"Look, Salvador Dali did not paint because he needed the money. No conversation about materialism and music makes sense. You make music and that's that, it doesn't matter why." - Robert Plant, dismissing Phil Collins' outrageous claim that Eric Clapton could never be a great blues guitarist because of his accumulated money and fame. From an interview with the Spanish press.
Well, another year has come to a close. 2011 has been a stellar year and 2012 will be better than ever. We've seen some activity this past year with the former members of Led Zeppelin. No, there's been no reunion or new album by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, but does there really need to be?
Jimmy Page hinted for another year at releasing an album with new material. Unfortunately, nothing has been released. He did make a few appearances though. In June, he joined Donovan at the Royal Albert Hall, in July he joined The Black Crowes and with Roy Harper in November.
John Paul Jones had a scattering of live appearances with Foo Fighters, Seasick Steve and Spin Marvels & formed a new group with Helge Sten, called Minibus Pimps.
Achilles Last Stand - The Led Zeppelin Website will soon be entering its 16th year of existence in 2012. I am still in the process of migrating from the last formation of the website into the current website. It's been quite a process with all of the new information that I've found. I want to continue to make the the most informative website on Led Zeppelin. Some of you may know that I've been trying to find time to write a book on Led Zeppelin. Some of you may know exactly what the subject is about. All I will say for those that do not know is that it is on a subject that has not been solely published about. Stay tuned!
Here is a list of the Top Ten popular stories on Achilles Last Stand for the past year:
I wish the very best for each and every one of you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for viewing Achilles Last Stand - The Led Zeppelin Website. Only with your support does it stay online and as popular as it is.
Ever onward!
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Are Jimmy Page and the Quaker Oats Guy celebrity lookalikes? Long lost brothers? The Quaker Oats Guy, a generic figure, was created between 1939 and 1941. Jimmy Page was born in 1944. They could be long-lost brothers. You be the judge.
A digital artist from Ithaca Audio has taken clips from Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Phil Collins and 11 other artists and mashed them into a new song called ‘Walking In Your Mind‘ featuring scenes from last year’s hit film ‘Inception’ and other visual sources. In the video below, watch “Chris” produce the mashup live with his controls in the lower right of the screen.
Hendrix is the first classic rocker featured. The opening guitar riff of ‘Voodoo Child’ is repeated over and over again, and viewers watch as the guitar legend plays it live. Grainy live footage of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ is used later in the song, although it’s a challenge to decipher that classic riff from the other samples used in the mashup at that point.
Collins’ hit ‘In the Air Tonight’ is sampled heavily in the middle of the over three minute long song. Images from a 2007 Cadbury chocolates commercial provide the video’s most striking images. Clips from the Leonardo DiCaprio movie ‘Inception’ are also sampled early on. The Beastie Boys, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg are amongst the other artists whose songs are sampled. Ithaca Audio is offering a free audio download of their song on their Facebook page.
Last month, Matt from Brain Damage - Pink Floyd News Resource, interviewed Storm Thorgerson, of the British art design group Hipgnosis, about his career and work. Although, a majority of the conversation was about artwork for Pink Floyd, Thorgerson said the following on The Object from Led Zeppelin's 1976 album, Presence.
..... a similar story was for Led Zeppelin's Presence, one of my favourite pieces, I have to say, mostly as I was so surprised that they ever took it. I mean, it's kind of like a piece of kitsch, but not. Anyway, the black object as it became to be know, was painted on the side of a hollow pillar, in black, so if you tapped it, you'd get a response. Underneath it, I cut a hole, the same shape, in the hollow pillar, it was also black because there was no light in the pillar.
I was doing this Q&A in Japan, in a different city this time, and my interpreter said there's a man here who's been a fan of Zeppelin for twenty-five years, and is desperate for you to talk about Presence, so I did.
So I told him all about Presence, and about what the object meant, and that it was in every walk of life, and I tapped the black thingie, and he nodded his head, and then I put my hand through the hole, and he fell over. It was extraordinary! He was so shocked. And he wouldn't let me put his hand through the hole. He would not let me. His friends were laughing all over the place, and they kept saying to him "Put your hand through the hole". But he would not. Because it was twenty five years of an illusion that he'd just realised was a trick on him too. Because you see it is not an object, it has no moulding, it has no shadow, it's just a funny shaped hole.
So Zeppelin don't have to be there, any more than the hole is. Which is why Zeppelin called it Presence, because they don't have to be there. Robert Plant says that Presence was "one of the best bits of synchronicity between sound and picture." I didn't know he thought that.
Alva Museum Graphics in New York was contracted to produce 1000 individually numbered 12" tall black "Objects" for Swan Song to use in their promotion of the record. This is the only way and the only time "The Object" was ever released by Swan Song/Atlantic Records. On each side at the base of "The Object" is the following, LED ZEPPELIN, "THE OBJECT" c 1976 SWAN SONG INC, PRESENCE, _#_/1000.
A 1936 Cord 810 Phaeton, formerly owned by Jimmy Page, was purchased by an anonymous buyer at a Coys Auction for £125,000 on December 7, 2011.
The car was originally thought to have been purchased by Page in 1970, while on tour in Los Angeles. Approximately 10-20 years, he had the vehicle completed restored in a lightly metallised shade of Royal Blue, with a closely-pleated interior in matching leather.
At some unknown point, the Cord was owned by Duncan Bannatyne, entrepreneur and of BBC TVs Dragons Den.
For more photos of the car and a history on the Cord brand, go to the Coys Auction website.
Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from a U.K. music school on Thursday (08Dec11) in recognition of his career.
The bassist received the accolade at a ceremony at prestigious performing arts college Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Deptford, south London.
Musician Ravi Shankar and Academy Award-nominated composer John Powell are among the previous recipients of the honour given by the college, Britain's only music and contemporary dance conservatoire.
An orchestral version of the 1975 Led Zeppelin classic ‘Kashmir’ recorded by the the all-girl Australian/British string quartet Bond is featured in a new trailer for ‘John Carter,’ a science fiction film based on author Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 11-volume ‘Barsoom’ series that’s due to hit theaters next year.
Bond covered the tune for their 2002 album ‘Shine,’ which features classical crossover versions of a variety of different songs, including an adaptation of (appropriately, given their name) the James Bond movie theme song.
Bond’s arrangement of ‘Kashmir’ that’s used in the ‘John Carter’ trailer seems to have a men’s choral section thrown on top near the end for added drama.
It’s not the first time a remake of ‘Kashmir’ has been used for a movie. In 1998, rapper P Diddy famously re-recorded the song with Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page‘s permission - and his guitar playing - as ‘Come With Me,’ which also featured an orchestral version of ‘Kashmir,’ but with Diddy rapping on top.
Regardless, the use of the ‘Kashmir’ in ‘John Carter’ seems to work well, bringing propulsive rhythms and a building sonic tension that matches the epic grandeur of the sci-fi flick.
Watch the official trailer below, plus listen to the full track in the second video.
Jason Bonham has completed a track abandoned by Led Zeppelin in 2008, and it appears on the new Black Country Communion album, he’s revealed.
The drummer was involved with Led Zep’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones when they started work on a reunion project following the band’s one-off London show in 2007. But work was abandoned when singer Robert Plant refused to take part, and the three remaining musicians couldn’t settle on a satisfactory replacement.
Now the son of iconic drummer John Bonham says he’s finished the piece and recorded it with BCC bandmates Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Sherinian.
He tells the Toronto Sun: “It’s a song called Save Me. Is started off as an idea I worked on with Jimmy and John. You’ll notice it – there’s a slight Zepesque riff – It’s got a definite feel to it.”
Bonham is glad to have finished the track because it gives him some closure after the disappointment of the Zep project’s failure.
“I was very much under the impression that we were going to write an album and put together a new project,” he says. “But in early December 2008 it all came to a halt. It was a hard thing for me to get over for a while – I’d just played the concert of my life.”
Meanwhile, frontman Hughes has distanced himself from comments he made about a possible reunion of Deep Purple MkIII, which included himself, David Coverdale, Richie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
Coverdale recently said he’d love to do it, and last week Hughes provided another reason for following it up: “I joined the band as a very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Northern chap, like David. When I left, let’s just say I’d been overserved at the bar.
“I’ve made my amends with everybody but I’d like to have a jam with the guys as a sober man, and as somebody who knows how to deal with his life on a daily basis.”
But last night Hughes said via his Facebook page: “I get asked the same question about Deep Purple in every interview. But I’m all about the present, not the past. Black Country Communion is now – and David is the only member of MkIII who has remained a true brother all through the years and stood by me.”
A drum skin signed by rock legend Jimmy Page will be auctioned for charity in memory of Grammy awardwinning drummer Michael Lee on the third anniversary of his death.
The skin was given to Darlington- born Mr Lee by the Led Zeppelin guitarist in 1994, when the drummer toured with Page and Led Zep frontman Robert Plant on their reunification gigs.
It will be auctioned at a charity night commemorating the anniversary of Mr Lee’s death tonight, along with another three of his personal items which have been donated by his cousin, Steve Metcalfe.
Also going under the hammer will be a poster signed by the reformed Thin Lizzy when Mr Lee toured with them; a studded belt belonging to Mr Lee; and an artwork edition version of a 12in vinyl of I Ain’t Gonna Cry, by Scarborough band Little Angels, with whom Mr Lee started his professional career.
Born Michael Gary Pearson, Mr Lee was hailed as one of the most talented drummers of his generation, and played with bands including Aerosmith, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cult and Lenny Kravitz.
He was best known for his work with Page and Plant after he landed a gig in Plant’s solo band in the early Nineties and stayed with the singer when he reunited with Page in 1994.
The drummer toured extensively with the Zeppelin duo and was credited on every song on their 1998 Walking into Clarksdale album.
Mr Lee died aged 39, as a result of an epileptic seizure.
Along with 150 friends and family members, Page attended his funeral, and Plant, along with John Sykes, of Thin Lizzy, and rock band the Quireboys sent individual floral tributes.
The money raised from the night will go to Epilepsy Action and Macmillan Cancer Support.
The night has been organised by The Quakerhouse, off High Row, Darlington, a pub where Mr Metcalfe used to be landlord, and Mr Lee used to play at open mic sessions.
Friends of Mr Metcalfe, 53, and staff from the pub organised a night in memory of Mr Lee last year on the anniversary of his death.
Mr Metcalfe said: “It is difficult to auction these things, but I have got memorabilia all over the wall. I would rather it went to someone who wanted it than it was sitting in a cupboard somewhere, and it will also raise money for two good causes.
“I am sure Michael would approve of it being auctioned for charity.”
He said Mr Lee’s brother and sister, Tony and Janet, were also expected to attend.
“I am really looking forward to the night,” Mr Metcalfe added. “I was surprised last year – I couldn’t believe it. It was quite emotional. Hopefully, it will become an annual thing.”
The charity night, which will feature Jimi Hendrix tribute act Sundance, and Tyneside Thin Lizzy tribute Thyn Lizzy, starts at 7pm tonight in The Quakerhouse, with the first band playing at 8.30pm.
Rolling Stone has released their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time. Jimmy Page ranked number 3, according to their panel of top guitarists and other experts.
Aerosmith guitarist, Joe Perry, had the following to say about Jimmy Page.
Listening to what Jimmy Page does on guitar can transport you. As a lead player, he always plays the right thing for the right spot – he's got such remarkable taste. The solo on "Heartbreaker" has such incredible immediacy; he's teetering on the edge of his technique, and it's still a showstopper. But you can't look at just his guitar playing on its own. You have to look at what he did with it in the studio and how he used it in the songs he wrote and produced. Jimmy built this incredible catalog of experience on the Yardbirds and doing session work, so when he did the first Led Zeppelin record, he knew exactly what kind of sounds he wanted to get.
He had this vision of how to transcend the stereotypes of what the guitar can do. If you follow the guitar on "The Song Remains the Same" all the way through, it evolves through so many different changes – louder, quieter, softer, louder again. He was writing the songs, playing them, producing them – I can't think of any other guitar player since Les Paul that can claim that.
Here is the rest of the Top Ten guitarists of all time: 10. Pete Townshend 9. Duane Allman 8. Eddie Van Halen 7. Chuck Berry 6. B. B. King 5. Jeff Beck 4. Keith Richards 3. Jimmy Page 2. Eric Clapton 1. Jimi Hendrix
According to Billboard.biz, Led Zeppelin's classic 1971 album "Led Zeppelin IV" (which spent four weeks at No. 2), sold around 3,600 copies in the United States last week to return to the chart (No. 166) for the first time since 1987. The LP — which is priced at $5.99 at AmazonMP3 and $6.99 at iTunes — is up 273% in overall sales (compared to around 980 copies sold the previous week) and 654% in downloads.
On November 8, "Led Zeppelin" turned 40. The album has been referred to as "Led Zeppelin IV", following the naming standard used by the band's first three studio albums and even four symbols that symbolized each band member: singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and late drummer John Bonham. Not only does the album have no title, but there is no writing on the front or back cover, or even a catalogue number on the spine (at least on the original LP release).
Following the lukewarm reaction to the band's acoustic-leaning "III" album, "Led Zeppelin IV" was more upbeat and sits as one of the most influential albums in hard rock/heavy metal history.
"Led Zeppelin IV" is the third best-selling album of all time in the U.S., with cumulative sales of more than 23 million.
“We were playing in one room in a house with a recording truck, and a drum kit was duly set up in the main hallway, which is a three storey hall with a staircase going up on the inside of it. And when John Bonham went out to play the kit in the hall, I went ‘Oh, wait a minute, we gotta do this!’ Curiously enough that’s just a stereo mike that’s up the stairs on the second floor of this building, and that was his natural balance.”
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There will never be a more important band than The Beatles. The Beatles redefined pop music, essentially created power pop music, redefined pop rock, and created the template of success for every single band that arrived after them. The Beatles were the first band to transcend the notion of a global audience; songs like “She Loves You” flattened and leveled the world. The Beatles forever changed the way that music is marketed and digested on a mass level. There will never be another Beatles, just like there will never be another George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Part of the mass appeal of The Beatles was that they were a band of four guys who were both collectively cool and individually God-like. Of course, nearly everyone identified themselves with McCartney or Lennon as the former represented a universal kind of genius and accessibility while the latter tapped into the arty and culturally conscious kind of genius that life after 1968 demanded. And then you had Harrison’s Quiet Guy personality—smart, reserved, sensitive, spiritually experimental—and Ringo’s Everyman quality—the blue collar and working man’s totem; a (mostly) forgotten personality but a guy who nonetheless checked his ego at the door and thanklessly provided the foundation for every Beatles song ever made. Each band member had a meaning above their role as a musician/entertainer. To reiterate: The Beatles changed how we look at music, and musicians.
A handful of other bands and artists around this time (namely, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Who) also arrived and created their own mythology-making machines, but in terms of four-man bands the only one, I think, that rivals The Beatles in terms of individual larger-than-life, God-like personalities whose sum was greater than its individual parts is Led Zeppelin.
As a band, all Zeppelin did was take power blues with a collective force to levels not seen before (to the point that one can plausibly map out the history of heavy metal to include the seeds laid down by Robert Plant’s screams, Jimmy Page’s mythical riffs, John Paul Jones’s heavy bass riffs, and John Bonham’s booming drums). To be sure, there were bands doing power blues before Zeppelin, most notably Cream, but Zeppelin pulled away from the pack almost instantly. “Good Times Bad Times,” the first song on their debut album, announces itself to the world so powerfully that only Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” stands above it in terms debut album openers. “Good Times Bad Times” kicks down your door and punches you in the face; the strengths of each Zeppelin member is on display with this song. You can learn a lot about an artist and what their trajectory will be based on their first piece and “Good Times Bad Times” shows you everything you need to know in spades.
As individuals, the members of Led Zeppelin are iconic and mythical; demigods to any rock-loving guy or man that’s ever stepped on American or British soil over the last five decades. When viewed strictly through the lens of talent Plant, Page, Jones, and Bonham are all arguably in the top 5 of their respective abilities in the history of rock. Would anyone disagree that Plant is not one of the best rock frontmen/lead singers; that Page is not one of the best rock guitarists; that Jones isn’t one of the best rock bassists; that Bonham isn’t one of the best rock drummers of all time? But to say that these guys are some of the best individuals to grace a microphone, guitar, bass guitar, and drums does not paint the entire picture. The reality is that these guys are not only demigods but also comic book superheroes incarnate as well. Damn near every guy who loves rock has imagined being like any one or all of them, or some combination of them.
The history of rock is in part written by emulation and deification, and few are the guys who haven’t tried to sing like Plant during that intro of “Immigrant Song.” Few are the guys who’ve never wished that they looked like Jimmy Page performing on stage, or being able to pull something like “Over the Hills and Far Away” out of their ass while learning the guitar. Few are the guys who haven’t envied Bonham’s drum-playing ability, or to be in position to re-enact his personal highlights. Few are the guys who have heard the bass lines to “Dazed and Confused” and didn’t imitate their crisp sound at least once while it played through their car or stereo speakers. Few are the guys who didn’t draw at least one of the runes from their fourth album on a book cover, folder, or backpack during a class or study hall in high school. I believe it was Chuck Klosterman who once wrote that most guys will agree that The Rolling Stones are the best rock band of all time, but that Led Zeppelin is the band that they most want to emulate and love on a more personal basis. And I cannot disagree with this assessment at all. After all, who would you rather be if given the chance: Charlie Watts or John Bonham?
So where does Led Zeppelin’s collective and individual greatness dovetail—where does their masterful craftsmanship intersect with the (sometimes pot smoke-induced) mythology that has been applied to them? What is their best overall song that also shows each member at the height of their demigod powers? It’s “When the Levee Breaks”—specifically the part of the song that runs from 2:26 until 3:05. There are other songs one can choose when talking about Zeppelin’s overall presence (“Stairway to Heaven,” “Kashmir”) or about individual deification (“You Shook Me” or “The Rain Song” for Page and/or Plant; “Moby-Dick” or “Immigrant Song” for Bonham; “Dazed and Confused” or “In the Light” for Jones, amongst others) but “When the Levee Breaks” is the band’s masterpiece. The track starts with John Bonham’s famous thundering drum beats, recorded by way of the setup explained in the quote at the beginning of this post, and then it proceeds to be one of the best rock songs ever made as it effortlessly marries straight-up rock with just experimental enough production touches (the backward echo harmonica). And then starting at 2:26 and running until 3:05 you have Jimmy Page shifting from metallic jangly riffs to letting off riffs that are the auditory equivalent of fireworks, but the firework riffs are drowned out a bit by Bonham’s assaulting dual bulldozer bass drums and Jones’s deep bass lines.
And then there are the screams by Robert Plant.
The screams are short, guttural, and alien. They are exactly the kind of thing that you will never be able to imitate in your car but fuck if you think you nail them every time while this song is blaring. “When the Levee Breaks” is the last track on Led Zeppelin IV, which is arguably Zeppelin’s most accessible album and the album that is filled with radio-friendly juggernauts. “Stairway to Heaven” (or even “Kashmir”) might be the go-to seven-plus minute song in Zeppelin’s catalog for many people but for me “When the Levee Breaks” kills every song in their catalog. It stands alone. It is the crown jewel from four demigods. It is the exclamation point on one of the most iconic albums of the last 40 years. It reinforces the reason why all of the many symbols of Zeppelin appeared on so many guys’ backpacks and jackets and book covers. It is one of the best blues covers of all time.[1]
[1] “When the Levee Breaks” was originally recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are special guests in this weekend's edition of the syndicated radio show In The Studio which will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin IV.
In a matter of four short years, Led Zeppelin had delivered four groundbreaking albums each destined to top the other. Widely considered a hard rock, heavy metal band by many, Zeppelin would astonish everyone by creating one of hard rock's first epic ballads, the most played record in rock radio history, "Stairway To Heaven". Jimmy Page shares with host Redbeard the reaction the song got, even before Zeppelin had released it. "We were out touring and that album (Zep IV) hadn't come out and we played "Stairway" in the Forum (Los Angeles) and we got a standing ovation."
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reveal In The Studio why Led Zeppelin IV is the third-highest seller in music history . "When we started the band...I wanted to make music that people would respect; your fellow musicians, like Jeff (Beck) and Eric (Clapton) and people like that ," remarks Page. Robert Plant remembers, "We did whatever we wanted to do and said, 'look, for us we have to just weave around wherever it was most appropriate, with amplifiers, without, doesn't matter, in the desert, on top a Welsh mountain wherever it was...' which could be indicative and could show what we were all about."
InTheStudio can be heard on over 50 radio stations across North America. Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin IV/ InTheStudio program will air this weekend. Stream it online here or find out if your local rock station carries the show and when it will air here.
IV at 40: Entire Set in gallery quality frames! (UK customers only)
This option includes all 8 of the show prints framed in our signature 225 Black gallery quality frames, made in the UK using 100% solid wood and museum quality float glass.
You will also receive the official show poster by the Flood Gallery's own Tom Warner.
The framed option is £500 for the entire set, which includes a huge £160 discount! (Usual price £660)
All images will be revealed and be available to buy individually online at 8pm on November 19th, the 40th anniversary of the UK release of the album.
If you would like to be one of the first to get your hands on the prints or see them in person, they will be unveiled for the first time at the Grand Opening event at The Flood Gallery on the evening of November 17th from 7:30pm. The event is open to the public so please come along.
Sir Jimmy Page. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
That's at least what one British MP thought when she revealed via Twitter that she had officially proposed knighthood for the Led Zeppelin guitarist, according to the UK's Daily Mail.
"I’ve proposed Jimmy Page," she Tweeted, "Waiting to see if that finds favour with Honours Directorate. I hope so."
The MP in question, Louise Mensch, happens to be married to a former manager of Page's, Peter Mensch, a fact which has raised a few eyebrows. Still, Louise maintains that her lobbying for Page's knighthood has anything to do with his status as a former client of her husband, saying: "Clearly there is nobody more worthy of a knighthood and I am glad to say I have gathered support from every major record label in the UK."
NATIONAL BROADCAST TO BEGIN AIRING NOVEMBER 19th on PBS
ROBERT PLANT, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, GREGG ALLMAN THE AVETT BROTHERS, THE CIVIL WARS & MORE FEATURED IN ONE HOUR SPECIAL
♦♦♦ For Immediate Release:
Nashville, TN-November 8, 2011-Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Gregg Allman, Alison Krauss, The Avett Brothers and The Civil Wars are just a few of the artists appearing on “ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival,” sponsored by Nissan and airing starting November 19th on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings). Called “the best awards show in the world” by Paste Magazine, the hour long special was filmed live at the Ryman Auditorium on October 13, 2011 during the sold-out Americana Music Association’s Honors and Awards and features special performances from the genres’ established and rising stars.
Hosted by Jim Lauderdale, with an all-star house band led by Americana favorite Buddy Miller, the show runs the gamut of Americana music. It opens with a moving performance of “I’ll Fly Away,” in tribute to the 10th anniversary of the “O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, with Harris, Krauss and others, and closes with an uplifting finale spotlighting the legendary Allman. In between are performances by Lauderdale, Miller, Plant and The Band of Joy, Candi Staton, The Avett Brothers, Lucinda Williams, The Civil Wars, Elizabeth Cook, Justin Townes Earle, Jessica Lea Mayfield, and Amos Lee. Most are backed by Miller’s ace sidemen, featuring Don Was, Greg Leisz, the McCrary Sisters, along with John Deaderick and brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars.
“It was time to bring the Americana Honors to another level,” said Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Association. “We could not have better partners than Nashville Public Television president and CEO Beth Curley for our Middle Tennessee premiere, and Austin City Limits executive producer Terry Lickona to take this to a national audience.”
The program, described by Emmylou Harris as “the shining star of Nashville and music everywhere,” was filmed by High Five Entertainment and co-produced by its president Martin Fischer and Lickona. For more on the show, photos, and clips click here.
Performance Rundown:
Emmylou Harris Alison Krauss Buddy Miller, Jerry Douglas and Don Was /I’ll Fly Away, “O’Brother” Tribute Performance The Avett Brothers / The Once And Future Carpenter Lucinda Williams / Blessed Amos Lee / Cup of Sorrow Elizabeth Cook / El Camino The Civil Wars / Barton Hollow Justin Townes Earle / Harlem River Blues Jessica Lea Mayfield / For Today Buddy Miller / Gasoline And Matches Candi Staton / Heart On A String Jim Lauderdale / Life By Numbers Robert Plant / Monkey Gregg Allman / Melissa ###
TO FIND OUT WHEN ACL PRESENTS: AMERICANA MUSIC FESTIVAL AIRS ON YOUR LOCAL PBS STATION VISIT www.austincitylimits.org, www.pbs.org OR CLICK BELOW FOR MARKET LISTINGS BY TIMEZONE.
About the Americana Festival and Conference, presented by Nissan Now in its 12th year, this year’s festival and conference presented by Nissan took place October 12-15, 2011. The event brings together fans and music industry executives alike offering four days of celebration through seminars, panels and networking opportunities by day and raw, battery-recharging showcases each evening. The Honors and Awards Show is the featured performance of the festivities taking place at the historic Ryman Auditorium. For more information and to purchase conference badges, award tickets, or festival wristbands visit www.americanamusic.org. Dates for the 2012 Festival and Conference will be announced in the coming weeks.
About the Americana Music Association The Americana Music Association is a professional trade organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the advocacy of Americana music and to promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field. Dedicated to building and promoting the Americana genre and the individuals who participate in that industry, the Americana Music Association works closely with artists, labels, radio stations, retailers, print media, festivals, agents, publishers and more to help organize and build the infrastructure necessary for the Americana genre to achieve success both creatively and financially.
About ACL Presents: ACL Presents is music programming created by, or in association with, KLRU, the producers of Austin City Limits (ACL). ACL Presents programming includes television specials, live events, web series and recorded music presentations and is made in the spirit and standards of the legendary PBS series Austin City Limits, the longest-running live music series in television history. ACL Presents collaborations have included: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass with KQED and Americana Music Festival with Nashville Public Television (NPT). For more information please visit www.austincitylimits.org
About Nashville Public Television Nashville Public Television is available free and over the air to nearly 2.4 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. The mission of NPT is to provide, through the power of traditional television and interactive telecommunications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which there by help improve the lives of those we serve. For more information please visit www.wnpt.org
There would be a dignity in Robert Plant's refusal to take the easy, lazy road even if the restless exploration he chose instead had turned out to be little more than amiable, aimless wandering. But in the last few years his post-Zeppelin crusades have really started making sense, in consort with Alison Krauss and then his own Band Of Joy: a kind of hybrid twisted roots music laced with just enough of his ethereal mystic croon to give it a pleasing but sinister beauty. At 63, he seems blessed with the kind of endless curiosity that can't be faked, and a determined humility, and he's too polite to point out quite how far the interesting dusty back roads he has taken now separate him from most of the original rock aristocracy. Two weeks before we speak, his most recent group, Band of Joy, played their final scheduled concert, at least for the time being. "So," he explains, "I have to go back underground and start burrowing again." Despite the difficulty he has in being away from England during the soccer season—"the Saturday afternoons are a little lackluster here"—the site of his latest burrowing is Austin, Texas, home of Band of Joy's other vocalist, Patty Griffin.
GQ: After all this time, what have you discovered that you think you do? Robert Plant: I think I surprise myself. And I think that that's the reason that I do it.
GQ: Surprise yourself in finding what? Robert Plant: Finding another way to do what I know I can do pretty well. A way that stimulates me. I'm always on some sort of learning curve, and I try to apply my gift to that. If I can continually be surprised then I'm alert.
GQ: And people who have been doing what you do for a long time often get in a situation where they find themselves not learning? Robert Plant: The thing is: How much do people really want to learn? I mean, some people get into a groove and they stay with it indefinitely. And what starts off as a great moment of explosive passion can end up as cabaret 25, 30 years later. It just depends on whether you go and find the right habitat to extend yourself.
GQ: What do you think the difference is between the people who take the left path and the right path? Robert Plant: Probably about four or five inches on the waistline.
GQ: Slimness is the key? Robert Plant: No, you become slim because you become lean and because you're looking for clues. If I have to justify myself in this absurd life that I have then I have to have something that's reasonably creditable to go with my name and my CBE [Plant was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009] and my lifetime Vice Presidency [of the soccer team Plant supports, Wolverhampton Wanderers]. So, yeah, I'm always in school. It's crucial that I kind of keep up, without drifting into the backslapping land of cliché and lifetime achievement awards.
GQ: Yes, it's so easy for people to reach for their slippers. Robert Plant: Well, I don't think it's easy. I think that those that have their slippers, and their Fair Isle sleeveless sweaters, getting ready for the chill of October, I think quite a few of them are in mourning for the great moments of invention and explosion. And I think it's not supposed to go on forever. It would be wonderful if it did. But there's no point in being judgmental. I'm just lucky because my kids are grown-up—I love them, very proud of them, and we are in close contact as big-time friends, but they don't need me that much now and I can actually enjoy this wonderful world of music. In two weeks' time I shall be playing on the north side of the Mexican border with a band led by an American-Hispanic accordionist at a little festival called El Cosmico, and there may be a thousand people there. A door swings open, I'll have a quick peep and enjoy it. I was thinking the other day how strange it is that the generation of front men, if you want to call it that, how many are left that just sing and twirl the microphone. And there's not many of us. And so I kind of disguise my limitations by hanging out with very talented people. The excitement of the collision between the microphone-twirling guy from 1966 to now is just a fantastic adventure. There aren't many of us left and I've managed to kind of cover my tracks pretty good.
GQ: How? Robert Plant: I hate cliché. And when you're a rock singer in 1966, or whatever it was, psychedelic blues, through to the '70s, which we know all about, and the '80s, which was a scramble to hang on in, and the '90s, which was a great time for experimentation...to get to this place, I'm really still excited. The huge vast diagonals within the music that I've been involved with.
GQ: What are you doing in Austin? Robert Plant: I'm looking for clues.
GQ: Finding any? Robert Plant: Absolutely. It is brimming with clues here. It's a hotbed of music and good ideas. It's good here. I suppose because of my time and my age, and forcing our way through that kind of British underground rock explosion, we were kids and we didn't know how to handle ego and that sort of thing, and now when you get to a certain point down the line being good isn't just about being dextrous and being flash. Being good is about being an all-round contributor in the great world of music. The Band of Joy record, we cut 23 tracks in about ten days. At the end of an evening you know that you've cut three or four songs and they're virtually complete. I remember in the '80s another Atlantic artist was being produced at [producer Trevor Horn's London recording studio] Sarm West and it took them three weeks to decide on which snare drum to use.
GQ: And we all know how it sounded. Robert Plant: Yeah. It sounds like "Owner of a Lonely Heart."
