Robert Plant joins Lampedusa Concerts For Refugees Tour:

This via Robert’s official website:

Robert Plant has confirmed that he will join Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, The Milk Carton Kids, and more for select dates (12/10-21/10) on the Lampedusa Concerts For Refugees tour. Lampedusa is an 11-stop concert tour intended to raise awareness of the unprecedented worldwide refugee crisis. Funds raised by Lampedusa will support educational programs for refugees around the world.

“This is a humanitarian issue — it is not a political issue,” says Griffin. “These are real people with real needs and it’s not going to go away and we have to deal with these issues in a realistic way, and realism has to do with compassion.”

Plant offered this statement about joining the tour.

“I’m taking a break from recording the new Sensational Space Shifters record to be a part of this very important and worthwhile cause. When I watch the news and see people from these places being displaced by hatred and ignorance, I know that these people are just like you and me. All they want is to live in peace and have their children grow up loved, fed and educated. That seems a million miles away for many people at the moment. They are living in refugee camps, in conditions that are far below sustenance levels. When I heard that some of my friends were rallying to do a series of concerts to help raise funds and awareness, to help address the basic needs of food, shelter and medical care, I wanted to help, in whatever way I could. One thing that I want to make clear: as with all the other members of this tour, I will be performing two or three songs a night and no more. I’m not making a political statement. The organization that is receiving these funds is a religious one. This appeal is trying to help on the ground wherever it can. I hope that my voice, along with my friends, helps bend the arc of the universe a little more toward the loving and helps with the work of getting the basic essentials of life to those who are without.”

The complete tour dates are below. The shows featuring Plant are noted.
6 – Boulder Theater in Boulder, CO (Tickets)
8 – Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, MO (Tickets)
9 – Rococo Theater in Lincoln, NE (Tickets)
11 – Sheldon Concert Hall, St. in Louis, MO (Tickets)
12 – Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, WI (Tickets) w/Robert Plant
13 – Vic Theater in Chicago, IL (Tickets) w/ Robert Plant
14 – Massey Hall in Toronto, ON (Tickets) w/Robert Plant
16 – Berklee Perfomance Center in Boston, MA (Tickets) w/Robert Plant
18 – The Town Hall in New York, NY (Tickets) w/Robert Plant
19 – Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, PA (Tickets) w/Robert Plant
21 – Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC (Tickets) w/Robert Plant

The concerts will be intimate evenings of acoustic performances benefiting Jesuit Refugee Service’s Global Education Initiative. The Lampedusa tour helps displaced people heal, learn, and thrive by providing educational opportunities for refugees living in camps and urban settings in 45 countries. “Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees” is named for the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, where Pope Francis visited refugees during his first official trip as Pope. The Italian island off the coast of Sicily serves as a waypoint to Europe in refugees’ search for safety and security.

More info + tickets:

http://jrsusa.org/campaigns_focus?TN=PROMO-20160707043431

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Led Zeppelin: BBC Sessions delivers highest UK chart position in 37 years:

Led Zeppelin’s expanded reissue package, “The Complete BBC Sessions”, has delivered the band their highest UK chart position in more than three decades.

Vintage Vinyl News reports the project – which presents live recordings selected from Led Zeppelin’s appearances on BBC Radio between 1969 and 1971 – enters the Official Album Charts at No. 3, marking the highest UK chart spot for the group since 1979’s “In Through The Out Door” landed at No. 1.

Since that time, the band’s best showings were “Coda” (1982 / No .4), “Mothership” (2007 / No. 4) and “Celebration Day” (2012 / No. 4). “The Complete BBC Sessions” is also the UK’s top selling Vinyl Album and Rock & Metal Album this past week

“It’s a historical document,” declared producer and guitarist Jimmy Page at a BBC Sessions launch event in London on September 14 carried by hennemusic. “It’s sort of Led Zeppelin’s promotion. It’s them going full-throttle, they’re taking no prisoners when they’re going in on these sessions. And yet, it’s still employing all of the dynamics and the improvisation.”

