Plant & The Strange Sensations

April 28 London Gathering Celebrates 30 Years Of Destroyer And Launch Of The New Tight But Loose Magazine
It’s been some time since we staged a Tight But Loose fan gathering, so in conjunction with Julian Walker and Graeme Hutchinson, we have formulated plans for an event to be staged in central London on Saturday April 28.
The day will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s second show at the Richfield Coliseum later immortalised in the various Destroyer bootlegs. Coupled with that, the event will also act as the official launch …

Just back from a whirlwind stop over in Dudley to catch The Return Of The Honeydrippers charity show at JB’s Club. And quite a night it was. Mike Sanchez and The Big Town Playboys got the evening off to a suitably rocking start with an hour long set of pure roughshod rock’n’roll aided by Ricky Cool and Andy Silvester. Before the main event there was a real surprise. Jeff Beck strolled on the stage, white Telecaster in hand to perform three instrumental jams supported by a two man rhythm section …

The Return Of The Honeydrippers

Some 34 years ago this week, I took receipt of my third Led Zeppelin bootleg LP. I’d already been thrilled by the arrival the previous autumn of Live On Blueberry Hill and in January I’d obtained Going To California. On that early Feb day back in ’73 there was another LP size package awaiting for me and within it another gem – an album called Mudslide.
I was a big advocator of bootleg LP’s back then, all of which were sourced from a mail order set up I’d seen advertised …

It was good to hook up with Zep Express Convention co-organiser Graeme Hutchinson last Wednesday. We both agreed next year’s 40th anniversary of the formation of Led Zeppelin is worthy of a mass celebration. Initial ideas that we brain stormed was the staging of a two day weekend Zep Convention along the lines of the 1992/4 UK events. It would be great to find a central location probably in London that would accommodate such a gathering. The idea is to stage an event that would draw fans from all parts …

Clicking on a few choice cuts from my iPod playlist drawn from the catalogue of one James Patrick Page in acknowledgement of his birthday last Tuesday, prompted another of my wish lists. That is for a release of an official Jimmy Page career anthology CD set encompassing the many aspects of his work, from early 60’s sessions through his pioneering days with The Yardbirds and onto his massive 70’s achievements and post Zep highlights.
As a template for such an idea, I would direct you to Voyage the superb recently issued …

One of the most welcomed Christmas presents to be found under the Totnes tree was the 5.1 audio version of The Beatles much acclaimed (and controversial) Love album. George and Giles Martin’s 78 minute remix of the songs we’ve known for all these years is simply stunning in 5.1 – and a recent quote from an interview with the Martin’s therefore set me thinking.
Asked if he had any thoughts on doing a similar project on another artist’s back catalogue Giles Martin said ”Well I’d love to have a go at …

Yet another sad death to report with the passing of James Brown.
The Godfather Of Soul’s influence on Led Zeppelin can be heard in the many off-the-cuff live arrangements of ‘The Crunge’, within ‘Dazed And Confused’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ circa 1972-75 … and of course the studio track of the same name from the Houses Of The Holy album.
I’ve been aware of the music of James Brown since the mid 1960’s when the bruv JL invested in a series of his albums on the King label. Robert Plant more than …

These are my personal favourite 50 tracks selected to mark this milestone coming of age: The criteria for selection was based on a combination of pure musical prowess,the inspiration these gems have and continue to provide and the memories the repeated playing of these songs always prompts. Narrowing it down to just 50 was very difficult – did try and keep it to one song per act but in the inevitable cases it couldn’t be done. No excuse for including some very bizzarre and off beat slections – folks these …