BLUEBERRY HILL FOOTAGE/LZ NEWS/JPJ AT TAYLOR HAWKINS TRIBUTE SHOW/TBL ARCHIVE ROBERT PLANT WEMBLEY ARENA 1985 & AHMET ERTEGUN ZEP REUNION ANNOUNCEMENT 2007/VICTORIA VIP RECORD FAIR TBL MEET/ DL DIARY BLOG UPDATE/ HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN RIP…
Eddie Vincent was a teenager back in 1970 and like a lot of other people in LA, when he heard Led Zeppelin was going to play another show at the Forum in September, he knew he had to be there. This time he decided to take the family movie camera with me. It was a little windup 8mm Kodak Brownie.
Over fifty years later, Eddie was looking at videos on YouTube when he came across a film of The Who at Anaheim Stadium in 1970 and thought this looks really familiar because his first filming experience was that very same show and remarkably from nearly the same spot as the video he was watching, and so he contacted the person who posted the film.
John Waters is a long time trader and collector of bootleg concert whose passion for his hobby turned into a side business as a videographer, specializing in digital transfer of old film and tapes. Using contacts from a bit torrent community looking for any rock concerts shot on film, amazing footage of The Who from Anaheim Stadium was digitized. Going directly to The Who brought contact with their media director who was thrilled with the footage and referred the footage to a very talented film synchronization specialist who proceeded to do an amazing job and The Who Anaheim 1970 was greeted with amazing fanfare among the fan community.
Eddie emailed me recently to say that he too filmed The Who but his reels and some others have been sitting in a drawer for fifty years and would I be interested in transferring his reels. The reels arrived a few days later and when I loaded them up in my Moviestuff Universal I couldn’t believe my eyes… if the original Who reels were good then these were amazing as they didn’t suffer from shadow and head obstructions. I get a chat going with Eddie online and begin to ask him all sorts of things about filming the show and that day and everything. He was gracious with his time and answers, eventually I asked who else did you film with the camera.
My filming career was cut short, I recorded two more shows but got caught at the second and I never taped again. Oh really I said, so who was the other bands? Led Zeppelin, LA Forum September 4, 1970, aka Live From Blueberry Hill. You shot that? You have that? my collectors heart was racing. Yes, the reels are in a drawer here, I havent watched them in years.
A few days later, the reels arrive and the magic unfolds. Eddie tells me his recollections of the night, sends pictures and his memories and so I decide to tell his story of one of the most famous rock concerts in history.
We present you “Live From Blueberry Hill”, (dedicated to Mike “the Mic” Millard)
Here’s the latest Led ZepNews Update:
Led Zeppelin
- Today marks the one year anniversary since “Becoming Led Zeppelin” was premiered in Venice. The feature-length documentary about the rise of Led Zeppelin has not been released and today we published this in-depth look at the status of the film and what we know about its contents. Earlier this week, it emerged that the film is currently being re-edited. And also earlier this week, we reported that the film was originally expected to be released in February.
- Footage of Led Zeppelin’s September 4, 1970 Los Angeles performance, known from the “Live On Blueberry Hill” bootleg, was published online today.
Robert Plant
- Robert Plant was interviewed by Rolling Stone about his work with Alison Krauss and his time with Led Zeppelin. He told the interviewer that he was due to meet Jimmy Page in London the next day and planned to give him a copy of the album Sharecropper’s Son by Robert Finley.
- Robert Plant was surprised on stage with a birthday cake by his son and grandchildren on August 20 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. “This is my family,” Plant told the crowd. “They’ve come all the way from England to give me a chocolate microphone!” After the surprise, he added: “Oh dear, I’m slightly embarrassed.”
John Paul Jones
- John Paul Jones reformed Them Crooked Vultures yesterday to perform at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in London. The band, which hadn’t played live since 2010, played a cover of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, their own song “Gunman” and then Queens of the Stone Age’s “Long Slow Goodbye”. They’re also expected to perform at the September 27 tribute concert in Los Angeles. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are Them Crooked Vultures,” Josh Homme said after their first song, “for right now, I’ll just leave it at that.”
Upcoming events:
September 4 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Austin, Texas and the Black Country Beats exhibition at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, which includes Plant’s career, will close.
September 6 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Atlanta, Georgia.
September 7 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Franklin, Tennessee.
September 9 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Boston, Massachusetts.
September 10 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
September 12 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in New York, New York.
September 14 – The winners of the 2022 Americana Honors & Awards will be announced. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are nominated in two categories.
September 27 – John Paul Jones will perform at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in Los Angeles.
October – The expanded edition of “Led Zeppelin – Five Glorious Nights” by Dave Lewis will be published.
October 19 – The French translation of “Led Zeppelin By Led Zeppelin” will be published.
October 25 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
October 27 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Cork, Ireland.
