Jimmy Page presents John Davis with the Mastering Engineer of the Year Award:

Lots of coverage for this much deserved accolade for John Davis – this one via the Metropolis website:

Metropolis Studios is celebrating today after internationally acclaimed Mastering Engineer, John Davis, was awarded Mastering Engineer of the Year at last night’s glittering Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. John’s award was presented by legendary Jimmy Page, who he has worked with closely on several projects over the years, including the mastering of Led Zeppelin‘s Mothership.

A mastering engineer with an international reputation for the exceptional quality of his technique and a renowned ear for perfection, John has worked with an array of award-winning artists in his mastering suite at Metropolis, including Lana Del Rey, The Prodigy, Royal Blood, U2 and F.K.A Twigs, who took home two MPG Awards last night for Best Single and Best Album.

On presenting the award, Jimmy Page described John as, “hugely deserving”, and talked about how much he had enjoyed working with an engineer who, “truly is a master of their craft.”

“It was such a complete surprise when my name was called! I am super excited and thrilled with this award. To be presented it by Jimmy Page was just the icing on the cake!”
John Davis

When Metropolis was asked who John would like to present the award to him, there was no hesitation, as CEO Ian Brenchley explains,

“When the MPG asked us who should present John’s award, it was a no brainer. He has worked closely with Jimmy Page on the Led Zeppelin re-masters, and we know that Jimmy really respects John’s work, as do all the artists he works with. We are so proud of John, not only for the recognition at the MPGs and his multiple BRITs nominations, but also for his constant drive to improve sonic standards and the work he does with some of the most exciting breakthrough artists on the scene, to polish the sound they create and take it from good to exceptional and, in many cases, award-winning.”

John is now looking forward to the BRITs later this month, where material he has worked on is nominated in several categories. He has mastered for nominated artists including Foals, Years & Years and Catfish & The Bottlemen. Metropolis will also be awaiting the names of the winners with baited breath as their engineers have collectively worked on 27 nominations – more than any other studio.

http://www.thisismetropolis.com/john-davis-crowned-mpgs-mastering-engineer-of-the-year/

Other news story link on this at:

http://www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=19202

………………………..

Led Zeppelin News Weekly Update:

In conjunction with the Led Zep news site, each week I will be re producing highlights from their weekly email update news summary. This goes out every Sunday. Sign up details are below. Many thanks to James Cook.

New photographs of Led Zeppelin performing in Preston on January 30 1973 were published online for the first time. See the photographs here.

• The Led Zeppelin remasters have gone platinum, which is awarded for a total of 3 million sales. Mastering engineer John Davis tweeted a photo of his platinum award for his work on the albums.

• An updated version of Luis Rey’s book about Led Zeppelin live shows was released online. It now comes in four different-coloured covers.

Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page at the MPG Awards in London on February 3 (Led Zeppelin)

• Jimmy Page attended the MPG Awards in London on February 3 and presented mastering engineer John Davis with the Mastering engineer of the year award for his work, which included work on the Led Zeppelin remasters. You can see more photographs from the night here, and also here.

Robert Plant

• Robert Plant performed in Glasgow on Monday night for the second night of the Bert Jansch tribute shows. He was seen at the Berkeley 2 rehearsal studios in Glasgow on January 30. There are lots of pro-shot photos of the two shows, which you can see on our Twitter timeline. Also, here’s a review of the first performance from The Guardian, and another review of that night from The Independent. Here’s the setlist for the two shows (via Royal Orleans). Click through on the links to see videos of the performances:

Led Zeppelin News email goes out every weekend. To receive it each week sign up here: https://t.co/yp9fGJMSGH

…………………….

VOTE: Planet Rock Plays It In Full – Led Zeppelin:

‘Planet Rock Plays It In Full’ – classic rock albums, played on Planet Rock in their entirety!

NO interruptions, NO jingles, NO presenter between the songs… just the album played as the artist intended it to be.

Listen every Monday from 11pm, and celebrate a classic with us.

Each week in 2016 we’ll be playing an album from one of 50 great artists, and YOU decide which of that artist’s albums we play.

This week, we’re asking you to chose which LED ZEPPELIN album we should play in full.

Cast your vote now below! Voting closes on Monday morning, when we’ll reveal the winning album which will be played in full on Planet Rock at 11pm that night.

See voting at this link:

http://www.planetrock.com/on-air/planet-rock-plays-it-in-full/planet-rock-plays-it-in-full/

……………………………….

