On this day 22 October

Whole lotta lotta.

1969 22 October On This Day Led Zeppelin II released
♪ Whole Lotta Love (SoundCloud)

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Westport, CT at Staples High School Auditorium
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Wichita, KS at Cotillion Club
• 1969 Led Zeppelin II released
• 1976 Led Zeppelin - Los Angeles at Fox Wilshire, premier of The Song Remains The Same 
• 1988 Jimmy Page - Outrider Tour - Detroit, MI at Joe Louis Arena
• 1997 Led Zeppelin releases Whole Lotta Love as a single in the UK 
• 2014 Jimmy Page - London at Paul Smith Led Zeppelin Limited Edition Scarves launch 

1976:

There is conflicting information about the exact dates of the Led Zeppelin premieres in New York and Los Angeles. Some say October 19 and 21, respectively, and others - including Dave Lewis - say October 20 and 22. I'm going with Dave.

1976 The Song Remains The Same movie premiere, LA

1976 LA premiere of The Song Remains The Same

1988:
Jimmy Page just got better and better at interpreting Chopin's Prelude. It's the first song on the full set video for the Detroit show (playlist below).

1988 Jimmy Page, Outrider Tour, Detroit (Ben Roberts photo)

1997:

Whole Lotta Love was released as a single in the UK on this day - the first ever single released there. The occasion was the 30th anniversary of the band. The video is hot, hot, hot. 

If you'd never heard one Led Zeppelin song and this was your first, it would knock your socks off. For those of us who've been listening since day one, it was a reminder that every single Led Zeppelin song is a masterpiece in its own right.

2014:
Having met with fashion designer Paul Smith in Tokyo earlier this month in 2014, on this day Jimmy Page attended the launch of the Paul Smith Led Zeppelin scarf line in London.

2014 Paul Smith & Jimmy Page in London

2015:
Lots of movies are licensing Led Zeppelin songs in their trailers and as part of their soundtracks.
Mostly it's Kashmir or Immigrant Song, but the trailer for The Big Short (2015) uses When The Levee Breaks. I've got a blog entry with the start of a list of songs and the movies, trailers, and other uses that you can check out.

♪

♪  Whole Lotta Love / promo (Led Zeppelin, 1969/1997) 
♪  Jimmy Page Outrider Tour (Detroit MI at Joe Lewis Arena, 22 October 1988) 

♪  The Big Short (movie trailer 2015) 

Labels: 

On this day 21 October

Waiting for the Happenings A Year To Come, but oh well...

1966 21 October On This Day Yardbirds Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

• 1966 The Yardbirds release Happenings Ten Years Time Ago 
• 1966 The Yardbirds - Worcester, MA at The Comic Strip
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Dallas, TX at Studio Club
• 1976 Premiere of "The Song Remains the Same" movie, Los Angeles CA
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Dayton, OH at Hara Arena
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Hartford, CT at Hartford Civic Center

1966:

You might want to listen to Jimi Hendrix's House Burning Down right after listening to Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. Maybe it's just me, but I feel a connection there, like maybe Jimi was influenced by Jimmy, or at least by The Yardbirds' song, which was released two years prior to Hendrix's.

Not saying anybody else will hear it. Not saying it's a bad thing, if it's actually a thing. Not saying anything about anyone "stealing" a song, either. To me it just shows once again how a great musician stands on the shoulders of the musicians before him (or her). And if Hendrix never ever heard the Yardbirds 

1976

Just ten years later, Led Zeppelin was premiering their movie, "The Song Remains the Same". An amazing journey.

2010

Jimmy Page in Lid Magazine

2010 Jimmy Page on cover of October Lid Magazine

2010 October issue of Lid Magazine's Jimmy Page article

2010 Lid Magazine Jimmy Page article (Ross Halfin photo, right)

♪

♪  Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (The Yardbirds 1966) 
♪  House Burning Down (Jimi Hendrix, 1968) YouTube
♪  Jimmy Page (Dayton OH at Hara Arena, 21 October 1988) 
♪  Page & Plant (Hartford CT at Hartford Civic Center, 21 October 1995) 

On this day 17 October

Eleven months...

