Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013: 

No words required…..

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Robert Plant and The Band Of Joy Live From The Artists Den on Sky Arts this Sunday:

 Robert Plant’s episode of Live from the @Artists Den premieres in the UK for the first time this Sunday, December 8th. Tune-in to @Sky Arts at 9:00pm to watch the hour-long episode, filmed at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.

Here is the truely excellent House Of Cards from Live From The Artists Den

TBL Celebrates Jimmy Page At 70 : The TBL Poll:

As part of the TBL  celebrations of  Jimmy Page’s impending 70th birthday in January, we will be conducting a TBL poll to attain your favourite Jimmy Page guitar performances across his 50 year career. This will take the form of a series of reader polls for which we want you to list your ten favourite Jimmy Page guitar performances in a series of categories.  The first of these will run at the end of next week – so get prepared by  trawling through Jimmy’s vast back catalogue -from the 1960s sessions, through The Yardbirds into Led Zeppelin and the various post Zep projects ie Death Wish 2/The Firm/Roy Harper/Outrider/Coverdale- Page/Page & Plant/Black Crowes etc – in celebration of this landmark birthday.

More on all of this to follow soon 

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Knebworth book and TBL 36 Distribution Update:

It’s been another week of full on Knebworth book distribution – many thanks for all your positive feedback comments.

The state of play is that currently all orders have been processed and are in transit.  I aim to keep on top of all orders received in the coming days to turn around as fast as possible.

There are good stocks of the book on hand  – in terms of pre Christmas delivery – the UK is no problem at the moment and Europe should be feasible. America and overseas might be pushing it a little now.

Again my advise is to order as soon as possible -and don’t forget to inform me if you are buying for a gift and need the book specifically signed to the person you are buying for.

TBL 36:   

Distribution of the new TBL magazine is now underway – I am hoping to have all subscriber and pre ordered copies in transit by the end of next week. Thanks for your patience – I can say it really is another packed edition and hopefully the waiting will be worth it.

If you have yet to indulge single order copies are available to order now.

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DL Diary Update:

Another week of intensive TBL distribution with a welcomed respite on Tuesday when Tom and I zipped down to the Royal Festival Hall for the truly excellent A Celebration of Bert Jansch concert. It was great to see Hiroshi, Paul  Harper and Dawn Atherton before the show – as for the proceedings, well for me Robert turned in the vocal performance of the year with his utterly sunning rendition of  Go Your Way My Lover ably assisted by the excellent Bernard Butler. One to remember…

On the player as books and magazines have been processed – Led Zeppelin III -notably side two in the light of the Bert Jansch celebration, George Harrison All Things Must Pass (12 years gone) – still perhaps the best solo album by someone who used to be in The Beatles, and Simon & Garfunkel Old Friends 4 CD compilation – and on vinyl, appropriately enough The Bert Jansch Sampler on Transatlantic. Ahead there’s a slew of quality Christmas themed CD’s  (Rockin’ Rollin’ Santa Claus R and B to James Brown’s Funky Christmas and more) to get through courtesy of the veritable juke box supplier that is John Parkin of Scunthorpe (thanks John!).

While in London on Tuesday afternoon, Tom and I paid what might be a final visit to On The Beat Records in Hanway Court. This is the store that has been in the news recently when the owner Tim Derbyshire put the whole shop and stock up for sale on eBay. Sadly there have been no takers and Tim informed me that the shop will close in January. I’ve been shopping in the store since 1979 and it will be sadly missed for sure.

I did try….”but Janet maybe I can get him down to £200,000…..!”

With shop owner Tim Derbyshire and an album that has remained popular throughout the store’s long history… 

I did make a last couple of purchases namely a copy of Sounds from the 1980’s that had a Zeppelin retro feature and a plug for my very first book The Final Acclaim and I could not resist the double live Led Zeppelin album Thunderbird & Ludes which has the Schaeffer Music Festival and Miami 1969 recordings – it seemed entirely fitting that my last purchase at On The Beat Records was a bootleg album -having initially stumbled across them when I first visited the shop in 1979.

Now that is what I call paradise……but sadly not for much longer….

Elsewhere this week, there’s been my periodical diabetes check which went ok and some hospital visits to see our good friend Julie (get well soon). It’s back to the packing and sorting of the book and TBL 36 in between some Christmas shopping in St Albans tomorrow with the good lady Janet where the excellent Empire Records will be the welcomed place of solace in between the pre Christmas retail frenzy.

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Until next time…Keep listening, keep reading…

Have a great weekend

Dave Lewis/Gary Foy – December 6th, 2013.