40 years ago today, I first heard the music of Led Zeppelin performed live and the effect was pretty shattering to the ears of a young 14 year old.
The occasion was the Radio One broadcast of an hours worth of live Zep for John Peel’s In Concert programme.
Recorded three days earlier at the Paris Theatre on the back of the band’s ‘Back to the clubs tour’, at the time this was a very big deal.
Zeppelin had not appeared on a BBC radio session since August of 1969 –their return to …

Led Zeppelin performing Achilles Last Stand -Mannheim, July 3rd 1980. Photo by Tom Locke. Taken from the forthcoming book Feather In The Wind – Led Zeppelin Over Europe 1980.
Another couple of intensive weeks spent in the year 1980 and on tour with Led Zeppelin.
No bad place to be of course but that’s how it’s been here recently as I wade on with the Over Europe book. Progress is good and there has been a lot to cram in. Recent highlights have been an interview with an important player in the …

Bob Harris with Robert 2008
The bearded man I was sat across from last Tuesday lunchtime at the Heights bar in London, was directly responsible for enlightening myself and thousands of other Led Zeppelin fans, via his announcements from the TV screen on Tuesday and Friday nights back in the 1970s.
He was the man who introduced the stunning sequence that accompanied the premier of a new Led Zeppelin track on the evening of Tuesday, March 20th 1973. ‘’It’s the band’s use of dynamics’’, he said in that calm whispering tone, ‘’And …

After all the Christmas and new year festivities, it’s been good to catch up on everything in the past couple of days and get some focus on a new year.
We duly saw the new year in at our local The White Horse. The rock band on offer was proficient enough but their set list hardly pampered to a new year’s eve crowd. The Door’s LA Woman is a fine album track but not one for dancing consumption after a round of Auld Lang Syne. No matter – we got through …

DL outside the TBL distribution  centre. If only! I packed them all in our kitchen!
Old Bing has been singing about dreaming of a white Christmas for all those years, finally we got one. I cannot remember snow being all around us on a Christmas Day and Boxing Day for many a long year. When the good lady and I went for a Boxing Day walk it was quite amazing to be wading through the snow eying up the many houses around our way that were lit with Christmas lights.
After seeing …

Mr D.Lewis: Author, publisher,TBL editor and occasional Father Christmas…
‘Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!’’ as Dean and Frank both sang way back when, and well it did – and it isn’t going away too quickly. The old white stuff has hung around all week and consequently made the distribution of the new TBL magazine somewhat problematic. A fair few have gone out now with more to follow in the next few days. The postal delivery times are well erratic at the moment and here we had no …

Aside from battling the adverse weather conditions, the last two weeks have been taken up with completing and signing off the new issue of the TBL magazine. Once again designer Mick Lowe has done a great job in bringing the text alive. We spent many an hour correcting and adjusting the content and then it all went to the printers. Big thanks to Roger at Parrot Print and my good friend Dec Hickey for his input and text checking.
With the weather playing havoc, the first finished copies have been delivered …

Photo image copyright Thinkfarm
Three years ago today I awoke with the prospect of Led Zeppelin retuning to the stage just a matter of hours away. The previous night I’d spent the evening in the Pilot Inn toasting that fact with fans from all corners of the world. It would be a similar scene a few hours later.
The day itself went by in something of a blur – walking on that cold concourse leading to the O2 complex, conducting various interviews, bumping into countless fans I knew. After a communal hug …

It may be winter outside….but in here it’s been flaming June courtesy of the recently surfaced soundboard tape of Led Zeppelin’s opening night at Madison Square Garden on the evening of June 7th 1977.  I know exactly what I was doing that day as it was the celebration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and I was toasting Her Majesty in several Bedfordshire public houses. Over in America, Led Zeppelin were barnstorming their way though the first of six nights at the legendary New York venue.
On this new CD set (released …

The DL receding hairline clearly visible just under the mic stand. Later With Jools Holland November 16th 2010
Last Sunday morning I watched BBC1’s live coverage of the service of Remembrance from the Cenotaph in Whitehall. It was an incredibly moving experience to see all the veteran soldiers marching by – made even more so with thoughts of Janet’s Dad Ken who died in April and was so proud to have served his country in the second world war. With thoughts of Ken in mind and my own departed Mum and …