1969 17 October On This Day Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall (2 shows)

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - New York at Carnegie Hall (2 Shows: 8:30pm and 12:00 midnight)
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Chicago, IL at UIC Pavilion

1969:
Eleven months. That's all it took for Led Zeppelin to go from embryo to Carnegie Hall. No rock band had played that venue since the Rolling Stones, five years prior, when rock performances were banned after a riot at the Stones' show. But Led Zeppelin had shot into the stratosphere like a SpaceX rocket and could not be denied.

Two performances that night, the second starting at midnight. Donovan was at Madison Square Garden that night, a sold-out show. Led Zeppelin tickets had been sold out for weeks and were being scalped at twice the box office price.

"This performance makes me realize we can be bigger than The Beatles and the Stones," Peter Grant told Richard Cole shortly after.
~ Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, Dave Lewis 2005

"Travelling en mass, we managed to miss our plane out of Heathrow, so we caught the next available flight which got us into New York just a few hours before we were due to play this prestigious venue.  Nevertheless, we played a blinding concert but this was the one and only time we ever got to play Carnegie Hall."

~ Jimmy Page

1969 Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall

1969 Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall

1969 17 October On This Day background image

1988

Jimmy Page was 44 years old. Outrider was his first solo album, and it was not received well. People were stuck in the Led Zeppelin rut and couldn't seem to hear Jimmy Page if Robert Plant wasn't singing. Reviewers constantly lamented that Jimmy Page wasn't Led Zeppelin anymore.

And yet... in Chicago JP  took 15 minutes to speak "through his guitar deliberately, angrily and with enough raunch to electrify the crowd", according to the Chicago Tribune's lukewarm review. The Trib reviewer noted that the band didn't show strength as a unit, which of course was Led Zeppelin excelled at as no other band has, the whole of them being greater than the sum of its parts (Aristotle).

Today, those who revere Jimmy Page, the mage musician, do appreciate Outrider for its glorious guitar work, if not for the band.

2012:
43 years after Carnegie Hall, Jimmy Page was in Japan promoting the remasters, which had reached top ten on the charts once again. JP was talking about working in his studio, but sadly we haven't gotten to hear any of it yet.

2012 Jimmy Page in Japan (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (New York NY at Carnegie Hall - first show, 17 October 1969)
♪  Jimmy Page/Outrider Tour (Chicago IL at UIC Pavilion, 17 October 1988)

On this day 16 October

 Awards, guest guitarists, and a toast

chris robinson video link

1999 16 October setlist

• 1970 Led Zeppelin receive Gold and Platinum disc awards at London’s Savoy Hotel
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Bloomington, MN at Metropolitan Sports Center
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Cleveland, OH at Gund Arena
• 1999 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Worcester, MA at The Centrum Center 

1970:
For the second time in less than 12 months, Led Zeppelin received awards for record sales. On this day, Peter Grant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant received Gold and Platinum disc awards from Anthony Grant (no relation to Peter Grant), the British Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. The awards were for U.S. sales in excess of one million copies of Whole Lotta Love and for European sales of Led Zeppelin II, released in December 1969.

The previous year the boys had been awarded gold discs by a different parliamentary secretary, Gwyneth Dunwoody, who quipped, "you seem to be gas rockets rather than Led Zeppelins".

She was wrong. Led Zeppelin was beyond rockets by that point. They had already achieved warp speed.

1970 Led Zeppelin receive gold, platinum discs

1970 Led Zeppelin receive gold, platinum discs from Anthony Grant, UK parliamentary secretary for Board of Trade

1999:
In the video of Chris Robinson talking about working with Jimmy Page, Robinson says:  "Jimmy had done his thing with Robert and the Egyptian orchestra and stuff, but I don't think he maybe was fully satisfied with that..."

See?  I'm not the only one who thinks so.