“It’s a great time capsule,” he adds. “It’s really cool – you hear the band progressing over, not even a handful of years, just from 1969 to 1971. My goodness, it’s only two years and yet it’s expanding and expanding. It’s cool.”

“The Complete BBC Sessions” is available in multiple formats, including 3CD and 5LP Deluxe Editions, digital download and a 3CD/5LP Super Deluxe Boxed Set.

See more at :

http://www.hennemusic.com/2016/09/led-zeppelin-bbc-sessions-delivers.html

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Jason Bonham joins Gov’t Mule on September 25: 

Jason Bonham sat in with Gov’t Mule in place of founding drummer Matt Abts, and joined in for (fittingly) two Zeppelin songs: “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and “No Quarter,” according to the band’s Twitter. The timing was also particularly appropriate, as that day marked the 36th anniversary of John Bonham’s death. Needless to say, Bonham’s presence at the Mule show must have been an incredible moment of live music.

See YouTube clip below.

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LZ News:
Led Zeppelin News 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.

Author Ian Rankin with Jimmy Page in Belfast on September 21
There are two new Jimmy Page interviews: This one with BBC Radio 2 (starts at 01:50:35), and this interview with The Guardian.
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Jimmy Page will attend the Classic Rock Awards in Tokyo, Japan on November 11.

Robert Plant is currently recording his new album in Wales. An Instagram post by his drummer Dave Smith shows his recording set-up near the town of Llanuwchlyn.
Upcoming events:
October 8/9 – Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters will perform at the Festival of Disruption in Los Angeles.
October 15 – Robert Plant’s “Austin City Limits” performance will be shown on PBS.
October 28 – Robert Plant will perform at Bill Wyman’s 80th birthday celebration in London.
November 11 – Jimmy Page will attend the Classic Rock Awards in Tokyo.

The Led Zeppelin News email goes out every weekend. To receive it each week sign up here: https://t.co/yp9fGJMS

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Led Zeppelin Gear Book:

Jeff Strawman’s long awaited Led Zeppelin Gear book is now available as an e-book with hard cover to follow..

This one via the Achilles Last Stand website:

LED ZEPPELIN GEAR NOW ON SALE** eBook ONLY is on sale now!

Hard Cover book 1-2 weeks away!!! Available from these online retailers!!!

More details at:

http://www.led-zeppelin.org/current-news/2066-led-zeppelin-gear-book-now-on-sale

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Happy Birthday Joe Jammer:

It’s a big 65th Happy birthday to Joe Jammer – he has a special birthday gig this Sunday at the Half Moon in Putney.

https://www.musicglue.com/half-moon-putney/events/2-oct-16-joe-jammers-65th-birthday-special-half-moon–putney/

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TBL Archive: Japan 1971

Today marks the 45th anniversary of one of the all time great Led Zeppelin live performances – the September 29 concert in Osaka.

To mark the anniversary, here’s the Japan 1971 tour log Mike Tremaglio contributed to TBL issue 31:  

In the last issue of TBL we left off with the band performing the final two shows of their wildly successful month-long U.S. tour in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 16 & 17, 1971. The band wasted little time in getting back on stage; this time the band decided to conquer new territories and were playing to ecstatic Japan audiences in less than a week.

While the U.S. tour had seen the band playing at a consistently high level, on the Japan tour Zeppelin brought it to a whole new level, playing some of the most exceptional and highly regarded shows of their entire career.

After a week of completely winning over Japanese audiences, the band took a well-deserved six week break. Next came a 16-date winter 1971 UK tour which began on November 11 in Newcastle – just three days after the US release of the fourth studio album and a day before it shipped in the UK. For the tour, the band would play many smaller, intimate and unique venues across their homeland.

