On This Day 30 July

We're here, right by you Jimmy!

1984 30 July On This Day Steven Stills' Right By You released, with Jimmy Page on tracks 1, 3 and 10
 ♪  Right By You (Stephen Stills with Jimmy Page guitar) Soundcloud

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Windsor, England at Royal Windsor Racecourse
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Seattle, WA at Eagles Auditorium
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Salt Lake City, UT at Terrace Ballroom (2 shows one night)
• 1984 Stephen Stills' Right By You released with three tracks recorded by Jimmy Page at The Sol 

1969:
Led Zeppelin was the opening act to veteran performers, Vanilla Fudge. According to a press review, Vanilla Fudge appeared as musical impostors when compared to a group like Zeppelin. The bass player for the Fudge even apologetically acknowledged this as he mounted the stage and said, “There’s no way we can follow that.”
~Summer Chronicle, by S. Poulsen, August 1, 1969

1969 Led Zeppelin in Salt Lake City, UT

1984:

The Mill Studios (also known as The Mill or The Sol), located in Berkshire, England, was a recording studio built by Gus Dudgeon, who purchased the property in 1975 to develop a studio for recording/producing a number of Elton John's albums. The property itself is an old watermill on the Thames River system, with a recording studio and control room connected to the old watermill and residential wheelhouse via a bridge over the millpond dam.

Jimmy Page purchased the studio complex in 1980 when he also bought a home, the Old Mill House, a few minutes away.

The Led Zeppelin songs Poor Tom and We're Gonna Groove, originally recorded in 1970, were produced by Mr. Page at Sol Studios for release for the album Coda. The soundtrack for the film Death Wish II, The Firm’s two albums, and Outrider were also recorded at The Sol.

The Mill Studio (a.k.a. The Sol) view from control room

Control room of The Mill Studio (a.k.a. The Sol

♪  Flaming Heart (Stephen Sills, feat. Jimmy Page guitar, 1984) YouTube
♪  Right By You (Stephen Sills, feat. Jimmy Page guitar, 1984) 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 28 July

Fenders.  It's what was happening.

1958 28 July On This Day Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps release Hot Rod Gang EP 

1984 28 July On This Day Jimmy Page with Roy Harper - Cambridge Folk Festival
♪  Short and Sweet (Jimmy Page with Roy Harper)

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Sacramento, CA at Governor's Hall
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden (day 2 of 3)
• 1984 Jimmy Page with Roy Harper - Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge Folk Festival

1973:

Day two of the Madison Square Garden show. More firecrackers. The band was asked to wear the same outfits for the sake of the filming that was being done. Mr. Jones was the only one of the four who didn't comply.

1984:

We don't think of Jimmy Page as a folk guitarist, but of course he has demonstrated he can play any musical genre he wants to, and do it well.

The Cambridge Folk Festival's first show was in 1965.  Paul Simon and just about a dozen others were on the bill, and 1400 tickets were sold. Simon earned £15 for his performance. Since then the festival has expanded and now includes non-folk performers as well. In 2014 there were more than a hundred acts featured over four days, including Van Morrison, Sinéad O’Connor and Rosanne Cash.

1984 Jimmy Page with Tony Franklin, Roy Harper - Cambridge Folk Festival

1984 Jimmy Page with Roy Harper - Cambridge Folk Festival

1984 Jimmy Page with Roy Harper - Cambridge Folk Festival

1984 Jimmy Page - Cambridge Folk Festival

1984 Jimmy Page with Roy Harper - Cambridge Folk Festival

Jimmy Page with his Fender Telecaster

♪  8mm film (Led Zeppelin, MSG 28 July 1973) YouTube

♪  Celebration Day  (Led Zeppelin, MSG 28 July 1973) YouTube
♪  The Rain Song  (Led Zeppelin, MSG 28 July 1973) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains The Same (Led Zeppelin, MSG 28 July 1973) YouTube
♪  Hangman (Jimmy Page with Roy Harper, Cambridge Folk Festival 1984) YouTube

On This Day 27 July

And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune, then the piper will lead us to reason. 

~ Stairway to Heaven

1973 27 July On This Day Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden, NYC (show 1 of 3)

• 1967 The Yardbirds - San Francisco, CA at Fillmore Auditorium
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Woodinville, WA at Seattle Pop Festival
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden

1973:
"Originally, we saw the whole essence of our live performance as something that the audience listened to very carefully, picking up on what was going on, the spontaneity and musicianship. And you can’t do that if you’re running around the stage all night, or at least we couldn’t back then.” By 1973, however, “we were much more ambitious, in that respect. We really wanted to take the live performances as far as they could go".
~Jimmy Page, Mick Wall interview, Times Online 1 Nov 2008

"The kind of speed we were moving at, the creative juices in the air, the whole thing was just an absolute mixture of adrenaline, chemical, euphoria ... and there were no brakes. We couldn't stop what was happening. We had no idea what it even was. But we just kept trying, pushing forward, every show."
~Robert Plant, from liner notes by Cameron Crowe for The Song Remains the Same, 2007.