TBL 1975 Retro – 41 years ago there were some memorable performances going down in the New York area…

TBL Led Zep 1975 Snapshot:

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 12th, 1975

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. San Francisco)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – Black Dog/Heartbreaker (inc. That’s Alright Mama).

Background Details:

Whilst in New York, for recreation, Jimmy went to see Linda Ronstadt in New Jersey with ex-James Gang member Joe Walsh.

Writer and future film director Cameron Crowe is travelling with the band with a view to arranging a cover story for Rolling Stone magazine. Crowe builds up a good rapport with the group (he later contributes the sleeve notes to The Song Remains The Same soundtrack album) and interviews all four members, finally capturing Page at the Plaza Hotel during their Madison Square stint. Page, though none too happy with the paper’s previous coverage of the group, reluctantly agrees to a group photo session after much persuasion.

Cameron Crowe remembers: “Time was running out but I got Ben Fong Torres at the magazine’s office to hold the cover. Photographer Neal Preston reserved a room at the Plaza and set up a backdrop. It was the band’s day off (February 11). The members were informed of the afternoon shoot but mysteriously that morning Page disappeared from the hotel. Plant was first to arrive at 4PM, his shirt ‘accidentally’ open, his hair ‘accidentally’ perfect, then Jones and Bonham. Joe Walsh was there with his then manager Irving Azoff to help their friend Jimmy through this most tender ordeal. Page was still nowhere to be seen.

“Finally, Page arrived. In his arms were two bouquets of dead roses – his defiant statement for the cover of Rolling Stone. He explained his delay: ‘I was looking for black roses. They exist you know!’ He looked around the room. ‘Let’s do this quickly!’

“The session began. Three of the four members of Led Zeppelin struck a conciliatory pose, but the fourth Jimmy Page – held roses and stared through the camera. It was his chilling look that made the photo. The film was rushed to the lab and I flew home to San Francisco to write up the story. I had decided it would be a question and answer feature – that’s how good the interviews were.

“The call came early next day. There had been an equipment malfunction. The film was unusable; barely exposed was a dark silhouette of what might have been a Rolling Stone cover to rival the best. The cover was hastily switched to a tinted live Preston shot. That turned out nicely – and the issue with Zeppelin on the cover was a huge seller. It’s just a shame Page’s defiant stance was never seen.”

Snapshot Listen:- How it sounded today:

I’ve had this show for some years on the audience recording Can’t Take Your Evil Ways (Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin). In 2001 it then surfaced on the Empress Valley label as Flying Circus as a very well balanced soundboard recording. This was a revelation at the time and I recall a very excited Mark Harrison ringing me to tell me how good it was. And it is good -very good indeed and playing it today the whole thing sounded great. This is the point where the US tour really began to take off.

Robert is quick to comment on the snow that was surrounding the city at the time: “We came four blocks in the snow to get here… you realise that? People were calling me on the telephone today and saying ‘Is it gonna be on?’ For a minute I was wondering about my anatomy, then I realised there was some discrepancy about the weather. Isn’t it good though that it snows? Doesn’t it change the vibe of the city? I think it’s great!”

No Quarter expands with a lovely electric piano sequence and a wah wah fest from Page that has the feel of the electric fusion Miles Davis pioneered on the likes of Bitches Brew. Trampled Underfoot has a particularly expressive solo from Page.  Dazed And Confused continues to extend with the San Francisco sequence sounding very spaced out and brief section from Walter’s Walk which would eventually surface on Coda. The outro features those West Side Story licks.

Thee final encore of Heartbreaker is preceded by some lines from You Shook Me- during the solo they move into an impromptu version of That’s Alright Mama’ A perfect end to a perfect party. Plant: “Ladies and gentlemen of New York… you’re too much… and we ain’t so bad ourselves!”

Indeed they were not….

TBL Led Zep 1975 Snapshot:

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 13th, 1975

UNIONDALE , NEW YORK

NASSAU  VETERANS MEMORIAL COLISEUM

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. San Francisco)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – Black Dog/Roll Over Beethoven/Communication Breakdown.

Snapshot Listen:- How it sounded today:

I have this on the Throwing The Wild Seeds box set. Another fine performance. Dazed And Confused contains much improvisation. Page’s injured finger is causing less problems now. Whole Lotta Love tonight includes the theremin for the first time on the tour during a funky interlude prior to leading into ‘Black Dog’.

