Photo Andreas Stocker/TBL

Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin are to feature exclusively on a BBC 6 Music. The programme, Jimmy Page and the BBC Sessions, will be broadcast in two parts on Christmas Day (25 December).
You can hear Part 1, Led Zeppelin in 1969, on 6 Music between 1200-1300 GMT, with Part 2, Led Zeppelin in 1971, on-air between 2100-2200.

The show features a section of the famous Whole Lotta Love medley, that isn’t included on the commercial BBC Sessions release in 1997, although after hearing it again at 6 Music, Jimmy seemed to remember why.  “For those who were hearing it for the first time, there was a certain guitarist who was really wincing at the out of tune part, because the string had dropped and it was out of tune,” he said. “I was gyrating on the chair here wishing I could tune it up.
“Anyway it got tuned and it got back in, but I could hear then it was putting my playing off. It’s interesting.”

For the programme, the BBC have unearthed documents from the archives showing that the 1969 Top Show was presented to the BBC Audition Panel, whose opinion would be dependent on future appearances.
In the records there is a mention of a cheque made out to Jimmy Page for six pounds, a payment which bounced.
“It just so happened that quite a number of years ago I was going through some old papers and things in a tea chest, and I found this cheque that said, ‘Ordered not to pay’,” he explained. “It’s from the Zeppelin era, so one of these sessions.

The show will feature interviews with key people at the BBC as well as a new interview with Jimmy Page.

Click on the player for exclusive previews of the show.