But for now, it’s time to head back to the world-famous Budokan in Tokyo…

Thursday September 23, 1971 Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
Setlist (from eight different audience source recordings):
Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, That’s the Way, Going to California, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Boogie Chillun’, Hello Mary Lou, Mess O’ Blues, ?, Tobacco Road, Good Times Bad Times, For What It’s Worth Instrumental, How Many More Times, You Shook Me, Gee, Baby Ain’t I Good to You, Kindhearted Woman Blues), Communication Breakdown

The band performed their first ever gig in Japan and it’s simply incredible. The intensity and ferocity of the performance is not lost on the wildly enthusiastic Tokyo audience.

The new songs from the upcoming fourth album (Black Dog, Stairway to Heaven, and Going to California) aren’t the only surprises for the Budokan audience; they were also treated to the concert debut performance of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, albeit in a truncated version as the intro to That’s the Way.

But the real unquestioned highlight of the show is a downright historic version of the Whole Lotta Love Medley – tracking in at a longest-ever 36 minutes. The band held absolutely nothing back during the medley with extended versions of Tobacco Road, Good Time Bad Times, How Many More Times, and You Shook Me being the highlights.

Fortunately for fans, the concert had been documented like no other performance in the band’s history – there are eight different audience source recordings of this show available.

Here is a listing of popular bootlegs of this show by audience source:
Source 1 (143 min.): Front Row (Tarantura & Memphis),
The Storm of Fanatics (Mud Dogs),
Live in Japan 1971 (Last Stand Disc),
The Tokyo Tapes (Empress Valley – discs 1 & 2)
Source 2 (128 min.): Tales of Storms (Silver Shadow & Aphrodite Studio)
The Tokyo Tapes (Empress Valley – discs 3 & 4)
Source 3 (149 min.): Reflection from a Dream (TDOLZ)
Source 4 (30 min.): In Concert LP Source (9 CDs) (TDOLZ – disc 9)
Source 5 (152 min.): First Attack of the Rising of the Sun (EVSD – discs 1-3),
Meet the Led Zeppelin (Wendy),
Timeless Rock (Watch Tower)
Source 6 (31 min.): First Attack of the Rising of the Sun (disc 4 only)
Source 7 (150 min.): Led Zeppelin’s Flying Rock Carnival 1971 Complete
Source 8 (126 min.): The Tokyo Tapes (Empress Valley – discs 5 & 6)

Friday September 24, 1971 Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
Setlist (from five different audience source recordings):

Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker (incl. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)), Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That’s the Way, Going to California, Tangerine, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Sing a Simple Song, Just a Little Bit, Boogie Chillun’, Cocaine Blues, Rave On, Your Time is Gonna Come, ?, I’m a Man, The Hunter, Hello Mary Lou, Oh Pretty Woman, How Many More Times), Organ Solo/ Thank You, Communication Breakdown (incl. It’s Your Thing, ?)

While not nearly as acclaimed as their first Tokyo show, the band delivered another outstanding performance on the same level as the previous evening. For this afternoon matinee the band pulled out a few more surprises, including the debut concert performance of Tangerine and a return of Thank You (with Organ solo) to the encore.

Once again, the highlight of the evening is another stellar and unique Whole Lotta Love Medley (this time ‘only’ clocking in at 28 minutes). The band incorporated some rarely played tracks such as Cocaine Blues, Buddy Holly’s ‘Rave On’, and Albert King’s ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ (the one and only time they ever played the track). But the real surprise of the evening was an impromptu, one minute-plus rendition of Your Time is Gonna Come. Plant started singing the song a cappella while the rest of the band started making up an arrangement for it as they went along. The only other time they ever attempted this track was in San Diego during their 1973 tour (a 25 second snippet was played during No Quarter).