On this day in 1999, Joe Perry showed up on stage to join in with the encore numbers, You Shook Me and Oh Well.  It wasn't the first time, but it's always special.

2012 Jimmy Page with Ian Hunter at Mott the Hoople film premiere (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪ Jimmy Page Outrider Tour (Bloomington, MN at Metropolitan Sports Center, 16 October 1988)
♪  Page & Plant (Cleveland OH at Gund Arena, 16 October 1995) 

♪  Jimmy Page/The Black Crowes (Worcester MA at Centrum Center, 16 October 1999)

♫  Chris Robinson on playing with Jimmy Page

On this day 14 October

 Jimmy Page Jimmy Page.  Can't get me enough Jimmy Page.

On this day on jimmypage.com 2023

2014 14 October On This Day Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page open edition released

• 1966 The Yardbirds- Blowup scene filmed in London, England at Elstree Film Studios
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Cocoa Beach, FL, Fisher Park & Melbourne, FL at unknown venue
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Kansas City, KS at Memorial Hall
• 1994 Page & Plant - No Quarter released
• 1999 Jimmy Page - The Black Crowes - New York,NY at Roseland Theater (day 3)
• 2014 Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, open edition released 

1966:
The Yardbirds performed Stroll On in Michelangelo Antonioni's movie, Blowup, though they weren't the director's first choice. Steve Howe, the late guitarist for Yes and at the time with a band called Tomorrow (a.k.a The in Crowd) later told Pete Frame in Frame's book, Complete Rock Family Trees (1993), "We went on the set and started preparing for that guitar-smashing scene in the club. They even went as far as making up a bunch of Gibson 175 replicas ... and then we got dropped for The Yardbirds, who were a bigger name. That's why you see Jeff Beck smashing my guitar rather than his!"

Antonioni had wanted The Who for Blowup. If he couldn't have Pete Townshend, he still wanted the guitar-smashing routine. Ironically, although that scene was staged, Beck's violent temper-tantrums onstage would contribute to his leaving The Yardbirds less than two years later.

1966 Jimmy Page with The Yardbirds in Blowup

1988:
"We're going to do tunes from the past, the very distant past, the present and the future." Jimmy Page said at the Kansas City show.

At one point a sweat soaked Page raised the body of his guitar for all to see. Then he kissed it. The image shared significance with that of the Greek Olympian of antiquity, who would ceremoniously place the wreath of victory on his own head.
~ Kansas City Star, by Brian McTavish 10/16/88

1988 Outrider poster for Kansas City gig

1994:
No Quarter: Unledded. Robert Plant's project. I will say no more.

1994 No Quarter:Unledded promo poster

2014:
On this day the open edition of Jimmy Page's pictorial autobiography was released*.

From his website:  "Jimmy has chosen every one of the 650 photographs. There are many rare finds, such as Led Zeppelin playing an impromptu gig in a nightclub in Jersey, or double-exposure shots of Jimmy and Brian Jones by Ian Stewart. Jimmy chose one of his favourite portrait shots for the book cover: a 1977 passport photo, shot by Neal Preston on board Led Zeppelin's private tour plane."

Back in 2014 I couldn't afford an autographed copy, so I got the open (unsigned, ordinary) edition. More thoughts on the book from a blog post in 2014.

2014 Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page

♪

♪  Blowup (Yardbirds scene, 1966) YouTube

♪  Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes (New York NY at Roseland Ballroom day 3, 14 October 1999)

Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, Amazon

*Note: I get teensy tiny commissions for purchases made through links in this post but the commissions are NOT added to the listed price.

On this day 08 October

 Jimmy Page never goes out of fashion

1999 08 October On This Day Jimmy Page – NetAid sound check at Giants Stadium, NJ

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Cardiff, Wales at Capitol Theater
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - San Diego, CA at SDSU Open Air Amphitheatre
• 1999 Jimmy Page – NetAid sound check at Giants Stadium, NJ
• 2012 Jimmy Page photo shoot with Ross Halfin, also attending Joe Walsh show at the Iridium Club in NYC 

1999:

Jimmy Page worked with Chris Robinson (vocals), Rich Robinson (guitar), Guy Pratt (bass) and Michael Lee (drums) for the NetAid concert. (More on NetAid tomorrow).

Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson were the founding members of The Black Crowes, an American band formed 10 years before NetAid, with five albums already released at that point. Jimmy Page joined up with the Black Crowes shortly after the NetAid concert for a tour, from which came the album Live at the Greek. The Black Crowes have broken up a few times over the years, most recently in January of 2015. They are currently together and on tour.

Guy Pratt is an English session bassist, who has worked with Pink Floyd, Gary Moore, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Robbie Robertson and others, and who had already worked with Jimmy Page on the Coverdale-Page album and tour.

Michael Lee (1969 – 2008) was an English drummer, who, like John Bonham, used large drum sizes, from which he, like Bonzo, got big sound. Lee was Robert Plant's drummer for the 1993 Fate of Nations album and tour and stayed on for the Unledded and Walking Into Clarksdale Page & Plant collaborations and tours.

2012:

Jimmy Page and Ross Halfin had flown to New York on 05 October 2012 for promotion of the Celebration Day concert movie.  On this day Ross did a photo shoot with Jimmy Page at the Armani Store in New York City and later on the building's roof - the only place they could be outdoors where people would not mob them.  

Later that Monday evening the two went to see Joe Walsh at the  Iridium Club where from 1996-2009 Les Paul was a regular performer. The club now puts on Les Paul Mondays, reserved for guest guitarists to honor Les and perform on the same stage.  A portion of the clubs sales go to The Les Paul Foundation. 

2012 Jimmy Page at Armani Store in NYC (Ross Halfin photo)

2012 Jimmy Page in NYC (Ross Halfin photo)

2012 Joe Walsh & Jimmy Page after Walsh's show at Iridium Club (Ross Halfin photo)

2018

It had been 50 years since Led Zeppelin had formed. Jimmy Page was busy working on Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin, and promoting the book.

♪

On this day 07 October

 Man of many surprises and talents, who, at 15 years old, is playing one support spot Cliff [Richard] and the Shadows

1966 07 October On This Day Jimmy Page sessions for Cliff Richard

2013 07 October On This Day, Led Snooppelin (2008 Led Zeppelin / Snoop Dog mashup)

• 1966 Release of Time Drags By, by Cliff Richard, feat. Jimmy Page on harmonica
• 1966 The Yardbirds-Bristol, England at Colston Hall
• 1967 The Yardbirds-Holyoke, MA at Amusement Park Ballroom
• 1981 Jimmy Page overdubbs orchestra track for Death Wish II at Edmonton Odeon studio
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Inglewood, CA at The Forum
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheatre
• 2008 Mashup of Snoop Dog's Drop It Like It's Hot & Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love
• 2014 Jimmy Page and Paul Smith launch a limited edition line of scarves at Paul Smith’s Tokyo store

1966:

Cliff Richard, born Harry Webb, is a British pop singer, musician, actor and philanthropist. He is the third-top-selling singles artist in UK Chart history after the Beatles and Elvis Presley. His backing band, The Shadows, grew from 1950s UK skiffle groups. They started out as The Drifters with Harry Webb on vocals and guitar and using the stage name, Cliff Richard. Cliff Richard and the Shadows dominated British pop music in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Jimmy Page would have been quite aware of them. The Shadows split in 1968 but reformed with new members a few years later and continued to to perform and tour through a final tour in 2010.

In 1980, Richard changed his to his stage name legally and also that year he received the O.B.E. from the Queen for services to music and charity. In 1995, Richard was appointed a Knight Bachelor, the first rock star to be awarded that honor.

