MAGE MUSIC

Sunday, January 7, 2024

On this day 07 January

Strangled cat? Really?

1970 07 January On This Day Led Zeppelin in Birmingham UK

1967 The Yardbirds - Lowell, MA at Commodore Ballroom
1970 Led Zeppelin - Birmingham, UK at Town Hall
1973 Led Zeppelin - Oxford, UK at New Theatre

1970
Express and Star review of the Birmingham gig

Led Zeppelin and the lovely strangled cat sound
Fans cheered wildly, danced in the aisles and even their seats last night to give Led Zeppelin one of the most fantastic receptions ever witnessed at Birmingham Town Hall.
Zeppelin, the group that conquered the States, was opening its first British tour for many months. It was interesting that the group should have chosen Birmingham to do this and must have been pleasing for the boys to receive such a reception.
The two-and-a-half-hour show featured solely Zeppelin... and some of the best rock music I have ever heard.
The group opened its act with Groove, before going into one of their early numbers, Dazed and Confused featuring brilliant lead guitar work from Jimmy Page, who, with the aid of cello bow, made his guitar sound like a cat being strangled.
All was, by then going great for the group and more of Jimmy Page, by way of a solo with White Sabbath bought more applause.
Other numbers included, Since I've Been Loving You written by the group only a couple of days before the concert and featuring John Paul Jones on organ- a track likely to be on the groups forthcoming album. Led Zeppelin III - and Thank You again with John on organ.
The final touch to the show was added by Robert Plant, gyrating around the stage calling on the audience to “Do Your Thing” and screaming out some really groovy rock.
Then things got going with Moby Dick featuring Dudley's John Bonham with a tremendous ten-minute drum solo. Discarding drumsticks, he added to the magnificence by playing barehanded, and bought the audience to its feet.
There it stayed until the end of the show, Zeppelin playing some of the greatest rock music, including such numbers as Rip It Up, By By Johnny, Come On Everybody, and Somethin' Else.
Two encores and eventually the group came on to close with a really wild version of Bring It On Home leaving the audience ecstatic and the Town Hall shaking to its very foundations after one of the wildest shows ever seen there.
The group performed its two and a half hours without a break, and when it finished, all four looked as though they had given everything they had, although I imagine they would have quite willingly carried on for an extra two and a half hours.
The Birmingham based outfits tour continues tonight in Bristol and if things go as well as last night, perhaps it wont be too long before the group gets the chart success it deserves and has seen in the States.

A nice review, although I'm not so sure about the strangled cat thing. Plus some creative reporting of song titles.

1973

Five days earlier at the Sheffield show Robert Plant was losing his voice. The next two days' shows were cancelled. The bit of rest helped, though, and by Oxford Plant was mostly back though at times he still had to struggle. Page, Bonham, and Jones were better than ever, though, and carried the day.

♪

♪ Led Zeppelin (Oxford UK at New Theatre, 07 January 1973)

Saturday, January 6, 2024

On this day 06 January

Band banned in Boston

1975 06 January On This Day Led Zeppelin caused a riot and they weren't even there

1975:
"Banned in Boston" describes works of art (painting and sculpture, literature, music, theater, etc.) that were prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston because of , "objectionable content", including but not limited to works with sexual content or foul language. Remember, Boston was founded by Puritans, and artwork was banned in Boston as early as 1651. The city was still banning art in the twentieth century.

On this day in 1975, events in Boston led to the band's being banned there for five years. Led Zeppelin wasn't even in the USA at that time, but it didn't matter.

It all started when Led Zeppelin was booked to play a show at Boston Garden on 04 February 1975. The announcement of the concert, the “first monster rock show of the new year”, was made on December 31, 1974, and stated that tickets would go on sale the following Tuesday (07 January, 1975), with the show expected to be sold out immediately.

By that time in the USA fans often would line up the night before concert tickets went on sale. That wasn't uncommon. But on the night of 06 January, Boston police (including a few from Boston's Tactical Patrol Force) were sent to Boston Garden to deal with a reported 3000 fans who had arrived in advance for the box office to open at 10 a.m. the next day - and who were trashing the place. Because of the cold, the doors had been opened to allow freezing fans to wait inside. Somehow that act of mercy resulted in the fans running amok, vandalizing the building to the tune of about $30,000. Police confiscated knives and martial arts implements from some of the rioters. The estimated average age of fans was reported to be 14, but since no one was actually arrested it's hard to know how accurate that was.