GQ: As the years pass, do you find it easier or harder to stay creative? Robert Plant: Well, you've probably noticed that on the last two albums that I've made—the one with Alison and the one with Band of Joy—there's not very much original stuff on it. But on our tour we just finished we wrote prolifically at the soundchecks, so it's a very trippy psychedelic trance-like bunch of demos I've got here with me. I guess it's perhaps a bit more languid than Primal Scream but it's definitely got dark beautiful Link Wray overtones. And Patty, we have written a couple of great pieces together. In fact we're having a rehearsal in about an hour and a half. And I'm playing a lot of acoustic guitar now, which is something I didn't dare do in the '70s. I couldn't look at a guitar without blanching because I was with one of the most spectacular guitar players of the late twentieth century.
GQ: Over the years, have you found it more valuable to listen to other people's advice or to completely ignore it? Robert Plant: I've been advised by everybody. Everybody's got something to tell you. And most people have told me to do the obvious thing as far as my career goes. Which would have sent me tottering into the abyss.
GQ: They mean: "Put your old band back together"? Robert Plant: Well, I think that's gone now.
GQ: While you should obviously feel free to do what the hell you want either way, it seems such an important part of what you are and who you are now that that wouldn't be the path you'd take. Robert Plant: No, exactly. The thing is: How far can you go with it? And that's the whole deal about what I do is that I'm only a singer. I want to do lots of different things. I got a baritone ukulele yesterday and I've tuned it already so I can play along with [the Saharan band of Tuareg musicians] Tinariwen. But advice is valid and wonderful.
GQ: Did you really seriously think about giving it up and becoming a teacher? Robert Plant: Yeah. I lost my son when he was five, in '77. We lost our boy. [Karac Plant, his oldest son, died of a viral infection.] Our family had always been close to the Rudolf Steiner Waldorf education in the West Midlands and I just liked the way it all worked. Obviously, it's not something that we, as a family, have been able to get over yet, having lost him. So I just thought there was something far more honest and wholesome about just digging in and putting the ego away in the closet. Because no matter what we say, entertainers are usually quite insecure, wobbly characters underneath, and maybe that bit of glory or that bit of expression or whatever it is compensates in some area. But I thought I should be rid of it. Yeah, I thought it was not a bad idea. Sometimes I still feel like that. Alison Kraus's boy, Sam, he goes to a Steiner school, a Waldorf school in Tennessee, and I've been with her a few times to pick him up from school—I must admit that the smell of carbolic soap, and the clamor of joy of kids, doesn't hurt at all.
GQ: What would you have taught? Robert Plant: It would be pretty general if it was young kids, but I've got five grandchildren, and they marvel at my madness. I think I would just have told them great stories. I can put people to sleep on a twelve-hour journey on a bus. Talking about the Black Shield Irish walking two-by-two from Cardigan Bay to Hereford to ransack the cathedral—I can put Patty to sleep in seconds.
GQ: Those aren't the wild tour stories I used to read about! Robert Plant: [Laughs] This is a different time, pal. I mean, everybody is aware of those stories, and they are stories—they are fables.
GQ: After all these years, how on earth have you managed to keep your hair like that? Robert Plant: Well, I don't know. We could be quite serious about it. I just have been very lucky. My mother was a gypsy, and she had a lot of dark blood in her, and her hair was very, very thick—she couldn't even get a brush through it. So I have been very fortunate. And every time I go to cut it off, hairdressers refuse to do it.
GQ: You have Samson moments where you're: "Begone with it!"? Robert Plant: Well, thinking about being a teacher, it's just one token too many. But it's great. I realize that I am typecast, but not saddened by it. Whenever I feel in doubt I play some David Crosby song. You know that song "Almost Cut My Hair": "just the other day...it's getting kind of long, I could have said it was in my way...but I'm not giving in...I'm going to let my freak flag fly." When I walk through an airport now with my friends I'm proud that it didn't happen, that I kept it going, and I still feel a lot of the attachments to that whole period and era. So I'm not a sad old hippie—I'm a joyous old hippie, I suppose.
GQ: And, as a general principle, keeping your freak flag is still a valid one? Robert Plant: Absolutely. Especially more and more and more. Yeah. When we've finished with Murdoch, who do we go for next? Once upon a time the subculture was huge, and challenged the corruption that prevails, and I was so lucky to be around then to see what positivity could come about by constructive and clinical discourse. I mean, how much more can we watch this place devour itself when we see what the answers are and what's going on? It seems that the news is so vivid now that it almost just becomes a moment to stare at something but then you move on to the next thing. So, yes, is that anything to do with long hair? Quite possibly.
GQ: If the 25-year-old you met you now, what would surprise him? Robert Plant: Well, I can stay up late. What I lack in style and craft, I can make up for in joy and enthusiasm. I like to be around people who are at ease so I like to think the 25-year-old would find me quite an easy-going late-middle-aged hippie.
GQ: What would you murmur in his ear? Robert Plant: Very good question. Don't be hard on yourself. And take as many chances, risks, as you can. You've got to be out there adventuring with the voice. Because if you're just a singer for the sake of it, it's not quite enough.
Roy Harper’s 70th birthday celebrations at the Royal Festival Hall had all the ingredients for a memorable party. There was laughter, there were tears and there were special guests, including Joanna Newsom and – cue wild rapture from the assembled ranks of folk-rock devotees – Jimmy Page.
The show opened with Harper sitting alone with his acoustic guitar. Silver hair and beard gave him the kindly look of a bishop on the liberal wing of the Church of England. His speaking voice was sonorous, reassuring. But then he began to sing and a very different Harper came into focus. His voice rose and fell in emotional agitation while lyrics depicted a sensual life of appetite and desire. The illusion of Anglican reasonableness crumbled and something more Dionysian emerged in its place.
Harper, born 19 days after Bob Dylan, is an English relic of the hippy folk scene that hazily filtered traditional music into the brave new world of acid, psychedelic rock and free love. It all seemed a very long time ago when he dedicated his version of “Girl from the North Country” to two recently fallen comrades from those days, the guitarist Bert Jansch and the composer David Bedford. Yet the passage of time hasn’t done a Dylan on Harper’s performing skills. There was the odd bum note, as during a complex passage of guitar fingerpicking on “Me and My Woman”, but on the whole he was in fine form. His vocals, in particular, were remarkable, bringing drama and focus to his sprawling, fluid songs.
He was joined by a string and horn section for much of the set, playing arrangements composed by Bedford. His son Nick played guitar on a couple of tracks while Joanna Newsom came on for “Another Day”, singing her part in the sweetly sublime style of Kate Bush.
Harper, who looked close to tears in his duet with Newsom, almost cracked up with laughter while playing “The Same Old Rock” with his old friend and collaborator Jimmy Page – possibly at the preposterously exhilarating sight of Page in full flight, wringing rolling bluesy riffs from an acoustic guitar. Surely some way can be found of harnessing Page’s talents away from chimerical fantasies of another Zeppelin reunion? Tonight, at any rate, he was the icing on a very tasty birthday cake.
Jimmy Page on stage with Roy Harper -Royal Festival Hall London Saturday November 5th 2011. Photo by Michael Rae for TBL.
Roy Harper was joined by Jimmy Page for his 70th birthday concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London last night. They performed a superb version of The Same Old Rock.
On a night seeped in emotion, the 70 year old singer songwriter whose career has been intrinsically linked with Led Zeppelin, took to the stage to huge acclaim from the sold out audience. ‘‘I was as actually 70 on June 12th’’ he laughed. ‘’So this is my official birthday’’.
Roy was quick to pay homage to the sadly recently departed Bert Jansch (‘’I loved the guy more than words’’) and arranger David Bedford who had planned to be with him for this special show. ‘’He said he’d be here and on the Sunday he was gone’’. In tribute Roy dubbed the group of orchestral ensemble behind him ‘’The David Bedford Players’. An intensely moving delivery of North Country prompted Roy to state ‘’I seem to be having an emotional night.’’
Photo by Michael Rae for TBL He was later joined on stage for guest spots by his son Nick and Joanna Newsom. ‘’This could be about any patch of ground in England’’ announced Roy before a peerless When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease. This brought forth it’s own emotion ties for me as this was the song we chose to play at Janet’s Dad’s funeral last year and I haven’t been able to play it since. I had a big lump in my throat as it’s beautifully meandering lyric filled the hall. Other highlights of the set included Commune and 12 Hours Of Sunset. Throughout the show Roy kept up a good natured banter with frequent affectionate calls from the audience.
There was time for one more special guest. Speculation had been rife that Jimmy Page might well grace this occasion (at very late notice I had taken it upon myself to buy a ticket to be here) and for once the rumours proved correct. The place erupted when he ambled on with acoustic guitar in hand to join Roy for a performance of The Same Old Rock – the song Jimmy originally performed on under the pseudonym S. Flavious Mercurious on Roy’s 1971 Stormcock album.
Photo Michael Rae for TBL
By my reckoning this was the first time I’d seen Jimmy play an acoustic guitar since the Page & Plant Unledded tour in 1995. His delivery was superb – moving into a flamenco picking sequence with all the fluency of old. Looking down on him performing on a Martin acoustic guitar – (which I’m told is a custom made D28 that along the fret board has his Zoso symbol and astrological sign ), inspired flashbacks of the same view all those years back in Earls Court for this particular writer. Suffice to say for the duration of him performing, the atmosphere was electric.
Photo by Michael Rae for TBL
All too soon it was over but not before the audience had bust into a spontaneous chorus of Happy Birthday to Roy. ‘’It’s been a wonderful night – to me, my planet is my heaven’’. This 70th birthday event duly brought a little bit of heaven to those lucky enough to be in attendance. Roy Harper’s quiet dignity and humility coupled with the appearance of the Lord of the Strings on acoustic guitar, made this a Saturday night to remember. Dave Lewis November 6th, 2011
Many Thanks to Michael Rae and Ian Avey for the photos. Hi to Steve Way and Kathy, Graeme, Pam, Michael & David Rae, Ian, Kevin, Allan Jones at Uncut and Chris at The Flood Gallery. Sorry I missed you Billy, Alison and Christophe.
More photos here: If re posted please credit www.tblweb.com and relevent photographer
The son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham doesn’t think that the surviving members of the band likely will ever perform together again - but he insists that his own project, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience, is the closest thing these days to seeing the legendary British rockers live.
“As far as I know it’s a dead thing, there’s no more talk of anything,” Jason tells Artisan News. “As far as any sort of Zeppelin thing, I don’t imagine it ever happening again.”
That said, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience does offer a concert experience heavy on nostalgia for his father’s band, and Zeppelin singer Robert Plant seems to support the project. “Robert gave me his blessing when I told him about it,” reveals Jason. “He said, ‘Jason can do wants he wants --- as long as he does it with a smile on his face he has my blessing.’”
The live JBLE show includes giant projections of iconic Zeppelin art, home movies and other vintage video footage shot by Bonham, plus a set list that draws from 20 Zeppelin cuts hand-picked by Jason. He even performs a duet of ‘Moby Dick’ alongside his father.
The band is in the middle of a North American fall tour that touches down tonight (Nov. 4) in Buffalo, N.Y., and is scheduled through a Nov. 18 gig in Clearwater, Fla.
He sings just one line, and he doesn’t even appear onscreen. But former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant certainly makes his presence felt in the video for English opera star Alfie Boe’s new version of the Tim Buckley tune ‘Song to the Siren.’
The no-frills clip shows close-up and medium-length shots of a bearded Boe singing the song while bathed in lights.
About 50 seconds in, Boe closes his mouth and gazes to the left as Plant’s voice emerges. Plant sings the line that’s supposed to be “Or should I lie with death my bride,” but he twists bride into two syllables, and it actually sounds more like bay-in.
The Boe/Plant version of ‘Song to the Siren’ can be found on Boe’s upcoming album, ‘Alfie.’ (Plant had previously recorded the often-covered song for his 2002 solo album, ‘Dreamland.’) A rep from Decca Records, Boe’s label, said the singers are contemplating future collaborations and perhaps some concert dates.
Back Page Magazine sent over word that they just posted a great interview with Henry 'The Horse' Smith, who is a veteran roadie and road manager. During the interview they go into to depth about one of his highest profile gigs: Led Zeppelin and he was with them before they were even Led Zeppelin. Here is an excerpt.
BPM: So the first incarnation of The Yardbirds was in decline and Jimmy Page comes up to you and says what?
HS: The Yardbirds were nearing the end of the road and Keith Relf and Jim McCarty from that band asked me if I would work with a new band of theirs called Renaissance. A few days later, Jimmy comes up to me and asks me if I would work with him on a new band that he had not completely formed yet. I liked the idea that Jimmy was going more into a rock thing as opposed to what Renaissance was going to do and so I said yes to Jimmy.
BPM: So in essence you were going from an already established band with The Yardbirds to a band that was, at the time, Jimmy Page and nobody else. Did you feel that you were making a wise decision?
HS: No. (laughs) But I was 21 and stupid. It sounded like a good gig. Jimmy was always very kind to me and I knew (manager) Peter Grant's reputation so I said 'sure, I'm in.'
BPM: So you were on board before there was even a band?
HS: It was Jimmy's band. You could probably make a case for Led Zeppelin being the first ever boy band. Jimmy put the band together. He went out and handpicked everybody else. Robert and Bonzo (John Bonham) were in Band Of Joy but were still primarily unknown, and John Paul Jones was at the top of his game as a session musician but not known outside of that circle.
Although there's been absolutely no confirmation from either party involved -- or their respective representatives -- recent speculation is leading some to believe that Robert Plant and his Band of Joy backing vocalist Patty Griffin might be more than just bandmates.
According to The Pulse of Radio (via Blabbermouth), the suspected lovebirds were spotted around the Austin area sporting wedding rings. The report also claimed that Plant allegedly at one point introduced Griffin as his wife.
Led Zeppelin's official message board added to the speculation with a picture apparently taken on Halloween evening. The photo shows Plant and Griffin together with five trick-or-treaters on the front porch. But the picture also seems to show a ring on Griffin's wedding ring finger.
Plant made no mention of his supposed blushing bride today (Nov. 04) at a press conference with the Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend to launch the UCLA Daltrey/Townshend Teen & Young Adult Cancer Program. So perhaps someone else is Griffin's groom? We'll keep you on the secret wedding story until we can confirm either way.
How did high school dances end before November 8, 1971? That’s the date that Led Zeppelin released a promotional disc to FM rock stations that would become the world’s most-played radio hit and cross over to teen-packed auditoriums everywhere.
“Stairway to Heaven” was an unlikely on-air success at eight-minutes long, but in the early ’70s, FM DJs still could play the full-length version of “In-A- Gadda-Da-Vida,” Iron Butterfly’s 17-minute bathroom break anthem. And “Stairway”’s length, plus the song’s long, quiet build-up, made it perfect for slow dancing until the explosive finale, which provided an outlet for the hormonal energy that the slow dancing generate.
The song that Gibson Les Paul legend Jimmy Page described as “crystallizing the band” started taking form in 1970 during Page and Robert Plant’s famous songwriting vacation in rural Wales at a cottage called Bron-Yr-Aur. Page developed the acoustic opening section there, and Plant wrote the initial verse. By the time the entire band re-grouped at the Headley Grange rehearsal and recording building in East Hampshire, England, Page had several distinct pieces of electric and acoustic music that he felt were related to that initial theme. While Page tried to weave the sections together with drummer John Bonham and bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, Plant sat in a corner, writing. When he stood up and started singing, about 80 percent of the lyrics for “Stairway to Heaven” were complete.
Led Zeppelin cut the basic rhythm tracks for “Stairway to Heaven” in December 1970 at Basing Street Studios in London. Plant cut his vocals in early 1971 at Headley Grange. Then Page retuned to Basing Street to cut his solos. Initially, it went poorly. Page couldn’t quite hit the mark after a number of passes. According to Jones, he could see concern in Page’s eyes, so Jones broke the tension by turning toward the guitar wizard and declaring, “You’re making me paranoid!” Page shot back, “You’re making me paranoid!” And with the air cleared by laughter he nailed the solo’s elaborate architecture in a few more passes.
Page saw “Stairway” as a successor to “Dazed and Confused,” an epic musical adventure in several movements. As for Plant, he’d drawn on Scottish folklorist Lewis Spence for his lyrics.
The song got its first live airing on March 5, 1971, well before the album Zoso, a.k.a. Led Zeppelin IV, was released in November. It reportedly took a few weeks for the tune to win fans over, but by the time the group appeared at London’s Paris Cinema on April Fools’ Day 1971 for a concert recording by the BBC, it was in full bloom and drove the audience mad.
One of the song’s visual signatures is Page standing in the spotlight with a Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck guitar strapped over his shoulders. More important than the guitar’s striking looks was its functionality. The EDS-1275 saved him the trouble of switching between six and 12-string necks in concert. In 2007 the Gibson Custom Shop built 250 Vintage Original Spec Jimmy Page Signature EDS-1275s, modeled after his red 1971 original.
Atlantic Records pressured the band to edit “Stairway to Heaven” down to a more traditionally radio-friendly length for the November 1971 release of Zoso/IV, so it could be pitched to programmers as a conventional single. But Led Zeppelin were staunch in their refusal. “Stairway to Heaven” was a fully realized work of art, they contended, so Atlantic had to be content with servicing radio with an EP – an amazing EP. Side A was “Stairway”; side B was “Black Dog” paired with “Rock and Roll.”
As of the year 2000, “Stairway to Heaven” had scored more than 3 million radio plays and remains the most popular piece of sheet music in rock, selling 15,000 copies annually. (Take that, “Free Bird!”) Nonetheless, it scored a mere 31 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of “The 500 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time,” although Gibson fans ranked Page’s stunning solo #1 in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitar Solos of All Time in 2010 (a ranking Guitar World agreed with in its list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Solos in Rock and Roll History”).
“Stairway” wasn’t the only epic number on Led Zeppelin IV. Their definitive cover of Memphis Minnie’s blues chestnut “When the Levee Breaks” also clocked in at more than seven minutes and featured blistering sequences of guitar and harmonica. Another song, “The Battle of Evermore,” also captured the idyllic influence of Bron-Yr-Aur. And “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Four Sticks” added to the album’s visceral side, while “Going to California” displayed their mastery of blues dynamics. Zoso/IV reached #2 on Billboard’s top albums list, but “Stairway” dominated the radio charts for a triumphant 44 weeks.
Page still considers the song a milestone. “Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold up for a long time,” he told filmmaker and music journalist Cameron Crowe in 1975. “I guess we did it with ‘Stairway.’”
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of , The Flood Gallery in Greenwich has commissioned 8 original art prints inspired by each song of the album. The prints will be exhibited at the gallery from 17th - 24th November.
Designed by a selection of the leading American poster artists. The posters are strictly limited editions of around 200 prints and each print is signed and numbered by the artist.
The 8 original pieces will be unveiled from 8pm on the evening of Thursday 17th November and a number of the artists will be in attendance. The gallery will be open late on the evenings of Friday 18th - Sat 19th.
A limited amount of the prints will be available for pre-order from: www.thefloodgallery.com
Any remaining copies will be put online for sale after the show.
If you would like to be updated with all the latest news regarding the show, please sign up to our mailing list here.
Tony Iommi‘s new autobiography is 25 years overdue. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Black Sabbath guitarist admits he wanted to write what has become ‘Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath’ in 1985, but he was too busy. The book, co-written T.J. Lammers, finally hits stores on Nov. 1.
Iommi says all four original Black Sabbath members are on good terms but won’t disclose if a reunion is in the works. “There is no status at the moment,” he tells Rolling Stone. “That’s something that always can happen. We just get on with it and see what happens.”
The article details his drunken hijinks with Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. The two went out on the eve of Iommi’s wedding and got so plastered Bonham’s wife wouldn’t let him into the bedroom. “I couldn’t believe it, early in the morning, he turned up all dressed up in his top hat and everything,” Iommi says about the next day. “I’d only gotten up – I hadn’t had a shave or anything. I felt absolutely awful, and he was as bright as a daisy.”
Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin also shared a secret jam at the end of a recording session in London. Bonham frequently wanted to join Sabbath on stage however drummer Bill Ward wouldn’t allow it. “John did get up on one occasion, and broke Bill’s kit. It was in the early days, and Bill couldn’t afford to buy new cymbals and snares. Of course, after that, John would come along, and say, ‘Can I have a go on your kit, Bill?’ And he’d go, ‘NO!’”
Iommi’s book will fill in the significant Black Sabbath gaps that Ozzy Osbourne’s 2010 autobiography ‘I Am Ozzy’ left out. He takes readers through the band’s rise in the ’70′s and fall in the ’80s. He also talks significantly about the importance of the late Ronnie James Dio.
The painting is 11 inches wide by 14 inches tall and premium oil paint is used on a masonite support. The artist ismostly self taught. Most of the artist's formal training is of a more graphical nature stemming from their education in landscape design.
To purchase the painting or put in an offer for the seller to approve, go to the eBay website.
The boyhood pal of legendary rocker Jimmy Page, who became curator of his occult house, has died.
Malcolm Dent moved to the Highlands with the Led Zeppelin guitarist in 1971 when Page bought Boleskine House, the former home of self-styled Satanist Aleister Crowley.
Dent, 67, was curator of the property for 20 years.
The 14-roomed mansion at Loch Ness has become a Mecca for occult followers since Crowley - known as the Beast of Boleskine - died in 1947.
During his time at the house, Dent claimed to have witnessed chairs moving by themselves and rugs piling up overnight.
Page sold the house in the early 1990s.
Latterly, Dent worked as a volunteer, recording talking newspapers for the Highlands and Islands Tape Service for the Blind and Disabled.
He died after a long illness, at the Highland Hospice, Inverness, He lived at Kilmuir, North Kessock, and is survived by his children Uraina and Malcolm.
The funeral was private and took place in Inverness yesterday.
The Jazz Montreux Festival will soon offer four decades of performances from artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sting, BB King and Led Zeppelin to students and the public through an object-based storage system.
Forty years worth of performances at Europe's most prestigious jazz festival will soon be stored in a digital archive that will be shared through with students and in cafs around the world.
The EPFL, a Swiss technology institute, has partnered with Jazz Montreux Festival to built a clustered storage array that, when completed, will have 1.2 petabytes of capacity.
The object-based online archive will keep 10,000-plus hours of recordings on disk drives from previous years' shows. They include performances by Weather Report, The Fourth Way, Nina Simone, Jan Garbarek, and Ella Fitzgerald and even Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
Alexandre Delidais, director of operations and development at the EPFL, said his organization is building the video archive on an AmpliStor array from Belgium-based Amplidata. The storage array was chosen because of its high reliability and sufficient streaming throughput for content of all encoding qualities.
Today, the digital archive is only 100TB in size. But as it continues to grow, it will eventually allow people to enjoy 40 years of performances that were filmed or videotaped. The past 20 years of shows were captured in high-definition video.
First, FTPL takes the film and video and transposes it onto a file system with about 40TB of capacity and performs quality control checks to ensure the integrity of the footage. Then content is backed up to LTO magnetic tape cartridges that reside on a Hewlett-Packard tape drive carousel. The tapes will later be used as an archive to ensure the performance footage is never lost. The video is then compressed at a 2:1 ratio and streamed over a 10Gbps LAN to the AmpliStor array, were the accessible footage resides.
The typical size of an HD video is 500GB for each hour of a recording.
The smallest AmpliStor system consists of eight storage nodes, each with 10 hard disk drives, behind three controllers. The controllers, each of which has two 10Gbps Ethernet ports, use Intel Atom processors. That helps keep the cost of the system low, according to Tom Leyden, director of alliances and marketing at Amplidata.
The object-based file server uses an unusual RAID scheme where up to four disks can fail and data will not be lost. Amplidata's "BitSpread" algorithm splits an object up into many parts and stripes them across multiple disks and storage nodes.
Because it uses low-power Atom processors, the array also only uses 3.5 watts of power per active terabyte of data, Leyden said.
The Jazz Montreux Festival was co-founded by Claude Nobs and first held in 1967 at Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. Nobs gained unexpected notoriety when on Dec. 4, 1971, the band "Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention" held a concert in the Casino's theater. During the show, the casino caught fire, and Nobs repeatedly reentered the burning building to help members of the audience get out. Deep Purple later recorded the song, Smoke on the Water, describing the event and referring to Nobs as "Funky Claude."
The video content will primarily be available for some 8,000 students in 350 labs at the university in Lausanne, Switzerland. But Nobs also made sure the performances would be available for profitable purposes.
The EPFL and the Jazz Montreux Festival plan to show the video footage on screens in cafs throughout the world. Today, a few of the cafs are already open in major cities such as London, Sydney, and Paris; New York is next on the list.
Because the Amplidata storage system is modular, meaning it can grow CPU capacity and storage capacity separately, one large system will be installed at the FTPL and smaller 1U systems can be installed at the cafs, Delidais said. That means servers and drives don't have to be moved to the various locations and alleviates the need to stream data over a WAN.
Fans who revere Jimmy Page for his breathtaking solos and extraordinary riff-making should add Page’s rhythm playing to that list. Few guitarists have moved more nimbly between earth-shaking power chords and subtle triads and tasteful arpeggios. Much of Page’s magic emanated from the range of dynamics he achieved with various strumming techniques, which he often employed in acoustic settings. Punk guitar maestro Johnny Ramone once revealed he improved his down-stroke picking style by listening over and over to Page’s playing on “Communication Breakdown”.
Of all the guitarists to emerge from the early days of the British folk music revival, it was Bert Jansch, who has died aged 67, who had the most sustained influence, not only within folk circles, but also on the wider music scene. To Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Jansch was "the innovator of the time … so far ahead of what anyone else was doing". Johnny Marr of the Smiths described Jansch's effect on his musicianship as "massive … one of the most influential and intriguing musicians to have come out of the British music scene". Other artists he influenced included Paul Simon, Donovan and Neil Young, with whom Jansch toured in the US in 2010.
On stage, he was an introverted, shy, yet riveting solo performer. In his early days especially, he was often unkempt on stage and unconventional off it – a non-conformist who cared little for personal possessions and who often had no fixed address. It was as a member of the groundbreaking folk band Pentangle that he first achieved recognition beyond the folk scene, both in the UK and internationally. Formed in 1967, the band toured extensively until 1972, and although all the original members came together when Pentangle re-formed in 1982, it was only Jansch and Jacqui McShee who stayed the course until the band folded in 1995.
His finger-picking playing style included a good deal of improvisation, bending the strings and varying the time signatures to fit the natural rhythm of the words of a song.
Jansch, whose forebears had come from Germany in the 19th century, was born in Glasgow but the family moved to Edinburgh, where he attended Ainslie Park secondary school. He worked, briefly, as a nurseryman, spending his early wages on a guitar. He sought lessons at the Howff folk club, wishing to emulate the guitar style of the American Big Bill Broonzy. Soon, Jansch had become resident unofficial caretaker at the Howff, spending much of his time developing his playing skills, with the Scottish singer Archie Fisher as a significant influence.
In the early 1960s, Jansch graduated from playing for his own pleasure to performing for an audience. He was one of the first guitarists to understand and then interpret and popularise Davy Graham's guitar solo Anji. At the time, his personal, self-composed songs contrasted with the usual traditional or political repertoire of folk singers.
After busking in Europe, he moved to London in 1964, where his instrumental and songwriting skills were recognised by the producer Bill Leader, who recorded his eponymous first album, released on the Transatlantic label in 1965. The album included Needle of Death, a stark anti-drugs song written after a friend died of an overdose. His second record, It Don't Bother Me, followed the same year.
It was a time of innovation in traditional song accompaniment. Graham had already brought his jazz and Arabic rhythms to a joint recording project with the folk singer Shirley Collins, and Jansch was by then greatly influenced by the young singer Anne Briggs. The traditional folk songs she taught him, plus his bluesy, improvised guitar accompaniment, dominated his third solo album, Jack Orion (1966), which featured John Renbourn on guitar. A joint album the same year, Bert and John, laid the foundations of Pentangle. Jack Orion included Blackwater Side, a traditional song Jansch learned from Briggs. His arrangement was copied by Page, who recorded the song with Led Zeppelin. The success of Jansch's albums led to sell-out concerts in London and a tour of provincial city concert halls.
Renbourn was already performing with McShee when the idea of a band was suggested by Jansch; Danny Thompson (bass) and Terry Cox (percussion) added a jazz flavour to the mix of folk and blues. Pentangle's performances were characterised by extended solos and improvisation from the instrumentalists, with McShee's distinctive voice singing a mixture of traditional and band-composed songs. After a debut concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 1967, they began a relentless touring schedule as well as doing television and radio work. The opening track of their third album, Basket of Light, was Light Flight, which became the theme tune of the popular television series Take Three Girls (1969). The album reached number five in the charts, and the band appeared on Top of the Pops.
During the Pentangle years, Jansch recorded three solo albums, most notably Rosemary Lane (1971), a stark, reflective work that included the traditional song Reynardine, learned from Briggs, alongside his own compositions.
Jansch found the touring with Pentangle too much, and he forced the band to split in early 1973. He retreated to his farm in Wales, but he needed musical challenges, and also to relearn his craft as a solo performer. By the time his album LA Turnaround was released in 1974, he had separated from his second wife, Heather, and moved back to London. At this point, his heavy drinking was taking its toll on his performances and reliability.
Appreciative audiences worldwide and the need to earn a living meant a return to international touring, and Jansch teamed up with the multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins. Their concept album Avocet (1979) contained an 18-minute title track inspired by the traditional song the Cuckoo, and five further pieces named after birds.
An Italian promoter instigated a Pentangle reunion in 1982, but within a couple of years Renbourn, Thompson and Cox had left. Replacements were found, but the nostalgia surrounding the part-time band had a detrimental effect on Jansch's already diminishing solo career.
In 1987 Jansch became seriously ill and he gave up alcohol. His biographer, Colin Harper, wrote that "Bert's creativity, reliability, energy, commitment and quality of performance were all rescued dramatically" by this decision. In 1995 he left Pentangle, which re-formed as Jacqui McShee's Pentangle. His back catalogue emerged on CD, and a new generation of guitarists and singers discovered his music.
He continued to write songs and make albums. When the Circus Comes to Town (1995), with its tribute to the doctor who saved him – The Lady Doctor from Ashington – led to extensive international touring and a television appearance on Later with Jools Holland. The television documentaries Acoustic Routes (1993) and Dreamweaver (2000), as well as Harper's biography, Dazzling Stranger (2006), helped cement his renewed reputation.
In 2001 Jansch received a lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and, in 2007, so did Pentangle. The original line-up performed at the award ceremony and on a 2008 reunion tour. He received an honorary music doctorate from Edinburgh Napier University in 2007. That year, he performed with the Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty, and the singer-songwriter Beth Orton guested on his 2006 album The Black Swan.
Jansch had heart surgery in 2005, and a further operation for lung cancer led to the cancellation of his 2009 tour of the US. But in the summer of 2010, he joined Young on his Twisted Road tour of the US. Last summer, he and the other original members of Pentangle were reunited at Glastonbury, Cambridge folk festival and the Royal Festival Hall.
Jansch was married three times: briefly to Lynda Campbell in 1963, to the sculptor Heather Jansch, and to Loren Auerbach, who survives him. He is also survived by his sons, Kieron and Adam. Another son, Richard, predeceased him.
