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 09 August

Phony lords, real rebels, and music to unite them all

1994 09 August On This Day Page & Plant Marrakech, Morocco

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Arnolds Park, IA at Roof Garden Ballroom
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Leesburg, IN at Tippy Ballroom
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Anaheim, CA at Anaheim Convention Center Arena
• 1969 Jimmy Page & Robert Plant with Screaming Lord Sutch at Experience Club 
• 1994 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Marrakesh, Morocco

1969:
David Edward Sutch (1940-1999) was not of the nobility although he was known as 3rd Earl of Harrow, and although he was the UK's longest serving party leader, he was never elected to office. In fact, Screaming Lord Such was an English musician who gave himself his own title, started his own political party, and used the money earned from concerts to pay for his political campaigning . Lord Sutch was a shock-rocker before the term was invented. His 1970 debut album Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends was produced by Jimmy Page and featured Jimmy Page and John Bonham among others. It was named as the worst album of all time in a 1998 BBC poll, which is kind of too bad since aside from Sutch's vocals the music is just fine.

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Anaheim (photo RM Dechellis)

1969 David "Screaming Lord" Sutch & Jimmy Page

1994:

For all you grammar police types out there, Marrakech and Marrakesh are both acceptable spellings for the former Moroccan imperial city.

Alan Lomax (1915-2002) was an American field collector of folk music traditions from around the world.

Jimmy Page mentions the Berber women's fierceness and no wonder. Berbers are an ancient nomadic people of the deserts of Northern Africa. Before they were called Berbers, their name meant “free man“.  Berber women are no less determined than Berber men to preserve their ethnic identity and the fierce independence of their people. One of the great Berber religious and military leaders was the Berber queen, Kahina, who in the 7th century led resistance to Arab Islamic expansion in Northwest Africa. She was a believer in the scorched earth policy.

The word Gnawa has three meanings: The people, originally brought to Morocco as slaves and free farmers (some as slaves to the Berbers); a religious/spiritual order; and the deeply hypnotic trance music associated with the religious/spiritual order that is used in the magical treatment of physical and psychic ailments.  The music has a parallel with American blues, music that also has roots in slavery.  More on Gnawa music.

1994 Jimmy Page/Page & Plant Marrakech

1994 Page & Plant with Moroccan musicians

♪  Thumping Beat (Jimmy Page and Lord Sutch 1970) YouTube
♪  'Cause I Love You (Jimmy Page, John Bonham and Lord Sutch 1970) YouTube
♪  City Don't Cry (Page & Plant, Live in Marrakech 1994) YouTube
♪  Wah Wah (Page & Plant, Live in Marrakech 1994) YouTube

On This Day 13 July

Some things must end for other things to begin.

2011 13 July On This Day Jimmy Page jams with The Black Crowes

• 1969 Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham jam with Jeff Beck Group and others at Flushing Meadows, Queens, NY Singer Bowl 
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Detroit, MI at Cobo Hall (day 2)
• 1985 Led Zeppelin - Philadelphia, PA at John F. Kennedy Stadium -Live Aid – Jimmy Page with John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Tony Franklin & Phil Collins
• 1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Sheffield, England at Sheffield Arena
• 1998 Page & Plant - Boston, MA at Fleet Centre
• 2011 Jimmy Page  jams with The Black Crowes at Shepherd's Bush Empire

1969 Backstage at Singer Bowl with Jeff Beck group (L-R: Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, unknown, Jimmy Page, Richard Cole)

1969:
Press Review – "Sunday’s (13th) Jeff Beck, Vanilla Fudge, 10 Years After, Edwin Hawkins Singers concert at Singer Bowl resulted in an unexpected jam amongst members of The Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. The music excited Zeppelin drummer John Bonham to the point where he started tearing his clothes off. He was carried offstage by friends before he could get past his underwear."

John Paul Jones was the only one of Led Zeppelin who didn't join Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Glenn Cornick (Jethro Tull) and Alvin Lee (Ten Years After) on stage at the Singer Bowl for what turned out to be a rowdy encore for the Jeff Group, Jailhouse Rock.

To be fair, Bonzo wasn't simply tearing off his clothes, he was also drumming The Stripper while acting it out.

"It was one of those riotous sorts of day, everyone's energy level was 100 percent ... It was just one of those animal things. Three English groups at the same place has to add up to trouble!"
~ Jeff Beck 

1985:

"It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid ...."
~ Richard Skinner opening the Live Aid concerts.