While not quite as extensive as the previous evening, there certainly was no shortage of tapers in the audience. There are five separate audience recordings available of this concert.
Here is a listing of popular bootlegs of this show by audience source:
Source 1 (164 min.): Afternoon Daze (Mud Dogs), Pretty Woman (Tarantura)
Source 2 (56 min.): Light & Shade (TDOLZ – disc 1)
Live in Japan 1971 (Last Stand Disc – disc 1)
Hard Rock Night (Wendy – disc 1)
Your Time is Gonna Come (Scorpio – disc 4)
Source 3 (168 min.): Light & Shade (TDOLZ – discs 2 & 3)
Live in Japan 1971 (Last Stand Disc – discs 2 & 3)
Hard Rock Night (Wendy – discs 2 & 3)
Your Time is Gonna Come (Scorpio – discs 1-3)
Balloon Boys’ Rock Carnival in Tokyo (Empress Valley)
Timeless Rock (Watch Tower – bonus disc)
Source 4 (105 min.): Super Stars! LP Source (TDOLZ 9 CD Box – discs 7 & 8)
Source 5 (17 min.): In Concert LP Source (TDOLZ 9 CD Box – disc 9)
Monday September 27, 1971 Prefectural Gymnasium, Hiroshima, Japan
Setlist (from three different audience source recordings):
Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That’s the Way, Going to California, Tangerine, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Sing a Simple Song, Boogie Chillun’, Nine Times Out of Ten, Be-Bop-a-Lula, ?), Communication Breakdown (incl. ?)

The band performed a charity concert benefit for the victims of the atomic bomb. They presented the mayor of Hiroshima with a check for 7,000,000 yen – their earnings from the show – and in return received a peace medal.

Once again, the band were very well received by the appreciative audience and delivered another typically stellar performance. The Whole Lotta Love medley was the shortest of the tour so far (18 minutes), but the band continued to incorporate rarities into the feature. They performed Cliff Richard and The Shadow’s ‘Nine Times Out of Ten’ (the only known performance of this track) and Gene Vincent’s ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ (performed only once before – in Helsinki on February 23, 1970).

There are three separate audience recordings of the Hiroshima concert.
Here is a listing of popular bootlegs of this show by audience source:
Source 1 (126 min.): Live in Japan 1971 (LSD) and Peace (Tarantura)
Source 2 (111 min.): Peace of Mind (Mud Dogs)
Source 3 (44 min.): Love & Peace in Hiroshima (Bumble Bee – first 100 copies included two bonus CDRs sourced from the old vinyl LP Led Zeppelin 71-72 by Digger Records)
Other bootleg titles of this show (Live Peace in Hiroshima 1971 (Wendy), Zingi (Tarantura 2000), Message of Love (Lemon Song), and Love & Peace in Hiroshima (Bumble Bee)) are a combination of sources 1 & 2 to complete the show.

Tuesday September 28, 1971, Koseinenkin Kaikan (Festival Hall), Osaka, Japan
Setlist (from 146 & 15 minute audience recordings):

Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused (incl. Third Stone from the Sun), Stairway to Heaven, Please Please Me, From Me to You, Celebration Day, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, That’s the Way, Going to California, We Shall Overcome, Tangerine, Down by the Riverside, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Boogie Chillun’, D in Love, Bachelor Boy, Down the Road a Piece, Maybellene, Hello Mary Lou), C’mon Everybody, Hi-Heel Sneakers, Communication Breakdown (incl. Cat’s Squirrel, ?, Watch Your Step)

The next stop on the Japan tour was in Osaka where the band played two of the most historic concerts of their entire career. They continued to pull out all stops, performing many rarities and expanding their rock medleys into new directions.

The Osaka audience didn’t have to wait until the Whole Lotta Love medley to hear the band perform a variety of rock rarities. During Dazed and Confused, Jimmy played some licks from Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Third Stone from the Sun’. Prior to Celebration Day, they performed a 45 second run-through of The Beatles Please Please Me and From Me to You. During the acoustic set they played the traditional songs We Shall Overcome and Down by the Riverside (the only time they had ever performed either of these tracks in concert).

For the fourth concert in Japan, Zeppelin would once again unveil a variety of rock classics in their Whole Lotta Love medley. As they had done the night before, they reached into the Cliff Richard and The Shadows catalogue and pulled out two songs they would play for the first and last time in concert: D in Love and Bachelor Boy. Next, they would channel their inner Chuck Berry and perform Down the Road a Piece and Maybellene (once again, the one and only time these songs were ever played in concert).