Robert Plant and the Band Of Joy opened up yesterday's (Friday, September 30) lineup on the Banjo Stage at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, California.
Plant was joined by the usual Band Of Joy crew, minus drummer Marco Giovino, who was replaced by a stand-in.
Of course, Robert Plant will be joining Patty Griffin today (Saturday, October 1) with her set on the Rooster Stage at 2:50PM PDT, and with Buddy Miller on the Powers of Gold Stage (Sunday, October 2) at 12:30PM PDT.
Fans on Facebook said that "Their voices were so great together", "It was FANTASTIC!! AMAZING AND WONDERFUL" and that it was (a) "perfect end to a perfect day".
THEY are two of the most famous voices in the world. One is a sweet-voiced West End hero, the other a blues-soaked rock warbler. Now Alfie Boe and Robert Plant are joining forces as the most unlikely duo ever to share a stage.
Thirty-nine year-old tenor Boe has made his name in big musicals, and is regarded as the voice of Les Misérables thanks to his show-stealing performances as hero Jean Valjean.
Black Country singer Plant, who has just turned 63, conquered the world with Led Zeppelin before embarking on a series of successful solo projects, recently working with songbird Alison Krauss.
The two met by chance in a bar and got chatting. During the subsequent conversation, each realised that he was a fan of the other’s work and they decided they should sing together.
Says Boe: “There are many people in the music business that I would love to collaborate with – but top of the list has always been Robert Plant. I’m a huge fan of classic rock.
“To get the chance to duet with him is a wonderful opportunity. It’s fantastic! He’s always been a real hero of mine.”
The first fruit of the partnership is a cover version of Tim Buckley’s signature sixties Song To The Siren, which will appear on Boe’s new album, Alfie, when it is released on October 31.
It was already a favourite of rock and roller Plant, who recorded his own version on 2002 solo set Dreamland, and for whom it is an opportunity to show a tender side to his vocal virtuosity.
“The evolution of my voice is like playing a guitar,” he says. “The more you play guitar, the more dexterous you become, the more your fingers move faster and all that sort of thing.
“It’s the same with your voice. With Alison, I had to learn to sing harmonies, something I’d never done with Zeppelin. My voice has changed over the years and now I’m duetting with a tenor!”
A Decca Records insider says that the studio session was spellbinding – and there could be live gigs to follow.
“After meeting in the bar, the two singers were soon in a studio recording an extremely moving version of Tim Buckley’s song,” she said. “Having been called the Bad Boy of Opera it is entirely fitting that Alfie should welcome Robert Plant onto his new record and, somewhat surprisingly, their voices blend beautifully.
“The exciting news is that this collaboration may soon be witnessed in the flesh, too. Watch this space!”
Song To The Siren was written by Tim Buckley and Larry Beckett, and was first heard during the last-ever episode of The Monkees TV show in 1968.
Crooner Pat Boone released a version in 1969 before Buckley recorded it himself a year later.
It has since been covered by artists ranging from Robert Plant and George Michael to David Gray and This Mortal Coil.
Alfie Boe starts his ‘Bring Him Home’ UK tour – named after his most famous Les Misérables song – in the winter, and calls in at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on December 13.
The band's got electric guitar, mandolin, keyboard and accordion, electric and acoustic bass, and drums. Griffin's on mandolin, too, besides singing and doing her one and only dance.
In uploading a video of their first song on YouTube, MarcDurbin identifies the band members with Plant and Griffin as "David Grissom (electric guitar), Michael Ramos (organ, accordion), Glenn Fukunaga (acoustic & electric bass), [and] Dony Wynn (drums)."
As has been the case with just about every Robert Plant band of the last 20 years -- wait, make that 41 years -- they do "Black Dog." Hmm, that could have been predicted.
Plant and Griffin are said to have been rehearsing in Austin with the group of local musicians. When Griffin goes on the road with Buddy Miller, Plant is expected to remain in Austin to continue working with Crown Vic.
Robert Plant's name does not appear on the festival poster. His appearance was rumored but not officially announced until the day of the festival opening. Previously, Patty Griffin was scheduled to appear with "special guests" who would be a surprise.
Singer Patty Griffin appeared on stage and introduced her band, including one of the most famous lead singers in rock history.
"I'd like to introduce you to my dear, dear friend, Robert Plant," Griffin said to an explosion of cheers.
About 300 people from around the state gathered in Marfa for El Cosmico's sixth annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love, and the crowd seemed remarkably calm and quiet. Attendees and vendors gathered to listen to music, eat food and drink beer.
Isadora McKeon, producer of the event, said the event was also helping those in need. "Five dollars of each preregistration ticket sold will go to the Central Texas Wildfire Relief Fund," McKeon said. ...
What started out as friends coming together at the building's location, turned into a two day festival of music, vendors and fun. "I'm proud of what we created,” McKeon said.
Since its inaugural festival, the event has grown into three days, with a show added on Thursday, and it will continue to hold events such as the baseball game between Marfa and Austin on Saturday, and have numerous vendors selling art, clothing and food. ...
People who attended the show said they were aware Plant would be at the show, but did not know for sure if he was really going to take the state.
Legendary sound engineer and producer Eddie Kramer has worked with everyone from the Beatles and Led Zeppelin to Kiss, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, and now he’s preparing to tell his tale with the book and film documentary, ‘From the Other Side of the Glass.’
In 2012, Kramer will celebrate his 50th year in the business and his 70th birthday. These milestones have prompted him to push forward with ‘Other Side of the Glass.’ Based on many of the historic rock ‘n’ roll photographs he’s taken over the years, the film and book will cover the years ’67 to ’73 — “rock ‘n’ roll at its peak and prime,” as Kramer tells the Cornell Daily Sun.
He continues to talk about being in the right place at the right time, explaining that “it was the perfect crucible of all of the influential, royal greats of rock ‘n’ roll — the Stones, Traffic, Small Faces, I mean, it was just marvelous.”
Meanwhile, last weekend Kramer participated in a unique educational experience that may put every other ‘school of rock’ to shame when he gave a lecture to members of Cornell University’s Theta Delta Chi fratenity. Sharing his personal photos and stories of some of rock’s most acclaimed alumni kept the students enthralled.
Also that weekend, Kramer gave a handful of Ithaca College students the opportunity to record and produce a song with a local band at Ithaca, N.Y.’s Pyramid Sound Studios. One can only imagine Kramer academia to be mind numbing (in a positive way), and that this particular class will be remembered long after their diplomas turns yellow.
Kramer encourages students and those who see him as a mentor to be “inventive and don’t turn anything down.” Coming from someone with his credentials, that’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll 101.”
For one night only, on Tuesday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m., participatingVue Cinemas in the United Kingdom will screen Black Country Communion's debut concert film, "Live Over Europe", in high definition and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound.
This one-night-only rock and roll cinema experience includes an exclusive filmed introduction from all four members of Black Country Communion.
By pre–booking tickets here, fans who attend each of the 16 participating cinemas, will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win a guitar signed by the band.
The participating Vue Cinemas are as follows:
* London West End * Cambridge * Oxford * Portsmouth * Exeter * Bristol * Doncaster * Leicester * Hull * Leeds * York * Birmingham * Edinburgh * Dublin * Bury * Swansea
Black Country Communion is the English-American rock supergroup featuring the talents of bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, blues rock guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Jason Bonham, and keyboardist Derek Sherinian.
The "Live Over Europe" DVD is scheduled for release on October 24 (Blu-ray to follow November 15) on the J&R Adventures imprint. The two-DVD live set was filmed with 14 HD cameras and 5.1 Surround Sound during the band's debut tour in the summer of 2011. Over three nights, playing to packed venues in the German cities of Hamburg, Munich and Berlin, the 18-song set list (17 originals and one cover) hits on both of Black Country Communion's albums — 2010's debut and 2011's sophomore release "2", which The Sunday Mercury praised, "This is classic rock goes large, an album that lives up to its heritage. It may not be bettered this year." "Live Over Europe" highlights include the songs "Black Country", "One Last Soul", "Save Me", "Man In The Middle", "Cold"and "Song of Yesterday", which fans can sign up to receive as a free audio track download, available September 8. Bonus features include an exclusive 28-page collector's booklet and DVD with a 20-minute "behind-the-scenes" featurette and photo collection.
Producer Kevin Shirley explains, "We saw that this live act could be an awesome force of nature to behold; one that promised legendary performances like those of our heroes of classic rock. The plan was to get them out there for the entire world to hear. Records allow a certain musical finesse, but live performance promises so much in the very transient nature of a gig; chances are taken, boundaries are crossed and the most exciting performances explode. Two studio albums built a repertoire big enough for a full concert which allowed us to unleash the monster for all the world to see and feel."
Black Country Communion recently completed its debut tour, visiting a select number of cities in North America and Europe. On June 10, the band played to a near-sold-out crowd in Anaheim, California, promptingThe Orange County Register to write, "The four members of lack Country Communion truly recast the heavy rock of the '60s and '70s and yank it into the 21st century as well as anyone in recent memory." At the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, The Birmingham Mail called the band's performance "rip-roaring" and "breath-taking."
As part of J&R Adventures' strategy to use social media as an integral part of the initial marketing launch of "Live Over Europe", they created the Facebook Black Country Communion event page. Facebook members can join the page here to receive an exclusive glimpse of the new DVD and a chance to download the live free track "Song Of Yesterday".
"Live Over Europe" track listing:
01. Revolution of the Machine 02. Black Country 03. One Last Soul 04. Crossfire 05. Save Me 06. The Battle For Hadrian's Wall 07. Beggarman 08. Faithless 09. Song of Yesterday 10. I Can See Your Spirit 11. Cold 12. The Ballad of John Henry 13. The Outsider 14. The Great Divide 15. Sista Jane 16. Man In The Middle 17. Burn 18. Smokestack Woman
Bonus Features
* Forging BCC - The Making of "Live Over Europe" * Photo Collection - Live On Tour * Photo Collection - Behind The Scenes
Black Country Communion initially came to fruition when producerKevin Shirley saw Hughes and Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center's King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited Bonham and Sherinian for the project, which is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.
Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses and Def Leppard are among the bands being summoned to the principal’s office for bad spelling or grammar in regards to their band names in a funny report card from PenneyDesign.com.
As the fictional teacher notes, it should be Lead Zeppelin, and if we’re speaking proper English, then it’s Guns and Roses, none of this “N’” nonsense. Now, far be it from us to out-nerd anybody, but we think we’ve spotted our own omission within their editing: if you’re going to correct “Def” into “Deaf,” shouldn’t you go all the way and also turn “Leppard” into “Leopard?”
Classic rockers, as you might imagine, fare rather poorly on this pop quiz, with the Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Motley Crue and even the otherwise impeachable Beatles all contributing to a flood of red corrective ink.
We can only imagine that the name Lynyrd Skynyrd sent the teacher into fits, although they were able to correctly garner the name of the gym teacher the band mockingly named themselves after all those years ago. As his or her final note states, the bands need to “pay more attention to spelling, grammar and punctuation — and get a hair cut!”
While George F. Blackburn is a perfectly fine and respectable moniker, it just wouldn’t do for a Missouri man. While shuffling around a Missouri courthouse to handle the paperwork and bureaucratic red tape surrounding his divorce from his third wife, George F. Blackburn, 64, changed his name to “Led Zeppelin II.” Why? Because it’s his favorite rock album. Duh! And it’s also an infinitely cooler nom de plume.
According to stltoday, Blackburn had a very good reason for changing his name. “[Led Zeppelin] changed my life, forever, and that’s my whole reason for doing this,” he admitted. In fact, he said he has happily reinvented himself and that life has improved “a thousand fold” since making the change. Even the ex-wife who had him at the courthouse in the first place is now referring to him “LZ” and “Zep.” It’s the little things in life, right?
LZ (or Zep) is aware that his name change will elicit more than a few raised eyerbrows. He said, “I don’t want to appear to be some off-the-wall, drug-addict idiot. I just changed my name from the standpoint that I can be a better person than I used to be.” While that sentiment makes total sense, we’re not going to go changing our names to ‘Physical Graffiti’ any time soon.
In addition to loving ‘Led Zeppelin II,’ Blackburn, er, LZ said he was obsessed with actual zeppelins as a child. But overall, the name swap is a tribute to the music and he is getting plenty of support from rock fans. When fans of the band learn that he changed his name in honor of Robert Plant and co., they buy him drinks or pick up his dinner tab.
Some friends still refer to Zep as George, and he’s okay with that, as well.
It has been 30 year years since Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page released his soundtrack to movie Death Wish II and Page is reissuing the album on vinyl. Only 1,000 copies will be made available through the web-shop at Page’s official website, JimmyPage.com.
The guitar legend has written new liner notes for the anniversary edition and the album will also feature a previously unreleased instrumental version of the Death Wish main theme.
Page says, “In 1981, Michael Winner asked me if I would compose the soundtrack to Death Wish II. The songs with vocals were only going to appear in the film for a matter of seconds but I had recorded full versions of them anyway — which is how I ended up doing my first soundtrack and soundtrack album. I’ve re-released this because I wanted it to be available again.”
Longtime Friends of Unfair Park are by now well aware of my lifetime obsession with the Texas International Pop Festival, held during Labor Day weekend in 1969 in a Lewisville field. The roster, put together by, among others, Angus Wynne, was legendary: Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, B.B. King, Ten Years After, Santana, Johnny Winter, Sly and the Family Stone. For starters. It was North Texas's Woodstock -- a place where, as The New York Times noted, "more than 25,000 youthful rock fans gathered in a grassy drag strip ... to shout, clap and groove on the music and each other." Far out.
Richard Hayner, keeper of the Texas International Pop Festival website, has long been trying to commemorate the site or the event with a historical marker. I've just been informed that he was successful:
The Texas Historical Commission (THC) has recognized the Texas International Pop Festival as a significant part of Denton County history by awarding it an Official Texas Historical Marker. A dedication ceremony to commemorate the event will be held Saturday, October 1, at 10 a.m. at the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) Hebron Station in the 900 block of Lakeside Circle in Lewisville. The dedication is free and open to the public.
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PRESS RELEASE:
OFFICIAL TEXAS HISTORICAL MARKER DEDICATION FOR TEXAS INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL SET FOR OCTOBER 1
Photo by Mike Porter
In 1969, Lewisville, a small farm town of approximately 9,000 residents, was the site of a music festival that attracted 150,000 hippies, bikers and music lovers
Robert Plant at the Texas International Pop Festival
LEWISVILLE, TX - It was 1969 when Lewisville, a small farm town of approximately 9,000 residents, became the site of a music festival that attracted 150,000 hippies, bikers and music lovers. As a result of that momentous event, the Texas Historical Commission (THC) has recognized the Texas International Pop Festival as a significant part of Denton County history by awarding it an Official Texas Historical Marker. A dedication ceremony to commemorate the event will be held Saturday, October 1, at 10 a.m. at the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) Hebron Station in the 900 block of Lakeside Circle in Lewisville. The dedication is free and open to the public.
The 1969 event's original stage was located near the area where DCTA's Hebron Station recently opened. The Dallas International Motor Speedway, which had opened in July 1969, was the site of the three-day event held 42 years ago on Labor Day weekend. The Texas International Pop Festival is the first event that has been recognized with a state marker in Denton County. To qualify for a marker, events must have happened at least 30 years ago.
Richard Hayner, sponsor of the THC 2010 subject marker application, attended the pop festival when he was 16 years old. During the dedication, the Denton County Historical Commission will present certificates of commendation for efforts that led to the placement of the marker recognizing Hayner along with Andie Jones, Swan Song, Soul Sacrifice, Piece of My Heart, Johnny Nitzinger, Bill Winter, Angus G. Wynne III, Ed Cullum and Randy James.
Wynne, a partner in the Dallas-based concert promotion company, Showco, asked Atlanta Pop Festival promoter Alex Cooley to join him in promoting the Texas International Pop Festival. The Atlanta Pop Festival was held in Hampton, Georgia, the weekend of July Fourth in 1969. On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair began near Bethel, New York.
The Texas festival featured 25 musical acts. In Hayner's historical narrative submitted to THC, he wrote:
"The festival opened with an unknown band named Grand Funk Railroad. The line-up included rock and roll and rhythm and blues. B.B. King played all three days. Other blues acts were present such as Johnny Winter, The James Cotton Blues Band, Canned Heat, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, and Freddie King. Rhythm and blues was represented by Sam & Dave and Sly & The Family Stone. Rock and blues crossover acts Rotary Connection, Ten Years After and Janis Joplin tied the genre together. Jazz was represented by flutist Herbie Mann, and even a bit of Cajun sound was made by Tony Joe White. Mainstream rock music was represented by Chicago Transit Authority, Spirit, Santana, Nazz, Sweetwater and an up-and-coming blockbuster band from England named Led Zeppelin."
In addition, a free stage was constructed at a public campground at Lewisville Lake, which was five-and-one-half miles north of the festival grounds at the motor speedway. Each evening the campground attracted thousands of festival campers. Local bands performed on the free stage along with some of the big name acts after playing the main stage. Famous icon of the 60s, Wavy Gravy, acquired his moniker at the free stage.
Beck suggests that the duo may be working together in an exclusive interview with Planet Rock.
Rob Birnie spoke to the guitar legend yesterday about his forthcoming Living Legend award at the Classic Rock Awards, and during the interview Rob asked Jeff about whether in this day in age, when supergroups are particularly fashionable, he had been tempted to form a band with some of his famous friends.
He answered: "There's whispers about Robert Plant."
"I met him recently," Jeff continued. "He came into my dressing room. I was playing in the New Orleans Jazz Rock Blues Festival. I said to my manager 'Get out of my dressing room and let me sleep for 20 minutes. I haven't slept all night. You let anybody in here and i'm gonna knock em out.' And then I hear 'Alright. How you doin'?' and it was Robert Plant!
"We had a lovely chat. I think maybe he saw the act; I put on a pretty good show. And I think that there may be something there. Who knows?
"I think that the common denominator would be the Eastern, you know, the kind of Arabic... I love that. That's prevalent in Zeppelin's music. The quarter tone scale, I just love that. There's more mileage in that... the exciting rhythms that he likes.
"We're both pretty busy at the moment but if the desire's there you make it happen."
In the meantime Jeff has revealed that he has a project on the go that is looking likely to surprise everyone. He was particularly closed-lipped about the project but it sounds more than a little intriguing.
"Something is in place at the moment. The surprise element is key to the whole thing. It is VERY surprising," he revealed. And when Rob asked whether it was more surprising than potentially working with Robert Plant he said "Yeah, I think so. Well, maybe different. He may even be part of it, I don't know. I would welcome that. He would slot in with what I've got in mind but if he doesn't it's still exciting."
In terms of timescale, it's looking likely that we'll see the mystery project emerge early in 2012, followed by a tour.
Imagine if Apple unveiled the latest iPhone without a logo or if Lady Gaga had releasedBorn This Way without her name, face, or album title on the cover.
That’s what Led Zeppelin did 40 years ago when the band issued its fourth album with a cover consisting solely of a dreary photo: an old man, hunched over with wood sticks stacked on his back — no title, band name, song listing, record label logo, or even a catalog number.
In doing so, Zeppelin committed a masterstroke of marketing brilliance that still resonates today.
The album many of us simply refer to as Led Zeppelin IV (or Zoso) is the subject of an August Classic Rock cover article by Barney Hoskyns, author of Led Zeppelin IV (Rock of the Ages). His article is a worthwhile introduction (although certainly not the only one) to a work that has sold 23 million copies and is ranked among the greatest rock albums of all time by authorities ranging from Rolling Stone to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Hoskyns not only documents the recording of the album and its landmark songs (“Stairway to Heaven” among them); but he and author Dave Lewis (Led Zeppelin historian and editor of Zeppelin magazine Tight but Loose) also discuss perhaps the most famous album packaging in the history of rock music – a combination of runes and puzzling artwork that inspires conversation even in a digital era that treats albums like relics.
In this post, I expand on the significance of the album design: how it complements the music of Led Zeppelin IV and influences the album’s timeless, mystical appeal. In my view, the success of Led Zeppelin IV is a lesson in creating brand mystique by not over-explaining and instead revealing a few well-chosen clues that provoke discussion.
No Title? No problem
To appreciate the impact of Led Zeppelin IV, I think it’s helpful to understand the album’s historical context. As many rock historians have reported, Led Zeppelin was at a crossroads when it released the album that would help make Zeppelin “one of the biggest bands on the planet” in Hoskyns’s words.
On the one hand, the band had recently been voted Best Group in the annual Readers Poll of Melody Maker, ending the Beatles’s eight-year run at the top of the prestigious poll. And its live shows had gained a massive following.
Led Zeppelin unseat the Beatles: headline news on British TV
But on the other hand, the band’s loud, sexually charged music and its brash public image earned plenty of scorn among critics such as Lester Bangs, who characterized its most recent album, Led Zeppelin III, as “uninspiring material” and Robert Plant’s vocals as “some cannibal chorus wailing in the infernal light of a savage fertility rite.”
Even worse, Led Zeppelin III, although a Number 1 album, had been considered a commercial disappointment compared to the success of Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II — possibly because people did not know how to react to the mellow, folk-rock songs of Led Zeppelin III (e.g., “That’s the Way,” “Gallow’s Pole,” and “Tangerine”), in contrast to the hard-rock feel of Zeppelin’s first two albums.
Sensing that the band needed to retreat from the rigors of touring and rebound from the disappointment of Led Zeppelin III, band manager Peter Grant urged Zeppelin to focus on creating the best album possible – triggering a period of quiet retreat from the public eye, which sparked rumors that the band was breaking up.
In the words of Mick Wall, author of When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin, “Their next album, whatever else it turned out to be, would be make or break . . . for Peter Grant and Led Zeppelin, there was much more than a mere million bucks at stake in whatever they did next; there was their entire future.”
No one knew what the band’s future would look like – possibly a return to the tested-and-true cock-rock sounds of “Whole Lotta Love” from Led Zeppelin II or perhaps more of the Joni-Mitchell inspired folk sensibilities of “That’s the Way” that appeared on Led Zeppelin III.
On November 8, 1971, Led Zeppelin responded. Fans began finding in record stores an album with the mysterious cover image of an anonymous old man and his bundle of sticks. The front and back covers together then revealed that the old man was really standing in the frame of a picture affixed to a crumbling wall set against the backdrop of a dowdy modern apartment building – a most interesting return for a band constantly dogged by critics for hyping its name over its music.
The inner packaging raised eyebrows as well. The inside gatefold revealed a pencil drawing of an occult-like hermit standing watch over a rocky incline.
The record sleeve contained some basic information about the song listings, the lyrics of “Stairway to Heaven” written in an ancient script commissioned by Jimmy Page, and a small drawing of a man holding a book containing mystical markings.
As Hoskyns writes, the anonymous packaging enraged executives at Atlantic Records, responsible for distributing the album. An album without a name? “That’s crazy,” Hosykns quotes one executive. “It’ll never sell.”
After all we had accomplished, the press was still calling us a hype. So that is why the fourth album was untitled. It was a meaningless protest, really, but we wanted to prove that people were not buying us for the name.
Hoskyns adds, “Releasing an album without ‘Led Zeppelin’ on the cover (or even on the spine) is a giant ‘Fuck You’ to anyone who ever accused them of being a ‘Superhype’ . . . Smarting from the negative press they’d suffered since the band formed in late 1968, Page wants to prove that their music can stand on its own merits.”
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
But the anonymous album cover also made another statement: essentially Jimmy Page was saying that with its fourth album Led Zeppelin had created music so special that conventional labels were inadequate.
And he chose the right album for such a bold statement. For indeed today Led Zeppelin IV feels less like a rock album and more like a timeless, mystical journey into another realm ruled by all things carnal (“Black Dog”), exotic (“Four Sticks”), romantic (“Going to California,” “Battle of Evermore,” “Stairway to Heaven”), joyous (“Misty Mountain Hop,” “Rock and Roll”), and foreboding “(When the Levee Breaks”).
In the assessment of AllMusic.com: “Expanding on the breakthroughs of III, Zeppelin fuse their majestic hard rock with a mystical, rural English folk that gives the record epic scope. Even at its most basic — the muscular, traditionalist “Rock and Roll” — the album has a grand sense of drama, which is deepened by Robert Plant’s burgeoning obsession with mythology and mysticism.”
John Bonham
In 1971, the album design served to draw record buyers into that otherworldly, mystical realm as listeners opened the cover and explored what was inside — and apparently as Jimmy Page intended. As he would explain to The Times in 2010, “The cover was supposed to be something that was for other people to savour rather than for me to actually spell everything out, which would make the whole thing rather disappointing on that level of your own personal adventure into the music.”
Four symbols
The most intriguing aspect of the album packaging consists of four runic symbols (or sigils) that appeared on the inner sleeve:
According to Dave Lewis (and many other historians), the four symbols were the brainchild of Jimmy Page, who designed his own (the elaborate set of letters that resembles “Zoso,” which has become a synonym for the entire album). Lead singer Robert Plant either designed his (a feather inside a circle) or chose it from The Sacred Symbols of Mu by Colonel James Churchward. Drummer John Bonham and Bassist John Paul Jones chose theirs (three interlocking circles for Bonham and three interlocking ovals overlayed with a circle for Jones) from Rudolf Koch’s The Book of Signs.
After all this crap that we’d had with the critics, I put it to everybody else that it’d be a good idea to put out something totally anonymous. At first I wanted just one symbol on it, but then it was decided that since it was our fourth album and there were four of us, we could each choose our own symbol. I designed mine and everyone else had their own reasons for using the symbols that they used.
Atlantic Records seized on the design of the symbols to do some marketing of its own. According to Lewis, in the weeks leading up to the release of the album, Atlantic released advertisements that revealed each symbol next to the image of one of Led Zeppelins’ previous albums.
But the mere appearance of the symbols – devoid of meaning – did more to market the album than anything Atlantic could have accomplished. By not explaining the symbols, Led Zeppelin empowered fans to speculate about their meaning and interpret as they wished. The act of essentially offering up the sigils for discussion created aviral sensation that continues today.
John Paul Jones
“The use of four symbols as the title for IV only added to their overall mystique, and the saga of what they represent (if anything) still rages today on Zep internet forums and message boards,” writes Lewis, who contributes an analysis, “Four Symbolism,” that accompanies Hoskyns’s Classic Rock article.
By comparison, in 1971 the Rolling Stones also unveiled its now-famous “tongue-and-lip” logo. Stones fans have claimed the lascivious Stones image with just as much passion:
But the tongue-and-lip image endures today more as a corporate seal. By contrast, Led Zeppelin created something more evocative, as evidenced by our ongoing attempts at interpretation. Perhaps because the symbols are drawn from sources that predate the band, they transcend Led Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin’s fourth album was an immediate best seller, Number 1 on the charts in the United Kingdom for 62 weeks. In the United States, the album’s ranking peaked at Number 2 (denied a Number 1 ranking by Carole King’s Tapestry). Unlike Led Zeppelin III, which had dropped off the charts sooner than the band would have liked, Led Zeppelin IV remained in the U.S. Top 40 for three years, aided by heavy radio play.
But the album cover design – intended to draw attention to the music – has a life of its own, too. As Wall writes, “Ironically, given their determination to escape easy pigeonholing by making an album as seemingly anonymous as possible, a great part of the Zeppelin myth is now rooted in public and private perception of [the cover’s] true ‘meaning.’”
Stripping their famous name off their fourth record was an almost petulant attempt to let their Great Work symbolically stand on its own two feet. But the wordless jacket also lent the fourth record charisma. Fans hunted for hidden meanings, or, failing to find them, sensed a strange reflection of their own mute refusal to communicate with the outside world. From the lemons critics hurled their way, Zeppelin had squeezed lemonade: mystique. This conscious communication breakdown helped create one of the supreme paradoxes of rock history: an esoteric megahit, a blockbuster arcanum. Stripped of words and numbers, the album no longer referred to anything but itself; a concrete talisman that drew you into its world, into a frame. All the stopgap titles we throw at the thing are lame: Led Zeppelin IV, [Untitled], Runes, Zoso,Four Symbols. In an almost Lovecraftian sense, the album wasnameless, a thing from beyond, charged with manna.
No wonder John Paul Jones later said people stopped comparing Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath after the release of Led Zeppelin’s fourth album: Led Zeppelin had created a work whose music, coupled with its artwork, was, and is, beyond proper comparison and description.
Beginning on Tuesday August 22nd, Volume 3 of the 'Knebworth' series including performances from Robert Plant, Genesis and Pink Floyd, will streamed on a brand new site www.gigseen.tv. The footage comes from the 1990 Knebworth concert in aid of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre and the BRIT school. 120,000 fans gathered for the concert and it has been previously released on dvd, but will now be available to view online on www.gigseen.tv.
Gigseen.tv is a new subscription site purely dedicated to FULL LENGTH Live Music Concerts. It is not user-generated and there are no adverts and no delay.
In addition to this rare footage of the Knebworth concert series, there are already several hundred hours of concerts and two new concerts are being added every day. From old classics in our extensive back catalogue to modern rock events and festivals, major artists, minor artists all live in one location at www.gigseen.tv. If you couldn't get tickets to be there, it doesn't matter anymore! You can still see the gig..but only on GIGSEEN.TV
Please note this is currently available in the UK only
The best Robert Plant songs feature a blend of youthful exploration and aged wisdom that make it easy to see how naturally he pulled off the very impressive feat of escaping his former band Led Zeppelin's shadow. On the occasion of his birthday (Aug. 20, 1948), we attempt to honor the singer with a look at not necessarily the most popular, but rather the more unique and artistically representative songs of his illustrious solo career.
Obviously, with the size and diverse nature of his recorded work, this list could look completely different if we started over from scratch tomorrow. We hope you enjoy, if not fully agree with, our list of the 10 Best Robert Plant Songs:
Brian May, Robert Plant and Elton John have signed up to fundraise for the Save the Children's East Africa charity. Currently, many children in the region are malnourished and/or starving.
In addition to May, Plant and Elton, several additional big names have lent their names to the cause including Paul McCartney, Coldplay, the Rolling Stones, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Madonna, Lady Gaga and others.
Each of the artists will post a short video on their official Facebook page or Twitter account. The vids will include information on how fans can join the fight against hunger. In addition, the videos will be set to the music of Bob Marley's 1973 classic, "High Tide or Low Tide."
Marley's widow, Rita, is a passionate advocate for Save the Children East Africa. She spoke to Us Weekly regarding the charity:
"Not one child should suffer. Along with Save the Children, we must stand up together as friends to put a stop to this, to feed our children and to save their lives."
Black Country rock legend Robert Plant brought the curtain down on his latest band with a superb festival performance last night – while entertaining fans with jokes about his love for Wolves.
The former Led Zeppelin frontman ended a 13 month world tour with Band of Joy, his group for his most recent album, with a powerful 90-minute show at the Big Chill concert at Eastnor Castle Deer Park in Herefordshire.
Backed by the group he called “just good looking old folk”, Plant was emotional about the group’s end but this did not stop him joking with the crowd.
