Then we shall call ourselves the Nobs when we go to Copenhagen,” shrugged Page. “The whole thing is absurd.”

Did Led Zeppelin choose to call themselves The Nobs for a little while because of Claude or because of Eva? Jimmy Page hasn't explained.

I'm still out of town, so here's mostly non-On This Day related music for you.


♪  16mm film (Led Zeppelin, Montreux 1971) YouTube
♪  Jimmy Page "Domino" East Rutherford, New Jersey 1999
♪  Embryo No. 2 - Jimmy Page (It Might Get Loud)
♪  Stairway to Heaven (Jimmy Page with Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton, MSG 1983) YouTube

On This Day 29 July

Dum de dum dum...

1973 29 July On This Day Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden
♪ Drake Hotel (Dragnet radio & TV theme song) (Soundcloud)

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Danville, CA at San Ramon High School
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Edmonton, Alberta, at Kinsmen Field House
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden
• 1984 Jimmy Page with Roy Harper at Battersea Park, London

1973:
This was the third performance in a row at Madison Square Garden. At the end of Whole Lotta Love, East Indian fire-eater Mike Quashie came dancing out on the stage with a couple of torches. He lit John Bonham's gong and one drumstick, but Bonzo just kept on playing.

This is the show where the robbery occurred of MSG receipts from the safety deposit box at the Drake Hotel. Originally reported as $203,000, the amount was $180,000 and no one was ever arrested for the theft. The band later sued the hotel and received a settlement.

After the show, the band went to a party held by Ahmet Ertegun to present gold records for Houses of the Holy.

This final night was also the final performance in this 1973 North American tour.

1973 29 July Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden

1973 Led Zeppelin at MSG - Mike Quashie lights Bonzo's fire

Led Zeppelin - New York  1973 - Houses of the Holy Gold Album Award.

1984:
GLC Free Festival Battersea Park in London was put on by the Greater London Council, the city's local authority from 1964 to 1986.  It was one of two music festivals used to highlight what the GLC was doing to fight unemployment, boost the London economy and help create and fund new jobs. 

1984 Jimmy Page at Battersea with Roy Harper

♪  Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin, MSG 29 July 1973) YouTube

♪  Dazed and Confused excerpt 8mm film (Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, MSG 29 July 1973) YouTube

♪  The Ocean (Led Zeppelin, MSG 29 July 1973) YouTube

♪  Heartbreaker (Led Zeppelin, MSG 29 July 1973) YouTube

On This Day 07 July

Honoring Bonzo on this day

1980 07 July On This Day  Led Zeppelin, Berlin  Final show

1980 07 July On This Day Led Zeppelin Berlin

• 1968 Yardbirds -Beds, England at Student Union, Luton College
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Chicago at Chicago Stadium
• 1980 Led Zeppelin - Berlin, Germany at Eissporthalle Jafféstraße ^^^
• 1998 Page & Plant - Washington, DC at MCI Center
• 2001 Page & Plant - Montreux Festival, with Bill Jennings and Mike Watts 

Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin  Chicago 1973

Led Zeppelin  Chicago 1973

2001 Page & Plant Montreux Jazz Festival

2001:
This night at Montreux was a tribute to Sun Records, founded by Sam Phillips.  Phillips was a DJ, radio engineer, producer, label owner, and talent scout throughout the 1940s and 1950s.  In 1950 he started up the Memphis Recording Service for amateurs (then!) such as B.B. King, Junior Parker, and Howlin' Wolf.  Phillips launched the Sun Records label in 1952.  The Memphis Recording Service became the Sun Recording Studio, which was the first to record Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash.  Phillips recorded what may be the first rock and roll record: "Rocket 88" (discussed previously in Mage Music).

At Montreux, Page & Plant were introduced by Claude Nobs and Ahmet Ertegun. The playlist below provides links to the original versions that Page & Plant covered, with the final link being the 2001 Montreux show.

2014 Jimmy Page (Ross Halfin Photo)

2014 July Guitar World cover (Ross Halfin Photo)

♪  Good Rockin' Tonight (Roy Brown) YouTube
♪  My Bucket's Got a Hole in It (Sonny Burgess) YouTube
♪  Heart in Your Hand (Page & Plant, Walking Into Clarksdale 1998) YouTube
♪  Candy Store Rock (Led Zeppelin, Presence 1976) YouTube
♪  Endless Sleep (Jody Reynolds) YouTube
♪  How Many More Years  (Howlin’ Wolf) YouTube
♪  My Baby Left Me  (Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup) YouTube
♪  Baby Let's Play House  (Arthur Gunter) YouTube

♪  Live at Montreux ( Page & Plant 2001) YouTube