The band returned for encores and jammed to complete versions of C’Mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran and Hi-Heel Sneakers by Tommy Tucker (the only other time the later had been performed was at the Yale Bowl on August 15, 1970 as a 30 second snippet during the Whole Lotta Love medley). For the encores, Plant introduced Atlantic record executive Phil Carson on bass and roadie Clive Coulson on vocals.

In his Zeppelin bio, Stairway to Heaven, tour manager Richard Cole shed some light on the encores. According to Cole, “about four minutes into the song, he (Carson) suddenly realized that his bass was the only instrument he was hearing. He quickly looked around – and he was alone on the stage. As a prank, the band had snuck off in the middle of the song, leaving Phil to fend for himself. He made a valiant attempt at a bass solo, but he gave up once it was clear that the guys weren’t going to rescue him. Phil put down his instrument and ran off the stage, too, as the band rollicked in laughter.” Cole mentioned that while it was hilarious, the incident was also troubling because they “allowed a practical joke to take precedence over the music,” which was very out of character for a band who took their music very seriously.

Communication Breakdown was the finally encore and it included Cream’s ‘Cat’s Squirrel’, as well as a two minute version of Bobby Parker’s ‘Watch Your Step’ (the only other time the song had ever been played was a short snippet during the Whole Lotta Love medley at the Inglewood Forum on August 22, 1971). It was Parker’s ‘Watch Your Step’ that had allegedly influenced Jimmy Page’s guitar riff in Moby Dick.

There are two separate audience recordings of this concert:
Source 1 (146 min. – through Whole Lotta Love)
Source 2 (15 min. – encore after Whole Lotta Love)
Most of the bootlegs are a combination of these two sources to complete the show (except Live in Japan 1971 – Last Stand Disc, which is entirely from source 1, thus excluding the encores).
Here are some of the other bootleg titles featuring this concert:
The Bachelor Boys’ First Stand in Osaka (Empress Valley),
Please Please Me (Tarantura & Wendy), Osaka Woman (Cobla CDR), and
Come On Everbody (Mud Dogs)
Wednesday September 29, 1971, Koseinenkin Kaikan (Festival Hall), Osaka, Japan
Setlist (from 175, 178 & 93 minute recordings):
Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker (incl. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)), Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused (incl. ?, Pennies from Heaven), Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That’s the Way, Going to California, Tangerine, Friends, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. ?, Boogie Chillun’, I Gotta Know, Twist and Shout, Fortune Teller, Good Times Bad Times, You Shook Me), Communication Breakdown (incl. Just a Little Bit), Organ Solo, Thank You, Rock and Roll

The fifth and final show of the Japan tour is renowned as being one of the band’s all-time great shows. The performance is incredible, and the band continued to surprise the audience throughout the evening with rarely, if ever, played gems. Fortunately, the concert had been captured for posterity on an excellent sounding, but imbalanced recording. It is often referred to as a soundboard recording due to its outstanding on-stage feel and stereo separation, but that is still being debated. Regardless, it is a recording that is on the top shelf of every Led Zeppelin aficionado’s CD racks, ready for repeated listening pleasure.

There are quite a few surprises during the performance, but one of the key highlights of the evening has to be the one and only known performance of Friends during the acoustic set. After this rarity, Plant sings a few bars of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes; earlier in the show, Page dropped Pennies from Heaven into Dazed and Confused. Both of these tracks were ‘one and only’ performances, adding to the special atmosphere of the evening.

Once again, the Whole Lotta Love medley, tracking in at 31 minutes, was where the band shined and took the opportunity to play some rock ‘n’ roll classics. Elvis Presley’s ‘I Gotta Know’ segued into The Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout’, followed by a three minute version of Benny Spellman’s ‘Fortune Teller’ (all three tracks were again ‘one and only’ performances, sans a 40 second snippet of Fortune Teller played in Oakland on September 2, 1970 concert). As they had done during the first show in Tokyo, the band also played both Good Times Bad Times and You Shook Me during the medley.
The last song of the three hour show was Rock and Roll, another preview from their upcoming album and the first time they played the track on the Japan tour.