1973 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at MSG

1973 Eddie Kramer & Jimmy Page at MSG

Jimmy Page from 'The Song Remains The Same' movie footage (Stairway to Heaven)

Jimmy Page from 'The Song Remains The Same' movie footage (Stairway to Heaven)

♪  Glimpses (Yardbirds, Fillmore West 1967) YouTube
♪  Top 50 moments (Led Zeppelin, Madison Square Garden 1973) YouTube
♪  The Ocean (Led Zeppelin, Madison Square Garden 1973) YouTube
♪  Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin, Madison Square Garden 1973) YouTube

On This Day 26 July

All our love.

1969 26 July On This Day Led Zeppelin  Vancouver, BC

• 1967 The Yardbirds-San Francisco, CA at Fillmore Auditorium
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Vancouver, BC at PNE Agrodome
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - London at Wembley Arena
• 2012 Jimmy Page at Warner pre-Olympics Party at Tate Modern, London

1969 Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge - Vancouver, BC

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Vancouver BC

1969 28 July Vancouver Sun review of 26 July show

2012 Jimmy Page arrives at Warner pre-Olympics party at Tate Modern, London

1977:

Robert Plant received a phone call from his wife, Maureen, as the band was checking in to their New Orleans hotel.  Plant's 5-year-old son, Karac, was seriously ill.  Two hours later the boy was dead. The next 10 performances of the US tour were cancelled. Led Zeppelin was to never play again in the US.

All My Love, from Led Zeppelin's 1979 album In Through the Out Door, is a tribute to Karac.

1995:

Peter Grant's final public appearance was this final night of the Page and Plant tour at Wembley Arena. Grant died four months later, on 21 November.

♪  All My Love (Led Zeppelin, Polar Studio outtake, 1978) YouTube


[update 26 July 2020]

On This Day 25 July

"He was such a stylist.  I don't think anybody ever managed to play the same way as Scotty."

~ Jimmy Page, at Gibson guitar party for Scotty Moore, 1999

1999 25 July On This Day Jimmy Page presents Gibson Signature guitar to Scotty Moore
♪  Mystery Train (Jimmy Page) Soundcloud

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Bath, England at Bath Pavilion
• 1967 The Yardbirds - San Francisco, CA at Fillmore Auditorium
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - West Allis/Milwaukee WI at Midwest Rock Festival 
• 1995 Page & Plant  Unledded Tour - London at Wembley Arena 

Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III (1931-) is an American guitarist and recording engineer who backed Elvis Presley between 1954 and the beginning of the Hollywood years. Many of his performances are considered precedent-setting.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Scotty Moore used a thumbpick (a flat pick with a loop to slip your thumb into) to create his own unique finger-picking style. He also used an EchoSonic guitar amplifier with built-in tape echo.  He started out with a Gibson ES-295. Gibson created a Scotty Moore Signature guitar that was presented to Moore at a private party at North London's Air Studios.  (At about 3:19 on the video hear Jeff Beck tell Jimmy Page to shut up!)

Associated Independent Recording (AIR) was founded in 1965 by Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his partner John Burgess.  The  studio has operated in three locations: Oxford Street, London (1970-1991), Montserrat Island, West Indies (mid 1970s-1989) and AIR Lyndhurst Hall, London (1991-present).  

1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - London at Wembley Arena

♪  White Summer/Black Mountain Side (Led Zeppelin, Midwest Rock Festival Milwaukee 1969) YouTube
♪  Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin, Midwest Rock Festival Milwaukee 1969) YouTube

♪  Orchestra soundcheck (Page & Plant, Wembley 1995) YouTube
♪  Wanton Song (Page & Plant, Wembley 1995) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains the Same  (Page & Plant, Wembley 1995) YouTube
♪  Full show  (Page & Plant, Wembley 1995) YouTube

On This Day 24 July

I knew what sound I was looking for.

~ Jimmy Page, as quoted in Dave Lewis' Led Zeppelin: The Concert File

1967 24 July The Yardbirds' Little Games album released
♪  No Excess Baggage Demo (Yardbirds 1967) Soundcloud

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Little Games album released
• 1969 Led Zeppelin receives first Gold Record Award
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Pittsburgh,PA at Three Rivers Stadium
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Oakland,CA at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (day 2)
• 1979 Led Zeppelin - Copenhagen Denmark at Falkoner Theatre 

1969 Led Zeppelin receives first Gold Record Award

1969:
As Jimmy Page has said in interviews, Led Zeppelin, the original album is in a way his favorite because it is the one that started it all. Although it took just 36 hours' studio time (over the course of a few weeks) it was nevertheless a long time coming. Jimmy Page knew the sound he wanted, he knew where he wanted to go with the music, and he simply made it happen when the time was ripe.

"I wanted artistic control in a vice grip, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with these fellows. In fact, I financed and completely recorded the first album before going to Atlantic... It wasn't your typical story where you get an advance to make an album—we arrived at Atlantic with tapes in hand... Atlantic's reaction was very positive – I mean they signed us, didn't they?"
~ Jimmy Page, Guitar World interview 1993

1977:
The belly dancer. You've seen the photos!

This was the last concert before the sudden death of Robert Plant's son, Karac. Led Zeppelin would never again perform in the United States.

1977 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Oakland California

1977 Oakland Coliseum during Led Zeppelin concert

2014 On This Day for 24 July

♪  White Summer (JimmyPage/Yardbirds 1967) YouTube
♪  Live in Pittsburgh 8MM footage (Led Zeppelin, Pittsburgh 1973) YouTube
♪  White Summer (Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions 1969) YouTube