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 06 August

Private events

1998 06 August Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at Tom Kenny wedding in Ireland
♪  Roisin Dubh by Innisfree Ceoil

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Chicago, IL at Chicago Civic Opera House
• 1969 - Led Zeppelin - Sacramento, CA at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
• 1998 - Page & Plant - County Kerry, Ireland at Tom Kenny's wedding reception

1998:

Tom Kenny, an Irish lighting designer, has worked with many bands over the years including Led Zeppelin. In 1994, Bill Curbishley, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's manager, asked Kenny to do the lighting for the Page and Plant tour.

In Tom Kenny's words:  “This was the first time Jimmy and Robert had worked together in years and both were jaded with the typical concert. ... My ever-changing live lighting approach really suited the band's emotionally inspired, fiery performances every night. We did another amazing tour in 1998 and I've worked with both Jimmy and Robert on solo projects since. 

Later that year Jimmy Page and Robert Plant performed at Tom Kenny's wedding.  

2012:

 Adidas Underground is a series of events "popping up" in varying London locations.  They combine art, music, fashion and other unique experiences.  In 2012, twelve different evenings were put on to celebrate the London 2012 Games.  One of them was held on this day, with the Stone Roses performing in front of celebrities, VIPs, competition winners and Olympic medalists - not to mention Jimmy Page. 

2012 06 August Jimmy Page at Adidas Underground for a surprise one-off Stone Roses performance

I'm out of town right now, so I've got limited time to research music for you on this and the next few days.  So here's some Robert Johnson for you because why not.

♪  Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Crossroad (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Kind Hearted Woman Blues (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Travelling Riverside Blues (Robert Johnson) YouTube
♪  Travelling Riverside Blues (Led Zeppelin) YouTube

On This Day 05 August

Can you imagine Jimmy Page playing in a department store?  Those were the days...

1966 05 August Jimmy Page with Yardbirds in Minneapolis
♪  Psycho Daisies (The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page bass 1966) Soundcloud

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Minneapolis,MN at Dayton Department Store,8th Floor Auditorium 

Looks like not a lot of noteworthy stuff was going on in Jimmy Page's life on this day, so I'm taking the day off, too. The music links below are not necessarily from 05 August.

1966 Jimmy Page with Yardbirds in Minneapolis

Jimmy Page July 2015 Toronto (Moe Doiron photo for Globe and Mail)

♪  Psycho Daisies (The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page bass 1966) YouTube
♪  Baby Come On Home (Led Zeppelin  Coda) Dailymotion
♪  How Many More Times (Led Zeppelin, Royal Albert Hall 1970) YouTube

I don't remember what this one is, but I can't open it anyway.  Maybe you can.

On This Day 04 August

Safe sex, huh?  Nowadays I guess that would mean wearing a mask.

1986 04 August On This Day Jimmy Page - San Antonio,Ibiza at Heartbreak Hotel

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Dallas, TX at Texas State Fair Arena
• 1979 Led Zeppelin - Knebworth House 
• 1986 Jimmy Page - San Antonio,Ibiza at Heartbreak Hotel 

1975:
Robert Plant was seriously injured in a car accident while on vacation in Greece on this day and all concerts for the rest of the year were cancelled.

..my kind of vision, or the carefree element I had, disappeared instantly when I had my automobile accident in 1975. That kind of ramshackled "I'll take the world now" attitude was completely gone.
~ Robert Plant - In His Own Words 

1979:
Dave Lewis has written a whole book about Knebworth, so there’s not much more I can add except even after all these years the Knebworth concerts are still emotional events. 

1979 04 August Jimmy Page laser music magic at Knebworth (photo Alan Perry)

1979 04 August Jimmy Page at Knebworth (Photo Alan Perry)

1979 04 August Led Zeppelin backstage

1986:
The Spanish island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea is known for its nightclubs and white sand beaches. Ulysses was lured there by the song of sirens and Nostradamus predicted it would be the final refuge of humanity at the end of the world.

In 1986 it wasn't the celebrity party hot-spot it is today, but it was already a destination for those in the know.  In 1985 Robert Plant filmed the video for his single “Sea of Love” (Jimmy Page guitar) on Ibiza, and Jimmy Page was back the following year to play with the jam band, Safe Sex, at the Heartbreak Hotel in San Antonio.

1986 Jimmy Page with Safe Sex at Ibiza
[Note this bootleg cover photo for Safe Sex is actually from the Les Paul birthday party]

♪  8mm film (Led Zeppelin, Knebworth 1979) YouTube

♪  Full concert playlist (Led Zeppelin, Knebworth 04 August 1979) YouTube

♪  Sea of Love (Robert Plant with Jimmy Page guitar, 2006 remaster) YouTube

♪  Jimmy Page with Safe Sex (Jimmy Page, Ibiza 1986) YouTube

On This Day 03 August

A great guitar is a thing of magic in the hands of a great guitarist.

