On This Day 14 April

Led Zeppelin appeared on BBC Radio's Top Gear 14 April 1969

Led Zeppelin at BBC Radio's Top Gear 14 April 1969

• 1967 Yardbirds - Vesterhavshallen Fredericia Denmark
• 1967 Yardbirds - Teatersalen, Ringkjobing Denmark 
• 1968 Yardbirds - Sun Island Park, NY USA 
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - BBC Radio
• 1970 Led Zeppelin - Civic Center, Ottawa ON

1969

This was probably the first Led Zeppelin version of Dazed & Confused recorded for BBC radio, and certainly the first audition panel for Led Zeppelin. 

The setlist is:

• I Can't Quit You Baby
• Communication Breakdown
• Dazed & Confused

The trial broadcast was then sent to the production panel.  Audition report.

These studio sessions and a live concert recorded for the BBC resulted in the multi-disc album, the BBC Sessions released November 1997, which was compiled and mastered by Jimmy Page.  The first disc contains material from four different 1969 BBC sessions; the second contains most of the April 1971 concert from the Paris Theatre in London; the third disc was only included in a limited run of album releases and features interviews from 1969, 1976/1977, and 1990.

Session one

John Peel's Top Gear

Venue: Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, London

Recording date: Monday 3 March 1969

Original broadcast: Sunday 23 March 1969 (in a show with sessions from Free, the Moody Blues and Deep Purple)

Tracks: Disc 1; 1, 2 and 4. Also included a version of "Communication Breakdown".

Producer: Bernie Andrews

Engineer: Pete Ritzema

Tape operator: Bob Conduct

Session two

Alexis Korner's Rhythm and Blues, (BBC World Service)

Venue: Maida Vale Studio 4, Delaware Road, London

Recording date: Wednesday 19 March 1969

Original broadcast: Monday 14 April 1969

Tracks: "I Can't Quit You Baby", "You Shook Me" and "Sunshine Woman". The session was wiped or lost by the BBC, although recordings survive on bootlegs. The show was re-run later in 1969, adding the recording of "What Is And What Should Never Be" from the June 16 session.

Producer: Jeff Griffin

Session three

Chris Grant's Tasty Pop Sundae (although originally commissioned for Dave Symond's Symonds On Sunday show)

Venue: Aeolian Hall studio 2, Bond Street, London

Recording Date: Monday 16 June 1969

Original Broadcast: Sunday 22 June 1969

Tracks: Disc 1; 3,5 and 10. The session also included a prototype version of "What Is and What Should Never Be".

Producer: Paul Williams

Session four

John Peel's Top Gear (Double recording session)

Venue: Maida Vale studio 4, Delaware Road, London

Recording date: Tuesday 24 June 1969

Original broadcast: Sunday 29 June 1969

Tracks: Disc 1; 6-9. (track 8; Travelling Riverside Blues, is the same version that appears on the reissued/remaster of Coda as a bonus track)

Producer: John Walters

Engineer: Tony Wilson

Session five

One Night Stand

Venue: Playhouse Theatre

Recording date: Friday 27 June 1969

Original broadcast: Sunday 10 August 1969

Tracks: Disc 1; 11-14. Also included a version of "Dazed and Confused", plus "White Summer"/"Black Mountain Side" (which was released on the 1990 Led Zeppelin boxed set.)

Session six

In Concert (Emcee John Peel)

Venue: Paris Theatre, Lower Regent Street, London

Recording date: Thursday 1 April 1971

Original broadcast: Sunday 4 April 1971

Tracks: Disc 2; all tracks. Also included a version of "Communication Breakdown" and "What Is and What Should Never Be". The "Whole Lotta Love" medley has had "For What It's Worth", "Trucking Little Mama" and "Honey Bee" edited out, shortening the medley by about 7 minutes.

Producer: Jeff Griffin

Engineer: Tony Wilson

 ♪ BBC Sessions - YouTube

The Garden Tapes BBC Sessions Analysis by Eddie Edwards

Daily On This Day 13 April

I can already tell that posting the images here and on the Tidbits page is going to get cumbersome. Eventually you and I won't be able to find anything because there'll be 365+ images (more than 365 because Jimmy Page does occasionally have something new on his home page).

I'll work something out.  Meanwhile, here's the On This Day for 13 April.  This one's for 1967, the Yardbirds Years.

On This Day: 13 APR 1967 - Yardbirds in Aarhus, Denmark

• 1967  Yardbirds - Boom Dancing Center, Aarhus Denmark
• 1968  Yardbirds - New York City
• 1969  Led Zeppelin - Kimbells, Southsea, Hampshire UK  
• 1970  Led Zeppelin - Montreal Forum, Montreal 
• 1973  Jimmy Page MBE interview
• 1977  Led Zeppelin -  Civic Center, St Paul MN

1967
This was the first date of the 1967 Scandinavian and European Tour for The Yardbirds, at Boom Dancing Centre, Aarhus in Denmark.  The setlist consisted of:

• Train Kept A Rollin'
• You're A Better Man Than I
• I'm Confused
• My Baby
• Over, Under, Sideways, Down
• Drinking Muddy Water
• Shapes Of Things
• White Summer
• I'm A Man

On This Day - April 12 1972

I'm thinking of uploading the On This Day images I've captured from jimmypage.com over the years. We'll see if I have the sticking power to do it, and if I do, if this blog is where I should put it.