Mixing Led Zeppelin classics like Black Dog with songs from Band of Joy’s self-titled album, Plant was close enough geographically to his Black Country roots that he incorporated them into the show.
Lifelong Wolves fan Plant reatedly made quips about his love for Wolves, even presenting band member Patty Griffin with a Molineux memento.
He joked: “It’s a bit cold so on behalf of the British weather system I present you with a Wolverhampton Wanderers hot water bottle.”
American singer Griffin had obviously learnt football banter from Plant as she held the gift aloft and shouted: “Who are ya?”
The Wolves jokes continued as Plant introduced guitarist Darrell Scott.
“America unlike Wolverhampton does not have much in the way of soccer but it does produce great musicians like Darrell,” joked Plant.
The singer also waxed lyrical about the Herefordshire country setting for the concert, before adding: “It’s only 45 minutes to get home, too.”
Plant described the show as the “grand finale” for Band of Joy, admitting it was “very emotional for us” to end their time together for what is likely to be a one-off collaboration.
“It’s been 13 months and everyone’s got things to do,” he joked. “Like laundry and making amends.”
The band finished on a high, showing their musicianship and close rapport on Band of Joy tracks like House of Cards and Angel Dance.
But the biggest cheers were for the band’s country rock versions of Led Zeppelin classics, including Houses of the Holy and a superb rendition of Misty Mountain Hop.
Plant’s voice was flawless throughout the show but he became most animated when recreating the songs which have defined his career for over four decades.
The highlight of the show was an epic version of Ramble On, complete with a breathtaking banjo solo in place of the original Jimmy Page guitar playing.
Leaving the stage for the final time, Plant told his bandmates: “It’s a fond farewell. Farewell my friends.”
He then turned to the crowd for a final football call: “Who are ya?”
Not many former janitors get to tell Jimmy Page to redo a guitar part, but that’s exactly what Mike Fraser, who worked his way up from cleaning the floors at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Sound Studios to being one of the industry’s A-list triple threats (engineer, mixer and producer), found he had to do one day.
“We were recording the Coverdale/Page album, and Jimmy laid down a guitar part that was fine,” says Fraser. “The only thing was, the way he played the part before was way better. So I thought for a second, ran the words through my head, got on the mic and said, ‘Um, that was really good, Jimmy, but I kind of liked the way you played it earlier.’"
So how did Page respond to Fraser’s suggestion? “He was really cool. He said, ‘Oh, well, that’s no problem. I can just do it the other way if you think it was better.’”
Over the years, the Canadian-born Fraser, whose big break came when he was able to put down the broom and assist Bob Rock on sessions, has had a hand (or two or three) in a trainload of gold, platinum and multi-platinum releases by rock’s elite: from AC/DC to Metallica to Aerosmith to Joe Satriani, they’ve all come to rely on what Fraser likes to call “an honest, no b.s., friendly approach to making music.
“I like high energy and a sense of realness,” he continues. “I want to hear a band play me a song and sound like they really mean it. I think that’s what audiences want, too. Pure raw emotion is always the ticket. So it’s my job to go in there and capture that magic moment.”
That same philosophy holds true for mixing: “If the heart and soul of the performances are on the tape, I have to preserve those elements. Sure, there are times when I might do some edits and throw on some effects, but only if they enhance what’s already there and what’s great. I should be invisible. It’s all about the artist and the songs.”
Fraser, who favors Neve or API boards for recording (“nice warm punch”) and SSL consoles for mixing (“very crisp clarity, amazing automation”), says that he still feels like he’s living out a dream when he walks into the studio and finds himself face-to-face with one of his heroes. “But you have to say to yourself, I’ve worked for this. I deserve to be here. And then you prove it all over again.”
“I had been an assistant engineer on the big Whitesnake album that Mike Stone produced. David Coverdale was very happy with what I did on that, so when it came time for him to do the record with Jimmy Page I got the call to work on it. “Meeting Jimmy Page…wow! You try to be cool in all of these situations, but come on, this is Jimmy Page! It was pretty unreal. And what a great guy he turned out to be. Very friendly, very collaborative. I mean, he knows what he wants, and he really doesn’t need anybody to help him make records, but there are times when he does want second opinions, and he’s open to them.
“Working with Jimmy was definitely a learning experience. He knows so much about amps and miking. One day I had put a mic near the center of an amp, and he said, ‘Why don’t you try putting the mic off to the side? That way you don’t get the attack sound, but you still get all the fullness.’ And he was right.
“I got an even bigger lesson on another day. He had recorded about six or seven acoustic parts to a song, all of these layers. Then he went home. I stayed behind and listened to the takes. I thought some of them were a little untidy, so I cleaned them up a bit. Nothing major, but a little fixing here and there.
“Jimmy came back the next day and listened. ‘What happened to my guitar parts?’ he said. ‘Oh, I just cleaned them up a bit,’ I said. ‘Well, put them back the way they were,’ he said. ‘They’re supposed to sound that way.’ And he was right again. What I thought was a little off wound up having the energy and the feel that only comes from Jimmy Page.”
Kansas City's Puddle of Mudd have released the first track from their forthcoming covers LP.
A cover of Rolling Stones 1969 classic, 'Gimme Shelter' has appeared online on various music news and entertainment blogs & websites.
The 90's nu-metal heroes have also covered AC/DC's 'TNT', Led Zeppelin's 'D'yer Mak'er' and Stevie Nicks' 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around' for the forthcoming covers album.
Puddle of Mudd are scheduled to play a series of UK dates later this year along with Soil. The UK trek will kick off Friday 14th October at London's Electric Ballroom and culminate Friday 28th October at Talking Heads in Southampton.
Puddle Of Mudd singer/guitarist Wes Scantlin joined Jimmy Page on November 8, 2001 at the MTV-Europe Awards in Frankfurt, Germany, performing Led Zeppelin's Thank You, along with Limp Bizkit's lead singer, Fred Durst.
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham’s vintage 1915 Model T automobile, reportedly the one featured in the band’s concert film The Song Remains the Same, is looking for a new home, but before you start checking your bank balances, there are some conditions
For 11 years, London area resident Bruce Screen has been the proud owner of the classic car once owned by the late Zeppelin drumming giant. He got his hands on the awesome piece of automotive rock and roll memorabilia in a deal in which he swapped an unnamed car for the Zep-related prize.
The cash value of the vehicle has been a frequently debated topic, to which Screen says: “there is no way of knowing because it’s so unique.” We’ll go out on a limb and guess that the former owner probably got the short end of the stick on this incredible deal, no matter what kind of car he got in return for the Model T.
When you own such a cool piece of rock and roll history, it’s understandable that you might be nervous about actually using it. And that’s been the case for Mr. Screen, who says he’s “too frightened to drive it on the roads.”
As a result, the car has been kept in a garage during most of the time that he’s owned it, and now he’s looking to find an appropriate museum (we can think of at least one idea) where people can enjoy it. “It needs to be seen and looked after. I’d be interested to hear from people with ideas about where it could go.”
Fans of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin who have spent years anticipating the uncovering of tapes the bands recorded together are waiting in vain – because they never existed, says Bill Ward.
But the two giants of British heavy rock did jam in a studio, just once; and the Sabbath drummer says watching his Led Zep counterpart John Bonham play with two bass drums was unforgettable.
The pair were close friends; and Ward admits he felt Bonham’s death in 1980 as a result of heavy drinking was a wake-up call.
He tells Back Page Magazine: “Zeppelin and Sabbath were in the studio at one time, and it only happened on one occasion. I don’t remember what album we were working on, but we were in sessions and it all started when Bonzo came into the studio and sat down at my kit.
“He starts playing Supernaut, one of our songs that he really liked. His bass drum work was incredible. I played two bass drums and they only let him play one in Zeppelin. Supernaut sounded like something from the hardcore bands of today, and Bonzo was doing that easily.
“He was having a good time, playing it with a whole different feel, all the while yelling ‘Supernaut!’ the whole time. It was crazy.”
Things became more crazy when Bonham’s colleagues Robert Plant and John Paul Jones joined them in the studio.
Ward remembers: “Jimmy Page wasn’t there, but I wish he had been. And all the time Bonzo was kicking the crap out of my drum kit.
“There was a moment during that jam where we all kind of got this crazy notion and said, ‘Let’s put something down on tape.’ But nothing transpired and no tape rolled. Nothing was recorded – we were just pissing about.
“I believe at one point Geezer Butler and Robert did a bit of writing together – but that was their own personal thing, between them. The Black Zeppelin recordings didn’t ever exist.”
The Sabbath sticksman says he was at home doing a drugs deal when he was told of Bonham’s death: “I got the news when I was reaching some of the lowest places in my alcoholic depression. It was about 8.30 in the morning and I was waiting for a dealer to drop off some dope.
“When she arrived she announced he’d died. The very first thing I thought, quite selfishly, was, ‘Yeah, and I’ll be the next one.’
“After that I was incredibly sad. I have so many good memories of him, though. I’ve always tried to speak about him in the most respectful way, but there was a side of him that loved to party. When we were raucous, drunk and wild we were both prone to verbal attacks against people – including each other.
“But he was very quiet, observant and thoughtful. We actually didn’t talk a lot about drums, or about Zeppelin or Sabbath. We just talked about our families, and those were some of the nicest times I had with him.
“In part, I’ve always thought of his death as a signal for me: if you don’t shape up, Bill, you’ll be the next one drowning in beer or overdosing.”
Billions of people will watch the ultimate showman kick off next year’s Olympic Games.
Viewers all over the planet will see music legend Sir Paul McCartney headline the opening ceremony in London.
The Beatle told bosses he’s “up for” playing at the spectacular on July 27 but song choices and detailed plans still need to be finalised. Bosses had hoped to reunite Macca, 69, with Beatle Ringo Starr but he will be touring the US.
There was further disappointment for organisers when The Rolling Stones ruled themselves out of the show.
Led Zeppelin were also approached and although guitarist Jimmy Page was keen, singer Robert Plant was said to be “not interested”. An industry source said: “The hope was to have the cream of British music all in the line-up but it now looks like Macca will be joined by some younger stars on stage. But of all the people you would want, McCartney is number one. He is the ultimate showman and guaranteed to get the Olympics off to a great start.”
Macca set tongues wagging this month when he told a US chat show: “I hear there’s a rumour that I might be involved.”
Daughter Stella McCartney is already involved, designing the British kit.
Rock star Robert Plant was taken into custody yesterday by Scotland Yard in a case of mistaken identity. The legendary singer of Led Zeppelin was mistaken for Rebekah Brooks, the central figure in the Rupert Murdoch hacking scandal. He was released after two-hours in custody, and graciously accepted an apology from police for the error.
The Scotland Yard agents were confused by Robert Plant's long, curly locks. His shoulder length hair--dyed red--was an exact match for the beleaguered Rebekah Brooks. Even his tired, wrinkled face with sagging jowls looked similar to Ms. Brooks.
The easy-going Robert Plant was detained for only two hours, and released after his fingerprints failed to match Rebekah Brooks.
The aging rock star had nothing but kind words for officers, and serenaded them a bit about Rebekah Brooks before driving away.
"There's a lady who's sure, all that glitters is gold, and she's hacking her way into Heaven. When she gets there she knows, if the stories are all closed, with a hack she can get what she came for..."
The 12th Annual Americana Music Festival and Conference presented by Nissan will celebrate the genre’s ever-growing recognition and acclaim October 12 -15, 2011 in Nashville, TN. In an explosion of talent, iconic artists will take the stage alongside the scene’s hippest up-and-comers for four days and nights of praiseworthy performances and surprise guest appearances.
Confirmed to attend “Americanafest” so far include Gregg Allman, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, Justin Townes Earle, the Jayhawks, North Mississippi Allstars, Foster and Lloyd, and The Civil Wars and hundreds of key members of the music community.
The genre’s far-reaching embrace will be on display as 100-plus acts rock five of Nashville’s coolest venues during the Festival’s nighttime showcases. This is where those-in-the-know catch genre stalwarts, as well as talented newcomers on track to becoming tomorrow’s headline makers. The Americana scene has spawned some of today’s hottest acts, spurring a recent Spin magazine cover story.
July 31 is the final day to register for the Festival and Conference under the current early bird rate, with priority Honors and Awards show seating going to those who register before the August 1st rate increase. Americana Music Association members receive a discounted rate over non-members. Click HERE to buy now. Tickets to the Honors and Awards go on sale July 29 to the general public.
Full Festival and Conference registrants receive entrance to all sanctioned daytime conference music, panels and parties, plus priority access to all evening showcase performances, and a ticket to the critically acclaimed Americana Honors & Awards show on Thursday, October 13th at the Ryman Auditorium.
The Honors & Awards will be celebrating ten years and once again we guarantee a show that will knock your socks off. Jim Lauderdale will continue his tenure as master of ceremonies, joined for another year by Buddy Miller and his All-Star house band. Over 2,000 artists, music lovers and industry executives attend the annual show, which is broadcast internationally through multiple outlets.
Daytime conference sessions pimarily take place at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown hotel, offering plenty of friendly networking, exciting panel discussions and educational seminars. These career-building opportunities and the wealth of nighttime showcases make the Americana Music Festival and Conference a must-attend event for fans, artists and business leaders alike.
"Whispering" Bob Harris is to host The Old Grey Whistle Test once again in a radio revival of the classic BBC music show.
Artists who performed on the original series, including Sir Elton John, Robert Plant and Paul Weller, will return for the Radio 2 series, which marks the programme's 40th anniversary.
Whistle Test is credited with giving early exposure to acts such as Bob Marley, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Steely Dan. The BBC Two programme ran from 1971 to 1987 and was a showcase for the "serious" rock acts beloved by Harris.
Starting in August, the 16-part radio series, Old Grey Whistle Test 40, will feature classic archive, new performances recorded at the famous Maida Vale studios, and interviews with artists who appeared on the original series. The line-up will include Roger Daltrey, Mark Knopfler, Yusuf Islam, Emmylou Harris and Simple Minds.
Harris, 65, described the new show as "a massive reunion, featuring superstars of British and American music".
By all indications, Jimmy Page is launching a new website called JimmyPage.com, appropriately enough. But in true Page-ian fashion, the name is about the only thing that is easy to understand.
At the moment, the site displays a front page featuring a daily-changing Roman numeral (see below, as of today, 6 July, it's VIII), and the adjacent hourglass video shows sand passing through it but never filling up. Or perhaps it will on 14 July, which is eight days from now.
If Page's intention was to have folks guessing at the significance of all of this, he's already succeeded. The Morton Report suggests that the launch date may have something to do with 14 July being nine days until a full moon in Capricorn, drawing the connection between Page's birth date (9 January) and the trousers the guitarist wore during Led Zeppelin's 1973 tour (they were emblazoned with his astrology symbols: Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon, Scorpio Rising).
Another theory being floated around is that it was on 14 July (UK time) that the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin appeared together at the Live Aid show in Philadelphia, performing for the first time since John Bonham's death on 25 September 1980. OK, that one might be a stretch.
Page, of course, has confirmed little about the project, although at the Ivor Norvello Awards last May, he did say, "At the moment, I'm constructing a website because I've had the domain name but I've not had a website, so I'm constructing that. I think that will bring a few surprises to how things normally are. Once that's done, then I'm going to start working on some new music."
So far, nobody's picked up on MusicRadar's guess as to what the Roman numerals and the launch date signify: that the website simply isn't finished yet, but it will be... eight days from now.
There was a Whole Lotta Love at the funeral of one of Led Zeppelin’s foremost historians on Wednesday.
Guitar hero Jimmy Page sent flowers to remember friend and fan Howard Mylett, who is taking his own Stairway to Heaven after suffering a heart attack.
Flowers spelling out the super-fan’s big love – ‘Led Zep’ – were carried into Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton.
Mr Mylett, 64, who lived with his wife Anita in Victoria Road, Portslade, was known by Led Zeppelin fans internationally.
He was also friendly with the band and had helped them in the past.
The last time he saw Jimmy Page was in November.
Fellow Led Zeppelin historian Dave Lewis, who runs the internet fanzine Tight But Loose, said Mr Mylett’s passing would leave a huge gap in the life of Led Zeppelin fans everywhere.
He said: “The response to Howard’s sad passing has been truly overwhelming – this display of affection has vividly illustrated the esteem Howard is held in by fans across the world. I know Anita has been deeply touched by this.
“Howard Mylett’s influence on generations of Led Zeppelin fans can never be understated. He was the first chronicler of their work and the original author.
Mr Mylett’s first printed work on Led Zeppelin appeared in the issue of the NME published prior to their Earls Court shows in May 1975.
It was described at the time as “A bible to the Zeppelin legions”.
(MVD) Robert Plant's Blue Note, in-depth documentary detailing Plant's musical journey, featuring live performances and rare footage, will be released on DVD on August 23rd.
Robert Plant's journey through the territories that have most acutely informed and inspired his music is perhaps one of the most multi-faceted of any artist from his generation. In a remarkable career that has spanned five decades, Plant has travelled from gold-maned god of hard rock to balladeering country troubadour, a process of reinvention guided by an ever-expanding musical palette and tireless searches through global song. His fantastic voyage has essayed the plantations of Mississippi, the deserts and townships of Africa and the settlements of the Appalachians.
This film follows Robert's incredible and on-going tour of musical styles and acts as travelogue in its unique approach to documenting and reviewing a career that has been built on endless fascination, consistent experimentation and a unique talent that makes the incorporation of his discoveries into a popular contemporary form seem almost effortless.
Featuring rare footage, performance archive, recorded interviews, contributions from his closest collaborators, expert critique from the finest music writers, plus location film, news reports seldom seen photographs and a host of other features.
Talk about the ultimate Led Zeppelin collectible: a boathouse once owned by Jimmy Page is up for sale.
Newbury Today reports a River Thames boathouse in Pangbourne, UK with ties to Zeppelin’s history is on the market – asking price £1,100,000.
Page owned the property from 1967-1973, during which time he formed Zeppelin.
The guitarist paid £6,000 for the property in 1967, which had been a boathouse with wet dock and offices belonging to Hopps of Henley from the 19th century until its 1959 conversion into a residential dwelling.
The current owner, Graham Gore, who ran his own building firm before his retirement in 2003, bought the property for £98,500 in 1984 and moved in with his wife and two sons.
Graham was quite unaware of the celebrity connection until his neighbors explained it to him, and has many tales of brushes with rock and roll aristocracy - such as the day singer Robert Plant popped by unannounced, much to Mr Gore’s surprise.
Over the years, Gore added and extended to the property, and the basement, where the wet dock once existed, now hosts a fully heated indoor swimming pool.
Mr Gore said now that his sons had grown up and moved out, it was time to move on and sell the property.
For a complete look at the building and its Zeppelin history, click here.
Chaka Khan may be a legacy artist in the industry, but that isn't to say the legendary songstress isn't as busy as ever.
At the top of her list? A duets album, including a Led Zeppelin cover alongside "American Idol" judge and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler."We literally just clicked," Khan tells Billboard.com of Tyler.
"We were at Elton John's party and we got to talk and we both wanted to sing together. We said, 'Let's do a mutual song, by you know, a neutral band -- a band that we both love,' and we both love Zeppelin."
The "I'm Every Woman" singer will record the duet of a yet-to-be-decided Zeppelin tune with Tyler soon, which she has plans to release on a forthcoming double album of duets.
"Man In The Middle", the new video from Black Country Communion, the Anglo-American rock supergroup featuring the talents of bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze, Black Sabbath), blues rock guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater), can be viewed below. The track comes off the band's second album, simply entitled "2", which will be released in Europe on June 13 via Mascot Records and in the U.S. on June 14 through the J&R Adventures label.
"2" track listing:
01. The Outsider
02. Man In The Middle
03. I Can See Your Spirit
04. The Battle For Hadrian's Wall
05. Save Me
06. Cold
07. Smokestack Woman
08. Faithless
09. An Ordinary Son
10. Little Secret
11. Crossfire
12. Crawl
Black Country Communion will guest on the nationally syndicated radio show "Rockline" with host Bob Coburn on Wednesday, June 8 at 8:30 p.m. PT / 11:30 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to speak with Black Country Communion by calling 1-800-344-ROCK (7625).
On June 9, the band will kick off a U.S. summer tour in San Diego, California. It will take them across the country with stops in Anaheim, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; St. Louis, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Hampton Beach, New Hampshire; Sayreville, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C.
The self-titled debut album from Black Country Communion sold 7,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 54 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD, which was made available in Europe on September 20, 2010 via Mascot Records and North America on September 21 through J&R Adventures, was produced and mixed by Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin), and mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig. It was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in early 2010.
Black Country Communion initially came to fruition when Shirley saw Hughes and Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center's King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited Bonham and Sherinian for the project, which is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.
Jimmy Page made his first live UK appearance in three years last night when he joined 60’s folk rock legend Donovan at his Sunshine Superman performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Dave Lewis files this exclusive on the spot report for TBL.
In a move that mirrored the events of 21 years ago (see latest DL Diary entry), at very short notice yesterday afternoon I zipped in to London to attend Donovans’ Sunshine Superman performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
The first half of the show saw the 1960’s folk rock legend running through some of his greatest hits. He commenced proceedings with acoustic performances of Catch The Wind, Colours and Buffy St Marie’s Universal Soldier. He was then joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by John Cameron and soon had the receptive crowd with him every step of the way as he ran through Jennifer Juniper, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Goo Goo Barabajagal,There Is A Mountain and Mellow yellow.
The second half featured the complete performance of his 1966 album Sunshine Superman. Early in this part of the set he explained how he began recording the record in 1965 in Abbey Road Studios with a young session guitarist – "and it’s great to have him here tonight- please welcome Jimmy Page"
Jimmy entered stage right dressed in black shirt to a rapturous reception. Strapping on a Gibson Black Les Paul Custom with Bigsby arm (possibly the one he used on For Your Life at the 02 reunion), he accompanied Donovan on the track Sunshine Superman. Strumming along on the descending chord sequence he then opened up with a neat solo as the chorus came in. Smiling and waving to the crowd he then left the stage. Donovan went on to perform the entire album accompanied by the orchestra and guests including Shawn Phillips on sitar and his son Donovan jr.
Before performing the uplifting finale of Atlantis, Donovan acknowledged the band and guests and Jimmy briefly came on to take the applause. That appeared to be the end of the evening but as the crowd gave Donovan a standing ovation he remained on stage and announced they were going to reprise the title track and once again Jimmy entered proceedings strapping on the Gibson as they once again ran through the jaunty Sunshine Superman with all and sundry on stage.
This was the cue for the TBL editor to make something of a Who/Kids Are Alright leap of faith from the stalls area down to the front and very soon I found myself directly in front of Donovan and Jimmy at the front of the stage. It was a tremendous thrill to be in such close proximity to the guitarist – not unlike the view I had in Cologne on the Over Europe tour all of 31 years ago this month.
After a triumphant Sunshine Superman, they all remained on stage for a rousing reprise of Mellow Yellow – this had Jimmy running through the strutting rhythm of the song smiling at Donovan and leading into a solo. Finally at the close of it all, Donovan and Jimmy embraced and they ambled off stage right as the crowd bayed for yet more.
This time it was all over.
To summarise: It was an absolute joy to see Jimmy Page once again adorn a stage with guitar in hand. He looked relaxed and full of smiles throughout. It was a real privilege to be in attendance at this celebration of the music of Donovan – a legendary folk/rock artist who in acknowledging his heritage, inspired a unique reunion with the guitarist who first lit up his Sunshine Superman album back in the mid 1960s.
"They call me mellow yellow – quite rightly".
It’s that refrain that will be ringing in my ears all weekend as I recall the memorable events of the night Jimmy Page returned to a UK stage.
Gibson Guitar's website has named Led Zeppelin's John Bonham as the number one rock drummer of all time.
The list is a cross-section of rock greats from all generations including the Beatles' Ringo Starr (10), The Police's Stewart Copeland (9) and The Who's Keith Moon (3).
"Bonzo was famous for his speed, intensity and swift right foot, but above all, he was a 'soul' drummer. Even with all the attention given to his dazzling soloing, cool beats and fills and bass drum know-how, in the end, John Bonham was simply a groover," the site said of the late rock icon.
"For this ability to make a band sway and groove like no other, never hogging the spotlight but remaining the subtle champion of Led Zeppelin, Gibson.com recognizes him as our Top Rock Drummer, a talent unrivaled and irreplaceable," the site added.
Other top rock drummers included on the list include Josh Freese of A Perfect Circle, Devo and Nine Inch Nails (8), Metallica's Lars Ulrich (5), and Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Them Crooked Vultures vet Dave Grohl (4).
By Acoustic guitars don’t often get the respect of their solid body relatives. Les Pauls, SGs and other electric big dogs seem to get all the glory, thanks to their extreme rock-ability. But acoustics are also part of the rock firmament, often holding down the rhythm in classic tunes or barking out the occasional lead six-string break.
Case in point: the Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar. When the model was introduced in 1938, it was the Gibson Company’s fanciest flat top. Initially it was called the Super Jumbo, due to its 16 7/8 inch body. Then the name was streamlined to the SJ-200 a year later. The model sported a double-braced spruce top, a rosewood back and sides, and a sunburst finish until 1947, when the back and sides were changed to maple. And in 1955, the guitar’s name was shorted a bit more to the J-200. Today, Epiphone also makes a budget version of this highly resonant marvel, the EJ-200.
What’s cooler than the J-200’s production history is its musical legacy, which gives the model the kind of rock ‘n’ roll cred that’s normally reserved for the Les Paul or the Flying V.
1. Jimmy Page: From Led Zeppelin’s earliest days, Pagey employed a J-200 for most of his acoustic tracks, and it’s fascinating to hear his acoustic technique come to the fore of tunes like Your Time Is Gonna Come and Babe I’m Gonna Leave You on 1969’s Led Zeppelin. While much is made of his debt to the influence of British acoustic folk pickers like Bert Jansch and Roy Harper, it’s clear that Page’s attack reflects a solid base in electric guitar. The hammer-ons and rippling arpeggios of Babe I’m Gonna Leave You in particular are signatures of his electric playing writ into crystalline acoustic lines.
Are the former Led Zeppelin singer and “the Meadowlark of Hyde Park” in a relationship? That’s how it looked to bystanders at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport over the weekend, who said Plant arrived on a flight from Atlanta, then waved from the escalator to Patty, who’d come to pick him up. The two, who tour and record together in Band of Joy, reportedly made out, passionately, at baggage claim. Isn’t there a surcharge for that?
As reported yesterday, Trent Reznor and Karen O (leader of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) have recorded a cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song.
A red band trailer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was shown in front of The Hangover Part II, which contained their cover for the entire length of the trailer. The trailer is being properly released on Thursday, June 2nd at approximately 10:00AM PST, however you can view & hear it below.
Enjoy 2 weekend passes to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 18-19, 2011, in Colorado, and meet Robert Plant before the show... plus Condo Lodging accommodations and travel reimbursement.
Package Includes: - 2 weekend passes to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 18-19, 2011 - Condo Lodging (Sat & Sun only) at The Mountain Lodge at Telluride - Travel reimbursed up to $500.00 USD pending the submission of invoice(s) - Meet and greet with Robert Plant before the show. (Please note Robert Plant & The Band of Joy will perform on Sunday, June 19)
Robert Plant & Band of Joy will headline the completely sold-out, 38th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 16-19, 2011 in the Telluride Town Park! The Telluride Bluegrass once again coincides with the Summer Solstice; the longest day of the year; the beginning of summer; and the full moon. It's a magical time of sun and light, when the the high country of Colorado puts away its skis and grabs hiking boots, kayaks, and a low-back festival chair to take in "Bluegrass."
The 2011 festival promises another magical four days of only-in-Telluride performances. Beloved Festival veterans and inspiring new talent. The Telluride royalty of virtuosic bluegrass superpickers, soulful songwriters, and some of the biggest stars in the rootsy Americana landscape.
The festival is built around the many artists that have defined the Telluride Bluegrass sound, as the weekend is sprinkled with inspired sets from Peter Rowan, Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Tim O'Brien, Emmylou Harris, and of course the "King of Telluride" Sam Bush. These artists come together for the festival's epic set from the Telluride House Band.
Bid now because this festival promises to be another unforgettable Solstice weekend of inspiration, virtuosity, and acoustic adventures at 8,750 feet!
Terms: Valid for 2 weekend passes for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 18-19, 2011 ONLY. Condo Lodging (June 18-19, 2011 only) at The Mountain Lodge at Telluride. Winner will be reimbursed up to $500.00 USD for travel arrangements pending the submission of invoice(s). Winner is responsible for booking all travel arrangements. Meet and greet will be scheduled at a mutually agreeable time. Cannot be resold or re-auctioned.
Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience has postponed Friday night’s show at the Greek Theatre and several other dates because singer James Dylan is ill.
The Greek show has been rescheduled for Oct. 14. Other affected shows include a stop Saturday in Las Vegas, which has been moved to Oct. 15.
Dates that had been slated in Sacramento and Napa Valley earlier this week are still being rescheduled.
Tickets from the originally scheduled shows will be honored at the new dates, or ticket buyers can get refunds at the point of purchase.
Bonham put the act together after filling in for his father, John Bonham, at Led Zeppelin reunion concerts in London in 2007. John Bonham died in 1980, when Jason was 14.
In the Led Zeppelin experience show, Bonham’s band has been playing upwards of two dozen songs from the group's catalog. The Bonham band's 38-city North American tour was to conclude in Las Vegas this weekend.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross already won an Oscar for scoring David Fincher's The Social Network, and as previously reported, they're getting back together to score another Fincher movie, the eagerly awaited English-language version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. And now the Playlist has some more exciting news about the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack: Reznor and Yeah Yeah Yeahs leader Karen O got together to cover Led Zeppelin‘s unhinged classic Immigrant Song. We've confirmed with Yeah Yeah Yeahs' management that the collaboration is indeed legit.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opens December 21, but we should be hearing some of the Karen O-sung Immigrant Song cover long before then. According to Playlist, the red-band version of the movie's trailer is showing before some screenings of The Hangover Part II, which opens in theaters on May 27, and the Zeppelin cover plays during the trailer.
Hopefully, this'll turn out a lot better than the last time someone adapted a Zeppelin song for a blockbuster movie. Below, stream Zeppelin's original Immigrant Song.
Rosanne Cash announced the list of 2011 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards nominees during an event at the Gibson/Baldwin Showroom in New York City on Monday. The Civil Wars, Levon Helm and His Dirt Farmer Quartet featuring Jim Lauderdale and Rosanne, with Benmont Tench on keys all performed during the event with Nashville Mayor Karl Dean joining the celebration and offering praise of the Music City Americana Music Association.
Elizabeth Cook and Robert Plant lead the nominees with three nominations each. Elizabeth’s Welder is nominated for Album of the Year field while her song El Camino is up for Song of the Year. Robert Plant and the Band of Joy are nominated for Duo/Group of the Year and their album Band of Joy is also up for Album of the Year nod. Both Cook and Plant are up for Artist of the Year.
