Last Thursday there was a rare Lewis night out and for once not in the name of rock’n’roll.
Instead it was a night of quality stand up comedy with the good lady and myself in attendance at Frank Skinner’s appearance at the Bedford Corn Exchange. The same venue I’d been enjoying some right old real ales at the Bedford Beer festival exactly a week before.

Frank is another of my men of the midlands – always ready to reflect on his working class roots which I can well relate to. I once fell foul of his dry wit myself when after a Robert Plant show at Hammersmith I asked him if he’d enjoyed it: ‘’Not bad’’ he said in that distinctive Brum accent.‘’Shame the voice has gone’’….

Frank was on superb form with a brand of observational humour that had us laughing in the face of adversity – a real tonic in amongst these hectic heady days. There was no getting away from the shadow of the Zep though as during the interval over the PA came a medley of bizarre hip hop covers that included Whole Lotta Love. This if nothing else prompted me to play the original at the earliest opportunity – which I did next day and the whole of Led Zep 2 on vinyl the way it should be heard. Try that one again – boy it still kicks. In fact I’m going to dig all my Zep vinyl out over the next few days to remind myself the thrill those wonderful records provided back then and still do.

Elsewhere we’ve been chipping away at getting the next TBL in shape with some great input from various contributors (thank you Steve Sauer, Gary Davis, Mike Tremaglio,the young Dan and Jack)

It’s been a somewhat fraught couple of weeks re the situation for tickets for 02 -a ballot for just one show was always going to disappoint large numbers of fans.

However there is lot to look forward to in the coming weeks with the excellent Robert/Alison album, the Mothership compilation, the exciting prospect of viewing The Song Remains The Same in our own living rooms as never before, Zep press coverage likely to reach fever pitch over the coming six weeks (the next Mojo has a massive feature and interview planned).

Great days to be a Led Zeppelin fan that need to be enjoyed to the full. Right I’m off to find my Led Zeppelin 3 album on vinyl and give it a blast as I gaze at that unique revolving wheel sleeve.

Now you don’t get that experience with a download….