The TBL 2 GF and DL meet with another fully paid up member of the Black Country Communion – Marble Arch London July 5th 2010

Last Monday was a bit of a whirlwind day as aside from the evening’s Them Crooked Vultures gig, Gary and I had a lunchtime rendezvous with Glenn Hughes.

This was to conduct a follow up interview with Glenn regarding the Black Country Communion album. As he had been on the phone from LA back in February, Glenn was a fantastic interviewee.   Accommodating, friendly, lucid and incredibly positive, his distinctive Black Country meets LA drawl lit up the plush hotel suite we met in. Alongside talk of the BCC album, he re-affirmed his admiration for Jason and had some very poignant comments regarding Bonzo.

My good friends Terry and Jerry have long since lauded the class of this very seasoned musician and boy were they right. Via the formation of Black Country Communion and Jason’s involvement etc, I have been lucky to witness first hand, the graciousness, and humility with which this man conducts himself. As a rock star that has been there and done it all, his lust for life and his enthusiasm for his music is awe inspiring. My conversations with him have certainly inspired me and have been one of the absolute highlights of this year. The fruits of this latest conversation will be previewed on the site soon and relayed in full in the forthcoming TBL magazine.

While we were at the hotel, I met with Carl Swann his manager and remembered him being in attendance at the 1992 Zep Convention. There was further co-incidence when Lisa the lady representing BCC UK label Mascot Records, turned out to be an old Our Price record shop associate who worked in the stores in the 1990s (Krys J you would know her). It’s a small old world.

TCV was another action packed night out. It was great to be in attendance with my good friend Tom Locke 30 years on from the night we shared the experience of witnessing the penultimate Zep gig in Munich. Not least for his endless stream of curt one liners (example: as we walked in and the rather loud support act were on he took one look and exclaimed ‘That’s a waste of electricity…’’). Prior to the gig it was also a pleasure to see Cliff Hilliard, Mick Bulow and Chris (Cheap Trick rule), Michaela, Tom Cory, Simon Cadman, Robin Guise and various other TBL people. The pre gig chat included many a trivia question such as naming the original line up of Yes  (was it Tony Kaye on guitar?) and discussing fave coloured vinyl records  (Mick’s was a yellow vinyl copy of Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan, Tom went for The Dickies Paranoid on ten inch I went for the original blue and red coloured vinyl version I have of Blueberry Hill on TMQ Records)

It was a heart warming experience to be back in front of Mr John Paul Jones  30 years on from that night in 1980. As I said in my review, the devotion for the music displayed by an audience of young and old was a joy to witness. They may or may not be back again, but TCV have provided some great highs this last year.

The trial to take in the next high, that of the live return of Robert Plant wasn’t such a smooth one come Wednesday morning.

HMV’s pre sale ticket offer was a fine idea in theory but for many the link did not work as it should.  During the day I had a fair few texts, emails and calls re the problems being encountered. Have to say HMV staff seemed to do a great job in helping out as best they could but it wasn’t an ideal process for many.

Oh for the days when we used to queue up as required or easier still, actually speak to someone to ensure the booking went ahead as it should. My link did work but as I nervously put in the details to purchase  tickets for Birmingham and then London, that countdown clock informing me how long I had to complete the transaction made me feel like I was in some World Cup match, where the added time was ticking away and penalties loomed ahead.

Luckily all went through on time and there was no need for penalties and I will be looking forward to catching up with Robert’s latest Band Of Joy come early September and then again in October. TBL meet details will follow nearer the time.

Talking of penalties, of which there’s been a distinct lack of in this tournament, the World Cup wraps up with the Spain V Holland final on Sunday. Although I’m not over fussed either way, it would be nice to see Holland win it if only for the occasions in ’74 and ’78 when they really should have, but missed out. They were awesome in 1974 in Germany with Cruyff and Neeskens etc. Holland’s 2-0 semi final defeat of Brazil remains one of my all time fave World Cup matches.  Oh for the days of total football…as this World Cup has had a distinct lack of that too. I know England’s woeful showing has drawn a black cloud over proceedings, but it all seems to have passed by without too much excitement. In a masochistic way I did enjoy or endure the hype and expectation of what could have been, but we won’t be looking back on this one as we did the 1990 tournament – brilliantly profiled in the Gazza’s Tears documentary screened last Sunday . Back then it really was a case of so near …and seeing that footage of good old Bobby and his boys brought a lump to the throat.

Busy here on the initial plan for  TBL 27 – saw Mick today and we worked up ideas for the new cover and got down to assessing Mike Tremaglio’s intensive and ever illuminating Summer of 1970 Zep tour log. We will be full on with work on the mag in the next few days before my call of the Crown Court a week on Monday. As Michael Brazee humouredly pointed out, maybe I’ll get lucky and have the Jake Holmes v Jimmy Page Dazed and Confused case to form the jury on. Now that would be a very interesting case to be passing judgement on…