Two recent New/Emerging Artist of the Year winners are living up to their title. The 2009 recipient, Justin Townes Earle, grabbed two nominations for Album of the Year for Harlem River Blues and Song of the Year for Harlem River Blues; and last year’s winner, Hayes Carll, is nominated for Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for Kmag Yoyo. The Civil Wars and Mumford and Sons both are nominated for New/Emerging Artist and Duo/Group of the Year, while Buddy Miller is nominated for Artist and Instrumentalist of the Year.
The 10th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, October 13 at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It will take place during the 11th Annual Americana Festival and Conference, which is scheduled for Wednesday, October 12 through Saturday, October 15 and offers daily seminars, panels, and networking opportunities at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel. There are also more than 100 showcases scheduled during the festival at venues throughout Nashville.
Last fall, Jimmy Page caused quite a stir among fans when he told an interviewer, "I'm desperate to be playing, but it won’t be 'til next year."
"I'll get a good vehicle to get out there and do some concerts," the guitar icon added.
Those comments - at the 2010 Classic Rock “Roll Of Honour” Awards – gave fans some hope that they'd be seeing Jimmy in action again and, perhaps, soon.
It's been a quiet five months since then, with no sign of movement in the Page camp.
Jimmy surfaced again recently at the Ivor Novello Awards, which are presented annually to celebrate, honour and reward excellence in British music writing.
In light of his comments last fall, Page was asked for an update on his plans for the coming year.
"At the moment, I'm constructing a website," said Jimmy, "because I've had the domain name (JimmyPage.com) but I've not had a website, so I'm constructing that. I think that will bring a few surprises to how things normally are. Once that’s done, then I'm going to start working on the new music."
Led Zeppelin will reportedly be heard on American Idol as one of the choices for the show Wednesday night. The parents of Haley Reinhart were at the Monday council meeting of the Village of Wheeling, Illinois and gave some suprise details of the Led Zeppelin song to be used on Wednesday night’s Idol performances.
According to Haley’s parents, the group members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reached out to the American Idol executives and gave permission for the Idol hopeful to use any of their singles for a performance.
“Jimmy Page and Robert Plant has never given any permission to use a Led Zeppelin songs to Idol. When they heard Haley do ‘House of Rising Sun’ they contacted Idol and said if she wants to do one of our songs she can,” explained Haley’s mom to the city council. “When you get that kind of offer you do it.”
According to Haley Reinhart’s parents the three songs the Idol contestant will be singing are “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac, “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette and “What Should Never Be” by Led Zeppelin.
American Idol Top 3 performances start tonight at 8pm on FOX with Haley Reinhart, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina vying for the top prize of being the next American Idol.
Video footage of Jason Bonham and his band joining Canadian rock icon Kim Mitchell to perform the Led Zeppelin classic "Going to California" live at the studios of the Toronto classic rock radio station Q107 (CILQ-FM) on May 13, 2011 can be viewed below.
Jason Bonham is out on the road with his critically acclaimed multimedia Led Zeppelin Experience tour - which chronicles both his own life as well as Zeppelin's career. In the show, which features Bonham drumming along with his late father, Zeppelin co-founder John Bonham, the band faithfully recreates the cream of Zeppelin's catalogue onstage:
Bonham told The Pulse Of Radio that on the current Zeppelin Experience tour, he and the band are tapping into some material that Zeppelin never got around to playing in concert. "On the second half this time, we're adding songs like 'The Rain Song', we're adding songs like 'Achilles Last Stand', we're adding 'In The Light' — which is another rare one that Zeppelin never did live," he said. "So, I always kind of try and keep some kind of element of it that is fresh and different."
Part of the impetus for the Led Zeppelin Experience show was Bonham performing his first full-length concert with Zeppelin back in December 2007. He told The Pulse Of Radio that following the Zeppelin reunion show, he was astounded by the accolades and support he received from fans. "It was just a little bit hard to comprehend," he said. "The next day, when the press was so unanimous of 'the greatest return that could ever be,' that's when it kind of got very emotional for me. That was hard, to suddenly. . . .'wow, I did it.' And watching the clips back on YouTube, I'm amazed I pulled it off."
Seasick Steve was joined by Led Zeppelin/Them Crooked Vultures bassist John Paul Jones on Later with Jools Holland tonight for a rollicking take on Don’t Know Why She Love Me But She Do, a new blues-rock number off his forthcoming LP for Jack White’s Third Man Records, You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks. In addition to his surprise set with White at SXSW recently, the clip above offers a fine introduction to Third Man’s latest signee.
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Ernie K-Doe. Photo by Sidney Smith.
It’s May of 1973 and the British Gods of Rock—Led Zeppelin—sweep into New Orleans at the height of their mysterious and epochal powers as arguably the best rock band in the world. They play a strange concert that night in the Municipal Auditorium; after all, it is New Orleans and Zeppelin is on stage playing their best stuff to a bunch of stoners and hippies and, well, you get the picture. “Jimmy suggestively bowed Robert’s bum during ‘Dazed and Confused,’” says rock journalist Stephen Davis in Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga.
“[The Municipal Auditorium] wasn’t state of the art even for those days,” remembers former Atlantic Records executive Phillip Rauls (pronounced like Rolls-Royce, just like the kind Keith Moon drove into a hotel swimming pool.) “It was in a rundown area of town.”
Rauls remembers very well those hours just before Led Zeppelin took the stage at New Orleans Municipal Auditorium on the night of May 14, 1973. “In those days, we partied hard,” he says. “We partied before the concerts as well, and such was the case with that particular event. Hell, we were in New Orleans having a Dixie beer and a bowl of gumbo! We were all pretty sky-high if you know what I mean.”
Rock critic Jon Newlin wrote a review about the concert in the May 19, 1973 issue of Figaro, a review that is either a brilliant piece of writing or nonsensical rubbish as the Brits say. He described Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant as “a verdical odalisque with a shiny, cylindrical neck like Fernand Leger’s Big Julie, a cross between a peachy Jacobean kewpie doll, and a hard 40’s blonde (on the order of, say, Lizabeth Scott) after 800 volts worth of spoolies. Along with a zany, dumb, rubber band singing voice, he has a cagey galumphing balls-of-the-feet dance style.”
Newlin described Jimmy Page as, “a sequined lesser marsupial who hardly ever looks up from his instrument, plays guitar like Renoir said he painted—“avec mabite.” His playing is a fine, shiny manifestation of the British appetite and capacity for violence, with plenty of sudden, slow, watch-for-falling rocks cadenzas.”
And apparently Newlin was not too enamored with the band’s music either, “What really set my dentures on edge was ‘Moby Dick,’ the electrocardiogram solo, which resembles a marathon dance for clubfoots and is about as interesting as a week-old black market club sandwich.”
“This was the poison pen era,” says Rauls. “Zeppelin hated rock critics.” So great was Zeppelin’s disdain of music critics that they considered a negative concert review to be a reaffirmation of their greatness.
“The Auditorium had a low balcony and some dumb fucker had taken too much LSD. I remember a guy actually falling from the balcony down into the audience and fortunately, it wasn’t a big fall because it was a low balcony,” says Rauls. “The band kept on playing and the fire marshals took the guy out. I guess he cushioned himself but he was pretty screwed up.”
As Atlantic Records’ Promotion & Marketing Director for the Southern Region, Phillip Rauls was well acquainted with Zeppelin and heavily involved in the activities of that evening in ’73. He was the guy who would fly in ahead of the band and call on the media and the local promoters and the radio stations like the WRNOs and WTIXs of the world to convince them to play the records of Atlantic’s recording artists.
“WRNO was supportive to Led Zeppelin. Joe Costello, the GM, let the guys run the show,” says Rauls. “You had Captain Humble and Bobby Reno. The first record that WTIX played was “Stairway to Heaven” and it took an Act of Congress to get that record on there,” remembers Rauls. “Stairway to Heaven” was a major breakthrough because up to that time they were really an FM radio band and for Top 40 AM to end up laying that single—it was a major breakthrough.”
As a Memphis boy, Rauls had something in common with Zeppelin. “They always wanted to talk about blues music and Memphis music, and that was the small bond that I had with them.” He found Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to be very polite, very British, but they could get down with the best of them.
After the concert, Zeppelin headed straight to Bourbon Street to see Frankie Ford play at the Gateway on the corner of Bourbon & Iberville. Stephen Davis describes the scene at the Gateway in Hammer of the Gods: “Robert Plant, dressed in a glittery silver blouse open to the waist, asked Ford to sing ‘Sea Cruise,’ his big hit from the fifties. Later they went to a club called Déjà Vu, whose owner asked Led Zeppelin to imprint their hands in the fresh cement outside. ‘Why don’t you get them to put cocks in,’ Peter Grant suggested. Robert said he didn’t think his would make an imprint.”
Before they left New Orleans, Atlantic Records boss Ahmet Ertegun threw a party for the band at Cosimo Matassa’s Jazz City. Soul food comprised the menu that night and all of New Orleans’ best R&B and rock legends would perform: Willie Tee, Art Neville and the Meters, Ernie K-Doe, the Wild Magnolias, Snooks Eaglin and the Olympia Brass Band. Rauls helped coordinate that party and remembers the event like it was yesterday.
“They didn’t need some ritzy ballroom,” he says. “Just going to a funky, soulful recording studio in a beat down part of New Orleans and to meet the guys they grew up listening to—they were in seventh heaven. Willie Tee was still alive, Ernie K-Doe was there, Professor Longhair—all these guys were former Atlantic artists that Ertegun had a relationship with. To bring them out at Cosimo’s party, it gave the band a woody.”
John Bonham with Professor Longhair. Photo by Sidney Smith.
Davis writes of the party in Hammer of the Gods, “John Paul Jones played organ while a stripper bumped and grinded on the tabletop. Jimmy and Robert watched in awe as the elder statesman of rock and roll strutted their stuff.”
As the party organizers, including Rauls, were going over the guest list and the media list for the event, they asked the band what they wanted. Page and Plant requested “a lot of flat-chested little birds,” so as a joke Ahmet Ertegun arranged for four taxi cabs of Girl Scouts to be driven to the party’s entrance. John Paul Jones had a more eccentric request that night.
“Jones told the party organizers that he wanted some New Orleans drag queens,” says Rauls. “Everyone has their fetish I guess. ‘Make sure the top two drag queens of the French Quarter are there’ and sure enough they were, and he spent most of the evening over in the corner chatting with them.”
In Richard Cole’s book Stairway to Heaven, the former tour manager for Led Zeppelin remembers one particularly embarrassing night for Jones and his New Orleans transvestite acquaintances.
“John Paul was chatting with a couple of drag queens in a New Orleans bar,” he writes. “The queens were flirting endlessly with him as if they had found their ‘catch’ for the evening. One of the ‘girls’—Stephanie—eventually ended up with Jonesy in his room back at the Royal Orleans. It seems they were smoking a joint or two. The joint suddenly started the bed on fire, and within minutes sirens were blaring and firemen were tearing down the doors and taking their axes to the place.
“Later, Jonesy insisted that he didn’t know the transvestite was a man. He looked sincere during his explanation, but no matter what the truth really was, we knew we had caught him in a rather embarrassing situation. ‘We’re not going to let Jonesy forget about this one for a long time,’ I told Robert.”
Zeppelin’s song “Royal Orleans” is an account of Jones’ infamous adventures at the classic New Orleans hotel that night:
Out at a hotel in the quarter, our friends check in to pass the night Now love gets hot, but fire preceded water Poor whiskers set the room alight. Whiskers!
At the time, New Orleans was just beginning to get a strong reputation with the rock groups as a place to lay over between their Southern concert dates. You would hit Dallas, Houston, San Antonio; you might jump up to Oklahoma City or Little Rock. But you would come into New Orleans or Baton Rouge, and then you would get a hiccup in the schedule, purposely.
“Sometimes, they would let the groups regroup there in New Orleans for a day or two and unwind because traveling and touring is very stressful work and it’s indeed hard,” says Rauls. “To have a couple of days off in New Orleans to go down and hear some jazz music on Bourbon Street and have some nice cuisine and let your hair down just was a great deal for a band like Zeppelin.”
According to author Stephen Davis’ LZ-’75, The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 American Tour, the band’s affection for the Crescent City drew a chorus of catcalls at a 1975 concert in Dallas. “After ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’,” he writes, “Robert (Plant) exclaimed to the audience that it was great to be back in Texas ‘even if me and Pagey been flying back to New Orleans every night.’”
Rauls remembers, “The band were bad boys. They weren’t necessarily the greatest band in the world to have stay at your hotel for 48 hours—the madness that it created through the lobby and fire escapes and the laundry rooms, and all the craziness that goes with a rock band and fans trying to gain access. Terry Bassett of Concerts West offered to let them stay at his ranch on the outside of Dallas, and in between Dallas gigs they would fly into New Orleans to party and have a good time.”
The Ivanhoe became one of the band’s favorite hangouts. Rauls, Page and Plant were staying at the Downtowner across from the Ivanhoe, and they would go over there after a gig—John Bonham, too—and on occasion they went up and jammed onstage, and of course it would be 2:30 in the morning. There would only be 30 to 50 people in the room.
“Of course, drinks were being poured, tabs were being run and it was good to see the band get up and intermingle with the local musicians and just see two members of Led Zeppelin playing at the Ivanhoe,” Rauls remembers. “On one occasion, me and Bonzo (John Bonham) went in there and he went up onstage and played. Oh Christ, it was madness.”
Ironically, Plant would also experience the pain of a lifetime in the city that he had come to love. Led Zeppelin had just checked in at the Maison Dupuy Hotel for a July 30, 1977 concert at the Superdome that would never happen. Maureen Plant phoned her husband from England to inform him that their five-year old son Karac was gravely ill with a viral infection. Two hours later, Maureen called Robert once again with devastating news; Karac was dead.
“The band had just arrived at the Maison Dupuy Hotel in Louisiana—where the governor planned to make them honorary colonels,” writes Mick Wall in his biography of the band, When Giants Walked the Earth. “As Plant put the phone down, his world collapsed. So did what was left of Led Zeppelin’s. All of the remaining shows were cancelled.”
Often, the best thing about buying a vintage T-shirt (aside from its lovingly worn-in softness) is the price. You don't have to spend much to get some pee wee softball T from Burbank that is charmingly unique.
The best thing about this T-shirt is definitely not the price tag -- it's the fact that it was used as a backstage pass to Led Zeppelin concerts for the very few anointed with super-fan status. It sold for $10,000 on eBay to a buyer in Australia, which is reportedly the highest recorded price ever paid for a T-shirt.
The seller, Stormcrow Vintage, specializes in sartorial music paraphernalia, so if you're looking for a rare vintage Ice Cube, David Bowie, or Hall & Oates T, this is the place to go -- as long as you've got the budget.
"Been a long time since i rock and rolled...", The infamous Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin is the master of vocals and song writing. Of course you do remember Black Dog and Stairway To Heaven. The list goes on for the marvel man of steel and so does his relationship with music.
Starting on May 14, 2011, Mr. Robert Plant will have a special that will air in several sections on Sirius XM. Robert Plant will join host Mike Marrone for the special episodes on Playin' Records with Mike.
On Robert's special, Echoes, Part 1 airing 3:00pm ET on The Loft, Channel 30, and SiriusXM Internet Radio. Plant has chosen a variety of songs to play for Mikes listeners. Robert’ line-up include The Rascals, Spencer Davis Group, Terry Reid, The Pretty Things, Small Faces, Cyril Davies and Sonny Boy Williamson.
Mr. Plant says, What I wanted to do was try and play the original songs and then the covers and just go through the very early days... The British, we really tried to get a grip of it all and it was very interesting to see what this kind of anglicized vision of American music was.
Look for Robert Plant’s new album Band of Joy recently released.
Playin' Records with Mike has headlined the show with guest artist such as Booker T, Bryan Ferry, Steve Earle and Robbie Robertson.
Sirius XM's The Loft offers a diversity of styles and genres from all eras for the engaging music lovers.
The drummer says one song on the upcoming CD from his band Black Country Communion dates back to his 2008 rehearsals with Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones.
"There's a song that started off as an idea that I worked on with (them), so I was happy to finish it off with this band and have it come out," the 44-year-old drummer says. "It's called 'Save Me'. You'll notice it in the riff. You'll hear a slight Zepesque riff ... it's got a definite feel to it."
Bonham, the son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, rehearsed with Page and Jones for several months after the band's 2007 reunion concert in London -- but the project fell apart after singer Robert Plant declined to participate and they were unable to find a way forward.
"I was very much under the illusion that we were going to write an album and we were going to put together a new project," Bonham says. "It was winter, like early December of 2008 when it kind of came to a halt, which was a hard thing for me to get over for a while. I had just played the concert of my life."
Bonham has since created the Led Zeppelin Experience show and formed BCC with singer-bassist Glenn Hughes, guitarist Joe Bonamassa and keyboardist Derek Sherinian. Their second album, simply titled 2, is due out in June.
If you still have your VHS copy of The Song Remains the Same then you are definitely familiar with the car in the following photos.
A man named Will, from England, reports that he lives right down the street from where one of John Bonham's former cars underwent some updating last year. Will saw this earlier post and sent over a couple shots of the C-Cab Ford Model T-based hotrod that still displays its original name: "Andy's Instant T."
Built in the early 1970s by Andy Brizio in San Francisco, California, and later shipped to the United Kingdom by the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, this particular "Andy's Instant T" car was left sitting for quite some time. The current owner purchased the car from Bonham's family after his death with the understanding that the car not be old in the future. Although the paint and bodywork remained in very good condition, the motor needed major attention and the Dougsport shop in Stourbridge, England was chosen to handle the task. (From what I've been reading, there are other Ts built by Brizio that fit into the category of being one of the Instant T type of T buckets.) Though the T now runs a type of supercharger that wasn't originally included when Brizio built the car, the rest of the ride remains as when Bonham owned the custom C-Cab Model T. (Scroll down this link to see a backside view of the car.)
The iconic Zeppelin drummer reportedly bought the car around 1974. By this time, master automotive painter Art Himsl had already applied the custom ribbon paintwork and accompanying "Andy's" lettering. These days, the newly revived Chevy V8 resides up front while a few old Zeppelin tour posters and a pack of cigarettes can still be found in the back. Even though we're not sure exactly when Bonham first got to park "Andy's Instant T" in his own garage, it can now be said that after an engine rebuild at Dougsport, (which normally builds racing engines) the T runs just as well, if not better, than when it was last seen with Bonham at the controls.
Now if you're not a Zep-head or think that Neil Peart blew Bonham away behind the kit, you still owe it to yourself to put "The Song Remains the Same" on your queue and at least skip ahead the the scenes built around "Moby Dick." In Bonzo's dream sequence, which isn't nearly as psychedelic as the rest, he shows us his unique motorbike riding stance - no seat needed: he stands up on the pegs - himself and family relaxing at home, drag racing and cruising by fields in the exact car shown in the above photos. (Thanks, Will, for sending these great shots of a beautiful, notable car.)
There are few people in the music industry who can claim to have a Midas touch such as that of famed producer and engineer Andy Johns. His work with bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Van Halen have made him a legend in the recording community, and after being involved in albums that have sold more than 160 million copies, there is no doubt that just about everything Andy becomes involved in is going to be special.
Though he is known for his work on such classic albums as Exile on Main Street, Physical Graffiti and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Johns has also worked on some of the biggest records of the new millennium. Chickenfoot, Godsmack and Eric Johnson have all called upon Johns to work with them on recent projects, and the results have been stellar. Whereas many of his contemporaries from the early days have fallen by the wayside, Johns shows no signs of slowing down, leading fans to believe that his best work in the studio may be yet to come.
Guitar International recently sat down with Andy Johns to talk about his long career in the studio, working with legends like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and to get his thoughts on digital versus analog recording technology.
Andy Johns in the Studio
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Matt Warnock: You worked on Chickenfoot's debut album, which was released in 2009. After going into the studio over the years with many different working bands, did you approach working with a "Supergroup," any differently than any other band that you've worked with?
Andy Johns: Well, I'd produced an album with Joe Satriani back in the early '90s and it did very well. We had a lot of fun together on that project. I had also worked with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony back when I used to produce Van Halen. So, I knew those guys. It wasn't new territory for me. Chad Smith, the drummer, is a very nice cat, great drummer, and so there weren't really any worries.
We started doing some demos at Sammy's studio and felt out some material. Then we went up to Skywalker, just up the road really because Sammy and Joe live in the Bay area. We were kind of still in the process of writing songs when we were there, and I felt that we were a little short of songs at that point. There was this one idea that Sammy had and I kept on him to hand it over, which he reluctantly did in the end and it turned out to be a great song.
Joe and I did a lot of work in the studio together, just sort of fooling around with the songs, after the initial tracks were laid out. I had a very good time with that project and working with those great musicians.
Matt: When you work with musicians such as Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar and recently with Steve Miller, who are all legends in the industry and highly experienced in the studio, do you just guide them along the way or do you still get in there and work hands on with them through the entire recording process?
Andy: With Joe Satriani, we bounced off each other a lot. I participate quite a lot with Joe. With Steve Miller, we did a live DVD, but then we did a studio album of blues songs, actually we did two but the second one's not out yet. I definitely had input during those projects.
I worked with the drummer during tracking, when necessary. Then with Steve's guitar work, I'm fairly sure that I got some performances out of him that we would not have had otherwise. Various ideas for overdubs as well and he seemed very happy with all of that. We were supposed to work again this April, but he went on the road instead.
I've known Steve Miller since I was 17, and my brother had worked with him a lot over the years. I've always been a big fan of Steve's music so it was very cool to work with him. When we were cutting tracks, as opposed to doing it like, "Oh, we'll keep the drums and redo everything else one at a time," and I'll admit that I'm the biggest culprit of doing that as anybody. We went back to doing it with everybody doing it at once. We kept the keys, the bass, drums and the other guitar player.
We did add Steve's stuff later on, but everything else was done together, and we had a very good time doing it that way. We eventually ended up at his house to doing the mixes and overdubs, which is a great place to work. He has a great place to work up in Sun Valley, Idaho so that was a great experience, once again, thank you very much. [Laughs]
Andy Johns
Matt: You also worked on Eric Johnson's much anticipated 2010 album Up Close. Can you tell us about that experience?
Andy: That was just mixing, but that went very well. Eric's a very meticulous guy, but we got along very well. He was pleased and complimentary as hell. He has a great studio. It took me a few days to get used to, but it had everything that we needed. We spent probably a couple of weeks mixing that. It was very well recorded and his arrangements and parts were all in place, so I just had to learn what was there.
He's a great guy, so it was an easy gig. I had worked with him years ago with a friend of mine in Austin on this blues song where he came by and played, that's when I realized just how good he really is. A lot of people said, "He can be very anal in the studio," but when we were working together he wasn't. If he heard something he'd definitely say what it was, which is cool with me, because I want to make myself happy and in return make the artist happy as well.
Matt: Do you have a preference for working with someone like Eric who's very meticulous about things, or for people who just turn everything over to you and let you take the reins?
Andy: It all depends. Obviously each artist is slightly different. It was helpful to have Eric there a lot of the time because there were a lot of parts and he could tell me what was there, what he felt was missing, how he had designed everything and put it together. Sometimes bands will just send me stuff, like Los Lonely Boys did about a year ago for this EP that they were doing about 1969. One of the songs was something I did with Blind Faith back then. That was fairly simple and I really didn't need them there for that. I think I just did one keyboard overdub on one of the songs, and they loved it.
So, every situation is a little bit different, and sometimes I get driven up the wall by people who don't know what they're doing. Sometimes they'll want to try stuff that looks good on paper, but that I've tried over the years and know it's not going to work, but it's difficult to turn around to somebody and say, "No, I'm not going to fucking bother with that because it doesn't work." [Laughs]
For example, the stuff I did last year with the Derek and the Dominos box set was material that I had recorded way back in '71 and was listed as co-producer on the stuff. So, I knew the material inside and out and was able to just dive right into it, and I think it turned out great. I'm really proud of how that project turned out.
Matt: Looking back over your career as a producer, it seems as if you like to focus on one or two big recording projects each year. Is this a conscious thing, you like to only have one or two projects on the books at one time, or just the way things have worked out?
Andy: It's really about who's calling and who isn't. In the last few years I've liked to do a couple albums per year, and I've also been doing 5.1's for this other company that I've been working with for about nine years now. That's a lot of work, because you have to do a stereo and a 5.1, but the recording doesn't take that long because it's only 1 gig or maybe 2. Something like the Steve Miller project though, working on and off, took us about five or six months.
Those kinds of gigs don't come around very often these days because the budgets just don't exist for them anymore. Most guys will call me up to mix, or we've got to do it quickly for not much money. It's been tough. The last two years, it's really sunk in for me that the business that I grew up in is gone, and it's a bit disappointing.
Andy Johns
Matt: You've been in the studio for many classic rock records, including Exile on Main Street, Led Zeppelin IV and countless others. Do you think that artists today could produce an enduring album like one of these in today's economic climate?
Andy: I don't have a crystal ball, but I do know that a lot of people went out and bought themselves Pro Tools rigs, but the atmosphere is not the same as being in a proper, cool studio. That's why it was great working in Skywalker studio on two projects, because I felt very at home. You're surrounded by professionals and it drives you on a bit. So many people buy a Pro Tools rig and think they'll record an album, but it doesn't really work that way.
A lot of people will figure out how to get signal paths, mic the bass drum and then think, "I'm an engineer." [Laughs] "Let's put a tambourine on that. Great I'm a record producer as well." But, it took me years and years to really figure it all out. The first record I produced was in '69, and though it was a hit, I didn't feel that comfortable with things back then. It wasn't until the '80s when I felt good about doing it exclusively, which carried me through the '80s and '90s.
The Godsmack record I did was number one, Chickenfoot was I think number four. So, even when you're having a bad day you can think, "Well wait a minute, I've got a record that's at number one." [Laughs] But, as far as sales go now, it's abysmal, and to make money out of downloads can be tough. The money's not really there anymore man. I'm still having fun in the studio, but the in-depth projects that I like to work on just aren't bloody well out there anymore.
Matt: Since you've worked in the studio since '69, are you still working with some analog technology or are you all digital at this point?
Andy: I've been all digital now for quite some time. I haven't recorded an album on multi-track tape since, oh I don't know five or six years ago I guess. With Steve Miller, he brought in all this tape and we started that way, but about half-way through he said, "Fuck it Andy it takes too much time, let's just do it in Pro Tools." I said fine, because the drums were just banged over to Pro Tools and it ended up sounded great. I actually got an email from Roadrunner records saying that it was one of the best sounding albums they've heard in a while, which is unusual because they don't usually bother. I'm happy enough with Pro Tools, and it sounds great, as long as you don't use it as a crutch it's great.
I'm happy with the sound of tape, but a lot of people who haven't used tape much say to me, "Andy back in the day when you were using tape didn't it warm up the sound?" Well, no it didn't, it didn't do anything to the sound. In fact, more often than not you were struggling with the multi-track machine to get it to sound identical when you AB'ed it. If you're overdubbing guitar and vocal for instance you don't hear much of a difference. It's only when you do everything together that the top end is a little more electronic. But I've done things digitally that I'm very happy with and they keep getting it better all the time. Tape technology can be very dodgy. The number of times that I had problems with tape machines over the years is innumerable.
2011 NAMM Josh Vittek Andy Johns Steve Grindrod
Matt: Was there any one project, an album or a particular track, that posed a unique and hard to work out problem for you over the years that has really stuck out in your mind?
Andy: Well I suppose the one, which didn't catch me by surprise but had I not been so keen could have been very difficult, was the Exile on Main Street album. That was a very unique situation where we were working in a basement at Keith's house. It was really tough to record in that space. There was tons of waiting around, and being in the south of France in the summertime it was very hot.
The electricity kept going on and off, it was just a Stones thing, something always seemed to happen when those guys were around. That took nearly a year. Back then if you took more than three or four weeks to record an album, something was wrong, but that project took us just about eleven months to finish.
Matt: When you were in the studio working on Led Zeppelin IV, did you have a sense for how big that album and Stairway To Heaven was going to be when it was released? Andy: Well, I didn't think that 40 years down the road people would still want to know about Stairway To Heaven. [Laughs] I knew it was going to be a good record because those guys were phenomenal musicians and Jimmy Page really knew how to get things done in the studio very quickly. They were very fast because Page and John Paul Jones were very experienced studio musicians who had played on thousands of dates over the years.
I don't think we knew that the album would have the legs that it had, and back then we didn't think that Rock n Roll would have the legs that it's had to be quite honest. You were thinking much beyond the next few years, it was just, "We'll see what happens and go from there."
Matt: You've worked with just about every big name in the industry during your career. Is there one person or band that you haven't had a chance to work with that you'd still like to record with in the future?
Andy: Yeah, there have been some people. Tom Petty is obviously amazing, but he's been working with the same guy for years and years. I'd also like to work with Sheryl Crow because I really relate to her songs. There aren't really any young bands out there that I'm dying to work with, except maybe Coldplay, they're pretty fucking amazing. I dig them. But I don't really think in terms like that. I got to work with just about everyone I wanted to back in the day, except maybe Neil Young. I even got to do some stuff with Bob Dylan once on a movie. But, no not really, sorry. [Laughs]
Few bands in the history of rock can say that they served as the launching pad for multiple guitarists. But that's exactly what the Yardbirds were able to accomplish during their 1960's heyday, as they saw the likes of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page pass through their ranks.
Original members Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar) and Jim McCarthy (drums) still perform as the Yardbirds, and continue to tour the world to this day.
Recently, Dreja OK'd a Short-But-Sweet Interview assignment.
UGO: Looking back, what was your favorite Yardbirds line-up?
CHRIS DREJA: Beck, Relf, Samwell-Smith, McCarty and Dreja.
UGO: Why do you think the Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page Yardbirds line-up didn't last longer?
CHRIS DREJA: Ego and Jeff had a burn out. Jeff did not really enjoy his lead guitar space being invaded.
UGO: When you heard that Mr. Page was launching a band called "The New Yardbirds" [which became Led Zeppelin], what were your thoughts?
CHRIS DREJA: When the original Yardbirds burnt out there were still some contracted dates to fulfill, I had no problem for Jimmy to play those dates. Using the name beyond those shows I was not happy about, and through my lawyer I made that plain to Peter Grant. I still have the document. They quite rightly changed their name to Led Zeppelin and never looked back.
UGO: What are some memories of taking the classic photo of Led Zeppelin for the back cover of Led Zeppelin I?
CHRIS DREJA: I always got on well with Jimmy especially with photos of him, so it was nice to be approached for the photography of the very first album. It was early days for me as a studio photographer so it was a very simple shot. Apart from Jimmy who was already pretty well known, the others were charming, polite and shy and it was very interesting to me when a couple of years later when I photographed the band again, how much they had changed and grown in stature apart from John Bonham who had grown an obvious problem, and seemed oblivious to the whole session, not the innocent young man I had photographed on the album.
UGO: Which other bands did you photograph back in the day, and memories of each?