October 28 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Galway, Ireland.
October 30 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace at the Sligo Live music festival in Sligo, Ireland.
October 31 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Dublin, Ireland.
November 2 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace at the Wexford Spiegeltent Festival in Wexford, Ireland.
November 5 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Edinburgh, Scotland.
November 6 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Glasgow, Scotland.
November 8 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Aberdeen, Scotland.
November 9 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Perth, Scotland.
December 22 – The paperback edition of “Beast: John Bonham and the Rise of Led Zeppelin” by C.M Kushins will be published.
Early 2023 – “A Whole Lotta Music: Life To My Ears,” the memoirs of Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis, will be published.
2023 – The remastered and expanded 30th anniversary edition of “Coverdale–Page” will be released.
Many thanks to James Cook
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Led ZepNews Website: Check out the Led Zeppelin news website at
Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert:
We were in London during the concert airing so missed out on the streaming of the Taylor Hawkins tribute show – I have caught up with it and it was a truly amazing show – TBL contributors Michaela Tait and Mick Bulow were both in attendance and their on the spot feedback was confirmation of what a special day it was. John Paul Jones looked and played great with Them Crooked Vultures. Here’s the link for the LZ News report…
More details here…
Above pic via Ken Winovich
TBL Archive Special : Little By Little…
Robert Plant Wembley Arena – Tuesday, September 10 1985 – it was 37 years Ago today…
Krys Jantzen flagged this one by sending an excellent pic taken by him outside the Wembley Arena venue on the night.
37 years ago -that is just incredible because it does seem like a second…or a lifetime ago.
Robert only performed two proper UK gigs in 1985 on this night and two days earlier at the Birmingham NEC.
This was the Shaken’ N’ Stirred tour – in support of the rather difficult third album released in May. Robert had toured the US that summer and bang in the middle of all that came the call to perform at Live Aid. The axis was well and truly spun because despite the chaotic nature of it all – it had ignited the flame again.
Shaken’ N’ Stirred – yes a difficult album and very left field in a Plant experimentation sort of way. At times the time signatures did go all over the place (Kallalou, Kallalou anyone?). But when it was good as on Little By Little, Easily Led and the superb Sixes And Sevens, it was very good indeed. I remember playing the quasi- rap Too Loud to all sundry in proclaiming Robert’s contemporary status. I also remember getting very excited about the 12inch single and double pack seven inch release of the second single from the album Little By Little. We were on holiday in Weymouth when it came out and purchased it from the local branch of the long gone John Menzies chain.
On stage, it was still very much a Zep free zone – though at times he relented slightly. I’ve just played In The Mood from the bootleg CD of the Wembley Arena gig and it reminded me that a cry of Hot Dog during that number was the nearest we got to getting hot under the collar for the days of yore. That, and a few lines from Since I’ve Been Loving You during the close of Slow Dancer and a Boogie Cillun insert in Young Boy Blues – but that was yer lot back then – it was still a case of ”No led anything”.
This was the mid 80s and the order was changing.
I too was actually in something of a new era. Newly married the year before, my writing energies had transferred into writing two weekly music columns for the local newspaper – I did get the odd Zep mention in and did review this gig. I was also well ensconced in the music retail world and was about to embark on an exciting challenge that would see WH Smith open their own stand alone record stores called Sound FX – I was to be the manager of the Bedford store.
Zep related wise ,I was still as keen as ever to follow the respective careers so when these dates were announced it was a must see situation. The Birmingham gig on the Sunday had been a little under par due to some sound problems but for London we had a right result.
The set list lined up as follows:
Intro music – Song To The Siren by This Mortal Coil – this is a stunning version of the Tim Buckley number with vocals by Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins – I remember buying this the next week. Robert would later cover this track himself, performing it live with the Priory Of Brion and Strange Sensation and recording it for the 2002 Dreamland album.
In The Mood/Pledge Pin/Pink and Black/Little By Little/Burning Down One Side/Too Loud/Thru With the Two Step/Messin’With the Mekon/Slow Dancer/Good Rockin’At Midnight/Young Boy Bluies (including Boogie Chillun insert/Sea Of Love/Honey Hush/Encores: Like I’ve Never Been Gone/Big Log/Easily Led.
The good lady Janet was next to me in our fourth row tickets – and backstage before the gig, we had seen and spoken to Robert as well as Jimmy Page who was in attendance. This one felt like an event being a major London gig – amongst others backstage I also recall seeing Slade’s Noddy Holder.
One of the other things that spring to mind from that night is the merchandise. Alongside the usual t shirts that was a high quality though rather garish Shaken’ N’ Stirred pink and black sweat shirt. it was on sale for a then extortionate £20 – twice the rice of admission of the gig – our good friend Kam invested in one and every time he wore it, we ribbed him for years as being the most expensively dressed man in the house!
