Them Crooked Vultures have announced a one off benefit London date. They will play the Brixton 02 Academy on Monday July 5th. This show has been organized to provide aid for TCV friend and Homme collaborator Brian O’Connor. The bass player for the Eagles Of Death Metal  has been diagnosed with cancer and is without medical insurance. The net Proceeds from the Brixton O2 Academy show will be contributed to a fund which has been established to assist with Brian’s medical aid. Tickets for the July 5th gig are available …

Set List
Elephants, Gunman, Scumbag Blues, Dead End Friends, No One Loves Me And Neither Do I, New Fang, Bandoliers, Spinning In Daffodils, Mind Eraser No Chaser, Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up
When Josh Homme dryly announces that he loves AC/DC to the 100,000 strong crowd on the opening night of this year’s Download festival, it’s hard to tell whether or not he’s being sarcastic. For in the process of making history by headlining the hallowed rock turf for a fourth time, the Aussie rockers have …

Led Zeppelin were offically voted the nation’s favourite  band on the BBC’s “I’m In A Rock ‘N` Roll Band” grand finale on Saturday night beating fellow finalists The Beatles and Queen in a phone-in vote. The show also featured Best Singer, Guitarist,  and Drummer live phone-in votes.  Remarkably  Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham were all nominated in their catagories.  John Bonham was crowned top drummer ahead of Dave Grohl and Keith Moon, whilst Jimmy and Robert were runners up  to Jimi Hendrix and Freddie Mercury respectively. The Best …

John Paul Jones is a guest on the Shaun Keaveny show over on BBC 6 Music this morning starting at 7am. This is a prelude to the John Bonham Story hosted by Dave Grohl which will be aired later today at 3 pm on the same station. And to finish off this Bank Holiday Monday John Paul Jones and last week’s Jimmy Page interview on the Lauren Laverne show will be repeated at half past midnight.

 
TBL 26 is now out on the streets – all subscribers’ copies and orders up to today have been distributed. UK subscribers should now have received their copies and overseas orders are on their way. This issue has already reached out to Zep fans in the UK, USA, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Indonesia, Israel, Malta, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Russia. I know – I packed every one!
The message needs to keep spreading as I know there are many fans reading this that have yet …

TURNING THE CLOCK BACK 35 YEARS
SUNDAY MAY 25 2005
TICKET FIRST TIER FRONT STALLS BLOCK 19 ROW DD SEAT 35
So the party was nearly over. Got up at 1pm and on the train at 5. Very busy around Earls Court – the unofficial programmes and posters were doing brisk business.
We had an excellent view  for this last swan song – a straight face on view on the back tier front stalls. I remember vividly Alan Freeman’s introduction ”We are here today because you and I have great taste…”.
There was a sense …

On May 31st BBC 6 Music will air an hour long special on John Bonham, which would have been his 62 birthday. The John Bonham Story will be presented by ‘Nirvana’, ‘Foo Fighters’ and ‘Them Crooked Vultures’ star Dave Grohl and will also feature exclusive new interview material from Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and Carmine Appice, as well as the key industry figures and family and close friends.
The makers of the programme reveal the following :
The story begins with John Bonham’s boyhood obsession with rhythm, beating his mother’s pots and …

TURNING THE CLOCK BACK 35 YEARS
SATURDAY MAY 24 1975
TICKET BLOCK AA ROW B SEAT 8
Ticket Price £2.50
My friend Dec had queued up for these tickets for this one over night when they went on sale in March. Seven of us went from Bedford (Hi Dec,Tom and Phil!) We went shopping in Oxford Street where I brought a pair of hip mirror shades for the Lorret holiday to follow. Then it was over to Earls Court in the afternoon – one of our crew  Gary Felts had made a top hat …

TURNING THE CLOCK BACK 35 YEARS
FRIDAY MAY 23 RD 1975
TICKET: GALLARY BLOCK 98 ROW F SEAT 6
Ticket Price £1.00
So imagine waking up on a Friday morning with the prospect of over nine hours of live Led Zeppelin in store over the next three days.
Talk about the weekend starts here!
But that was the treat in store as I went to catch the train on Friday May 23rd for EC gig 3. Earlier I’d had a passport photo taken in a booth  in town suitably dressed in Earls Court T shirt – …

This piece was  originally written for the TBL Earls Court Journal in 2000. It therefore predates the 2003 DVD and How The West Was Won releases that would go some way to unlocking their archive.
This is my version of the definitive Earls Court imaginary compilation:
LED ZEPPELIN AT EARLS COURT 1975
 
IMAGINE THE EARLS COURT BOX SET…
“Think of 1980 – It’s The Song Remains The Same soundtrack or nothing. 1990 – The Song Remains The Same or nothing. And now it’s the same. I’ve always wanted to put out a chronological …