Ronnie Wood then on tour with The Faces, comes on for the final encore of ‘Communication Breakdown’. Robert sings a few lines of Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven while the guitars are being sorted out. Communication Breakdown itself is greatly extended and clocks in at over nine minutes with both guitarists taking solos. One of the all time great Zep jams.

 TBL Led Zep 1975 Snapshot:

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14 1975

UNIONDALE, NEW YORK

NASSAU VETERANS MEMORIAL COLISEUM

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/Since I’ve Been Loving You/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. San Francisco)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – Black Dog/Heartbreaker.

Background Info: Mike Tremaglio recalled: One of my friends saw this show from the 14th row.Unfortunately he could not score tickets for my brother and I – not that I held it against him as I got him tickets for the June 7 1977 New York show. We asked him to log down all the details of the Nassau show  and we  did get a blow by blow account of the new songs from Physical Graffiti a full two weeks before it was released in the U.S. His recall was tremendous and I can remember him describing  In My Time of Dying and Kashmir in real detail.

……………………..

Snapshot Listen:- How it sounded today:

I have this on the Nassau 1975 (TheDiagrams Of Led Zeppelin) audience version. I’ve been listening to this show today via the soundboard recording that surfaced a few years back as released on the Scorpio label and as part of the Godfather Throwing The Wild Seeds box set .

It’s one of my favourite performances of the 1975 US tour.

Plant is just about regaining his vocals strength after the problems of the past weeks. He is also on his spieling best form developing one of those band to audience rapports he was so good at.

Witness his opening statements:

“Today is one of the last of the pagan traditions that is carried on into the 20th Century. It’s the day for throwing the wild seeds. In fact, now they call it St. Valentine’s Day… so, happy St. Valentine’s Day! I think we should dedicate this whole show to St. Valentine.”

“Tonight, we intend to take a knife and cut right through the glorious ice cream of Led Zeppelin. You get a little bit of vanilla, a little bit of chocolate, a little bit of colour and a little bit of everything”

And more..

“We came here in a state of ah, Jimmy managed to get to sleep at three o’clock this afternoon, and he was up again at four thirty. So we didn’t really know whether we had the strength to walk on the stage, but we have, and it’s feeling good. We were, we spent a few hours with St. Valentine last night, you see?”

The playing throughout is wonderfully loose and informal and there’s another great moment as Plant is introducing No Quarter” Page plays the opening notes to Train Kept A-Rollin.  “We’re going through our whole live history here, just flashing on different numbers” Plant adds.

The set list is notable for the inclusion of Since I’ve Been Loving played live for the first time since the 1973 US tour. Plant: “Who knows what it’s gonna sound like, but it’s something we really used to dig playing”. There’s a masterful ad-lib during the song where he sings the ‘I’m about to lose my worried mind” refrian and adds ”I seem to remember I used to say for five minutes”

”This is one that regulars that come here know quite well…but you’ve still yet to hear the recorded version…this is a track about another of life’s journeys that never end..this time in Kashmir”

Kashmir was a number that they were obviously itching to play live and with Plant’s voice suitably recovered they turned in a majestic Valentines’ Day performance in Nassau. Page strumming down relentlessly on the Gibson behind Bonham’s castinet like drumming.

Plant showing renewed confidence to throw in the echoed vocal nuances that became such an Earls Court trademark. Listening to this delivery re emphasis my opinion that the best live versions of Kashmir  were all played in the year it was released on record.

No Quarter features John Paul Jones at his best tonight and his improvisation takes the number to 20 minutes in duration.

Dazed And Confused is a marathon 30 minute plus excursion and the encore delivery of Heartbreaker leads into an impromptu version of Elvis’Mess Of Blues

Tangerine was of course a surprise inclusion at the Earls Court shows performed as a four part harmony. However perhaps they were already toying with the idea of bringing it back during the American tour. For on this night prior to Stairway To Heaven Plant let out a few lines from the long deleted Zep 3 stage fave. ”Measuring a summers day”…adding ”I’ve forgotten the words”. It was a brief teaser for a song that would again light up those memorable May days to come.

The prelude to Earls Court was on – and the course was a very favourable one …

DL – To be continued…

………………………..

