May is here and in my calander, it’s always an important month. Not least of course because it triggers memories of former May Days and in particular the May Daze of 1975 – it’s the 35th anniversary of Led Zeppelin at Earls Court and I’ll be duly commemorating this milestone with a series of retro features on the TBL site – as you can see from today’s first TBL Archive post.

Being such an auspicious anniversary is also reason enough for me to commence a daily ritual of playing at least one  Zep Earls Court track per day from now to May 26th.  What joy to be had wading through all those multi bootleg CD sets such as When We Were Kings, Evoluzione, Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It, and the vinyl LP’s Earls Court Volume 1 and 2. And then there’s all that lovely Earls Court DVD footage. It’s amazing to think that a few years back such footage was deemed the Holy Grail with few fans ever having seen it (I was lucky enough to view it at the Swan Song office in 1981). Now it’s readily available at the click of a you tube link.

This month will also see the belated publication of the first Tight But Loose magazine of the year – the sad events here last month unavoidably put things on hold, but this week Mick and I have been getting it all back on track –yesterday we had a really productive few hours signing off various pages. It’s all looking very good and I’m sure this issue will provide the perfect spring/summer TBL Zep fix.  I’m aiming at wrapping the lay out next week and then the proof and printing will follow – I hoping it will be out on the streets by the last week of the month. Hold on it’s coming – and it will be worth the wait.

This month I’m also aiming to have the limited edition TBL 35th anniversary T. shirt ready to go – more on that soon, and we will also be unveiling the details of the September 25th Fan Gathering which goes under the banner of the TBL Travelling Riverside Celebration 2010 – again keep an eye on the site for full details soon.

Alongside all that, there’s the next TBL Publishing book Led Zeppelin Feather In The Wind  Over Europe 1980 to get underway.  So there’s a lot to do here in the coming weeks.

May also signifies the end of the football season –for Adam that means one more game on Sunday and then the annual presentation night on May 15th.  For Spurs it would have been nice to be lining up in the F.A Cup Final on the same day against Chelsea, had Portsmouth not spoiled the fun. Instead there’s the race for fourth place and they need a win today at home to Bolton to keep that dream on track – here’s hoping.

Also In the catch up department here, there’s a fair few newly aquirred CD’s and LP’s to wade though which will bring some welcome inspiration. My good friend Dec sorted me on World Record Store day by queuing (as he did for the Earls Court tickets 35 years ago!) early at Rough Trade Records in Portobello Road, securing me copies of the Them Crooked Vultures ten inch, the Jimi Hendrix Valley’s Of  Neptune  7 inch and the Rolling Stones Plundered My Soul Exile outtake 7 inch. Talking of which, May 17th sees the re release of the Exile On Main Street album with extra tracks and you can count me right in for that one – an essential purchase to be sure –just as it was around the same time back in 1972.

I had a meet with Denny Somach the radio producer responsible for the US Get The Led Out programme  couple of weeks back in London (visit ^{www.q1043.com} )   I contributed some interview material that will be airing on the show soon – at the same hotel Denny was interviewing former Zep publicist Bill Harry and we had a quick chat that included some hilarious recollections of Bill’s days of chasing Bonzo around etc.

I had planned to take in the Olympia Record Fair on the Saturday Jimmy popped in but that was not to be – had Mr. Page been at the Spitfields Market Fair I nipped into on the day I met up wth Denny, he may have ended up jostling with me for the very good condition copy of Spirit’s first album I found in the racks – the one that has Fresh Garbage (as performed by Zep live in ’69 and the instrumental Taurus which has a vague Stairway like chord sequence.

Suffice to say it’s good to be getting back into the groove in more ways than one. Sincere thanks again on behalf of Janet and Betty for all your support and heartwarming comments following our bereavement.

After April’s not so many showers roll on the May flowers…..and bring on the darling buds of Zep which means it’s time for the daily May Daze fix. I’m off to play Over The Hills And Far Away from the May 17 date, the one Jimmy played the Lake Placid Strat on…now that’s an image worth framing…and more on that idea soon.