CHRIS DREJA: My early work was all reportage, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed are there somewhere and some other characters, I did an extensive session for Fleetwood Mac but I moved pretty quickly into advertising and design work.
UGO: Was Yardbirds/Zep manager Peter Grant really as fearsome a character as everyone makes him out to be?
CHRIS DREJA: If you were part of his family he was truly wonderful, if you were not, you had better really watch how you behaved.
UGO: What do you have to say to those who don't like the fact that the Yardbirds are still touring, but without Clapton, Beck, or Page?
CHRIS DREJA: I do not say anything. It's a well known fact that throughout the Yardbirds career there have been quite a few outstanding guitarists, the band is known partly for that. It is also known for its innovation and a collection of amazing songs. We play with great passion all over the world and have re-built an infinity with existing and new fans of the band.
UGO: What's on the horizon for the Yardbirds?
CHRIS DREJA: We just played in Japan and left one day before the country almost heaved to total destruction. So, personally speaking, I'm doing just one day at a time and treasuring bringing enjoyment where I can.
NEW TIGHT BUT LOOSE MAGAZINE OUT SOON, COMMENCING THE 2011 ISSUES - DON'T MISS OUT SUBSCRIBE NOW!
The new issue of the Tight But Loose magazine edited and published by Dave Lewis is due out next month. This issue 29 commences the TBL 2011 subscription offer and is packed full of all the latest news, views and features.
Here's what's in store:
Led Zeppelin: Feather In The Wind Over Europe 1980 Book preview
Led Zeppelin Back To The Clubs 1971 - Phil Tait I was there at the Newcastle Mayfair Plus Mike Tremaglio's March to July 1971 log
Stairway To Heaven At 40 - Still causing a bustle in your hedgerow?
John Paul Jones: A Night At The Opera
Bob Harris: The TBL Interview
BCC Exclusive: Jason Bonham & Glenn Hughes talk TBL through Black Country Communion 2
Plus Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy tour latest, Jimmy Page book feedback, Zep Fest 2011, CD reviews and more
All exclusive 32 page content presented in an all colour format that can be stored, and re- read time and time again. In an era of here today gone tomorrow instantly digested info, the Tight But Loose magazine remains a true tangible collectable.
Issue 29 due mid to late May kicks off the three issue subscription that will be followed by issue 30 in late September and issue 31 in January 2012
If you are a 2010 subscriber your subscription ended with issue 28 Now is the time to re subscribe! If you are a newcomer to TBL this is the perfect opportunity to get on board. If you love Led Zeppelin, you will love this magazine...
Here's some feedback from satisfied subscribers
"Received the latest TBL issue. The best ever. Like the new design and layout. I am savouring each and every article. Keep up the good work!" Damien Grieff - UK
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Original Yardbirds guitarist, Anthony "Top" Topham, was almost in Led Zeppelin.
Guitar International recently interviewed Topham, who talked about being in The Yardbirds, Fender Telecaster guitars and music in general. He also dropped two major bombshells that Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant and guitarist Jimmy Page invited Topham via telegram to join a reformation of The Yardbirds and also that there is an unreleased, pre-Led Zeppelin album, under the name of The New Yardbirds.
Top Topham:Well this is what happened,in 1968 I was making Ascension Heights, my album with Blue Horizon records (CBS), with Mike Vernon as the producer. I received three telegrams, which I still have, from Peter Grant and Jimmy Page,expressing an urgency to get in touch with them,one of these said “great news for you.” I called them from our local telephone box in Kingston on Thames, Surrey, we didn’t have a phone in those days, and I spoke to Jimmy who I saw reasonably regularly. He said he wanted to reform under the name of the New Yardbirds and hit America, and asked if I would be interested.
Wait for it, I said no. As I was writing and playing on my own album at that time it seemed like the right choice. Whether he was intending on me being in the band, I know not. It was a flurry of ideas and I would think at that time as he owned the Yardbirds name, which was a very clever move.
Also, it’s a fact that a pre-Zeppelin album exists under the name the New Yardbirds, and includes much of the same as early Zepp. I believe this has never been released. Who knows? Interestingly, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy played in our interval at Mothers in Birmingham ’67-’68. I was in the Fox and they used my Marshall amp for the gigs. Jimmy played with Duster Bennett and I at an Epsom Art school dance in 64. I remember us all raving about Earl Hooker. I think he played some slide on that gig as well. What goes around comes around, it was all normal really.
If you'd seen Led Zeppelin play a concert in a tiny recreation center with just a few other fans, you'd probably remember it.
Whether it actually happened, or is merely rock lore, historians and music fans remain fascinated by Led Zeppelin's Jan. 20, 1969 concert at the Wheaton Youth Center.
Led Zeppelin's official website lists the concert in the band's timeline of performances between 1968 and 2007, as "officially unconfirmed and no proof has yet surfaced."
Music historian and documentary filmmaker Jeff Krulik, whose credits include Heavy Metal Parking Lot "has hours and hours of tape" for his new project, Led Zeppelin Played Here, which explores the Wheaton show.
Krulik will show a rough cut of his project during the upcoming ZepFest, a three-day festival of all things Zeppelin, coming to National Harbor this Memorial Day weekend.
"We're certainly going to explore the possibility that the night Richard Nixon was inaugurated, Led Zeppelin played in Wheaton," says Mark Boudreau, chief executive officer and festival director of ZepFest.
Krulik has been gathering footage and interviews to determine whether the concert ever occurred.
"No new breakthroughs, but I take everyone's word at face value, including promoter DJ Barry Richards and quite a few that claim it did happen," Krulik tells WTOP.
"No tickets, flyers, photos, diary entries, radio spots, concrete evidence has surfaced, and likely never will," says Krulik.
Robert Plant and his Band of Joy were about a third of the way through Please Read The Letter – a song which Plant and Alison Krauss had turned into a gorgeous, plaintive song of longing on their album Raising Sand – when a horrific noise overtook Hard Rock Live.
Think about what a train wreck might sound like from inside the train and you get the general gist of it.
Plant kept going, but it was instantly clear that the sound system was blown out. You could barely hear the one-time vocal superman (back in his days in Led Zeppelin), and the crowd was beginning to stir – with even a few unfair boos popping up.
Gamely, Plant and the roadies sprang into action, turning the monitors and amplifiers toward the crowd – and yes, Plant was right in the middle of this action, allowing neither his status nor his age (62) to stand in the way of making sure the Hard Rock crowd was entertained. And the crowd began to turn around quickly, cheering him and his band on, and clapping in time with the music.
After the song was over, Plant, who had been engaging in pleasant banter all night with the audience, saying how he was taught never to curse in public, but that the PA system was — and here he used the past tense of a well-known Anglo-Saxon profanity.
But Plant wasn’t discouraged, instead talking with the crowd as his and the venue’s technical staff worked out the problem. He spoke about how a friend from Tottenham in London had been visiting and more, before finally saying something that truly underlined why this guy is a legend:
"This is what it was like in 1969, when you couldn’t hear a f*****g thing!"
The crowd went nuts.
After that, with the PA system just workable enough to use, Plant and band launched into three Led Zeppelin songs – Houses of the Holy, Ramble On, and then for the encore, Gallows Pole – before bidding the crowd a good night.
During those songs, the crowd was clearly energized, clapping on the beat, cheering wildly, and Plant was into it too: "I feel alive! I feel awake!" he said between Houses and Ramble On. He certainly appeared that way — there was a howl during Ramble On which seemed to echo from somewhere around 1974.
It was Plant’s ability to make the best of a weird situation that made his show change from merely a fond memory into one where anyone who was in attendance would say, "Yes! I was at THAT show!"
The show likely would’ve been memorable anyway, as it brought Plant’s more Americana bent to South Florida (for the second time in two years – he’d also played Miami’s Bayfront Park Amphitheatre in summer 2010). He’s surrounded himself with incredible musicians, and they’ve both pulled in the great originals and covers from Plant’s most recent solo album, also called Band of Joy, and rearranged some Zeppelin and Plant solo classics in new and wonderful ways.
The Zeppelin fans would be appeased immediately, when Plant broke into Black Dog as the show’s opener. But instead of the high-pitched power of the 1970s Plant, when his blonde hair was wild and his shirts were both open and a size or two too small, you had the more controlled vocal of today’s Plant – whose blonde mane has been tamed slightly into shoulder-length curls and, combined with a close-cropped beard, gave him the appearance of an English poet from centuries past.
These days, Plant’s voice finds its way into a mix of other vocalists where the mesh is the thing. He and Grammy-winning singer Patty Griffin sounded gorgeous together on House of Cards, a cover of a Richard and Linda Thompson song, and on Monkey, another cover, this one of a song by the band Low. And then there were the full-group vocals, which worked well together throughout.
Plant made sure to get the point across that this tour is about his Band of Joy, and not just about him. He shared the spotlight with Griffin, who sang the R&B song Ocean of Tears, with guitarist/captain of this ship Buddy Miller, who sang Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go and provided superb guitar work throughout, and singer/multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, who song the Porter Waggoner song A Satisfied Mind.
(And to complete the full credit to his band, let’s not forget the work by bassist Byron House, who showed a deft touch, and especially drummer Marco Giovino, who handled the difficult task of being extremely proficient without loudly overshadowing the subtleties of Plant and Miller’s arrangements.)
Even without the mishap and Plant’s remarkable ability to grow a beautiful rose from a metaphoric pile of manure, the Band of Joy’s performance would’ve made the Hard Rock show one heck of a memory.
Openers the Lee Boys, a Miami-based combo that’ve played both locally and regionally for a while now, seemed to fit the Americana mold of the night. Their sound is known as sacred steel — a hard-driving mix of rhythm & blues, rock and gospel that’s built around the intense steel guitar work of Roosevelt Collier. Not surprisingly, they and Plant are both headed for the rootsy Wanee Music Festival this weekend.
Whitesnake leader and vocalist, David Coverdale, recently stopped by Clear Channel Classic Rock WAXQ (Q104.3)/New York and chatted with Carol Miller, the host of the nationally distributed Led Zeppelin series, Get The Led Out. The interview will be broadcast during the week of April 18-24, and Coverdale's promotional visit was in support of the new album called Forevermore, Whitesnake's 11th studio recording since the band’s formation in 1977.
Led Zeppelin fans recall that in 1991, David Coverdale teamed up with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page for an album, Coverdale and Page. The pair toured Japan, but after that trek, the group disbanded. During this interview, Coverdale discusses his project with Jimmy Page as well as the upcoming Whitesnake tour. Get The Led Out is heard in over 100 markets and is produced by Denny Somacj for distribution through the United Stations Radio Network.
The long golden ringlets, the rock-star poses and the microphone-stand strut are still the same. But the songs don't remain the same when Robert Plant sings them.
The voice of Led Zeppelin brought his solo tour to the sold-out State Theatre in Minneapolis Tuesday. There was no bare chest, Stairway to Heaven or Jimmy Page. This was the 62-year-old British rock god's continuing exploration of American music, with an emphasis on the rootsy Americana of his 2010 album Band of Joy. There were a handful of Zeppelin songs, but they were re-imagined to fit his current, no-earplugs-necessary but still essential sound.
The 105-minute concert was tremendously exciting, not in a rock 'n' roll thrilling kind of way but in an artful, deeply enriching, adventurously musical kind of way. While playing with probably the quietest drummer in his plugged-in career, Plant led an all-star American band that was organic and refreshing. Adept at the blues, bluegrass and Bob Dylan, they also mixed in Eastern, Indo-jazz and world-music elements.
The MVP had to be Buddy Miller, whose guitar was equally edgy and eerie. Darrell Scott offered a spice-rack full of seasonings on mandolin, banjo and other stringed instruments. Patty Griffin's voice provided the perfect contrast to Plant's, whether high and lonesome or mournfully soulful. Vocally, this concert was more about close harmonies than preternatural wails, more about nuance than power. The Golden God did cut loose once or twice (noticeably on Zep's Ramble On) but he was more about heartfelt singing, delivering the haunting, spiritual Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down and a backwoods harmonic moan on Zep's Black Country Woman.
The lyrics of the five Zeppelin numbers were familiar but not the musical treatments. The opening Black Dog was an undulating swamp excursion with wah-wah guitar while Tangerine became a pedal-steel-kissed plaint. The slowly building House of the Holy was less memorable than Richard Thompson's House of Cards, with its Eastern meets Appalachia construction. That and other Band of Joy numbers made the night, especially Silver Rider by the Duluth band Low. It started with seductive sweetness and evolved into a languidly dreamy piece, with undertones of surf guitar and orchestral harmonies. It sounded like an American answer to the mystical magic that Plant made with his old band.
(Originally published in The Plain Dealer July 21, 1969)
While millions watched for the Eagle on the moon, 2,500 young people went on a 9-minute trip of their own.
They stomped, clapped, danced in the aisles as four British bombshells, the Led Zeppelin made a three-point landing at Musicarnival last night.
Lead singer Robert Plant, 21, comes on strong like a male Janis Joplin. His collarbone length blonde hair looks like a cheap permanent caught in the rain.
Plant shakes his shoulders, jumps high in the air, stomps his $60 python boots, twirls the mike like a lariat, does the bumps and grinds like a flat-chested sexy headliner. And the standing-room-only audience was with him all the way.
“Have you ever been shaken?” he rasped out to the audiences during his You Shook Me song and the group screamed back “Yes.” Plants murmurs words and syllables like Cab Calloway.
Feature for many was a fine solo, White Summer by Jimmy Page, one of the world’s best guitarists. He was the backbone of the old Yardbirds three years ago and he’s still a steel smash.
The Led Zeppelin did five songs. Their Dazed and Confused, a 10-minute ride, brought them sailing in a tight jam session that was the highlight of the night.
Drummer John Bonham, 21, in a black T-shirt that looked like the upper part of a 1920 swimsuit, hit a heavy beat that brought fee stomping and stepping.
“You make me feel so young!” Plant would up with their last song.
With screams of “more” the Led Zeppelin came back to do an encore, Communication Breakdown.
Nothing could be further from the experience last night.
The finale gave bass player John Paul Jones, 22, a chance to shine.
The opening minutes of Robert Plant's concert at the Riverside Theater Monday night would have been inauspicious if not for the breadth of what followed.
The former Led Zeppelin lead singer came out in clothing that lowered expectations: shabby blue jeans and a gray T-shirt that failed to conceal a body grown doughy with age.
He and his Band of Joy then presented Zep's Black Dog in a way that confoundingly removed the bombastic heart of the original.
But then Plant spent the rest of the night demonstrating the aptness of his band's name.
It was the band he worked with on last year's Band of Joy album, the sessions for which evidently resulted in a blissful connection among the musicians.
They also just as evidently intensified Plant's ability to interpret the songs of others, an ability given a serious workout on Raising Sand, his 2007 Grammy-winning album with Alison Krauss.
Monday night, he captured the whispering menace of Low's Monkey, kept faith with the traditional Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down and bit into the vengefulness of Richard Thompson's House of Cards - without losing his own identity.
He was helped considerably by Buddy Miller, whom he described as the captain of the ship.
Not unlike Plant, Miller had to balance the essence of a song against his own creativity. (On House of Cards, for example, he echoed but did not ape Thompson's guitar playing.)
He didn't need that balance, however, when Plant stepped back so that Miller could rip through his own great country-blues number, Somewhere Trouble Don't Go.
Plant did the same for multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott and singer-songwriter Patty Griffin; he was content to supply backing vocals and prickly blues harmonica.
Most of the audience recognized the Band of Joy's talents, but of course most of the audience was happiest when Plant dug into the Zep catalog.
Even there, Plant reinterpreted: The folk-rock Tangerine added Scott's pedal-steel twang, while Ramble On became something like a Middle Eastern madrigal.
The finale was Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, which was both grizzled (because Plant's voice had gotten hoarse by then) and gorgeous (because the Band of Joy harmonized around him).
Robert Plant could've trotted out a greatest hits set Saturday at the Auditorium Theatre and no one likely would've complained. Just even a hint of that old Led Zeppelin mojo, and he'd be basking in standing ovations.
Instead, the 62-year-old singer gave easy nostalgia the brushoff at the sold-out concert and went for something far more elusive. He's chased the muse of American music from his European home for several decades, and now he's got an American band to help him explore the roots of blues, country and folk. But again, the angle he took on these traditions was not always obvious, shadow-boxing with tradition and putting greater stock in rolling rhythm than rock bombast.
Plant glided through the concert like a lean, ringlet-haired ghost rather than a chest-thumping golden god; his voice evinced suppleness and nuance, his hands twirled shapes in the air, and he frequently deferred to his band and drifted into the shadows. At one point he played a harmonica in the darkness as if holding a private séance with the spirit of Sonny Boy Williamson.
Even Zeppelin perennials such as Black Dog and Ramble On didn't sound quite like themselves. Plant and his Band of Joy didn't try to replicate them in the least, instead aiming for a loose ebb and flow that suggested cosmic folk more than the proto-metal of the originals. Plant knew it would've been pointless to try to replicate the thunderous Jimmy Page riff at the heart of Zep's Houses of the Holy, so he didn't bother with it at all. Instead the song was refashioned around Darrell Scott's pedal-steel moan into a country lament, then shifted into a gospel-tinged affirmation.
Besides Plant, the band boasted three excellent lead vocalists in guitarist Buddy Miller, multi-instrumentalist Scott and Patty Griffin, and the arrangements exploited the power of their instruments, notably on a cappella passages in the old Porter Wagoner country hit A Satisfied Mind and the five-part harmonies that turned Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall into a moving elegy.
Those harmonies are a new weapon in Plant's arsenal; he often blended in with the ensemble, putting the focus on songs he admired, whether Richard Thompson's House of Cards or Townes Van Zandt's Harm's Swift Way. He was wise to let the band do the heavy lifting, because they were up for it. It shimmied at every opportunity, thanks to the work of bassist Byron House and drummer Marco Giovino, who mixed mallets, brushes and percussion knickknacks like a master painter. Miller played the resident mystic, even more so than Plant. He played guitar solos that simmered like a hot sun on asphalt during Please Read the Letter and a cover of Low's luminous Silver Rider.
It was music that couldn't easily be defined or pinned down, elusive and allusive, much like Plant himself.
The openers, a stripped-down version of the North Mississippi Allstars, did some roots-excavating of their own. Guitarist Luther Dickinson and his younger brother, drummer Cody Dickinson, dug into the trance-boogie traditions of their hill-country neighborhood. Even more impressive was a brief acoustic set by the duo, swapping rapid-fire guitar runs like back-porch virtuosos.
There are moments during a Robert Plant and Band of Joy show where you sink into the music and actually forget for a while that the Robert Plant is on stage. Band of Joy is so much its own thing, and so impressive, that even Plant’s epochal history recedes.
But then they start to play Ramble On, and there’s no fighting Ramble On.
Among the many highlights at Friday’s sold-out Band of Joy show at the Louisville Palace, there can be no downplaying of the mass audience sing-along on the chorus of Ramble On, one of several songs that Plant pulled from his Led Zeppelin playbook. It was a moment. But only one.
Plant and band let loose a subtle roar all night, finding room to build dynamics in even the most subdued songs. It was an intricate passion play that they made look easy, except when trying to remember the endless lyrics to Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.
“This Band of Joy is a remarkable beast,” Plant said after a stark version of Monkey, from the band’s self-titled album. “The colors move around the stage night after night.”
Bandleader Buddy Miller and multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott were responsible for more than their share of colors on a variety of stringed instruments, but drummer Marco Giovino also delivered a deep range of textures using everything from a length of chain to what looked like a baseball glove. Patty Griffin’s pristine hamonies worked wonders with Plant’s ageing, but still distinctive, voice.
The set was comprised entirely of songs from Band of Joy and a handful of Zeppelin songs reworked to fit the aesthetic, including a version of Black Dog to open the show that was half-speed and all sex. Not that it took a lot of work. Band of Joy is no stranger to the blues, the prime force behind Zeppelin, so they just slowed things down a bit, except for mostly faithful takes on Black Country Woman and Tangerine.
It was like listening to Plant revisit his younger self, teaching him that slow and easy has its merits, and that subtlety creates its own kind of heat.
A duo version of North Mississippi Allstars opened, featuring brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson on guitar and drums, respectively. Their back-porch blues perfectly melded with the headliner, and their sound was amazingly full. Much bigger bands have accomplished far less.
Can't guess what Washington's budget battle has to do with the long disbanded British heavy metal group Led Zeppelin? You need schoolin' from Rockin' Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R., Mich.).
Mr. McCotter took to the House floor Friday and told his fellow lawmakers that when he woke up this morning, "I found I had a hankering to listen to Led Zeppelin." Mr. McCotter, who plays in a bipartisan congressional rock band called the Second Amendments proceeded to deliver punch lines that only Led Zep fans would get.
Mr. McCotter proceeded to take Democrats to task for scaring seniors and children about the Republicans' plans for overhauling Medicare.
Mr. McCotter's office emailed a press release and Youtube link to his classic rock-inspired speech.
But Mr. McCotter left a few Led Zeppelin budget one-liners on the table. If the government shuts down, who will get Trampled Under Foot? If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner come back to the White House without a deal, will President Barack Obama ask, "How Many More Times?" Maybe House Republicans will compromise on spending cuts, then tell Democrats, "Your Time Is Gonna Come."
The Yardbirds, featuring original members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty, will headline the first annual ZepFest, scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend at the National Harbor on the Potomac River in Prince George's County, MD.
The festival, honoring Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Led Zeppelin, will feature five stages with more than 50 bands, including Vanilla Fudge, Dread Zeppelin, Night Hawks and Willie Big Eyes, according to a press release.
The event also will feature guest speakers, authors and exhibits. One of Led Zeppelin's original roadies, as well as former Atlantic Records president Jerry Greenberg, will be among the special guests.
ZepFest is offering a variety of ticket options for the three day event (5/27-29). Additional information is available at the festival website.
Electronic jazz group Spin Marvel is led by the former Loose Tubes drummer Martin France, and features some of Europe's finest musicians including celebrated trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer. For this performance they are also joined by special guest John Paul Jones, of Led Zeppelin & Them Crooked Vultures, on bass guitar. Praised for their use of textural soundscape and colour they have developed a distinctly European sound that is highly inventive and compelling.
Cheltenham Jazz Festival » Spin Marvel / Sat 30 Apr / 5:15pm / Arena
Line Up Martin France - Drums & Electronics Nils Petter Molvaer - Trumpet Terje Evensen - Live Electronics John Paul Jones - Bass
Footage of Led Zeppelin performing two songs at the Bath Festival of Blues & Progressive Music on June 28, 1970 may soon see the light.
A fan named Ron, who was living in Bristol at the time, received a new Super 8mm camera as a gift for his 22nd birthday and intended ahead of time to film Led Zeppelin. He was able to film one reel, approximately 10 minutes, which contained the songs Immigrant Song and the beginning of How Many More Times.
Ron had stored the reel in a small box at his parents and discovered it last month. He had the reel transferred digitally. The footage itself is very good and the color hasn't faded noticeably. Currently, the footage is silent, however there will most likely have audio synced to it. You can soon view the footage on Led Zeppelin's Official YouTube Channel.
Black Country Communion, the English-American hard rock band featuring the talents of bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, blues rock guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Jason Bonham, and keyboardist Derek Sherinian, have released the artwork for their much-anticipated second album "2". The album will be released in the UK and Europe on June 13th by Mascot Records and in America on June 14th by J&R Adventures.
On June 9, the band will kick off a 7-date US summer tour in San Diego. The band will then embark on a UK/European tour. UK dates include Llandudno Cymru Arena (23 July), London's High Voltage Festival (24 July), Leeds O2 Academy (26 July), Newcastle O2 Academy (27 July), Glasgow 02 Academy (29 July), and Manchester Academy (30 July). 24 Hour Ticket Hotline: 0871 230 1101. Book Online: http://www.seetickets.com and http://www.thegigcartel.com.
Black Country Communion's self-titled debut album was released in Sept. 2010 to rave reviews. The album stormed the #1 position on the Official UK Top 40 Rock Album Chart; #13 in the Top 40 Album Chart and #2 in the Top 40 Indie Album Chart. It made #3 in Classic Rock's "Critics Album of the Year" poll, while Planet Rock listeners crowned them Best New Band of 2010.
Recent live shows in the UK in December 2010 had the Birmingham Mail calling their performance "rip-roaring" and "breathtaking." Classic Rock reported "a scorching set from start to finish."
On Gibson.com we’re proud to give so much love and support to guitarists – in the form of daily guitar-centric features, news, lessons and more. We’ll admit, though, that this sometimes comes at the expense of another of our demographics – the bass players among you.
Oh, but how we love that thrilling thrum-bum-boom rumble of a bass guitar! We happen to believe that it’s often the bass player who nudges a song into brilliance, though he seldom receives the credit for doing so. Now it’s the bassist’s time to have a turn in the spotlight.
Here is our list of the Top 10 Bassists of All Time. Think we missed the mark? Please let us know in the comments section who you’d have included.
10. John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
This multi-instrumentalist has taken on many roles since Led Zeppelin dissolved, but he will always be best-known for the four-string work he contributed to the band in the late ’60s and ’70s. The rhythmic grooves behind “Ramble On” and “The Lemon Song”? Chalk it all up to Jones.
9. Chris Squire (Yes)
The most longstanding of Yes band members – the only one to appear on each album – Squire grew up on the bass styles of John Entwistle, Jack Bruce and Larry Graham. Using a pick and only the neck pickup, Squire developed his signature aggressive sound by incorporating guitar effects like tremolo, phasing and the wah-wah pedal into his bass technique.
8. Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Believe it or not, Flea got his start as a trumpet prodigy before picking up bass at his Los Angeles high school. Flea originally relied on traditional basslines before beginning to incorporate a Bootsy Collins-inspired slap bass style into hit album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. He then changed gears again, paring back on subsequent albums by playing far fewer notes.
7. Les Claypool (Primus)
Not known for his restraint, Primus frontman Claypool pulls out all the stops on stage with his bass guitar — using slapping, tapping, whammy bar bends and flamenco-inspired strumming to shape his band’s experimental funk-rock sound.
6. Jaco Pastorius
Pastorius’ personal life – fraught with mental illness and substance abuse – is almost as interesting as his bass playing, and that’s saying a lot. This virtuoso, who died during a 1987 fight with a nightclub bouncer, was heralded by the likes of Miles Davis and Victor Wooten for his technique, which involved exclusive use of the bridge pickup and fingerstyle playing.
5. Geddy Lee (Rush)
For more than 40 years, Lee’s worked as bassist for the world’s leading prog rock band. Oh yeah, and this overachiever is also Rush’s lead vocalist and keyboardist. Many heavy-hitting bassists (guys like Cliff Burton, Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, Dream Theater’s John Myung and Primus’ Les Claypool) have gushed about Lee’s influence on their work.
4. Cliff Burton (Metallica)
The late Burton contributed to three hit Metallica albums before perishing at age 24 in a 1986 tour bus accident. Known for his “lead bass” role, Burton played a larger part in Metallica’s overall sound than most bassists – contributing both melodies and solos to the heavy metal compositions.
3. John Entwistle (The Who)
The versatile bassist in The Who, Entwistle was an unpredictable player – veering from melodic and song-supportive to rhythmic and loud (he was, after all, one of the first to make use of a Marshall stack). An instrument enthusiast, he’d amassed more than 200 bass guitars by the time he died of a heart attack in 2002.
2. James Jamerson
This bass-playing hero went somewhat under the radar until recent years, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him into their ranks in 2000. Holding the bassline behind most all the Motown Records hits, Jamerson’s work can be heard in classics like “My Girl,” “For Once in My Life,” “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” and the list goes on and on.
1. Paul McCartney (The Beatles)
While there’s no denying his prowess, you may not think that Macca deserves to sit so high atop this list. But we put him here because we dare you to find a more influential bassist this side of the solar system. And to think it almost didn’t happen at all; McCartney became the Fab Four’s bassist by default after original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe left the band to return to art school.
Black Country Communion, the Anglo-American classic rock group featuring the talents of blues rock guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa, bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze, Black Sabbath), drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater), has announced the title of their much-anticipated second album. The album will be called “2” and will be released in the UK on June 13th via Mascot Records, followed by a US release on June 14th on the J&R Adventures label.
The album track listing is as follows:
1. The Outsider 2. Man In The Middle 3. I Can See Your Spirit 4. The Battle For Hadrian’s Wall 5. Save Me 6. Cold 7. Smokestack Woman 8. Faithless 9. An Ordinary Son 10. Little Secret 11. Crossfire 12. Crawl
On June 9, the band will kick off a US Summer Tour in San Diego, CA. In July, BCC will embark on a European tour that will take in concerts at Llandudno Cymru Arena (Saturday 23rd July), London’s High Voltage Festival (Sunday 24th July), Leeds O2 Academy (Tuesday 26th July), Newcastle O2 Academy (Wednesday 27th July), Glasgow 02 Academy (Friday 29th July), and the Manchester Academy (Saturday 30th July).
The Summer 2011 live shows are long overdue and very highly anticipated, as the only live shows the band have performed previously was when they played two sold out concerts in Wolverhampton and London during late December 2010.
When the band performed in the heart of the Black Country at Wolverhmapton’s Civic Hall in front of a 3,000 strong crowd on Dec. 29, 2010, the Birmingham Mail newspaper described the band’s performance as “rip-roaring” and “breathtaking, while the Express & Star newspaper said, “From the moment Hughes’ thunderous bass riff introduced ‘Black Country’ it was like a torch had been lit underneath the famous old venue, the ghosts of rock Christmases past roaring into the present!”
Black Country Communion released its self-titled debut album in September 2010 to rave reviews. Mojo magazine gave the album four stars and Classic Rock magazine said it’s “Possibly, the best hard rock album of 2010.” Music Radar described it as “a potent and stomping collection of riff-heavy rockers that will undoubtedly stun listeners.”
During its first week of release in the UK, the album hit the #1 spot in the Official Top 40 Rock Album Chart, and also hit #13 in the Official Top 40 Album Chart and #2 in the UK’s Official Top 40 Indie Album Chart. The album was voted #3 in Classic Rock magazine’s “Critics Album of the Year” poll, while Planet Rock radio listeners crowned BCC as the Best New Band of 2010.
British musician Jet Harris, who played bass guitar in Cliff Richard's band The Shadows, has died aged 71, British media reported on Friday.
Terence Harris, nicknamed "Jet" because he was one of the fastest runners in his school, was introduced to Richard in 1958, and his website credits him with coming up with the name The Shadows.
"Jet was exactly what the Shadows and I needed -- a backbone holding our sound together," Richard said in a statement.
"Jet, the bass player, will always be an integral part of British rock'n'roll history. Losing him is sad -- but the great memories will stay with me. Rock on, Jet."
With The Shadows, Harris enjoyed a string of hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s including "High Class Baby," the chart-topping "Apache" and "Guitar Tango." His last recording with the band was "Wonderful Land" in 1962, which also made it to number one in the British charts.
