Led Zeppelin Reissue Round -up:

Well once again the staying power of Led Zeppelin has been well and truly demonstrated with the incredible reaction to the news of the release of the first three reissues. The column inches racked up, both across the net and in hard print has been pretty phenomenal. Headlines such as the Independent’s ”Led Zeppelin are back with a whole lotta rock’’ emphasising that fact that this band is always in the present tense. All three of the super deluxe box sets entered the top ten Amazon pre order music chart this week.

Mojo Interview Quotes:

The Mojo magazine web site has some quotes from an interview with Jimmy due to be published in a future Mojo magazine.Here’s their extract:

Each album features a ‘companion’ disc presenting unearthed material from the group’s creative heyday. Treasures include a whole October 10, 1969 show from the Olympia in Paris in the Led Zeppelin I package. Led Zep II and III comprise work-in-progress versions of tracks, giving a unique and fascinating insight into the group’s creative process in their first flush, 1968-1970.

“In some cases it’s alternate mixes or even backing tracks,” Zep founder, guitarist and curator Jimmy Page explains exclusively to MOJO. “Like Out On The Tiles, for instance. That sounds like a really horny, beefy instrumental. To revisit it like that is like, ‘Oh! Wow!’ It’s powerful stuff.”

Page has been mindful of what is already available to fans in – ahem – ‘unofficial’ form.

“I’m the sort of person that if I start something, I don’t want to leave any stone unturned – so I will seek things here and seek things there,” he explains. “I wasn’t going to be intimidated by the bootlegs that were out there but I was mindful of what was on them. I looked at what was out there and I looked at what I had and I thought, ‘There’s no way this version came out because I knew nobody had it but me.’”

Led Zeppelin III has yielded an especially rich trove of material, including a very different Since I’ve Been Loving You, a conflation of blues standards Keys To The Highway/Trouble In Mind and a previously (officially) unreleased instrumental, Jennings Farm Blues.

“It’s a forerunner of Bron Yr Aur Stomp,” says Page. “There’s all sorts of things that people haven’t heard.”

The subsequent six studio albums will follow in due course. Meanwhile, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, and Led Zeppelin III will each be available from June 2 on Atlantic/Swan Song.

See link at:

http://www.mojo4music.com/12781/led-zeppelin-remasters-arrive-last/

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Jimmy Page to Receive Honorary Doctorate From Berklee College of Music

This news came through on the same day as the Led Zeppelin Reissues were announced – here’s the report from Rolling Stone.com

The Led Zeppelin guitarist will be honored by the prestigious music school during its May 10th commencement ceremony

In an email to Rolling Stone, Page commented that, “It’s truly an honour to be the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate at Berklee as the music of America has been a primary driving force in my early years and pivotal to my musical development.”

Joining Page as honorees, all of whom are being celebrated for their achievement and influence, are jazz pianist, composer and educator Geri Allen, singer, songwriter and producer Valerie Simpson (of Ashford and Simpson fame) as well as jazz trumpeter, composer and educator Thara Memory.

Past Berklee honorees include David Bowie, Carole King, Loretta Lynn and George Clinton.

On May 9th, this year’s honorees will watch and listen as current Berklee students perform music from their careers. In recent years, honorees such as Willie Nelson, Steven Tyler, Alison Krauss and Annie Lennox have joined the students on stage. It’s unknown whether or not Page will do the same, but at the very least, should he chose to, he won’t have to look very far to borrow a violin bow.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jimmy-page-to-receive-honorary-doctorate-from-berklee-school-of-music-20140313

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 Dave Rawling’s band announce summer tour with John Paul Jones in the line – up:

This via the Dave Rawling’s website:

Dave Rawlings Machine’s barnstorming 2013 lineup is back for six nights only this summer, beginning June 18 in Boulder, CO, and finishing up on June 27 at Nashville, TN’s legendary Ryman Auditorium. Gillian Welch, John Paul Jones, Willie Watson and Paul Kowert will join Dave Rawlings for an evening of distinctive picking, high lonesome songs and many other high caliber acoustic entertainments.

More details at

http://www.daverawlingsmachine.com/031714/

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Robert Plant adds German gigs:

Two more German gigs have been added to the Robert Plant Sensational Space Shifters European tour.

June 20^th – Stadtpark Musik, Hamburg

June 23^rd – Tanzbrunnen Köln, Cologne

For ticket links, see the tour section of the Robert Plant website:

http://www.robertplant.com/#news

Robert Plant has postponed his two Russian shows in St. Petersburg on June 18th June and Moscow on June 20th due to logistical reasons.

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Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes Record Store Day release:

The 2014 Record Store day listings include a special release for the  Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes Live at the Greek album – here’s the details

Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes
Live At The Greek
TVT Records
3 x 12″ Vinyl
2000 copies

Record Store day is set for Saturday April 19th

More details at

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/retail/5944637/record-store-day-announces-2014-exclusive-offerings-full-list

http://www.recordstoreday.com/SpecialReleases

(Thanks Stephen Humphries and Michaela Finegan )

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Planet Rock presents Led Zeppelin Beginnings:

More Zep media…this from Planet Rock…

To celebrate the announcement of the Led Zeppelin remasters, Planet Rock goes back to the beginning with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant to take a closer look at the making of the band’s first four groundbreaking albums.