2009 03 August On This Day Jimmy Page checks out the Gibson Les Paul "Number Two" prototype

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Racine, WI at New Sound Dance ClubYMCA
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Houston, TX at Houston Music Hall

2007 Q Magazine cover (Ross Halfin photo)

2007:
Ross Halfin on the Q cover Guitar Heroes issue and how it was done.

Edge was shot in Dublin. He was very professional, turned up a half hour late, apologised and stayed on to make up the time. He asked if I'd ever shot them early on. I told him I'd discovered America and toured with Rush, ACDC, UFO, Ozzy, Aerosmith and that ilk. I liked Edge a lot. The U2 camp is like being in the army, it's run with military precision.

Jack White was in Nashville and we shot at 9am - he's got a daughter so he's up early.

Jimmy Page was in Fulham on the hottest day of the year. I shot quite a lot that wasn't used.

Johnny Marr was in sunny Manchester (look at the sky on the inside spread). I'd never met him, he was a good bloke - as they say in ancient Rome. We talked about Rory Gallagher and how he acted towards people, always gracious.

Slash was in LA, at the bar of the Sunset Marquis Hotel. He did the interview sitting under giant prints of himself.

Matt Bellamy was at the Soho Hotel in London. Terry Hall (Matt's sexy PR) told me I had 15 minutes in a tiny bedroom, with the backdrop taking up the whole room. Steve Peck from Q stepped in and stretched it to 45 minutes while Terry chain-smoked and wouldn't stop talking inbetween blowing smoke all over the room.

Dave Grohl was in Los Angeles. Diamond Dave was so hyper. I was useless, not focused, shot in the evening while I was so jetlagged - I just wanted to go to bed.. At the end of the day I think it worked out well. The Master can still work well, even when half asleep.

Joe Perry was in London inbetween taking a nap and eating at Nobu with Jimmy Page.

~ Ross Halfin Diary August 2007

Features of Gibson's Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul

Gibson's Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul guitar

2009:

Jimmy Page has played and owns bunches of guitars, and has played and owns bunches of Gibson guitars. His Les Paul "Number One" is the guitar Mr. Page got from Joe Walsh in early 1969, and it quickly became his go-to guitar (bumping his Fender Telecaster from that position). "Number One" was used to record Led Zeppelin II and was in use through to the 2007 O2 concert and the 2008 Foo Fighters concert at Wembley Stadium. 

"Number Two" was purchased to supplement "Number One", possibly to avoid damaging the first guitar any further (just think about the force on a guitar when it's slapped with a bow) or maybe to have two guitars with very similar sound but with different tuning available on stage. "Number Two" was put into action after the initial modifications in the beginning of 1975 and was in use through to the 2007 O2 concert. 

I'm expecting to be seeing more of both these guitars in the future when Mr. Page puts out new music.

I'd talk about what modifications have been done to Jimmy Page's Gibson Les Paul "Number One" and "Number Two" but that's not my thing.  And of course, if you really want to know the details of the guitars and other gear, you want to buy Jeff Strawman's definitive book, Led  Zeppelin Gear: All the Gear From Led Zeppelin and the Solo Careers, which will be published in October 2015.

From the Gibson website:
Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul.

Every musician knows that late ’50s Sunburst Les Paul Standards are hard enough to come by as it is. Obtaining a pristine and exemplary ’59 ’Burst and modifying it for heightened performance and vastly expanded tonal options? Unheard of… unless, of course, you’re Jimmy Page. That’s exactly what the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist, perhaps the world’s most iconic Les Paul player, did with his own ’59 Les Paul Standard, and now—thanks to the extreme efforts of Gibson’s Custom Shop and the intimate cooperation of Jimmy Page himself—the artist’s hallowed “Number Two” Les Paul is available to mere mortals, in the form of the Custom Shop Jimmy Page “Number Two” Les Paul. Produced in strictly limited numbers, with two levels of aging, this guitar captures the look, feel, sound, and versatility of one of the greatest artist-owned Les Pauls of all time, and it is likely to disappear from authorized Gibson dealers in record time.
[Mage Music note: this model is no longer available from Gibson]

Image from Gibson website for Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul guitar

♪  Rock and Roll (Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones with Foo Fighters, Wembley, 2008) YouTube
♪  Ramble On (Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones with Foo Fighters, Wembley, 2008) YouTube

On This Day 02 August

 Sometimes you just have to think about it a little harder.

1967 02 August The Yardbirds travel... but see more below
♪  Think About It (The Yardbirds) Soundcloud

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Ellsworth, WI at Proche's Popular Ballroom
• 1969 - Led Zeppelin - Albuquerque, NM at Civic Auditorium

1967:

Believe me, its easy to screw up dates when you're doing research and digging into old records. JimmyPage.com had posted this Yardbirds travel date originally as 1968, but this year corrected it to 1967 because The Yardbirds had split up in the early part of July.  

But even so, The Yardbirds would have been traveling to Ellsworth, Wisconsin for their gig that night rather than to Ann Arbor, where they were to perform on August 8, 1967.  

1969:

Phil, roadie, on the Albuquerque show (note that the creative spelling below is Phil's, not mine)

This most amazing band was, hands down, Led Zepplin. I was backstage helping out at first..... Vanilla Fudge was the main draw and the Zep of course. 1969.

We cleared the stage and their guys were pulling out the equipment and we went front row center. Pretty soon the curtains were moving, cause someone was trying to find the break so they could get through. Plant come out, says hello to everybody and says "Hi, I'm Robert Plant and we are Led Zepplin and we'd like to play some music for ya". The curtain opens and they go to it for about 1/2 hour. He says "that's the first side of our album . Here's the second side" They used to do an incredible riff where Paige would strum the lowest fret and Plant would match it exactly (I mean EXACTLY) in tone. They would go up the scale until Paige was leaning on the wah-wah pedal while sliding up and down and Plant keeping up with him the whole time. Never heard that matched before or since. Then Plant said " we are working on a second album, would you like to hear it?" Duh....... They played about four more songs and Plant said "That's all we got, thanks a lot".

1969 02 August Led Zeppelin in Albuquerque

1969 Led Zeppelin in Albuquerque

Because I don't have any music for you from the above dates, here are some links to In The Evening that I used in a previous Mage Music post to track the evolution of magic in the song, and I've added the rough mix from the In Through The Out Door remaster companion disc (I got mine, did you get yours?)

♪  In The Evening – Studio: Led Zeppelin In Through The Out Door – 1979 
♪  In The Evening – Live: Led Zeppelin Knebworth August 4 1979
♪  In The Evening – Live: Led Zeppelin Berlin July 7 1980
♪  In The Evening – Live: Page & Plant Glastonbury - June 25 1995
♪  In The Evening - Rough Mix (from remaster companion disc)

On This Day 01 August

On This day posted in 2020

SOUNDCHECK at Knebworth erroneously posted here for this day but actually happened  August 2  

1979 02 August On This Day Led Zeppelin soundcheck at Knebworth

• 1967 Yardbirds - Vancouver, British Columbia  at Pacific National Exhibition Grounds
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Santa Barbara, CA at Earl Warren Showgrounds
• 1979 Led Zeppelin - soundcheck at Knebworth [actually 02 August. The photos of the stage being constructed are from 01 August]

1979 Knebworth amp stacks (Photo John Harrison, stage crew)

(Photo John Harrison, stage crew)

Photos below are from 02 August

1979 Knebworth soundcheck Robert Plant singing, Jason Bonham standing in for dad on drums
(photo John Harrison, stage crew)

1979 Robert Plant at Led Zeppelin's Knebworth soundcheck
12 y.o. Jason on drums (photo John Harrison, stage crew)

Two accounts from stage crew

Mark Bancroft, Knebworth 1979 stage crew
The Wednesday sound check, lunch time . Owing to sound restrictions there were small windows to tune the PA. Until then the sound guys were playing a heart beat loop,du dum du, dum. In Stevenage someone told me it must be a pile driver! So Wed was the only permited PA test. Zep arrived , ignoring the helicopter pad they flew into the arena and circled the stage,the chopper wash tested the stage, 11 stories at the centre, 5 from the stage to the proscenium arch.

It stood up to this.

The Zep families turned up in Daimler limos and the kids went into the chopper for a spin round the home counties. Chopper cost 750 pounds an hour. Robert Plant was the first on stage, there were about 50-60 crew and liggers in the arena. He sang acapella "Take good care of my Baby" , the Bobby Vinton song, we were all stunned, knowing of the sadness his family had suffered. Many tough roadies were sniffing, not good for the image.

The rest of Zep appeared. They played "Trampled Underfoot" , I noticed then Bonzo was watching the band. I looked at the drums and could not see who was playing, but he knew his stuff. All you could see was a hand coming over the top to hit the cymbals, later I found out it was his son. So I got to see the current line up in 79!

As for Peter Grant, I was in the same room a few times with him and others, I just kept very quiet. Not the type to suffer fools and so on top of his game. Was he tough? yes, very. Was he ruthless to those who tried to rob him, ask them, they may have healed by now.

I have worked a lot of gigs before and since,but none like Zep.When they left the stage, I went on to strike fire extinguishers before the road crew stole them.The crowd was still calling for more. The energy hit you physically, I felt like if I walked off stage into the crowd, it would carry me over their heads.


John Harrison,Knebworth 1979 stage crew

... I think it was around 2pm the band started arriving, first was John Paul Jones in a BMW 6 series with his wife, second Plant, who I think was on his own, third John Bonham with Jason who must have been around 12 at the time. Last but by no means least Pagey and Peter Grant arrived in a helicopter. Needless to say I had stopped work by then. I grabbed a page of the Sounds music paper from someone and a felt tip pen and went round getting all their autographs, well all except Grants – he was terrifying, and I didn't ask Jason for his either.

Whilst he was waiting Plant had a play on the piano and on the keyboards with JPJ. So eventually they all got sorted and Bonham started hitting the drums – noisy bastard I was right in front of a bank of speakers it nearly took my head off.