After leaving the group, Harris teamed up with former Shadows bandmate Tony Meehan and again reached number one with "Diamonds" in 1963.
After a serious car crash nearly ended his career he faded from the limelight, although he did tour in Europe and release several albums. As his success as a musician faded, Harris became a professional photographer.
He was made an MBE for his services to music, and died after a two-year battle with cancer. Earlier this month he was forced to cancel all appearances due to ill health.
Jet Harris was partly responsible for helping BOTH Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones break into the music business. Jimmy's first major session was as a rhythm guitarist on Jet Harris & Tony Meehan's "Diamonds", in late 1962. Then, when "Diamonds" rushed up the charts (eventually hitting #1), Harris and Meehan hired Jones to play bass in their touring band. Jones spent a year touring the country, living the rock & roll lifestyle before finally settling down to try the session game. (And it was Harris' partner, Tony Meehan, who gave Jones his big break in the session world.) Thanks to swandown
"We all wanted to look like Jet Harris. I got into session playing through Jet Harris and Tony Meehan. Jet and Tony were my first major band. I had been in various small bands and done all the American bases. Jet was with the Jet Blacks; I walked up to him on Archer Street and asked him if he needed a bass player. He said, 'No I don't, but they do,' pointing me towards the Jet Blacks. He was leaving them, so I auditioned and joined up. Later he heard about me, swapped his bass player for me, and I went on the road with them." - John Paul Jones, from 2stoned by Andrew Loog Oldham. Thanks to Scott Swanson
London' radio art station Resonance104.4fm is staging a live auction to raise funds to keep this unique project on air.
It's being held from noon on Saturday March 19th until midnight on Sunday March 20th. Amongst the top items to bid for is the chance to win a 90 minute one to one bass guitar lesson with John Paul Jones. For full details visit http://resonancefm.com/auction
If you hadn't already noticed, this year is going to be jam-packed with Flaming Lips releases. Already this year, the band let loose their wild iPhone jam, Two Blobs Fucking, with box sets and collaborations with Neon Indian and Ariel Pink on the way. Things have just got 100 percent weirder though, with the band's latest announcement: they're releasing new music via a life-size human skull made out of gummy candy.
In an interview with Pitchfork, Lips leader Wayne Coyne revealed that the band are gearing up for the confectionery collection, which will be released sometime in April.
"It's a life-sized human skull completely made out of edible gummy bear stuff," Coyne said. "It also has a gummy brain inside of it and, inside of that, there's a USB flash drive that has three new songs on it. It's pretty outrageous."
Coyne went on to explain how they even came up with the oddball idea. "We found this guy in Raleigh, North Carolina, who makes all these gummy bear things -- even adult toys. I don't know if he's making giant dicks and pussies out of gummy bears, but we called him and said, 'Hey, would you want to make a life-size human skull with a brain in it?' And he's like, 'Who is this?' We said, 'the Flaming Lips.' He's like, 'I love you guys!' So sometimes you're lucky and you'll run into someone with enthusiasm."
If that weren't enough, Coyne also added that future releases may include "a salt box" and "a little spinning stroboscope thing."
As for upcoming collaborations, on top of the already reported Neon Indian, Ariel Pink and Deerhoof jams, the band have apparently been in talks with LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo. They have also tried to court legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. That doesn't mean they will be working in the studio together though. Ah, the wonders of technology.
"I know he likes our music," Coyne said of Page. "It doesn't always mean we get to sit in the same room as someone, and lot of times you're just sending tracks back and forth, but I'm hoping he's open to it. We always have a lot of stuff that someone like Jimmy Page could play over and we have a whole year to try and work this out."
Bonham's in New York will be auctioning off a bunch of original rock artwork on March 10. As part of The Art of Rock & Roll event, the auction house will be featuring items from bands including Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, The Police, The Clash, Richard Hell, The Ramones, Ozzy Osbourne, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Journey, U2, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and the Sex Pistols.
The pieces include paintings, drawings, sketches and studies, printing plates and poster sets, according to ArtDaily.org. The work of famous rock artists, including Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Jamie Reid, Alton Kelly and Randy Tuten, will be included in the auctions.
The items range from psychedelic concert posters from the ’60s to original album artwork, such as the photographic piece for Osbourne's album, No Rest for the Wicked. The piece, created by Bob Carlos Clarke, is estimated to fetch between $4-$6,000.
Hot off an on-stage part in the Royal Operas, Anna Nicole: The Party Always Ends, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones is set to compose an opera himself.
Jones has been involved in work to compose an opera based on the Isabel Allende short story, The Judge's Wife.
The Judge's Wife will feature a libretto by Amanda Holden. Jones' friend Gerald Thomas will direct the opera, which is set for a fall 2013 production. Stuart Stratford will conduct.
Thomas' current play, Throats, features a piano composition by Jones. Throats is playing at the Pleasence Theatre, London until March 27th. Anna Nicole, The Party Never Ends has two more performances, Tuesday March 1 and Friday March 4th at the Royal Opera House.
In December, Jones and Thomas met at the Hoxton Hotel in London to discuss the opera project. They recorded the meeting, and released a YouTube video of it.
New York, NY (February 22, 2011)— The Emmy-nominated show connects music fans with an incredible, curated line up of icons and rising stars performing in unique and intimate venues. The exciting new season features Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Ray LaMontagne, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, Squeeze, Daniel Merriweather, A Fine Frenzy, and Lisa Hannigan.
Before his Artists Den taping at Nashville’s War Memorial Theater, rock icon Robert Plant commented, “To work your craft, you’ve got to be close in with your musicians, so I enjoy intimacy now. I can’t say that I’d be in a hurry to go to Madison Square Garden again.”
“For a third season, we are pleased to present Live from the Artists Den on public television,” said Neal Shapiro, president and CEO of WNET. “This year’s lineup offers the depth and variety of talent that our viewers expect. This series continues to showcase our mission to provide the best arts programming to the public in creative, innovative ways.“
Live from the Artists Den is shot in high-definition. Visit www.artistsden.com for a complete TV schedule:
Beginning April 1 – Elvis Costello, backed by his band, The Sugarcanes, at The New York Public Library’s world-famous Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
April 8 – Grammy winner Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs at the Don Strange Ranch in Texas Hill Country
April 15 – Vermont rockers Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, filmed at sunset in New York’s Bryant Park
April 22 – Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Robert Plant and the Band of Joy at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville
April 29 – A reunion concert by UK pop legends Squeeze, filmed on a different summer day in New York’s Bryant Park
May 6 – A special compilation episode featuring three standout emerging artists in different settings, kicking off at Sotheby’s auction house in New York with R&B singersongwriter Daniel Merriweather, followed by alternative pop songstress A Fine Frenzy and folk singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan (best known for her work with Damien Rice).
For WNET New York Public Media, Executives in Charge: Josh Nathan and Ranfi Rivera. For the Artists Den: Executive Producer Mark Lieberman.
About the Artists Den
Since its launch on U.S. public television in 2009, “Live from the Artists Den” – created by Mark Lieberman – has become a three-time NY Emmy-nominated series and has expanded with international distribution by Shine International to include A&E in Europe, Turner Broadcasting in Latin America and multiple online outlets such as Hulu, Vevo and Pandora. Past artists include Ringo Starr, Alanis Morissette, The Black Crowes, Tori Amos, Ben Harper, Regina Spektor, Corinne Bailey Rae and David Gray.
Interviews at each show are conducted by noted music critic Alan Light, the Artists Den’s Director of Programming. Concert events are invitation-only and free. Artists Den Records offers live concert CDs and DVDs from its shows, such as the latest Limited Edition DVD release, “David Gray: Live from the Artists Den,” recorded at New York’s Broad Street Ballroom. For more information, visit ArtistsDen.com
Mastered and ready for June release, Black Country Communion’s 2nd album, BCC2, is longer, harder and darker, according to singer and bassist Glenn Hughes.
BCC 2 70 mins. Long. A Rock 'n Roll Rollercoaster... organic... darker than "1"... my darkest lyrics since Addiction," said Hughes via Facebook. (Addiction was Hughes 5th solo album. Released in 1996 it is the album that is regarded as his heaviest, both musically and lyrically. Many of the songs focus on Hughes drug addiction that he experienced through the 1980s).
On Thursday, Hughes mentioned he had a mastered CD in hand. This comes after commenting that "BCC has given me a new belief in Rock 'n Roll'" And yesterday (Friday Feb 25), Hughes comments that:
Joe Rocks [sic] harder than ever... and I get to sing some desperate blues... this album has woken the Rock
Hughes is not the only one excited about BCC 2. Kevin Shirley is reported to have said it's the "best album of his career." The Caveman, Kevin Shirley, has himself said on Facebook, "...it's sounding awesome. Anyone ready for some big Bonham drums."
Desperate blues, Joe Bonamassa rocking hard and big Bonham drums. Sounds like BCC2 is an album to look forward too.
Leaving behind recording, Black Country Communion announced their first two North American shows this week. BCC will perform two shows in California before beginning their European tour in June, appearing in San Diego June 9th and Anaheim June 10th. More shows will be announced.
Black Country Communion - the Anglo/American rock supergroup featuring vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Trapeze), drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater) and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa - has scheduled two dates in California in early June:
June 09 - Civic Theatre - San Diego, CA June 10 - The Grove - Anaheim, CA
Black Country Communion has joined forces with Planet Rock, the U.K.'s leading classic rock radio station, to offer rock fans the opportunity to download two exclusive free live Black Country Communion tracks.
The songs, Black Countryand One Last Soul, were originally recorded live in front of a specially invited audience at John Henry's in London, England on September 20, 2010. The live recordings have been exclusively mixed for Planet Rock by Black Country Communion's producer Kevin Shirley.
To be eligible to download the live tracks, rock fans are being asked to become VIP members of Planet Rock's web site by signing up to http://www.planetrock.com/vip. Once free membership has been activated, fans will have access to the free download, along with other VIP offers. Additionally, fans will also be able to order tickets for Black Country Communion's forthcoming U.K. summer concerts in July.
Black Country Communion's sophomore album is scheduled for a June release.
Black Country Communion performed two long-awaited U.K. concerts in December. Fittingly, the first concert took place right in the heart of the Black Country at the legendary Wolverhampton Civic Hall on December 29, followed by a concert at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on December 30.
Fan-filmed video footage of the London show can be viewed below.
The self-titled debut album from Black Country Communion sold 7,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 54 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD, which was made available in Europe on September 20, 2010 via Mascot Records and North America on September 21 through J&R Adventures, was produced and mixed by Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin), and mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig. It was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in early 2010.
Black Country Communion initially came to fruition when Shirley saw Hughes and Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center's King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited Bonham and Sherinian for the project, which is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.
Led Zeppelin released their legendary double album Physical Graffiti on February 24, 1975. The album was Zeppelin's sixth studio offering and was nearly three years in the making.
The group convened in November 1973 to record the follow up to Houses of The Holy, which they had released earlier that year. However, with bassist John Paul Jones threatening to quit the band and move to a position as a church choirmaster, Zeppelin decided to take some time off time to give him a break.
Though Physical Graffiti was recorded during a point of relative turmoil for the band, it once again affirmed their place in at the top of the rock world. It hit number one on the Billboard 200 chart on March 22, and held the top spot for six weeks.
Physical Graffiti included songs like Kashmir, In My Time Of Dying and Houses of The Holy. The album also included tracks laid down during earlier recording sessions that hadn't been released yet. The oldest, the instrumental "Bron-Yr-Aur," dated back to 1970.
Black Country Communion - the Anglo/American rock supergroup featuring vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Trapeze), drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater) and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa - has joined forces with Planet Rock, the U.K.'s leading classic rock radio station, to offer rock fans the opportunity to download two exclusive free live Black Country Communion tracks.
The songs, Black Country and One Last Soul, were originally recorded live in front of a specially invited audience at John Henry's in London, England on September 20, 2010. The live recordings have been exclusively mixed for Planet Rock by Black Country Communion's producer Kevin Shirley.
To be eligible to download the live tracks, rock fans are being asked to become VIP members of Planet Rock's web site by signing up to www.planetrock.com/vip. Once free membership has been activated, fans will have access to the free download, along with other VIP offers. Additionally, fans will also be able to order tickets for Black Country Communion's forthcoming U.K. summer concerts in July.
Black Country Communion is currently mixing its sophomore album for a June release.
Black Country Communion performed two long-awaited U.K. concerts in December. Fittingly, the first concert took place right in the heart of the Black Country at the legendary Wolverhampton Civic Hall on December 29, followed by a concert at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on December 30.
The self-titled debut album from Black Country Communion sold 7,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 54 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD, which was made available in Europe on September 20, 2010 via Mascot Records and North America on September 21 through J&R Adventures, was produced and mixed by Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin), and mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig. It was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in early 2010.
Black Country Communion initially came to fruition when Shirley saw Hughes and Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center's King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited Bonham and Sherinian for the project, which is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.
Robert Plant is set to co-host the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 tomorrow morning (February 18) beginning at 06:30AM GMT.
Host Chris Evans says that he will be talking to him, playing songs by him, playing songs for him, making him tea, and talking to him some more. Then we'll have our pictures taken with him. Then make him some more tea. Everyone is going home happy!
Plant was interviewed by BBC Radio 2 prior to his performance at Electric Proms last October, which you can view below.
Paul Rodgers, who toured and recorded with Queen from 2004 to 2008 and Bad Company from 2008 to 2010, is at long last returning to the U.K. with his solo band.
"Playing with Queen was brilliant they interpreted my songs on an entire new level," says Rodgers. "With Bad Company the musical fireworks were still there but creating and touring solo is where my heart is."
Paul's last U.K. solo tour, in 2006, culminated with the recording of his debut solo DVD, Live In Glasgow, which charted at #1 in Canada, #2 in Japan, #3 in the U.S., #4 in the UK and is now certified gold.
Rodgers has announced that drummer Jason Bonham (Black Country Communion, Led Zeppelin) will be joining him on tour. Rodgers states, "Jason played with Joe Perry and myself in L.A. recently and was so hot that I asked him to join us for the U.K. tour."
Also in the band the familiar faces of Howard Leese (Heart guitarist), Lynn Sorenson (bass) plus some surprise guests.
Rodgers will perform new songs from his upcoming solo CD, making it 31 album/CD releases since 1968, plus hits from his expansive back catalogue such as Free's All Right Now, Bad Company's Feel Like Makin' Love and The Firm's Satisfaction Guaranteed.
Says Rodgers: "Developing the set-list is always a bit of a balancing act but in the U.K. it will be FREE-heavy for the fans."
Supporting Rodgers are very special guests Down 'N' Outz. Fronted by Joe Elliott of Def Leppard and backed by The Quireboys, Down 'N' Outz will be an evening of music by Mott The Hoople and its collective works.
Tickets are priced at £34.50, in advance, regionally, and £32.50, £37.50, £40.00, £50.00 in London (subject to booking fee) and are available from Livenation.co.uk.
Dates for the tour are as follows:
April 15 - Blackpool, UK - Opera House April 16 - Sheffield, UK - City Hall April 18 - Newcastle, UK - City Hall April 19 - Glasgow, UK - Clyde Auditorium April 21 - Manchester, UK - O2 Apollo April 22 - Nottingham, UK - Royal Centre April 24 - Bournemouth, UK - Internation Centre April 25 - Southend, UK - Cliff Pavilion April 27 - London, UK - Royal Albert Hall (plus Joe Perry) April 28 - Birmingham, UK - NIA
Robert Plant and the Band Of Joy failed to win either of the Grammys for which they were nominated for in last night's Grammy Award ceremony. They were up for Best Americana Album (Vocal or Instrumental) and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for Silver Rider, a track from the Band Of Joy album.
Them Crooked Vultures won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for New Fang, a track from their self-titled album.
The popular magazine Rolling Stone has finalized its list of the "Best Drummers of All Time." The magazine took readers' opinions from last weekend to help compile the list. Rolling Stone is well-known for its lists, having previously created ones for "The Greatest Singers of All Time," "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," and many other topics.
The 10 drummers that are on the list are Santana's Michael Shrieve, Cream's Ginger Baker, The Roots' ?uestlove, The Police's Stewart Copeland, Buddy Rich -- who played for many great jazz singers like Tommy Dorsey, Benny Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong -- The Beatles' Ringo Starr, Nirvana's Dave Grohl, Rush's Neal Pert, The Who's Keith Moon, and Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, who topped the list.
Each of these drummers have been extremely well-known for their unique styles and techniques, and they have stepped out from behind the drum kit to become musicians of interest to the public. A few drummers, like Ringo Starr and Dave Grohl, have even jumped successfully into the lead singer's role. Starr heads Ringo Starr and His All-Star Band, while Grohl is the frontman for The Foo Fighters.
You can go to RollingStone.com to watch video clips of all the drummers and mini-biographies of their careers.
Joan Bonham, mother to John, Mick and Deborah Bonham, died early morning today (February 09, 2011) at the age of 81, after battling an illness since Christmas. She was preceeded in death by her husband John Henry Sr. (Jack) in 1998, son John Henry Jr. in 1980 and Michael (Mick) Bonham in 2000.
A musician just like her children John and Deborah, Joan was a singer, most notably one of the principal lead vocalists of The Zimmers, a 40-piece British band originally created by BBC television for a 2007 feature documentary on the conditions and feelings of the elderly, as part of the Power to the People series. In September 2008, the band released its first full-length album Lust for Life. Joan was also a fan of big band music, such as the Benny Goodman, and Harry James bands. She also ran a newsagency business in Hunt End, Redditch, Worcestershire, England.
One of her most last notable appearances was on November 02, 2009, accompanied by daughter Deborah, to accept the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award at the Classic Rock Awards Cermony from Paul Rodgers at the Park Lane Hotel, London, England.
Deborah Bonham & Joan Bonham, accepting the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award from Paul Rodgers, Classic Rock Awards, Park Lane Hotel, London, England, November 02, 2009
Joan Bonham (Bonzo's mother), Deborah Bonham (Bonzo's sister), Patti Bonham (wife), and Zoe Bonham (daughter) attending the New York Premiere of Led Zeppelin`s new live DVD, at the Loews 34th Street Theatre, on May 27, 2003
An iconic building in New York City’s East Village, which served as the subject of one of rock’s great album covers, is undergoing a facelift. The building at 96 St. Mark’s Place was made famous in 1975 when designer Peter Corriston and cover artist Mike Doud photographed it (and the neighboring 98 St. Mark’s Place) for the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti album. The building later served as the backdrop of The Rolling Stones’ Waiting on a Friend video.
Over the years, the building has housed a variety of establishments, most recently a vintage boutique. Now, the shop is being reinvented once again, in full celebration of its Zeppelin connection. The new store, Physical Graffi-tea, will be a tea emporium specializing in loose lea blends and powdered Japanese matcha. The store is scheduled to open in March.
There is no word, at this time, on any specialized custard pies, “wanton” soup or lemon squeezes. Tea for one, though, seems a likely menu choice.
Comb the annals of Jimmy Page interviews and you’ll find that the notoriously elusive Led Zeppelin guitarist has a pretty cool take on the world. The 67-year-old first picked up a guitar at age 12 and has been at work on it ever since, playing high-profile session work for The Who, The Kinks and Van Morrison, among others, before joining the seminal London group, The Yardbirds.
Of course, Page’s biggest imprint was made in Led Zeppelin from 1968 to 1980. Equipped with Gibsons, ranging from the Les Paul Standard to the Doubleneck EDS-1275 to the J-200, Page picked, strummed and shredded his way into the ranks of the world’s best and most influential guitarists.
Led Zeppelin’s supernatural chemistry ended abruptly when, traumatized by the death of drummer John Bonham, the band disbanded more than 30 years ago. But that hasn’t stopped Page from continuing on with his music or prevented Led Zeppelin fans from holding out hope for a legitimate reunion. What does Page have to say about the chances of that? Read on for his take on a Led Zeppelin reunion and other insights.
On a guitarist’s style, as told to Guitar World in 2006
“I believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it.”
On being an only child, as told to Rolling Stone in 1975
“That early isolation, it probably had a lot to do with the way I turned out. A loner. A lot of people can’t be on their own. They get frightened. Isolation doesn’t bother me at all. It gives me a sense of security.”
On paying his dues, as told to Guitar World in 1993
“My session work was invaluable. At one point, I was playing at least three sessions a day, six days a week. And I rarely ever knew in advance what I was going to be playing. But I learned things even on my worst sessions — and believe me, I played on some horrendous things. I finally called it quits after I started getting calls to do [elevator music]. I decided I couldn’t live that life anymore; it was getting too silly. I guess it was destiny that, a week after I quit doing sessions, Paul Samwell-Smith left The Yardbirds, and I was able to take his place. But being a session musician was good fun in the beginning — the studio discipline was great. They’d just count the song off, and you couldn’t make any mistakes.”
On forming the concept for Zeppelin, as told to Guitar World in 1993
“I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance, and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin. In addition to those ideas, I wanted to add acoustic textures. Ultimately, I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses — a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music.”
On his fingerpicking style, as told in Conversations with Forty Great Guitar Players in 1992
“My fingerpicking is sort of a cross between Pete Seeger, Earl Scruggs and total incompetence.”
On what made his band work, as told to People in 1975
“The actual chemistry — or is it alchemy — of the group is that everything just always fits together. I can go roaring off on a solo, then suddenly break off into staccato. I look up at Robert [Plant] and somehow we’re all there. It’s like ESP.”
On the accoutrements of fame, as told to Rolling Stone in 1975
“I love playing. If it was down to just that, it would be utopia. But it’s not. It’s airplanes, hotel rooms, limousines and armed guards standing outside rooms. I don’t get off on that part of it all. But it’s the price I’m willing to pay to get out and play.”
On his approach to love, as told to People in 1975
“Let’s just say I’m like a ship passing through storms, resting in ports now and then until it’s time to continue the journey. I once told a friend, ‘I’m just looking for an angel with a broken wing’ — one that couldn’t fly away.”
On the wild world of rock and roll, as told to Guitar World in 2006
“Everybody has dark and light in them, and evil is just a relative idea. Many ideas regarding sex and drugs that were considered taboo in the ’50s are accepted now. Who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong? In another 50 years, it’ll all be topsy-turvy anyway. It’s just the way people view a collective consciousness at any given time.”
On hopes for a Led Zeppelin reunion, as told to The Sunday Times in 2010
“At the time of the run-up and rehearsals towards the [O2] show, I think we assumed that there were going to be more dates. It would have been nice to have played more concerts. But, even while I was going ’round doing Christmas shopping, people were still coming up and saying, ‘Is there a chance of a reunion?’ I don’t have any real answer, apart from that it doesn’t look like it.”
Huffington Post recently presented a list of the the Top Ten bands that shook the world. Included in the list, in no particular order other than alphabetical, is The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Doors, Greatful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, U2 and The Who.
Speaking on Led Zeppelin, writer Jeff Pollack said: "Plant, Page, Jones, and arguably the best rock drummer of all time, John Bonham, exploded on the scene with probably the best debut album ever, with 'Good Times Bad Times,' 'Dazed and Confused,' 'Babe I'm Going to Leave You'... a musical shot across the bow to ignore them at your own peril.
Zeppelin toured endlessly and became one of the best live bands ever with the musicians improvising their songs and the shows lasting more than four hours.
Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven,' became one of the most popular rock songs and guitar solos of all time (truly "a hundred year song"), and the band attained legendary status.
Never loved by the critics, Led Zeppelin was always underestimated in their originality as well their ability to embrace different musical forms and styles. Today they are now widely seen as one of the most important bands of all time."
A 5-CD box set called The Yardbirds: Glimpses 1963-68 that has taken five years to compile is promising previously unheard tracks and an in-depth booklet with unseen photos. The set, to be released on the Easy Action Records label, is fully licensed by EMI, BBC and the Yardbirds.
For Led Zeppelin fans, and specifically Jimmy Page fans, this set offers a fair bit of Jimmy Page material, including Stroll On (the Yardbirds take' on Train Kept a Rollin' for the film Blow-Up), plus early versions of Dazed and Confused and White Summer.
Easy Action Records
White Summer, a Jimmy Page guitar instrumental, later became a live staple for Led Zeppelin.
(Editor's note: As this is the first Yardbirds-sanctioned release since songwriter Jake Holmes filed suit against Jimmy Page over royalties of Dazed and Confused, it is interesting to note that this releases credits Holmes as author and the Yardbirds as arrangers. This is not the first Yardbirds release to do so; the releases in 2000 of Cumular Limit and Live Yardbirds! Featuring Jimmy Page also contained this credit to Jake Holmes with the Yardbirds as arranger, while Led Zeppelin releases have credited only Page -- or, sometimes, also Robert Plant.)
The audio also includes several interview clips from members of the Yardbirds, including three with Jimmy Page.
The last disc has live BBC material throughout the Yardbirds' career, including two appearances from the Jimmy Page era, in 1967 and 1968. The first disc also contains some BBC recordings with Page.
The box set is currently not available for ordering, and no release date is currently listed for the product.
E.E. Bradman reviewed the Manson John Paul Jones Signature E-Bass in the February 2011 edition of Premier Guitar magazine magazine quite favorably.
Starting off with a brief history of Jones and his career and then dives into the specifications of the bass guitar built by luthier Hugh Manson, such as the Badass II bridge, the mahogany and maple cap body, the EMG pickups and the push-pull selector which activates the bridge single coil.
Plugging in the bass guitar, the reviewer still gave high praise to the bass, saying that it offered "thick and warm character - strong and barky in the mids, but not muddy."
Despite the $3200 price tag, this signature bass is top notch. It isn't a stock bass with minor adjustments, it is truly an original bass that will do anything you tell it to.
The February 2011 edition of Premier Guitar is currently available at all newsstands, or you can read it online.
Calling all prog heads and music nerds. Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath), Jason Bonham (you know, John Bonham's kid), Joe Bonamassa (that famous blues guitarist) and Derek Sherinian (Planet X, among others) are performing together under the Black Country Communion moniker.
They plan to release their second album this June. It'll follow their self-titled debut. A tour is expected to coincide with the releae of the platter, as well.
While the official Bonnaroo 2011 lineup release date has not been announced yet, more and more of the lineup is becoming clearer as bands self-confirm. In recent weeks, Gregg Allman, Black Star, Big Boi, and Bruce Hornsby have self-confirmed appearances at Bonnaroo 2011 and now the biggest artist yet has self-confirmed as a Youtube video has surfaced of Robert Plant and the Band of Joy in Washington D.C. last night signing off with a statement "We'll see you soon at Bonnaroo."
Robert Plant is, of course, best known as the lead vocalist for pioneering 70's hard rock act Led Zeppelin but in recent years, Plant has been exploring his Americana roots, first on his critically acclaimed album with Alison Krauss Raising Sand and most recently with his new group and album, both called Band of Joy. Robert Plant's Band of Joy is a who's who in Americana music guitarist, consisting of Buddy Miller, vocalist Patty Griffin, bassist Byron House, and multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott. The album has gotten very positive reviews and has dominated the Americana Music charts since coming out in September.."
Plant is no stranger to the Bonnaroo festival. He was a Sunday pre-headlining act at Bonnaroo 2008 with Alison Krauss, going on just before festival closers Widespread Panic. Plant's set was well-attended and it is assumed that Plant's position on the schedule will be similar to his Bonnaroo 2008 position, performing on the What Stage, Bonnaroo's biggest.
An official DVD/Blu-Ray release of Led Zeppelin's performance at the O2 Arena in London, England on December 10, 2007 may actually happen here soon.
Backstage at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on January 30, 2011, Robert Plant had mentioned that he had spoken with Jimmy Page on Friday and that a commercial release of the concert is being finalized.
Up until now, the performance of Black Dog (which can be viewed below), has been released, which was given to the press. The entire performance's audio was multitracked as well as being captured on video with 17 cameras, for possible future release, according to director Dick Carruthers.
At the Mojo Magazine Awards on June 16, 2008, Jimmy Page was asked if the reunion concert was going to be released. "I hope so one day, yeah," Page told BBC 6Music. Although John Paul Jones echoed Page's sentiment, he said that at the moment "there is no hurry" to release it. "It was a special occasion you know and we really wanted that just to be it really," he added.
It was even thought that Page, Plant and Jones may review the footage and not allow it to be released. In August 2004, as Bob Geldof was preparing a DVD release of 1985's Live Aid, Page, Plant and Jones quickly released a statement, saying that the sound and general reproduction of their performance at Live Aid was sub-standard and they nixed inclusion on the DVD. Page & Plant offered proceeds from their October 26, 2004 re-release of No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded and John Paul Jones offered proceeds from his US Tour with the Mutual Admiration Society to Live Aid Trust.
In November 2007, Page once again blasted the Live Aid performance, calling it "shambolic".
Any specific release date is currently unknown, but a Fall/Christmas 2011 timeframe would be ideal. Led Zeppelin's performance may be part of a larger Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert release.
Thanks to Frederic Traube, Terry Stephenson and Steve A. Jones
It’s time to turn the noise all the way up to eleven in our lead up to the Grammy Awards as we take a look at the category for Best Hard Rock Performance.
The category this year is largely dominated by the guitar-shredding veterans who have been there and done it many times before.
Last.fm Trends looks at who might come out on top come the night of February 13th.
The winner of the category last year was AC/DC with their track “War Machine”. Also amongst the nominees then was Alice in Chains for their track “Check My Brain”. Nominated again this year for “A Looking In View”, their odds don’t look too bad when compared to the other nominees’ scrobble counts on Last.fm.
Two of the nominees, Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots, have won the award before, however their low scrobble counts for their tracks “Black Rain” (45,787 total scrobbles) and “Between The Lines (96,700 total scrobbles), respectively, don’t bode well for them this year.
It is the supergroup that is Them Crooked Vultures that look to be favorites to pick up the award for their track “New Fang”. Featuring Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters/Nirvana, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, the song has gained 826,125 scrobbles so far, over double the amount of Alice in Chains’ “A Looking In View”.
Make sure to check in with Last.fm Trends every weekday as we run up to the Grammy Awards. You can watch the show on CBS on February 13th.
Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme will become a proud papa again this year. The baby will be the second for the rocker and his wife, Brody Dalle, of Spinerette and Distillers fame.
"I am up the duff 3 mo's aka bun in the oven, seed in the pumpkin, quid in the ocean, lotion in the basket, hole in the donut," tweeted the Australian-born Dalle. "Thank you for all the well wishes. Due Aug 11th -– Leo's are cool cats."
The couple already has a 5-year-old daughter, Camille Harley. Homme -– also of Them Crooked Vultures fame -– and Dalle married in 2007.
Stu Hamm, noted bass guitar player, has covered Led Zeppelin's Going To California, from , on his latest CD release Just Outside Of Normal, which dropped into stores on December 1, 2010.
Hamm is known for his slapping, popping and two-handed tapping techniques and Going To California displays an phenominal bass-centric performance.
In a recent MusicRadar interview at NAMM 2011, Hamm said, "When I was growing up, I really didn't listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin. My family was more interested in classical music. The heaviest music I was exposed to was The Beatles, and then later I got into bands like Yes and ELP and Pink Floyd and stuff like that. I discovered Zeppelin later in life.