Maurice White 1941 – 2016:

Maurice White – the Earth Wind and Fire founder who has sadly passed away aged 74…RIP

………………………………

Happy Birthday Mr Gary Foy: 

A belated Happy Birthday to the TBL number 2 man Mr Gary Foy – it was his birthday on Tuesday Feb 9. 20 years ago on his birthday, Gary was in Japan watching Page & Plant with his lady Carol – 14 years ago on that date Janet and I were with them at the Royal Albert Hall for the memorable Jimmy Page performance (more on that next week).

………………………..

Dec Hickey Podcast:

My very good friend Dec has just launched a new Podcast. As many of you know, Dec is the author of the book  Heaven To Heaven – New Order Live – The Early Years 1981 – 1984. The podcast which goes under the name 41 Rooms, will upload every fortnight.

The 41 Rooms podcast will present what Dec describes as ”Two hours of post punk and other newer/older beats and nonsense, uploaded every fortnight”

Check it out at: http://41rooms.com/

…………………

Vinyl TV series:

The Martin Scorsese/Mick Jagger produced TV series Vinyl about the US music business in the 70s  begins this weekend – Led Zeppelin is part of the subject matter…

On the surface, it may not seem the most appropriate Valentine’s Day gift, but if you are as in love with rock’n’roll and storytelling from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, and Terence Winter, then HBO’s Vinyl is a TV kiss you don’t want to miss. Debuting on February 14 with a two-hour pilot directed by the Oscar winner, Vinyl, as I say in my video review above, literally and figuratively rocks.

The pilot for the musical drama Vinyl is one of Martin Scorsese’s best films, an explosion of amplifier feedback, nose candy, wide-lapeled shirts, and borderline chaos; the next four episodes are almost as good, and on the basis of the first half-season, it already feels like the first new must-see series of 2016. It’s set in New York City in 1973, when crime was rampant, rock and roll was sputtering, disco was ascendant, and hip-hop was in its embryonic stage. Its main character, Italian-American record producer Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale), is a consummate Scorsese hero-narrator-scumbag, furtive, wild-eyed, and sweaty, a compulsive liar, a man of bottomless hunger and unrealistic dreams. He’s trying to shepherd the sale of his label, American Century Music, to the German media conglomerate Polygram while staying up for days at a stretch and partying with clients who double as connections. “I’m in a business where professional interaction has a personal component,” he explains to a couple of cops who are investigating him for … well, we’ll get to that.

Selfishness, appetite, sex, drugs, lies, guilt, sin, punishment: All the Scorsese touchstones are represented here, but they’re embedded in the story rather than feeling superimposed from above, as has unfortunately been the case with some of the work from the second half of his career. In the present, Richie struggles to sign Led Zeppelin and keep his marriage to his wife, Devon (Olivia Wilde), a former Andy Warhol Factory girl, from cratering. His desperate flailings are interwoven with flashbacks to the start of his career in the early 1960s, when he took on his first client, an African-American blues guitarist named Lester Grimes (Ato Essandoh) and inadvertently (or perhaps just negligently) destroyed him. This subplot is no anomaly: One of the most welcome surprises in Vinyl — co-created by Boardwalk Empire‘s Terence Winter, who also wrote the pilot and The Wolf of Wall Street — is its awareness that the record industry is built atop a cultural graveyard of exploited African-American artists. They appear in expressionistic musical interludes that are sometimes coded as Richie’s visions (as when Bo Diddley appears in laser-lit mist on the edge of a pool party) but that just as often feel like specters that haunt the white folks whether they notice them or not.

See more at:http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/tv-review-martin-scorseses-vinyl.html

http://deadline.com/2016/02/vinyl-review-hbo-series-martin-scorsese-mick-jagger-bobby-cannavale-video-1201699200/

…………….

VIP Record Fair Bedford:

The VIP Record Fair pitches up in Bedford this Saturday at the Harpur Suite venue . I will be onthe TBL stall at this one.

http://www.vip-24.com/Bedford.htm

……………………

DL Diary Blog Update:

Friday vinyl treats at the Vinyl Barn – I fought off an emerging head cold to venture out to the Vinyl Barn as usual last Friday morning – there was no Terry Wogan Floral Dance to be found but I did pick up The Eagles Desperado on original UK Asylum, The Rolling Stones compilation Rewind and the excellent debut Pilot album – the band included bassist and guitarist David Paton who went on to play on Jimmy Page’s Death Wish 2 soundtrack album. Shame you were not selling Lemsip Darren –I’d have added that to the list!