There are three separate recordings of this legendary concert:
Source 1 (175 min. aka soundboard source): Most bootlegs use this recording as the primary source. Some of the more popular titles from source 1 include: The Complete Geisha Tape (Tarantura & Memphis), Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Mad Dogs), A Cellarful of Noise (Noise Generator), Live in Japan 1971 (Rock Solid & Last Stand Disc), and Live in Osaka (Night Hawk).
Source 2 (178 min. aud. source): 929 (H-Bomb) & 9291971 (Tarantura 2000 –first three discs).
Source 3 (93 min. aud. source): Nine Two Nine (TDOLZ)
Most of the other bootleg titles are multi-sources mixes of the show with the first source usually being the primary source; they include Fatally Wanderer (Wendy), Live in Japan 1971 (Empress Valley), and You Were There in Spirits (Empress Valley). Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Scorpio) used the third recording as the primary source, but filled gaps with the second source.

It’s widely rumored that Jimmy Page has complete multi-tracks of this show in his archive. Allegedly, there were plans to follow the How The West Was Won set in 2003 with a similar archive release to be titled How The East Was Won.

The best way to describe Led Zeppelin’s first trek to Japan could be a twist on the Latin phrase attributed to Julius Caesar – “Veni, Vidi, Vici” – they came, they saw, they conquered. For many Led Zeppelin fans, the 1971 Japan Tour remains the apex of their entire concert history. The Zeppelin machine was truly firing on all cylinders, and their ability to continually take risks and incorporate new songs into the shows each night – sometimes on the spot – demonstrated a band with complete and total confidence. Mission accomplished!

Mike Tremaglio

First published in TBL issue 31 – 2011

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Ian Dixon Zep Bootlegs Snapshot:

I’ve been a constant  admirer of  long time TBL contributer Ian Dixon’s writing  – his observations are always interesting and well thought through  – in the first of a series of TBL contributions, here is Ian’s snapshot of a couple of Zep bootlegs – with thanks to Dave Linwood.

Zep Boots overview:
All That Jazz – Montreux 14/3/70 TDOLZ VOL033:

The strut is in place. This recoding slightly overloads in places but a sensitive set circumnavigates the worst of this. The set is full of tracks that really appeal to me. Good balance between the 4 of them. Jimmy is on top form, with the switch from We’re Gonna Groove to I Can’t Quit, pure Peter Green. When his noodlings are this crisp White Summer can stretch for as long as he chooses. Robert’s tetchiness over crowd noise (?) pulls down Dazed, but all back on track for Heartbreaker where both he and Page shimmer. What Is and What Should Never Be is a real showcase, Thank You an anthem that was overtaken by later riches. Finally How Many More Times encapsulates the set. The end cut is a shame, and just goes to show why Moby Dick should never stretch beyond 7 minutes, so that tapers don’t lose the finale!

University of Southampton 73 A13 Remaster:–

The top notch soundboard recording. The quality of the sound, the set list and Robert’s early 70’s range make this his show. But I think I can see why the US gigs were eventually used for How The West Was Won. Opening Up Jimmy seems hesitant in Rock and Roll and for the first few tracks. While the licks themselves are fluid the links between them stutter. Misty Mountain is messy, but the following Since I’ve Been Loving You superb. Such was Zep of the time. There are more curate’s egg moments in Dazed (shout out to the Bonzo steamroller.)

But the revelation for me is The Song Remains The Same/Rain Song. I have never been a big fan of the studio cuts (Portal’s Overture wins for me) so at last a vocalised Song that I can enjoy, Rain Song is stunning, individually the guitar work, meletron and vocals are gorgeous, and the complete package gels. Shame therefore Stairway is bit of going through the motions, especially from Plant. Whatever they took on board before the encores had the desired effect though as Whole Lotta rattles, slipping effortlessly between taut call and response and dirty rock n roll boogie. Beautiful moments when Robert scats in Thank You, then a ragity Communication Breakdown and appropriate sign off from Mr Plant.
So Southampton has the glittery set list, but Montreux shades it for me , just.