The gig itself was a hugely enjoyable one. This presentation featured the Honeydrippers segment where, aided by the Upton Horns and The Queen Bees, Robert donned a sparkle T shirt to zip through Good Rockin’ Tonight, Young Boy Blues which included a Boogie Chillun interlude, Sea of Love and Honey Hush. Overall it was a high energy performance on a large stage that did look slightly like a block of cheese.
Little did we know that this gig would be a very significant one. Overall, I remember it as being a really good performance – the good lady Janet rates this as one her fave gigs.
For this would be the last live performance of this line up that had carried Robert from 1983. So it was goodbye to Robbie Blunt, Phil Martinez, Jezz Woodroffe and Richie Hayward. As Robert stated in 1988. ”A little light came above my head at Wembley. It happened half way through the set. I might’ve been singing ‘squeeze my lemon until the juice runs down my leg’or ‘I’m a fool for a cigarette’. No seriously, It could have been anything but I realised that I’d taken this little journey round and round in circles ever decreasing and dumbfounding everybody by showing how to waste a perfectly good career’.
Judging by the tone of that statement this was a man at a definite career crossroads. Live Aid had put the Zep spark back in his mind. There was a plan to meet with Jimmy and John Paul Jones in Bath for a get together to see what might happen.
As it turned out nothing much did. This re- grouping at a village hall near Peter Gabriel’s studio in early 1986 did show some promise but ultimately came to nothing. ”Two or three things sounded promising, a sort of cross between David Byrne and Husker Du” commented Plant later adding ”For it to have succeed in bath I would have had to have been far more patient than I had been for years”. The rehearsals fell apart when drummer Tony Thompson was injured in a car smash.
What happened next? Well Jimmy went off to make the Outrider album and Robert gathered a new set of musicians around him – come in Phil Johnstone, Chris Blackwell, Doug Boyle and Charlie Jones which led to the excellent Now And Zen album.
When I turned up at Leicester University to see a low key warm up date of his new band in January 1988, It was evident that Robert Plant was at last more than comfortable with his past. For the first time in his solo career, Robert performed Led Zep numbers. In The Evening and Trampled Underfoot felt like a rebirth that night and it remains one of my favourite all time ever gigs.
As for me, well Sound FX proved not to be the future of music retail (the writing was in the wall when I saw the design of the counter which was made to look like a beat box cassette player complete with hand rail – most embarrassing!). WH Smith sold the chain to Our Price in 1986 -a wise move as we were now part of a very successful chain and with the CD boom about to hit, there would be great retail days were ahead.
Writing wise, I had formulated a plan for a major Led Zeppelin reference work. I’d already began looking for a publisher and I was initially turned down flat by Chris Charlesworth at Omnibus Press who in a classic rejection letter advised me that Omnibus and I quote ”only sold music books by bands that sold lots of concert tickets like Bon Jovi’. Sensibly he revised that view a year later and went with the idea – the result was the A Celebration book published in 1991.
376 years on, I am not too sure if Bon Jovi remain shaken’n’ stirred for their particular passion but I know Robert Plant does..
Little by little – the days pass by…
Dave Lewis – September 8, 2022.
TBL Archive Special 2:
The Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Reunion Concert at the 02 Arena – press announcement 15 years gone…
15 years ago this week on September 12 2007, I was in attendance at the official press conference to announce the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Led Zeppelin reunion concert. It was the beginning of what would be an incredible few months. Here is the TBL posting that appeared on the evening of September 12, 2007 – one of the most important announcements in the history of this website…
Led Zeppelin to reform for Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert:
Just back from an incredibly exciting afternoon at the official press conference to announce the reunion of Led Zeppelin.
Staged at the O2 View Cinema at just after 4pm, promoter Harvey Goldsmith unfolded the events that has
made this momentous announcement possible. Central to that of course is the late Ahmet Ertegun. This concert is a tribute to the lasting legacy of the much loved music mogul. ‘’For us’’ commented Robert Plant in the press release ‘’He WAS Atlantic -this performance stands alone as our tribute to the work and the life of our long standing friend’’
By way of introduction a few clips on the giant screen from the newly released DVD of Ahmet’s life
were screened. As the interview clips segued into Jimmy ’s White Summer solo from the Albert Hall through How Many More Times from the Danish TV and onto Achilles at Knebworth, I had shivers down the spine. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
This is what it was all about and it’s going to happen again.
Harvey went on to explain how he approached Jimmy, Robert and John earlier in the year to do this show. At first it was going to be a thirty minute slot but as Harvey explained ” They came back to me after the first rehearsals and said we don’t want to do thirty minutes…I thought ‘Oh no it’ll be one song’ – no they said… we want to do a full set…’’
Asked if this was the beginning of further reunion activity Harvey would not be drawn other that to say if they were happy within themselves then he would love to see it.