Note that I will duplicate the entries on the Tidbits page.
2015 note:  I didn't duplicate all the entries on the Tidbits page.  But I did do every single On  This Day post!

12 April 1972 - Dancing Days at Olympic Studios

♪   Listen to Dancing Days (Soundcloud)

Lif Strand: Putting it out there

Lif Strand: Putting it out there: It seems to me that the more you put your wishes out into the world, the more likely they are to come true. Can't hurt, can it? Besides...

Real music, real Magick

A lot of music today … [the] living energy has become sanitized.
~ Jimmy Page, 2009 interview with Neil McCormick

One of the characteristics of stage magic is the use of distraction so you won’t see what’s really going on. While the coin is being retrieved from an ear or a woman is being sawed in half, the magician’s hands are constantly moving, cards are being flipped from a distance to fly through the air, the sexy assistant moves things around the stage. The stage is set in deep shadows and bright lights. Swirling capes and smoke and mirrors mask and distort what you see so that you only see what the magician intends for you to see.

The idea is to misdirect your attention. You aren't supposed to notice that there is engineering used to create the trick that leads to the "magic".

There is nothing Magick about it, of course.

Now consider this: How much of what I have just described would also describe today’s music performances, onstage or video? Spotlights and smoke, explosions and flashing lights. Bizarre hair and makeup, risqué costumes and stage sets that mask and distort. Giant display screens to make sure you are looking at exactly what you should be, so that your attention is directed away from the music itself.

At the very core of this phenomenon is the sorry fact that there's very little Magick to most of the music out there these days. Oh, it's entertaining all right. There might even be some catchy tunes. But is it great music or is it the aural equivalent of junk food?

The full quote from the Jimmy Page interview of 2009 is this: " A lot of music today, they work electronically, tidying everything up, but that living energy has become sanitized. In Led Zeppelin we managed to do some of those major albums in three weeks. People today can't understand that. It's beyond them."

When it comes straight from the soul, creativity can flow from the musician with no need for the help of visual diversion. When you, the audience, eliminate the bells and whistles, the lights and distractions, does the music you listen to have the living energy - the Magick - that will make it worth listening to for the next fifty years?

A steady diet of junk food will eventually kill you. I'm pretty sure a steady diet of sanitized, junk music will eventually shrivel your soul. How's that for food for thought?

Neil McCormick interview of Jimmy Page 2009

Neil McCormick in May 2014:  Do you really need me to tell you how good they are? We’ve been listening to this music for more than 40 years and it never gets old.

Rant: Is it fact or is it mindlessness?

Develop your own character in your creation...
~ paraphrased from Jimmy Page's 2014 Berklee commencement ceremony speech

I do a good amount of research for my writing, and one of the biggest frustrations I have is sorting facts from most of the crap that's out there in the world.  It is my aim to convey my own conclusions rather than regurgitate someone else's when I write, so when I read articles like http://ultimateclassicrock.com/led-zeppelin-champagne/ I can't help but grind my teeth at yet another article written by someone who apparently has no thoughts of his own and therefore dares not actually write about anything useful. Jeff Giles' piece is an example of what makes me crazy about media these days.

I call it mindless pap. It's the kind of media output that does not require the engagement of brain cells.

In this article, Mr. Giles describes how "Zeppelin’s backstage behavior painted them as profligate prima donnas", yet the only backstage behavior he describes is that of "the manager", who is never named.  That aside, if the article was about how poorly behaved the band was wouldn't it have been more to the point to talk about the band itself? Were any of the four musicians actually in the room when the unnamed manager had his tantrum?  If we only had Mr. Giles' article to learn from, we'd never know, would we?  If any of the band members -- the prima donnas -- were present, wouldn't their response to the champagne throwing (not spilling, I'd say) be more to the point of the article than what Peter Grant was doing? Didn't even one of the supposed prima donnas snag a bottle to drink for himself?  It boggles the mind to think they were all standing around not noticing what was going on.

Mr. Giles never did come up with any example of the band's alleged prima donna behavior.  In fact, Mr. Giles only describes the band's onstage behavior -- which he presents in a manner that leans more towards level-headedness than anything else, not to mention the quite realistic acknowledgement by Jimmy Page of the source of the money that was paying for everything: the fans.  

I don't mean to imply that I think that Led Zeppelin were saints because would be absurd. My beef is that an article about Led Zeppelin as prima donnas would have been interesting -- but that's not what this one was about. And thus my teeth gnashing: As with so much these days that passes for news or factually based infomation, what we get is little more than mindless copy-and-paste of other mindless non-information.

As basic reporting, the article sucks. As research, it sucks, too. Even as fiction it sucks. Not that I have a strong opinion about it, mind you.

Now I'm going to go back to listening to music. I'll feel better in a moment, thank you.

A big little dream

“…when you've discovered your true will you should just forge ahead like a steam train.”
~ Jimmy Page, 1977, quoted by George Case in Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she? In fact, she should.