And then, in spite of the fact that Led Zeppelin had been booked for the show, somehow the concert had not actually been licensed by the Boston Licensing Board. That was all the excuse that Mayor Kevin White, reportedly a Stones fan, needed to refuse the permit for Led Zeppelin's show, and on top of it the band was banned in Boston for five years.

1972 busted in Rhode Island but saved by Boston's mayor

Fair? Hardly. Mayor White didn't make a fuss when fans who were waiting at Boston Garden rioted in 1972 when the band didn't show up on time. No, instead White personally got Keith Richards and Mick Jagger out of assault busts in Rhode Island so they could get back to Boston for the gig. No banned in Boston for them.

Meanwhile in 1975 Led Zeppelin fans in Boston who never got the tickets for Led Zeppelin because now the band was banned there were offered tickets by mail for a newly scheduled show in Uniondale NY on 04 February. Those who showed up with an envelope bearing a Massachusetts postmark got preferential seating.

2012 January Classic Rock Magazine (Ross Halfin cover photo)

By the way, Boston seems to be a bit proud of their place in Led Zeppelin history. On their "Celebrate Boston" website (albeit in the Crime folder) there's a more detailed account of the Led Zeppelin Riot.

Another article on iHeart Radio's website claims that JP didn't know why the show was cancelled in Boston or why they didn't play Boston in 1977 until he did some research for his own website more than thirty years later.

♪

Friday, January 5, 2024

On this day 05 January

A stairway but not THE Stairway

1977 05 January On This Day Jimmy Page traveling to Mexico & South America

1969 Led Zeppelin - Los Angeles at Whisky A Go Go (day 4 of 4)

1969 Led Zeppelin at Whisky a Go Go

1977
Led Zeppelin spent January and February 1977 at Manticore Studios preparing for the next US Tour. The band's first show was to be Ft. Worth TX on February 27 but Plant came down with laryngitis. The tour's actual start was in April. But then on 26 July 1977, Robert Plant's son Karac died, and Led Zeppelin did not perform again until 23 July 1979 in Copenhagen for a warmup for Knebworth.

♪

♪ Led Zeppelin (Los Angeles CA at Whisky A Go-Go, 05 January 1969)

Thursday, January 4, 2024

On this day 04 January

Jamming to nowhere, dammit.

1981 04 January On This Day Jimmy Page XYZ sessions

1969 Led Zeppelin - Los Angeles at Whisky A Go Go (day 3 of 4)

1981 Jimmy Page with Alan White & Chris Squire XYZ Sessions

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Whisky a Go Go

1981:
Called by some the "supergroup that never happened", it was more the "musicians who recorded while messing around and never released the tapes". Jimmy Page, Chris Squire and Alan White jammed at Jimmy Page's Sol Studios and recorded the demos but it went no further. Jimmy Page went on to record his soundtrack for Death Wish II in 1982 and toured in 1983 for the ARMS concert series. The band Yes reformed itself in 1983.

1995 Jimmy Page

♪

♪ XYZ Sessions demo (Jimmy Page / Chris Squire / Alan White 1981)

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

On this day 02 January

The show must go on... please!!!

1963 02 January On This Day Diamonds, featuring Jimmy Page acoustic guitar, released
AUDIO: Diamonds (Jet Harris, feat. Jimmy Page acoustic guitar, John Baldwin bass guitar 1963)

1969 Led Zeppelin - Los Angeles at Whisky A Go Go (day 1 of 4)
1973 Led Zeppelin - Sheffield England at Sheffield City Hall

1963

"Diamonds" was the first record that Jimmy Page played on (acoustic guitar), and also was the first time he recorded with John Paul Jones (then still John Baldwin). The song hit Number One in the U.K. just a month later, where it stayed for three weeks, and almost overnight JP became a hot item as a session guitarist.

1969:
Led Zeppelin opened for Alice Cooper, and was promoted as “featuring Jimmy Page, formerly of the Yardbirds". Jimmy Page was sick with the flu but went onstage anyway with a raging fever. The band could only perform one set and were docked in pay. Alice Cooper recalled that there were only about 100 people in the audience, since no one had heard of either him or Led Zeppelin at that point. Cooper also recalls tossing a coin to see which act would perform first.

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Los Angeles at Whisky A Go Go

1973:
According to Dave Lewis, John Bonham and Robert Plant drove together to the Sheffield gig in Bonzo’s Bentley, which broke down. The two were forced to hitchhike in the rain the rest of the way to the show. Unfortunately – and coincidentally, given the 1969 show on this day - Robert took sick from the adventure and had a rough time singing. The next two days’ shows were cancelled while he recovered.