The Live Aid concerts (two venues on the same day) were organized to raise funds for the ongoing famine in Ethiopia. The venues were Wembley Stadium in London, England and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, USA. It was broadcast via satellite and had an estimated audience of nearly 2 billion. The combined concerts lasted 16 hours, although with some performances occurring simultaneously, the actual number of hours of performance was longer than that. 

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones' performance was referred to as a Led Zeppelin reunion. Tony Thompson and Phil Collins took John Bonham's place at the drums. The set list was Rock and Roll, Whole Lotta Love and Stairway to Heaven.

It was not a great show for the boys. Robert Plant was hoarse, Jimmy Page's guitar was out of tune, neither drummer had rehearsed with Plant, Page and Jones, and the monitors were malfunctioning. (Phil Collins' performed at both venues.  He did a solo set at Wembley, then took a Concorde supersonic jet to JFK Airport and a helicopter to JFK Stadium, where he joined the Led Zeppelin reunion).

Led Zeppelin's wasn't the only reunion - prompting some to refer to the shows as "geezer events" - and theirs wasn't the only problematic performance. There was further criticism of the Live Aid effort as it appeared that a good amount of the funds raised ended up being siphoned off by corrupt Ethiopian government. The official four-disc Live Aid DVD set, released in 2004, contains only 10-hours of the concert. Led Zeppelin and Santana requested to be not included on the DVD set because they felt their performances were sub-standard. Because of the immense audience there are, of course, many recordings out there.

1985 Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Live Aid Philadelphia JFK Stadium

 2011:
Although the 2011 Farewell to England tour was billed as the end of The Black Crowes, in fact they toured again in 2013. The band's guitarist, Rich Robinson, announced in January 2015 that the band had broken up. Chris Robinson, in an interview two weeks later, said the breakup was due to an unwillingness to write new songs.

2011 Jimmy Page & Chris Robinson backstage at Shepherds Bush Empire (Photo Ross Halfin)

2011 Jimmy Page jamming with The Black Crowes at Shepherds Bush

♪  Live In Detroit (Led Zeppelin 13 July 1973) YouTube

♪  Full performance (Led Zeppelin Live Aid Philadelphia 1985) YouTube

♪ Shake Your Moneymaker (Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes, Shepherds Bush Empire 2011) 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

On This Day 22 June

They went to the land of ice and snow

1970 22 June On This Day Led Zeppelin in Reykjavik Iceland

• 1970 Led Zeppelin - Reykjavik, Iceland at Lauguardalsholl Sports Arena
• 1972 Led Zeppelin - San Bernardino ,CA at Swing Auditorium
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Inglewood, CA at The Forum
• 2004 Jimmy Page receives MOJO Maestro Award and accepts Vision Award for Led Zeppelin DVD (2003)

1970 Jimmy Page in Iceland

1970 Jimmy Page with Led Zeppelin in Iceland

1970 Bonzo calling home... or somewhere

"We weren't being pompous. We did come from the land of the ice and snow. We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a cultural mission. We were invited to play a concert in Reykjavik and the day before we arrived all the civil servants went on strike and the gig was going to be canceled. The university prepared a concert hall for us and it was phenomenal. The response from the kids was remarkable and we had a great time. 'Immigrant Song' was about that trip and it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different."

~ Robert Plant, in Chris Welch's book, Led Zeppelin (1994) 

1977 Jimmy Page with Led Zeppelin at LA Forum

2004 MOJO Awards - James Patrick Page III, Jimmy Page, Scarlet Page
(Photo Ross Halfin)

2004 MOJO Awards - John Frusciante presentation speech for
Jimmy Page's Maestro Award
(Photo Ross Halfin, appeared in August 2004 MOJO)

2014 MOJO Magazine (Photo Ross Halfin)

♫  Robert Plant interview (Led Zeppelin Iceland, 1970) YouTube

♪  Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin 1970) Soundcloud

♪  Immigranat Song (Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions 1971) YouTube

♪  Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin San Bernardino 1972) YouTube

♪  Concert footage (Led Zeppelin LA Forum 22 June 1977) YouTube

On This Day 20 June

Dr. Rock God.

2008 20 June On This Day Honorary Doctorate from University of Surrey

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Newcastle upon Tyne, England at Newcastle City Hall
• 1980 Led Zeppelin - Brussels, Belgium at Vorst Nationaal
• 2008 20 June On This Day Honorary Doctorate from University of Surrey

2008 Jimmy Page at Guildford Cathedral
after receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University o f Surrey

1969

1980

1980 Led Zeppelin Tour Over Europe, Brussels (Photo Mark Staples)

Pat's Delight was named for John Bonham's wife Pat. The song evolved into Moby Dick, which was named by Jason Bonham, and later morphed into Over The Top. Jimmy Page's guitar riffs changed for the various versions as well. 