It’s been something of a challenging week – as mentioned above, I was fending off a head cold from the middle of last week and by the weekend it had me beat. On top of all that, there was some severe tech stress.

The TBL website was seriously hacked  last Thursday  – it went off line and all content had to be reloaded. This took a lot of doing – I’d like to thank TBL web man Mike Macecknie for doing a great job on restoring the site.

Then on Friday my Facebook page was hacked and many people got a false friends requests from me – total pisser and more wasted time.

All this led to me losing ground on the current TBL workload  – after all the early positive vibes and with my head cold kicking in I felt well low –  these hassles sap the energy.

Anyway, it had to be ever onward and I’m pleased to say the cold has cleared up this week and I have been back full on in serious research and writing mode for a freelance feature that needs to be completed on a tight deadline by the end of the month.

Musical inspiration has come via the Zep Throwing The Wild Seeds box set, the Miles Davis Live at the Fillmore West set and wading through some new very fine vinyl additions to the Dl collection as follows:

Like An Old Fashioned Waltz – Sandy Denny original Island pressing

White Album – The Amsterdam Concert – Yes – Offshore Records bootleg

Back it Up! An Authorised Bootleg – Nils Lofgren – UK A and M

Volunteers – Jefferson Airplane RCA original

Terry Reid – Terry Reid – US Epic 1969 album

On the positive, it’s good to see Spurs doing so well – though the visit to Manchester City on Sunday will be stern test. Here’s hoping.

Valentine’s Day is upon us on Sunday…

I  have a playlist that that randomly sequences the more wistful and romantic  side of Zep, Page & Plant moments –it includes  Tangerine, Moonlight In Samosa, Wonderful One, The Greatest Gift, That’s The Way, When I Was A Child, Like I’ve Never Been Gone, Ten Years Gone, Come Into My Life, Down By The Seaside, Stick With Me Baby, Blue Train, I’m Gonna Crawl, Heart In Your Hand, Thank You, The Rain Song, Song To The Siren, Going To California, In The Light, I Believe, Ship of Fools, Sea Of Love, Please Read The Letter, Our Song, All My Love, Thank You etc – you get the idea.

Aside from Zep, I’d list Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours and My Funny Valentine albums, Burt Bacharach’s Hitmaker, Otis Redding Oits Blue ,Dusty Springfield In Memphis and David Bowie’s Young Americans as definitive Valentine’s Day play – and In the light of all that – here’s the DL Valentines Day playlist –  some of the most romantic and deeply touching love songs ever written in the view of your TBL editor:

Ten Years Gone – Led Zeppelin

Lay Lady Lay – Bob Dylan

Otis Redding – My Girl

Northern Sky –Nick Drake

Oh My Love –John Lennon

Come In To My Life – Robert Plant

Our House – Crosby Stills Nash & Young

Tangerine –Led Zeppelin

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You – Rod Stewart

How Deep is Your Love – The Bee Gees

God Only Knows – The Beach Boys

Do What You Gotta Do – The Four Tops

Nobody Loves You Like I Do – Greg Lake

Ship Of Fools – Robert Plant

The Rain Song – Led Zeppelin

Here, There And Everywhere – The Beatles

I’m Gonna Crawl – Led Zeppelin

Word On A Wing – David Bowie

The Greatest Gift – Robert Plant

Something – The Beatles

Wonderful One – Jimmy Page & Robert Plant

Headstart To Happiness – The Style Council

Tiny Dancer – Elton John

Thank You – Led Zeppelin

Little Wing – Jimi Hendrix

Lets Get It On -Marvin Gaye

Still In Love With You – Thin Lizzy

Help Me – Joni Mitchell

One For My Baby –Frank Sinatra

The Look of Love – Dusty Springfield

You Do Something To Me -Paul Weller

All My Love – Led Zeppelin

And finally some words from Valentines Day 1975 -over to you Robert…

Dave Lewis – February 11, 2016

YouTube clip:

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant -Tokyo 20 years gone:

Vinyl TV series preview:

Until next time…

Have a great weekend..

Dave Lewis/Gary Foy – February 11, 2016.

If you are reading this and have yet to link with the Tight But Loose Facebook page be sure to request/add us. The TBL Facebook is another key part of the TBL set up with updated stories/additional pics etc to keep you on top of the world of TBL.

To view additional photos and TBL info be sure to hook up with the Tight But Loose Facebook page (add us as a friend) at

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1611296783