Jimmy Page wasn't needed for his guitar or bass talents on the Cliff Richard songs, but he was called on for his skills with harmonica. The video below for Time Drags By is from the movie referred to in the On This Day post - you don't need me to tell you that the actor pretending to play harmonica isn't Jimmy Page.  Don't confuse La La La Song (a.k.a. La La La La) with Led Zeppelin's La La, either. They don't sound at all alike. But interesting about the name.

Check out the harmonica on Coverdale/Page's Pride and Joy (below), at approximately 1:46-2:36. That's Jimmy Page you hear. JP played electric guitars, acoustic guitar, bass; harmonica, and dulcimer on the album.

1988 Jimmy Page Outrider promo photo

 2014:
Jimmy Page was promoting the remasters releases, and one of the events was the launch of a line of Led Zeppelin scarves at Paul Smith's Tokyo store.

2014 07 October Jimmy Page and Paul Smith at the Paul Smith Store in Tokyo (Ross Halfin photo)

2014 07 October Paul Smith and Jimmy Page at the Paul Smith Store in Tokyo (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪  Time Drags By (Cliff Richard and the Shadows, feat. Jimmy Page harmonica 1966) 
♪  La La La Song (Cliff Richard and the Shadows, feat. Jimmy Page  harmonica 1966) 
♪  La La Intro/Outro Rough Mix (Led Zeppelin II remaster 1969/2014) 

♪  Jimmy Page (Inglewood CA at The Forum, 07 October 1988)

♪  Pride and Joy (Coverdale/Page 1993) 

♪  Page & Plant (Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheatre, 07 October 1995)

♪  Led Snooppelin (Led Zeppelin / Snoop Dog mashup 2008) 

On this day 06 October

 He's the only one, no matter what

On this day in 1976

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Birmingham, England at Odeon Theatre
• 1972 Led Zeppelin visit Hong Kong (almost certainly incorrectly posted as 1976)

1972 vs 1976:

Although the jimmypage.com website has posted that Jimmy Page visited Hong Kong in 1976, it more likely during the Japan '72 tour. Jimmy Page said in the Led Zeppelin 1972 section (p. 203) of his photo autobiography Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page,  "I had this suit made in one of those 24-hour tailors on a visit to to Hong Kong", so we know he was in that city in 1972.  

Click on photo to read caption in Jimmy Page's autobiography

Jimmy Page also refers on his webpage to the "recently scuppered" ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth, which had been sold to a Hong Kong businessmen who had renamed the ship the Seawise University and who had begun to convert the ship into a floating university. In 1972 the Seawise University caught fire in the Hong Kong harbor and was capsized by the water used to fight the flames. Before 1976 the vessel had been declared a shipping hazard. It had already been dismantled for scrap and the remains of the hull were underwater by 1976, so Jimmy Page wouldn't have been able to take that photo of it shown on his webpage in that year.

October 1988 Guitar World Magazine

1988:
Jimmy Page was about one third of his way through the Outrider tour, in October 1988, so this seems to be a good time to post this Guitar World Magazine cover with a photo of Jimmy Page playing a harp-guitar [photo by Ross Halfin]. 

People talk about JP playing a harp guitar for Outrider or the Coverdale-Page collaboration, and there's a lovely promo video of him playing Coverdale-Page 's Take Me For A Little While. What we see isn't what we get to hear though. The harp guitars were photo props. We know for sure JP played his double neck to get the sound he wanted on the Coverdale-Page Japan tour.

JP using his doubleneck on Take Me For A Little While during the Japan tour

One final note on Coverdale-Page: the promo video for Take Me For A Little While features Coverdale sitting at a banquet table, a glass globe moving about in the air. To me it's clearly homage to the David Bowie movie, Labyrinth. JP's harp guitar becomes a Gibson Les Paul and then is a harp guitar during the course of the video. No doubleneck.

♫  8mm Hong Kong video (Jimmy Page 1972)  

♪ Liquid Mercury (Jimmy Page, Outrider 1988)
♪  The Only One (Jimmy Page, Outrider 1988) 
♪  Take Me For A Little While (Coverdale-Page promo video 1993)