Other questions from the floor revealed that there were no plans as yet for the show to be filmed for a DVD release and that a ballot was felt to be the best way to give all fans a fair at obtaining tickets.
Throughout the proceedings, Harvey talked passionately and proudly of his past association with Zeppelin -and how honoured he was to be staging what he described as an unprecedented event.
I was able to remind Harvey Goldsmith the story of how he once asked me to take a pic with his camera of himself with Ahmet at the side of the stage before the Zep Frankfurt show in Europe 1980. He couldn’t recall if it came out (ah the curse of the Olympus Trip camera!) but hey it was a long time ago!.
Coming back across a sweltering London on the tube I could see the headline on one of the evening papers – It read ‘’Led Zep back with a whole lotta love‘’.
This is a day I and millions of others never thought possible.
Dave Lewis – September 12, 2007
So there it was – all of 15 years gone – the excitement was already mounting…and the end result on that night of nights would be magnificent..
Dave Lewis – September 8 2022
VIP Victoria Record Fair – Saturday September 10,2022: TBL Meet…
The VIP Record Fair is staged at the Horticultural Halls, 80 Vincent Square, Victoria, London this Saturday, September 10
This is always an excellent Record Fair and I am aiming to be in attendance and this will act as a bit of a post Birthday extended celebration and TBL meet – there will be an adjournment at lunchtime to the nearby pub The Royal Oak to toast my coming of OAP age.
This will be the first opportunity I have had to attend this fair in nearly three years and I look forward to seeing all that can make it along
The pub details are here:
https://www.royaloakpimlico.co.uk/
Here’s all the VIP Record Fair info::
BIGGEST RECORD FAIR WEEKENDER – JUST AROUND THE CORNER
Saturday September 10 2022
LONDON VICTORIA
Horticultural Halls, 80 Vincent Square, Victoria, SW1P 2PB.
London’s very own Vinyl Fest. – the biggest and busiest Record Fair in the
UK
Admission 12 noon £5. Early entry £10 at 10am. Doors close 5pm.
The BIG ONE returns.
London Victoria
Sat 10th September.
http://www.vip-24.com/venues/londonvictoria.htm
DL Diary Blog Update:
Saturday September 3:
Saturday is platterday – marking the passing of the great Walter Becker five years gone today – on the player the brilliant 1974 Steely Dan album Pretzel Logic….
Saturday September 3:
Our first trip to London in a year – and feeling very blessed to be back at the TBL office also known as The Spice Of Life pub in Soho…
Saturday September 3:
It was great to catch up with Alan G Parker and his friend Paul with the good lady Janet in his office and mine also known as The Spice of Life in Soho yesterday – there was talk of Alan’s forthcoming John Lennon documentary Borrowed Time, the recent Elvis film, Abba Voyage, Led Zep, Elton, Beatles Sex Pistols and more – music passion was the order of the day as it always is on our meets – a fab time was had…
Sunday September 4:
Monday September 5:
First pressies of the day from Steve – Laura Nyro Go Find The Moon and Todd Rundgren’s Utopia Another Live albums – thanks mate!
Monday September 5:
A Birthday morning visit to the excellent Revolution Records in Stevenage with my fellow record collecting comrade Steve – the first records and CDs of my being 66 were duly purchased…
Monday September 5:
On my Birthday it’s been fab to be in the company of Pet Burridge and Mat Roberts – two Bedford musicologist and legends…Pete’s present of a box of 1970s era cassettes complete with carrying case is just awesome – thanks mate!
Wednesday September 7:
Here’s the box of cassettes my very good friend Pete gave me for my Birthday.
A cross section of 60s and 70s prime rock and pop and hey no laughing about the Shakin’ Stevens album – he made some great records!
Pete and I had fun guessing the years they were originally released and as usual Pete being the number one musicologist around these parts was spot on
Cheers Pete!
Thursday September 8:
The good lady Janet and I would like to say a massive thanks for all the many Birthday wishes, comments and cards we received for our respective birthdays on August 31 and September 5.
We are truly humbled, blessed and inspired by such kindness…
Apologies if I missed acknowledging some of them – it was overwhelming and heart-warming to receive so many and sincere thanks again…
Much love from Dave and Janet.
Update here:
As can be seen above it was great for the good lady Janet and I to be back in London on Saturday for the first time in over a year. We both had very nice Birthdays. There are a few issues and challenges we are dealing with here and there’s plenty to focus on as we go into the Autumn.
Thursday September 8:
Her Majesty the Queen…always there throughout our lifetime… and now passed…. So very sad…
Thanks for listening
Until next time…
Dave Lewis – September 8 2022
TBL website updates written and compiled by Dave Lewis
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