♪ Pat’s Delight (Led Zeppelin, Newcastle City Hall, 1969) YouTube

♪  Moby Dick (Royal Albert Hall, 1970) YouTube

♪  Over The Top (Cleveland, 1977) YouTube
♪  Led Zeppelin (Brussels June 1980) YouTube

Most recent edit:
20 June 2020

Cream's Ginger Baker On Led Zeppelin

In a series for Forbes, writer Jim Clash risks an interview with drummer Ginger Baker.  Given that Baker can be... how to put this.... well, let's just say one interviewer referred to the interview experience with the drummer as a "professional horror show", Clash did well.

In this interview, Jim Clash dares to bring up Led Zeppelin.  Considering how Ginger Baker has trashed them (particularly John Bonham) and every other major band since Cream, this is a pretty positive response from the man.

Maybe Mr. Baker has mellowed out.

Nah.

Ginger Baker (left), Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton of Cream (1966-1968)

JC: Are there bands that came from Cream’s influence you consider to be good, maybe Led Zeppelin?

GB: Jimmy’s [Page] a good player. I don’t think Led Zeppelin filled the void that Cream left, but they made a lot of money. I probably like about 5% of what they did – a couple of things were really cool. What I don’t like is the heavy bish-bash, jing-bap, jing-bash bullshit.

JC: What do you think of Zeppelin’s late drummer, John Bonham?

GB: Years ago, John said, “There are two drummers in rock and roll, Ginger Baker and me.” There’s no way John was anywhere near what I am. He wasn’t a musician. 

John Bonham, on the other hand, has said this about Ginger Baker:

"When I listen to drummers I like to be able to say "Oh! I haven't heard that before." Being yourself is so much better than sounding like anyone else. Ginger Baker's thing is that he is himself. So it's no good trying to do what he does."

~John Bonham, as quoted by his brother Mick Bonham in John Bonham: The Powerhouse Behind Led Zeppelin

And Jimmy Page himself:

I was surprised that in the recent documentary on Ginger Baker [Beware of Mr. Baker], he takes some shots at Bonham's musical ability. You just never hear other drummers making that criticism. He's usually so untouchable.

That's an interesting film, because of the way the film starts. Doesn't it start with Ginger hitting the director with a cane? I did see the film, and I know what you're talking about. I was a bit disappointed by that. His criticism was that Bonham didn't swing. I was like, "Oh, Ginger. That's the only thing that's undeniable about Bonham." I thought that was stupid. That was a really silly thing of him to say.

~ Jimmy Page, GQ Interview 2014

Jimmy Page, as depicted for GQ's "Rock God" Man of the Year 2014

On This Day 13 June

Enter The Danelectro!  Madison Square Garden!  Another award announcement!

1965 13 June On This Day Jimmy Page starts using the Danelectro in the studio AND
On This Day in 2014 the announcement that Jimmy Page will receive the Silver Clef Award in July

• 1965 13 June On This Day Jimmy Page starts using the Danelectro in the studio
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Birmingham, West Midlands, England at Birmingham Town Hall
• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Philadelphia, PA at The Spectrum
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden (show  5 of 6)
• 1998 Page & Plant - Fargo, ND at Fargo Dome
• 2014 Announcement that Jimmy Page is to receive a Silver Clef award in July

During this fifth night at MSG a number of incidents.  Among other things, Jimmy Page dropped his guitar, knocking it out of tune before White Summer/Black Mountain Side; Bonham was introduced as "a rhinestone cowgirl" before Battle of Evermore; and Bonham comes in too early in Stairway to Heaven, forcing Robert Plant to switch lyrics.  Plant comments on it as he sings: "There's still time to change the road you're on... I hope so Bonzo".

Some say this fifth of six nights was the best show at Madison Square Garden in 1977. 

1977 Jimmy Page & John Bonham MSG (Photo by George De Sota /Redferns)

1977 MSG Jimmy Page - Madison Square Garden (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)

1977 Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)

1977 MSG Jimmy Page and John Bonham (Photo by George De Sota/Redferns)

1977 Jimmy Page and his Danelectro, at Madison Square Garden (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)

1998 June Guitar World Magazine - Jimmy Page and his Danelectro

2008 Jimmy Page, still playing that Danelectro, from the movie It Might Get Loud

♪  Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin, MSG 13 June 1977) YouTube