John Bonham would have been 63 on Tuesday May 31st – the above photo is one of my favourite of John – not least because I was lucky enough to take it. It captures him receiving one of seven awards presented by Michael Palin (on the right) to three quarters of Led Zeppelin on the afternoon of November 28th 1979 at the Waldorf Hotel in London.
Surprisingly and somewhat ironically, Bonzo lost out to Phil Collins as top drummer. John was somewhat irked by this. Jason told me a story recently …

Firstly an update on the state of play with the TBL Product frenzy distribution.
TBL 29 has been distributed over the past few days and subscriber UK copies should be arriving now – Overseas copies should also be well on the way. Initial orders for the Led Zeppelin Feather In The Wind – Over Europe 1980 are now on the way out – again UK orders should be arriving in the next few days with overseas orders following over the next two to three weeks. Orders for T-shirts will begin to …

It’s gearing up to be a TBL summer of mass consumption with an outpouring of new TBL product due. Firstly Tight But Loose issue 29 is ready to go. This first issue of the 2011 subscription is another action packed affair. The magazine will be distributed over the next few days.If you are a 2010 subscriber your subscription ended with issue 28.
Now is the time to re subscribe!
All the details of how to subscribe can be found on the TBL Subscriptions link at the top of the TBL home page.

TBL …

It was great to be back in the vacinity of those May daze of 1975 this week when a visit to the London Trade Book Fair took me back to Earls Court. Coming out of the tube and seeing that grand old building come into view is like catching up on some much missed distant relation. It will be a shame of this monument to so many historic occasions is allowed to disappear under the bulldozer in the name of so called progress.
I was at the fair with my good …

The new issue of the Tight But Loose magazine is OUT NOW.
Here’s a review from the Underground Uprising Zep site
Tight But Loose Issue 29
The issue of every new release of Tight But Loose from the highly elequent pen of Dave Lewis is always an event to be savoured. And this latest release is no exception. In fact I am of the opinion that this is one of the very best ever issues of this venerable organ, as they say in Private Eye! There are so many extremely interesting articles crammed …

John Paul Jones will be performing at the forthcoming Cheltenham Jazz Festival as  part of Spin Marvel, an electronic jazz group. The band  includes  Loose Tubes drummer Martin France, celebrated trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer and Terje Evensen on live elctronics. JPJ completes the line up on bass guitar. The group’s appearance is on Saturday  April 30th at 5:15pm in the main arena.
See link at www.cheltenhamfestivals.com

Robert Plant and The Band Of Joy commence their US tour tonight in Louisville – if you are attending any of the forthcoming  shows – …

Jason Bonham has announced a May tour in the USA with the Led Zeppelin Experience. The highly acclaimed tribute show to his father, John Bonham, was staged  last year to rave review across America. Jason said of the Experience.  “I never imagined that the tour would have received the overwhelmingly positive reactions that it did, It’s been beyond my wildest dreams to come out represent my family, my father and the music of Led Zeppelin”
As with last year, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience feature James Dylan on lead vocals, Tony …

London’ radio art station Resonance104.4fm is staging a live auction to raise funds to keep this unique project on air.
It’s being held from noon on Saturday March 19th until midnight on Sunday March 20th. Amongst the top items to bid for is the chance to win a 90 minute one to one bass guitar lesson with John Paul Jones.  For full details visit http://resonancefm.com/auction

Robert Plant and The Band Of Joy will perform at this year’s Montreal International Jazz Festival at the end of June. They are scheduled to play the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts on June 24.  Other Dates already confirmed this year are as follows:
April 8 – Louisville, KY – The Palace
April 9: – Chicago, IL – The Auditorium Theatre
April 11 – Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Ballroom
April 12 – Minneapolis – The State Theatre
April 14 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live Arena
April 14-16  -Wanee Music Festival, Live Oak, …

Progress on the book I have been compiling titled  Feather In The Wind- Led Zeppelin  Over Europe 1980 is ongoing and we are now commencing the design stage with a view to publication in late May/June.
Here’s what the book is all about:
In the summer of 1980, Led Zeppelin undertook what would be their final tour –a low key 14 date trek across  Germany, Belgium, Holland, Austria and Switzerland.
With a radically streamlined stage presentation and set list, the aim was to get back to being a working band after all the …