Ian Dixon

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DL Diary Blog Update:

Last Saturday’s Bedford Record Fair was a most enjoyable one. The TBL stall attracted a fair bit of interest and it was good to see amongst others – TBL people Ian Dixon, Steve Livesley and Matt O Kane – the pic here shows Matt after purchasing some rather splendid Jam singles from Nick C’s stall next to mine.
I did manage to restrict my purchasing as not to spend the profits of what I had sold on the stall. However there was one item I had to have.

When I first started going out with the good lady Janet back in 1982, I noticed in her record collection she had a copy of the Walls Ice Cream EP that was produced for the Apple label. It featured tracks by James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, The Iveys (later renamed Badfinger) and Jackie Lomax. Janet came to have this item as her Mum and Dad ran a food store and was given it by the Walls rep. I knew this to be quite a rare item – a few months later we sold this EP – we were saving for a mortgage at the time and it all helped. I’ve been looking for a copy for a good while and it was pleasing to see it on the stall adjacent to mine in the Bedford Fair. Needless to say it’s now back in the Lewis collection!

On Wednesday we had a great night at the excellent Herd venue in town with Graham Jones talking about his Last Shop Standing book and film. Graham’s anecdotes within the record shop business were most enlightening – even more so that one member in attendance aims to open a record shop in the Milton Keynes area soon – more on that to follow…my good friend Phil Harris was the winner of the quiz.

Here’s a pic of me handing over my Led Zep at Knebworth book to Graham Jones at the excellent event at the Herd Bedford. Amongst many highly entertaining anecdotes, Graham relayed how he melted down a copy of Led Zep II to sell on his market as a fruit bowl! A top night amongst like minded record collecting vinyl enthusiasts.
His book and DVD are well worth checking out – see the YouTube trailer below.
More details on the book and DVD can be found at:
http://www.lastshopstanding.com/

Elsewhere, there’s been more clearing out of Janet’s Mum’s place. This included removing a fair bit of reserve stock of the Feather In The Wind book that were stored in the loft. It needed Adam and his friend to help me get them down and relocated back here.
I’ve also been preparing text for the design stage of the next TBL magazine issue 42. Paul Sheppard is contributing part two of his history of the bootleg Trantura label and there will be input from Nick Anderson, Cliff Hilliard, Richard Grubb, Dave Linwood, Ian Dixon and Andy Crofts. More on all this as it unfolds.

Playlist wise, I’ve been sorting out the Autumn playlist which of course means the ever autumnal Nick Drake will be leading the way. Five Leaves Left is always the perfect album for the melancholy post summer mood.

Also lined upon the Autumn Playlist quite a bit of stuff I need to catch up on including :

Terry Reid – The Other Side Of The River (thanks John P)

Yes -The World is Live box set

The Byrds – There is a Reason box set

Bad Company – Live

Jimi Hendrix – Rainbow Bridge

Looking ahead the amazing 36 CD Bob Dylan 1966 tour set The 1966 Live Recordings, will be on my Christmas list along with the new David Bowie box set Who Can I Be Now and The Rolling Stones in Mono box also looks very enticing. Quite where they will store if they are acquired might be a problem but it’s a nice problem to have and as I always say to the good lady Janet -there’s always a space to be found for such inspirational gems …

Dave Lewis – September 29, 2016

Until next time – have a great weekend…

TBL Website updates compiled by Dave Lewis
with thanks to Gary Foy and James Cook

Follow TBL/DL on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/tightbutloose
The TBL/DL Facebook  page has regular updates and photos – be sure to check it out.
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YouTube Clip:

Gov’t Mule with Jason Bonham:

Last Shop Standing trailer: