On This Day 02 November

Blues can be happy

1985 02 November On This Day Blues 'N Booze benefit for Neville Hall

• 1966 The Yardbirds Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour - Magnolia, AR at Southern State College
• 1967 The Yardbirds - New York City at Village Theatre
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Toronto, Canada at O'Keefe Centre
• 1985 Jimmy Page - Waltham St. Lawrence, England at Neville Hall - Blues 'N' Booze Benefit
• 1998 Page & Plant - Glasgow, Scotland at SE+CC, Hall 4
• 2009 Jimmy Page attends Classic Rock Awards, London 

1969:

While in Toronto John Bonham bought a miniature drum kit for his three year old son, Jason.

ca 1969 John Bonham and Jason Bonham 

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin backstage, Toronto

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, Toronto

1985:
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera was a British rock band active in the late 1960s. They started out as a soul and blues band called The Five Proud Walkers, but after opening for Pink Floyd on tour, the group went more towards psychedelic rock and changed their name to Velvet Opera. The band was comprised of Richard Hudson (drums), John Ford (bass), Colin Forster (lead guitar), Jimmy Horrocks (organ and flute), and Dave Terry, a.k.a. "Elmer Gantry" (vocals and harmonica). When Dave Terry started wearing a cape and preacher's hat like Burt Lancaster did in the title roll of the 1960 film based on Sinclair Lewis' novel, Elmer Gantry, the band's name changed again.  It wasn't the last time, either.

Neville Hall was originally a cottage held by the Manor of Waltham St Lawrence. In modern times it was used as a school, sold in 1913 to the Parish Council and became known as The Neville Hall in memory of the Reverend Honorable Grey Neville.

The House of Neville has been around since medieval times,and was a leading political force in English history. The House of Neville and the House of Percy were rivals, heavily involved with the machinations of the Wars of the Roses. However in 1569 the Houses Neville and Percy joined forces in the Rising of the North, the attempt to overthrow Elizabeth I and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots.

To Brits, this is all recent history. For the rest of us, what's important is that Neville Hall is still used for community events, including concerts; and that Jimmy Page joined up with Elmer Gantry one night years ago to raise funds for the building.

2009:

According to Ross Halfin's diary, the Classic Rock Awards in London on this day was a guitarist extravaganza.  Attending were Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood, Billy Gibbons, Pete Townshend, Joe Perry, Tony Iommi, Brian May, Slash, Mick Ralphs and Joe Bonamassa.

Among the other awards, John Bonham was posthumously awarded the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award, which was sponsored by Rhino and was accepted by Bonzo's sister, Deborah Bonham, and mother, Joan Bonham.

2009 Jeff Beck, Paul Rodgers, Jimmy Page, Classic Rock Awards London
(Ross Halfin Photo)

2009 Slash, Ronnie Wood, Joe Perry, Jimmy Page
Jeff Beck, Paul Rodgers, Classic Rock Awards (Ross Halfin Photo)

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♪  Flames (Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, 1967) YouTube
♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Toronto 1969) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Glasgow 1998) YouTube

On This Day 01 November

The love for the music is no secret.

1963 01 November On This Day Kathy Kirby released Secret Love feat. Jimmy Page

• 1966 The Yardbirds Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour - Alexandria, LA at  Rapids Parish Coliseum 
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Syracuse, NY at Onondaga War Memorial 

2014 Jimmy Page (Ross Halfin photo)

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♪  Secret Love (Kathy Kirby, feat. Jimmy Page session guitar 1963) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Glasgow 1998) YouTube

On This Day 31 October

Lucifer, bringer of light.

2011 31 October On This Day Lucifer Rising

All Hallows Eve, Samhain or just dressing up and trick-or-treating - celebrate the day as you see fit, but stay safe.

• 1966 The Yardbirds Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour - Beaumont, TX at Beaumont Municipal Auditorium
• 1969 Led Zeppelin Springfield, MA at  Springfield Municipal Auditorium, Gansett Tribal Rock Festival 

1969 31 October On This Day Led Zeppelin, Springfield MA

And no, I am not providing a link to Homer Simpson singing anything.

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♪  Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks (Jimmy Page, 2011) YouTube

On This Day 30 October

Jimmy Page wins it all if you ask me.

1987 30 October On This Day Writes of Winter nominated for a Grammy Award
♪ Writes of Winter (Soundcloud)

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour, Harlingen, TX at Harlingen Municipal Auditorium
• 1966 The Yardbirds - Corpus Christi, TX at Corpus Christi Memorial Coliseum (last show with Jeff  Beck)
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Buffalo, NY at Kleinhans Music Hall
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Philadelphia, PA at The Spectrum
• 1998 Page & Plant – London, at University of London Union 

1969:

"As a unit, they are taskmasters. The intensity with which they look at each other while working is amazing. Their unit concentration is amazing. And their musical tightness is also amazing.

"Jimmy Page... gave a fascinating technical display of guitar artistry.  In [White Summer] Page pulls up a chair and calmly tunes his old Silvertone guitar. He strives for a strange form of musical tonality in his guitar and proceeds to through his paces. The number combined an interesting musical texture which hinted of the Far East, the folk idiom and the country-western style. in a dazzling display of manual dexterity . Page made his music become his speech. He communicated what he felt at the time. Page was the featured performer that night. His brilliance on the guitar let the crowd to numerous ovations.
~ Buffalo News, Oct. '69

Jimmy Page was using his 1961 Danelectro 3021 for session work in 1965 and began using it in 1967 on stage for White Summer with The Yardbirds. 

"I used a special tuning for that; the low string down to B, then A, D, G, A and D. It’s like a modal tuning, a sitar tuning, in fact."
~ Jimmy Page, Steve Rosen interview 1977

1969 Jimmy Page with Danelectro 3021 at Buffalo (photo Art Juchno)

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Buffalo (photo Art Juchno)

1969 Led Zeppelin Buffalo  (photo Art Juchno)

1987:
It's hard to imagine how any work of Jimmy Page's would not win any award it was nominated for. On the other hand, the way the Grammy Awards are determined gave Outrider a handicap right out of the gate because of the timing.

The Grammy process begins with members of the Recording Academy and record companies submitting entries for the eligibility year.  For Outrider that would have been 1 October 1987 through 30 September 1988.

Only Recording Academy Voting Members vote to nominate, however - record companies do not vote. Outrider was not released until June 1988. Thus the mystery: how did the October 1987 nomination come about at all when the album hadn't been released yet?

What's not a mystery is to know how incredible Outrider would have been as a double album if the tapes hadn't been stolen from Jimmy Page's house. Where are they now? And who do we have to kill to get them?

ca 1998 Jimmy Page with Danelectro  3021 "Silvertone" with replacement bridge

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♪  White Summer (The Yardbirds feat. Jimmy Page 30 March 1968) YouTube
♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin Buffalo 1969) YouTube
♪  Writes of Winter (Jimmy Page, Outrider) YouTube
♪  Night Flight (Page & Plant, London 1998) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, London 1998) YouTube

On This Day 29 October

The stairway goes far beyond a glittery heaven

1988 29 October On This Day Jimmy Page/Outrider, Worcester at Centrum
♪ In My Time of Dying (Soundcloud)

• 1966 The Yardbirds Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour - Dallas Memorial Auditorium 
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Chicago, IL at The Cheetah Club
• 1969 Jimmy Page & Robert Plant with Joe Walsh- Kent, OH at JB’s
• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Montreux, Switzerland at Pavilion Montreux
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Worcester, MA at The Centrum
• 2014 Jimmy Page interviewed on French TV, plays a few seconds of acoustic

1968:

Chris Dreja is an excellent photographer as well as a musician. He knew Jimmy Page from the Yardbirds, but in fact had performed on stage years before then with Yardbirds co-founder, Top Topham, and British blues musician, Duster Bennett - along with a young Jimmy Page on guitar. (Jimmy Page signed Bennett to the Swan Song label in 1975).  Dreja was with Jimmy Page and Peter Grant in 1968 when they were auditioning prospects - including Robert Plant and John Bonham - for the new band that would become Led Zeppelin. In 2010 Dreja told Carol Miller on her show Get The Led Out, "John Bonham was an absolute must-have. A little iffy about Robert". 

Dreja took the photo of Led Zeppelin that is on the back cover of the band's first album and a few other photos that you've no doubt come across over the years. Check out his website and click on the link "People" to see a few of them.

1968 Chris Dreja photograph of Led Zeppelin for the back cover of their first album

1969:

Joe Walsh had given Jimmy Page (or Jimmy Page had bought from Joe Walsh) the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard 'Number One' in April of 1969. By October Number One had already taken the place of Jimmy Page's 1959 Fender Telecaster as his primary guitar on stage.  

If there are photos or any recordings of the jam that night with half of Led Zeppelin and Joe Walsh at the bar in Kent, Ohio, I haven't come across them. (If you have, dear reader, please share!).  Led Zeppelin was in that part of the country, having played in Boston on the 25th and being scheduled to play in Buffalo the 30th, so it's not unlikely that the jam did take place. It would be interesting to know what guitar Jimmy Page might have jammed on that night.

Oh, for a time machine.

1972 Led Zeppelin at Montreux

1972 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Montreux (photo Gilles Chateau)

1988:

1988 review of Outrider show

2013:

2013 Jimmy Page with fans, London

2014:
Jimmy Page did an interview on French TV, Le Grand Journal, during which he played an acoustic guitar for a few minutes, reportedly Ramble On. The clip and the full interview are not available in the US but I'd sure like to see them (hint hint).

♪

♪  Stairway To Heaven (Jimmy Page, Worcester 1988) YouTube

On This Day 28 October

When one door closes, another is opened.

1966 28 October On This Day Yardbirds, Dick Clark's Caravan of the Stars Tour

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour, Amarillo at Tri-State Fairgrounds Coliseum
• 1967 The Yardbirds - St. Louis, MO at Washington University, Francis Fieldhouse
• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Montreux, Switzerland at Pavillion Montreux (day 1)
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Uniondale, NY at Nassau Complex, Mitchel Field Complex 

1966:

Joining the Dick Clark tour might have been the straw that broke the camel's back for Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds.

The tour was a grueling endurance test for the participants, who were treated anything but like stars. Every show each act got to do a few songs and then the next band was up. Soon as the show was over everyone got in the bus with the other acts and their gear and were hauled off to the next gig. They did this day after day for a month at a time with no breaks. 

It was trial by fire. 

At this point, both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were playing lead guitar, though it wasn't for long. Not long into the tour, Beck took off. While it must have been traumatic for the band, it was the opportunity for Jimmy Page and The Yardbirds' manager, Peter Grant, to move the band into a new musical direction, one that would ultimately morph into Led Zeppelin.  

1972:
Claude Knobs introduced Led Zeppelin at Montreux as the greatest rock and roll band in the world.  As Chris Charlesworth said in his Melody Maker review of the two shows, "it was a description taken for granted by many, but which suits only a few". 

1972 Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, Backstage at Montreux

1972 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Montreux (Gilles Chateau photo)

1972 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Montreux (Gilles Chateau photo)

1972 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Montreux (Gilles Chateau photo)

1988:
"I want to introduce you to the mistress..."

♪

♪  Full set (Jimmy Page, Outrider Tour Uniondale 1988) YouTube

On This Day 27 October

MSG makes your experience tastier

1995 27 October On This Day Page & Plant at Madison Square Garden (day 2)
Video:  ♪ Achilles Last Stand (Page & Plant, Atlanta 1995) YouTube

• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden (day 2) 

1995 Page & Plant chillin' at MSG (Ross Halfin photo)

2013:

On this day musician, singer and songwriter Lou Reed died from liver disease. Just a few weeks before Jimmy Page had attended the London launch of the photobook, Transformers, a joint project by Reed and Mick Rock.

RIP Lou Reed (1942-2013)
Jimmy Page, Lou Reed, Mick Rock in London shortly before Lou's death

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♪  I'm Waiting For My Man (The Yardbirds feat. Jimmy Page, Lou Reed cover 1968) YouTube
♪  Kashmir (Page & Plant, MSG 1995) starts approx. 4:00 YouTube