Tune in on Sunday 23 March at 7pm for this very special one hour show!

There’s also another chance to hear it on Thursday 27 March at 8pm.

http://www.planetrock.com/on-air/led-zeppelin-beginnings/

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Bert Jansch Tribute Concert for BBCFour:

The Bert Jansch tribute concert staged at the Royal Festival Hall last December and featuring performances by Robert Plant, will air on BBC Four at 10pm on Friday March 28th

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California Breed first music video:

Here’s the very rockin’ first video of the new band fronted by Glenn Hughes and featuring Jason Bonham and Andrew Watt:

I’ve heard the album which confirms that Glenn and Jason were made to be in a band together… the young Andrew is pretty hot too…

The California Breed album is due out on May 16th and will be preceded by a single likely to be Midnight Oil.

Here’s the album track listing: The Way; Sweet Tea; Chemical Rain; Midnight Oil; All Falls Down; The Grey; Days They Come; Spit You Out; Strong; Invisible; Scars; Breathe; Solo (Bonus Track). Bonus DVD content: Sweet Tea (videoclip); The Way (videoclip); Documentary “Making of the videos and EPK”.

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* Many thanks to James Cook at for his assistance on TBL news collation..

Check out his news site at :

https://twitter.com/LedZepNews

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Led-Zeppelin-News/103835869791090

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DL Diary Update:

As mentioned last week, it was incredibly exciting relaying the Led Zeppelin reissues announcement and then watching it all unfold from the 2pm launch time last Thursday. Now the countdown commences with 73 days to go and counting – you can track the daily TBL countdown on the TBL Facebook and Twitter pages ongoing as the lead up to June 2nd continues…

Back on the TBL workload, there’s been a hive of activity on various projects, principally TBL 37, with further design and text checking taking up a fair few hours over the past few days. With the breaking of the official news of the reissues to add in, I am now looking to complete it all next month with a publication date in late April – hold on folks, TBL 37 will be on the way and hopefully it will all be worth the wait.

I have been hampered slightly here by the onset of hay fever, which I always suffer from in early spring – my eyes have been well sore –here’s hoping the pills help fend it off. I’m trying to get ahead a bit in these next few days so that the good lady and I can get away for a day or two at the end of next week. This is to  celebrate our impending 30th wedding anniversary which is on March 31st.

I have to say, like so many others, I was well shocked at the news of the death of L’Wren Scott – the abrupt cancellation of the Rolling Stones tour in the wake of the tragedy had a chilling comparison to the sad ending to the Zep 1977 tour.

On a brighter note, big congratulations to Warren Grant, who has just become a Grandad with the birth of a son Alfie to daughter Amy – and best wishes to Mark Harrison, who is undergoing surgery on his foot this week – get well soon, mate.

On the player: the Tom Rush Circle Game LP as purchased recently, the excellent new David Crosby album Croz, extracts from Crosby Stills Nash & Young Studio Archive set (thank you John P.), A bit of The Byrds from their Untitled double album and some Gene Clark following last week’s excellent BBC Four Gene Clark documentary – check out his 1974 solo album No Other. Also on: Bobby Whitlock’s Where There’s a Will There’s a Way set and David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs album – the latter inspired by an excellent 40th anniversary feature in this month’s Uncut magazine.

Zep-wise, the BBC Broadcasts LP has been on as well as the Mudslide album – this is one of the pioneering bootlegs taken from their appearance at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on March 21st 1970 – yes, all of 44 years ago today. There’s still an adrenalin rush to be had when Robert utters the words ‘’Everybody feel alight’’ and Bonzo kicks them into We’re Gonna Groove.

Back in early 1973, when I first acquired this bootleg album on the Trade Mark of Quality label, I had no idea what this track was – and was unaware that it  was a cover version of a Ben E. King hit known as Groovin’ – or that they had recorded it in June 1969 for possible inclusion on the work in progress Led Zeppelin II. Years later, of course, it would surface on the Coda album, but back in 1970, We’re Gonna Groove was a short-lived setlist opener – and as I experienced when re-discovering it on the Mudslide album this week, a performance that still packs that unmistakable Zep/Bonzo punch. Here’s the visual proof from the January 9th Royal Albert Hall performance…take it away Mr Bonham….

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 And finally: TBL the Global phenomenon:

Here is long time TBL supporter Jose Manuel Parada with the required reading on San Jose Beach, near his home town of  Guayaquil in Ecuador.

From Bedford to the world – the TBL message keeps on spreading…

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Until next time…Keep listening, keep reading…

Have a great weekend…

Dave Lewis/Gary Foy – March 21st , 2014.

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