"A while back, I did a benefit with Jude Gold for Muscular Dystrophy, and Going To California was one of the songs we played. It really stuck with me, and I loved the groove of the song. I started doing this arpeggio thing with it, and playing kind of a drone on it and harmonics, and I thought, Wow, this works really well. I can do something with this.
"Over the years, I've continued to play it live, but on the record I played it at a much faster tempo. I did all the basses first, and then I had Alan come in and do the drums. All the things that sound like guitars are basses except for the slide solo, which is played by Mark McGee, who did a phenomenal job. He really killed it. I'm really happy with it; it's so spiritual sounding. Everybody equates Zeppelin with heavy stuff, but they did a wide range of music and much of it was quite beautiful."
Alice Cooper has rounded on Robert Plant for his unwillingness to reform Led Zeppelin.
Plant had recently reiterated his lack of enthusiasm for reuniting Led Zeppelin after their one-off show in 2007, stating that there is "nothing worse than a bunch of jaded old farts".
And Alice Cooper, of similar "old fart" age, has criticised the singer for "playing folk music" and not getting back out on stage with his old bandmates.
He told the Palm Springs Boxing Examiner: "I go out on stage and say 'turn it up'. I never get tired of playing my songs."
"They are just standing there. What is so hard? Jimmy Page wants to do it. John Paul Jones wants to do it. And they got Bonham's son, who is a killer drummer. All they need is Robert Plant. But what is Robert Plant out there doing? Playing folk music! What is he doing?"
Perhaps Alice Cooper's persistence and love of performing throughout the latter years of his career is paying off. As previously reported, Cooper was announced as one of the 2011's inductees into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, alongside fellow newbies Neil Diamond and Tom Waits. Led Zeppelin however joined the illustrious list of inductees back in 1995.
(Ed. note - Led Zeppelin co-headlined some of their earliest US Tour Dates with Alice Cooper, at the Whisky A Go Go, on January 2-5, 1969.)
Black Country Communion, Jethro Tull, Spock's Beard, Caravan and Mostly Autumn have been added to the bill of Classic Rock's award-winning High Voltage Festival, which takes place at Victoria Park in East London on July 23-24.
Now into its second year, HV won the Best Festival Award (15,000-39,999 capacity) in the Live UK Music Business Awards and was voted the Festival Of 2010 by Planet Rock Radio listeners.
In 2011 we're making things better still with the introduction of a ticket deposit scheme which spreads the cost of a ticket over two payments. General Admission and WIP weekend tickets can be purchased with an initial ?50 deposit plus booking fee, with the final payment due on June 1. For more info go to www.highvoltagefestival.com/tickets/deposit-scheme
The above artists join previously announced headliners Judas Priest (whose farewell spot will close the show on Saturday night) and Dream Theater. The latter have begun recording a new album with guitarist John Petrucci acting as producer. It will be their first album without Mike Portnoy, who quit DT recently.
Black Country Communion are recording their second album with producer Kevin Shirley, which will be available in time for the HV show. "We're all super-stoked to appear" says Hughes. "This year's HV will be a rock'n'roll extravaganza, which suits us just fine."
Admission to the High Voltage Festival is ?99 for a weekend ticket and ?56.50 for a day tickets, subject to booking fee. VIP tickets will be available at ?105 for the day ?199 for the weekend, subject to booking fee. There will also be various VIP and hotel packages available, at various price levels to suit different pockets.
If you fancy being a very important guest at High Voltage, we have 10 pairs of special VIP tickets up for grabs this month. Click your way over to www.classicrockmagazine.com to enter. Regular festival updates and ticket details can be found at www.highvoltagefestival.com Other outlets include Ticketmaster (0844 847 1708) and HMV tickets (08448 222602)
After years of playing covers, Robert Plant is to begin writing original songs with the Band of Joy. Following the group's recent album, which included songs by Richard Thompson, Low and Townes Van Zandt, Band of Joy "have to write" their own tunes, Plant said in a new interview.
"It's all very well celebrating other people's songwriting," the singer told the Pulse of Radio (via Blabbermouth), "and I know there are other artists who have had an entire career [playing covers] – whether it be Elvis or Sinatra, or a lot of the country artists who never write. But we've got to be heading that way soon."
Plant first formed the Band of Joy in the late-60s, before co-founding Led Zeppelin. Although members of the group released records in 1978 and 1983, Plant had already quit by that point; his first release under the Band of Joy name was last year. Hailed as a clean break from both Led Zeppelin and Plant's collaboration with Alison Krauss, the LP consisted solely of covers, including traditionals. Plant's most recent original material appeared on 2005's Mighty Rearranger album
Despite Plant's writing plans, the Band of Joy's recent tour dates have featured new covers of songs including Led Zeppelin's Ramble On and Tangerine, and Lightnin' Hopkins's Central Two-o-Nine. The group's current lineup includes Patty Griffin, Byron House, Marco Giovino and co-producer Buddy Miller.
Jason Bonham was amongst the guest musicians who performed with Camp Freddy this past Monday, January 24 at Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California as part of a benefit event to create awareness and raise positive vibes in celebration of breast cancer survivor Carolyne Williams. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be viewed below.
Carolyne Williams is a 27-year-old breast cancer warrior and advocate. After months of being told that her cancer was just a cyst or an infection, Carolyne discovered the worst: that she was diagnosed with malignant Cystosarcoma Phyllodes while having no health insurance from her part-time job. Cystosarcoma Phyllodes is a sarcoma, a very rare type of breast cancer that accounts for less than 1% of breast cancer diagnosis. Phyllodescurrently has no research or support for survivors from the bigger Breast Cancer Foundations, because of its rarity. Phyllodesis is made of connective tissue and blood that forms in the breast that does not respond to chemo or radiation. Sadly, many cases of breast cancer are currently being found in younger girls/women in their teens, 20s and 30s, and in many cases they are being misdiagnosed, as Carolyne was. There needs to be more awareness to this growing and sadly silent epidemic.
This benefit was to help raise awareness and spread hope in the darkness of cancer and its effects on families and friends of the infected. The benefit hoped to raise funds in order to help Carolyne with her disease. This unprecedented and special event included appearances by Camp Freddy featuring Matt Sorum (GGuns'N'Roses, Velvet Revolver), Billy Morrison (Billy Idol, The Cult), Dave Navarro (Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers), and was hosted by Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath.
Rock and Roll legend Robert Plant will be the musical guest on the Feb. 4 edition of the "Late Show with David Letterman."
Plant is currently on the road promoting his 2010 CD, Band of Joy. Recorded in Nashville, Plant titled the album after the name of his first group, which also featured future Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. The new CD is also the follow up to Plant's 2007 Grammy-winning album with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand.
Band of Joy is an Americana folk rock album of cover tunes by such artists as Townes Van Zant; Barbara Lynn; and Los Lobos; and one song penned by Plant and his co-producer, Buddy Miller. In fact, Plant's recent music video for the Los Lobos song, Angel Dance, included an appearance by the band's singer/songwriters David Hidalgo and Louie Perez. Folk/pop performer Patty Griffin is part of Plant's current touring group.
Plant has been busy making media appearances on behalf of the album. He and his touring band performed Angel Dance last September on NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" program . They returned to the show last month to play another Band of Joy song, You Can't Buy My Love. In November, they were one of the artists featured on an episode of the BBC series "Later with Jools Holland." That same month, the BBC also aired a documentary, "Robert Plant: By Myself," in which he discussed his career up to the Band of Joy CD.
When the current tour finishes, don't expect Plant to be part of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour. In an interview published in the Allentown Morning Call, Plant told writer Allen Sculley that the 2007 Zep reunion show couldn't be duplicated.
"That night was a spectacular night," he said. "It was really something special. For me now, I can't see any way of it carrying on. I just don't know how mechanically it could happen. It [a tour] is such a huge deal. And I've seen people do huge deals. I've seen Genesis on tour, U2, people like that, and it becomes a military operation rather than just enjoying the time."
Plant has been performing a few Zeppelin tunes during this tour. Houses of the Holy, Ramble On and Rock and Roll were featured in his European shows last fall.
An interesting bit of scheduling finds teen pop star Justin Bieber reading Letterman's Top Ten list on the program the same night as Plant's musical appearance.
Guantanamo (Solvision).- British musician Jimmy Page, former guitarist for the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, made a surprise visit of several days to Cuba.
Prensa Latina learned that the 67-year-old rocker left Cuba on Monday after a visit that included tours of historic sites, and purchases of souvenirs such as the famous photograph of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda and albums by local artists.
Page, who co-wrote the famous song Stairway to Heaven with singer Robert Plant, stayed at old Havana's Hotel Saratoga, which has housed other international figures of rock and roll.
Led Zeppelin has inspired many Cuban bands and has its own following on the island. After learning Page was visiting, a number of local musicians tried to meet him.
Musicians from the local band Tesis de Menta, a flagship of rock in Cuba, and well-known radio host and vocalist Juan Camacho, fulfilled their "dream" of meeting and talking with Page last Saturday.
After being mobbed in the hotel lobby, Page, dressed in shorts and a black T-shirt, talked for almost 20 minutes with the Cuban musicians about different aspects of his career.
He was interested in the work of the theatre Maxim Rock, headquarters of the Cuban Rock Agency, and the influence of Led Zeppelin on the local scene.
Tesis de Menta singer Beatrix Lopez told Prensa Latina that Page, "with a youthful spirit" and "very strong," talked about his friendship with the British guitarist Jeff Beck, who was part of the celebrated band The Yardbirds in the 1960s.
He passionately praised the work of the Belgian singer with Arab roots Natasha Atlas, considered a cult figure in the European underground scene.
Perdomo, leader of the band Tesis de Menta, added that the former Led Zeppelin guitarist, whose solo for Stairway to Heaven was selected the best in history by Rolling Stone magazine, expressed interest in Cuban rock and the different genres on the island.
Page founded Led Zeppelin in 1968 in 1968 with Plant - who incidentally visited Cuba some years ago - bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer the late John Bonham. The band, one of the most influential of all times, separated in 1980. Since then, members of the group have reunited only on special occasions.
Their last reunion was in 2007 in a London stadium, where they performed a concert in honor of the man who discovered Led Zeppelin and founded Atlantic Records, Turkish-born Ahmet Ertegun (1923-2006).
After that show, rumors circulated about their possible return to the stage, but for now, the band has not reunited. Members of the cult to Led Zeppelin all over the world, however, continue to wait hopefully for that possibility.
After being named best rock band by Planet Rock, Black Country Communion comes right out of the studio from recording their second album to announce six new tour dates coming to Germany starting at the end of June and going into July. They also have a date to play The High Voltage Festival in London, England. Hailed as the saving grace for Rock and Roll, these tour dates are going to sell fast. Don't miss out on the hottest rock tour this year. For tour dates and ticket links check the Black Country Communion homepage.
One of the last things Jason Bonham, son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, remembers his dad saying to him was, "You're going to get into the drums again, aren't you?"
A teenager utterly obsessed with motocross racing and about to sign a professional contract, the younger Bonham had other plans for his future. It was only after his father's untimely death that he began to follow in his footsteps.
"I lost him when he was my idol, and he still is," Bonham, whose Led Zeppelin Experience band finished touring North America last month, tells Spinner.
Although deep into other hobbies in his adolescent years, Bonham had been playing the drums since he was young but wasn't too fond of music until a year or two before his father's passing. However, he still recalls times spent going to see his favourite bands of the time with his dad.
"He took me to see the Police when they had just done a second album, so they were still quite fresh. I thought Sting was the coolest thing in the world," Bonham recalls.
"He managed to get me backstage and he threatened to punch Sting. It was hilarious. Dad stepped on his foot and he [Sting] was very cocky back then. He was the new young frontman and had that punk kind of attitude. Dad was probably a dinosaur to him, even at 32. I remember him saying, 'Hey man, don't step on my blue suede shoes.' My dad said, 'I'll step on your f---ing head in a minute.'"
Bonham and his other musical project Black Country Communion released their self-titled debut LP last September, however this past tour playing Zeppelin songs alongside guitarist Tony Catania, bassist Michael Devin, keyboardist Stephen LeBlanc and vocalist James Dylan saw him, as he says, "playing better than I've ever played in my life."
No stranger to critics, Bonham says he's always reading music blogs looking for negative reviews or people knocking him for playing songs by his father's former band. To naysayers he offers this: "It's my lifeline to my dad."
Previously, he revealed Kashmir is his favorite Zeppelin song to play, and says Physical Graffiti, the 1975 album that features the track, is also his favorite Zep record.
"I just love the diversity of the songs," he says. "One after another, they're all fantastic. Presence is also a close second for me because it's one of most underrated ones they did. 'Tea for One,' you put that on at full blast in a dark room, the solo that kicks in, you're transformed. I just got back into that again, and I was like, 'Wow!'"
Last week, Rounder Records released a second music video from Robert Plant and the Band Of Joy, the Barbara Lynn song You Can't Buy My Love on YouTube.
The video features black & white footage from the Band Of Joy's concert at the HMV Forum in Kentish Town, London, England on September 02, 2010.
Robert Plant has announced that he is taking his Grammy-nominated Band of Joy out on the road for an American tour beginning in April. The band will be playing large theaters mainly in the Midwest and on the West Coast.
The additional dates are as follows:
April 8 - Louisville, KY - The Palace April 9 - Chicago, IL - The Auditorium Theatre April 11 - Milwaukee, WI - The Riverside Ballroom April 12 – Minneapolis, MN - The State Theatre April 15 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live Arena April 17 - Vancouver, BC – The Queen Elizabeth Theater April 19 - Portland, OR - The Schnitzer April 20 - Seattle, WA - The Paramount April 22 - Berkeley, CA - The Greek April 23 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek April 25 - Santa Barbara, CA - The Santa Barbara Bowl April 27 - Denver, CO - The Fillmore
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has revealed he turned down the chance to join Led Zeppelin due to loyalty to his current band.
According to Hennemusic, Tyler told Howard Stern he accepted an invitation to play with Jimmy Page after Robert Plant had ruled out a longer return to Led Zeppelin, but refused the legendary guitarist's offer of joining the band on a more permanent basis.
"I went over and played with Led Zeppelin," he is quoted as saying. "I spoke to Jimmy Page's manager, Peter Mench, who's been a good friend of mine for ever. He said Robert wouldn't play with them again, and would I want to come over and jam with the guys? I went, 'Hello?' I went over and played. So not only have I sung to Paul McCartney, but I've played with Led Zeppelin. I'm in heaven."
However, Tyler explained how his commitment to Aerosmith made any hook-up impossible. "I looked Jimmy in the eyes and it came time for him to say, 'You want to write a record with me?' I went, 'No.' I'm in Aerosmith," he claimed. "He's in the biggest band in the world and I'm in a band like that. I have such an allegiance to my band and I love it so much."
Steven Tyler recently put Aerosmith's future in doubt once again by telling Rolling Stone he has been having trouble getting in touch with bandmate Joe Perry.
TBL 28 OUT NOW - THIS MAGAZINE IS GUARANTEED TO KICK START THE ZEP YEAR!!
The new Tight But Loose magazine is available now.
Here's some initial reaction from satisfied readers:
"Absolutely knocked out by the new TBL - superb issue! Keep up the brilliant work" Colin Sheil - UK
"Just got the latest edition of TBL, fantastic read once again" Andrew Pittam - UK
"Just a quick email to say well done on another fantastic magazine. I've only dipped into it so far but what I've read up to now has been nothing short of superb" Tom Cory - UK "I just wanted to email you and say I received the latest TBL issue today. I want to say kudo's for always delivering a fantastic magazine!" /> Robert Musco - USA
"Got the new TBL - the Bill Curbishley interview is outstanding and I've just finished reading Alec Plowman's piece. Very impressive - enjoyed his article immensely" Gary Davies - UK
"I've just read the latest edition of the Led Zeppelin magazine Tight But Loose. It contains an excellent interview conducted by Lewis with Bill Curbishley, long time manager of Robert Plant, The Who and Judas Priest. Dave asks all the right questions; 'How did Led Zeppelin's O2 concert evolve?', 'Was there any chance that Robert Plant would be up for more shows?', 'Will the O2 concert be issued on DVD?' and 'What would you advise Jimmy Page to do now?' among them, and Curbishley doesn't duck his answers. I was impressed by BC's honesty throughout" - Dave Ling, Classic Rock
As can be seen by the above comments, this issue is another outpouring of essential Zep reading.
There's full report and exclusive photos from the Jimmy Page book launch, John Paul Jones' appearance at the Classic Rock awards, detailed on the spot coverage of Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy's autumn tour and Black Country Communion's London launch gig, news of the forthcoming Zep Fest 2011, an insightful view into being a Led Zep fan aged 21, Mike Tremaglio's illuminating log of Zep flying high in September 1970, exclusive revelations of a previously undocumented 1969 Zep appearance and some previously unseen photos of Led Zeppelin's appearance at the Marquee in March 1969. There's also a compelling interview with Bill Curbishley, the man who has guided Robert Plant's career for nearly 25 years.
All exclusive content that you not find on any web site - pleasingly presented in an all colour format that can be stored, and re-read time and time again.
In an era of here today gone tomorrow instantly digested info, the Tight But Loose magazine remains a true tangible collectable.
So if you have yet to indulge well now is the time - this magazine is guaranteed to kick start the Zep year.
A single issue is just £6.60 UK, £7.60 Europe and £8.60 USA, rest of the world. All copies distributed contain a flyer with details of how to subscribe to the 2011 issues of the magazine - I am sure if you read this issue you will be back for me.
The fact is if you love Led Zeppelin - you will love this magazine.
Queens of the Stone Age mainman Josh Homme has revealed that he "died" during leg surgery last year -- but came back to life on the operating table.
Speaking to NME, Homme said that the operation hit complications and that he technically "died" before coming round again.
The Them Crooked Vultures ringleader was bed-ridden for three months post-surgery as he recuperated from the ordeal, getting the green light from doctors in mid-December to return to rock duties.
He said, "I had an operation and died and survived on the table. I had surgery on my leg and there were complications and I died on the table. I was in bed for three months."
As previously reported by Spinner, guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen has said that the upcoming Queens of the Stone Age album -- their first since 2007 -- will be blues influenced and will make people "shake some arse."
Homme told NME that the band is on the verge on a creative minefield at the moment as song ideas are getting readied for listening.
He added, "We're all just waiting to show each other all the ideas we've got. Everybody's trying to outdo each other with their iPod right now..."
Spinner.com recently released a list of their 50 Greatest Guitar Riffs in Rock 'n' Roll. The only appearance by a song written by Led Zeppelin is Heartbreaker, which got the #4 slot.
Picking the best Jimmy Page riff is a lot like picking the best sexual position: You can make a convincing argument for most of them. Some involve more technique and manual dexterity (Black Dog), while others involve sheer power (Kashmir), but they all leave you tired and happy. We're going with Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker because, well, we had to pick one, and it kicks copious amounts of ass.
The number one greatest guitar riff, according to Spinner, is (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. You can view the entire list at Spinner.com.
This is the first time that Robert Plant has been nominated in the Brit Awards. The BRIT Awards 2011 will be held at The O2 in London on Tuesday 15th February and will be broadcast live on ITV1.
American soul singer Bettye LaVette performed last night (Jan. 12) on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She sang a cover of Led Zeppelin's All My Love from her 2010 album Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook with the Tonight Show Band.
Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook includes unique arrangements and performances of classic songs by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Pink Floyd, and more.
LaVette opened for Robert Plant and the Band of Joy on his July 2010 American tour leg.
In the January 2011 edition of Classic Rock, John Paul Jones tells of his plans for 2011. He is involved in an upcoming opera about the life and death of Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith.
"I'll be playing in the pit for some of the time, with the basses," Jones said, "and I'm also on stage playing with a jazz trio with Peter Erskine."
According to the Royal Opera House website, Anna Nicole is a world premiere on the fascinating subject of Anna Nicole Smith. A model for Playboy, marriage to an octogenarian billionaire, scandal, legal battles and early death – this is the real-life story that has inspired Mark-Anthony Turnage's new opera. Inevitably adult themes, strong language and sexually explicit content are part of this exciting work. Richard Jones directs this major new opera, with Antonio Pappano conducting a cast that has Eva-Maria Westbroek in the title role.
Anna Nicole is playing at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England on February 17, 21, 23 & 26 and April 1 & 4. To purchase tickets, go here.
Peter Erskine has played drums since the age of 4 and is known for his versatility and love of working in different musical contexts. He appears on over 500 albums and film scores, and has won 2 Grammy Awards plus an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music. Over 30 albums have been released under his own name or as co-leader. He has played with the Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson big bands, Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Kenny Wheeler, The Brecker Brothers, The Yellowjackets, Pat Metheny & Gary Burton, John Scofield, et al, and has appeared as a soloist with the London, Los Angeles, BBC Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras. Peter has been voted "Best Jazz Drummer of the Year" ten times by the readers of the Modern Drummer magazine. Peter produces jazz recordings for his record label Fuzzy Music, and is an active author with several books to his credit: the latest titles include Time Awareness for All Musicians and Essential Drum Fills. Peter graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and studied at Indiana University under George Gaber. Peter is currently a full Professor of Practice, Jazz Studies and the Director of Drumset Studies at the University of Southern California.
There are no currently scheduled shows with John Paul Jones at this time, however hopefully there will be soon in 2011.
Jason Bonham recently finished his “Led Zeppelin Experience” tour, and performed a couple of UK shows with Black Country Communion.
Bonham was asked recently about his plans and an update on Zeppelin; he says there’s nothing being discussed, and goes on to describe the 2007 reunion show in London as "life-changing...a moment that I wanted for a long, long time."
Bonham shared his thoughts on this, and more, with Artisan News Service.
Jason Bonham feature and interview
Artisan News Service – January 10, 2011
Robert Plant feels like a "naughty boy" whenever he performs in Florida - because he was once banned "for life" from playing in Tampa after a Led Zeppel;in show went awry.
The singer took to the stage at Tampa Stadium with the legendary band back onJune 03, 1977, but the gig was called off half-way through after heavy rain lashed the venue. The crowd became agitated, forcing police to move in to keep the peace - and Plant claims officials told the band to never return to the city.
Plant has since played in the state as a solo artist, but admits he feels like he is breaking the rules everytime he steps on stage there.
He says, "I feel like a naughty, naughty boy. I was banned from there for life. It was a Zeppelin concert and the weather turned. In those days, there was nothing to stop electrocution from water and power. So we had to stop the show, the crowd got restless and the police moved in.
"The authorities decided it was our fault and that would be the end of it. But I can creep in on my own now, under cover."
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant will likely record a follow-up to their five-time Grammy Award winning 2007 album Raising Sand, but don't expect that to happen right away. Although fans have clamored for a second album from the duo, Robert says that a 2009 session with Alison didn't produce the music they hope to release, according to an article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
"The sound just wasn't there," Robert says. "Alison is the best. She's one of my favorite people. We'll come back to it."
For now, though, Robert is concentrating on his newly reunited Band of Joy. The revived Band of Joy group -- which Robert formed as an experimental blues band in the 1960s -- now includes singer Patty Griffin, multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, guitarist and co-producer Buddy Miller, drummer Marco Giovino and bassist Byron House.
Upcoming concerts for the group include an appearance at the 38th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 16-19, in Telluride, Colo., where Band of Joy will join a lineup including Emmylou Harris, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, the Decemberists and Jerry Douglas.
Robert credits his somewhat recent love for country to the 2001 documentary 'Down from the Mountain,' that features live performances by bluegrass artists.
"When I was a kid, I didn't know about the great country singers," Robert says with an embarrassed shrug. "I knew about Leroy Van Dyke, Skeeter Davis and Jim Reeves, but there was no access to the real stuff like the Stanley Brothers. I didn't know about that until 'Down from the Mountain,' and I'd been in America then for 35 years. How amazing is that?"
Robert Plant and Band of Joy are on tour. Their next scheduled concert is January 18 in Asheville, N.C. For a complete list of dates and venues, check here.
The man who twiddled the knobs of Robert Plant's first two solo albums has died. Pat Moran Engineered Plant's first post-Zeppelin work, Pictures At Eleven, and is listed as a mixing credit along with Plant.
On Plant's second album, The Principle Of Moments, Moran again engineered, as well as co-produced and co-mixed with Plant and former Zeppelin tour manager Benji Lefevre.
Moran, who also worked on Lou Gramm's Ready Or Not, Big Country's No Place Like Home, Iggy Pop's Soldier and others, had been suffering a ten year illness.
No word on when, where or exact cause of death was for Pat Moran, one of the key cogs in Robert Plant,s transition from Led Zeppelin.
Robert Plant discusses the future of Led Zeppelin and any possible reunion concerts in the new issue of Rolling Stone that dropped Thursday, but the news isn't good.
"I've gone so far somewhere else that I almost can't relate to it...It's a bit of a pain in the pisser to be honest," the 62-year-old singer says about the notion of stepping back into his role as frontman of one of music's preeminent hard rock bands. Plant, who continues to enjoy a successful solo career going on over 30 years, reveals that his 2007 benefit reunion show at London's 02 Arena with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and late drummer Jon Bonham's son Jason Bonham was likely the last time audiences will ever see Led Zeppelin perform together.
"Who cares? I know people care, but think about it from my angle -- soon, I'm going to need help crossing the street," he added.
The passing of time seems to be Plant's primary reason for deciding to abandon any lingering possibility of any more reunions. He laments to Rolling Stone about his disregard of bands that continue to tour with classic hits without offering anything new in the way of original music.
"There's nothing worse than a bunch of jaded old farts, and that's a fact," Plant said. "People who have written their story -- they've gotten to the point where nothing moves. I don't deal in that, and I don't deal with anybody who deals in that."
antiMusic's Morley Seaver recently conducted an interview with vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes about Black Country Communion, Glenn's new project with drummer Jason Bonham, keyboardist Derek Sherinian and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa. An excerpt from the chat follows below.
antiMusic: I know it's been reported that you're already writing for the second record...
Glenn: As it so happens, right after this call I'm going to Malibu to play [producer] Kevin [Shirley] my nine songs.
antiMusic: Wow, you've got most of the record already. Is it going to be a continuation of the first record?
Glenn: Ah, Morley. I wouldn't want to break that mold. No, there's not going to be any, say funk, on the record. But there will be some groove on the album, as there was on the first record. I mean, Zeppelin had a groove to it. The Stones have got groove. Black Country Communion are a rock and roll band. Let's be very true about that. We're a rock and roll band. The album is going to be part two of the first one. As you know, I never re-write a song twice. I have to be really clear with this with you. I have worked, really, really, really hard on number two. As I did on number one but this time I've had a little bit more time to write songs. Jason has been too damn busy so he's coming on January 7 to my house to write songs with me and Joe. But the album will be part two.
antiMusic: I know you haven't toured yet but does it already feel like you're in a band again and how does that feel versus being a solo artist which you have been for almost 20 years now?
Glenn: If I had my druthers, I'd rather have Black Country Communion on the road full-time but that's never, never going to happen. Not yet. Joe is a blues/rock solo artist. And I'm not getting in the way of Joe's career. And I've got my own legacy in the world as well. But if I have my druthers... and I think if Joe had to choose, I think he'd choose the band right now but he tours for like seven months on his own. I hope that you'll be seeing the dates go up soon to play the U.S. and Canada and so forth. We are going to be doing festivals and so forth. But I would like to do more. Because, and I'm not just talking about me and Joe. But solo artists can go out and do the theaters and that's about a 5,000 level but bands can go to arenas and stadiums. And I like to think of our band as like an Allman Brothers or Black Crowes or something like that, that's really a brothership. That's the way I see our band as. As like a communion thing, which I really believe in.
A fiery orange color dominates the sky above Clearwater, Florida, as the sun begins its descent. The air is hot and humid, and it feels kind of like you might imagine it would feel if you wrapped yourself in a dripping-wet thermal blanket and went for a long walk in the heat of the day. Meanwhile, Robert Plant is getting a little ahead of himself. “Goodnight, sleep tight / The big, bright sun has gone away,” he sings on a cover of Los Lobos’ Angel Dance, from Band Of Joy, his new album with a literal band of joy for Americana fans: Buddy Miller (production, guitars, vocals), Patty Griffin (vocals), Darrell Scott (multiple instruments, vocals), Byron House (bass, vocals), and Marco Giovino (drums and vocals). Tomorrow, Plant will bring this band to the Tampa Bay area for the first time, to play its eleventh show ever.
Miller, 57, co-produced Band Of Joy with Plant, 61, and talking to the people surrounding the record, including Plant himself, it’s clear that Miller is the man behind the curtain. But to hear him tell it, it’s as if he and Plant got together one afternoon and made Pop Tarts. Asked if the recording process came naturally, he quickly and tersely responds, “Oh, yeah.” Asked for details from the studio, he glosses over it as if they cranked out Band Of Joy’s dozen songs in a single morning.
According to the 2010 hennemusic Rock News Story Of The Year, Jimmy plans to get out and play some shows in the year ahead. Who will he play with? Where will he play? One-off events, or a regular tour? Zepheads need to know and will be anxiously awaiting news on Mr. Page's plans.
May 1970 - This month, the band work on new material at Bron-Y-Aur and Headley Grange
May 3, 1971 - Richard Cole jams on Whole Lotta Love playing congas
May 1972 - Houses Of The Holy recording sessions on location at Stargroves and Olympic studios
May 27, 1972 - Warm-up gigs kick off in Holland for an upcoming American tour
May 4, 1973 - Led Zeppelin gross nearly $250,000 for their performance in Atlanta, GA
May 5, 1973 - 56,800 attend the second show of the 1973 US tour at Tampa. This sets a record for the largest attendance for a one-act performance, previously held by the Beatlesfor their Shea Stadium show in 1965
May 10, 1974 - Swan Song Records is officially launched
May 11, 1974 - Led Zeppelin attend an Elvis concert and are thrilled when Elvis Announces that Led Zeppelin is in the building
May 10, 1975 - Showco ships their PA system and video screens for the Earls Court shows from Dallas to London
May 23, 1976 - Page and Plant join Bad Company onstage at the LA Forum
May 21, 1977 - The Houston Summit claims $500,000 in damages to their venue caused by rowdy fans
May 1978 - The band reunite at Clearwater Castle to rehearse
May 22, 1979 - It is officially announce that Led Zeppelin will headline at the Knebworth Festival in August
May 15, 1980 - After many revisions the European tour dates are finalized and the band is scheduled to open in Germany
May 15, 1980 - After many revisions the European tour dates are finalized and the band is scheduled to open in Germany
, The Flood Gallery in 
then you are definitely familiar with the car in the following photos.
, which was released in 2009. After going into the studio over the years with many different working bands, did you approach working with a "Supergroup," any differently than any other band that you've worked with?
was going to be when it was released? Andy: Well, I didn't think that 40 years down the road people would still want to know about 
by Andrew Loog Oldham. Thanks to Scott Swanson
