TBL 31 OUT ON THE STREETS –INITIAL REACTION AND DISTRIBUTION UPDATE
The distribution of TBL 31 is now underway –here’s some initial reader reaction commencing with a review on the Underground Uprising web site:
Tight But Loose Issue 31
TBL issue 31 is a great way to start 2012. The level of printing quality and reproduction of the photos, both colour and black & white, is right up there. This is one of the many reasons that I so enjoy reading a proper, printed, magazine (or book for that matter), rather than looking at a PC monitor for hours. Relax in a comfy chair with a beer, listening to the world’s best group, is a great way to spend the afternoon.
This issue has, as always, loads of really interesting articles. Starting off with some lovely photos of Jimmy playing on stage when he joined Roy Harper for his 70th birthday in November 2011 -and a great interview with Roy too. With Jimmy Page’s excellent personal website well and truly established, there is a very nice article by Simon Cadman, pulling together lots of observations and gems from the man himself. I really liked reading that article.
Robert Plant and John Paul Jones get their latest coverage, and then we have the second and last part of Dave’s interview with the late, great, Howard Mylett. This is a highlight of the magazine, and is a wonderful tribute to a great character and true fan of Led Zeppelin.
Detective work follows with an examination of the exact date and location of Led Zeppelin’s first ever concert. This is followed by Mike Tremaglio’s ongoing detailed study, concert by concert, of the live performances. And here we have the highlight of this issue, as it covers the legendary Japan 1971 tour, surely one of the greatest in any band’s career. This coverage runs through to the end of the year with the concerts in the UK in November and December of 1971. Gerard Sparaco covers the CD releases for the Japan tour, and also the rest of the releases over the last few months. And finally there is a very nice interview with Maggie Bell, who was also signed to Swan Song. So all in all yet another highly enjoyable read, with something for every Zep fan. (Jules McTrainspotter/ Underground Uprising web site -) http://uuweb.led-zeppelin.us/new_releases.html
Have to say the new mag is exceptional. So many fantastic articles (the turquoise Zep 1 piece a particular fave). Highly enjoyable from first page to the last. I cannot praise this issue highly enough. (Andrew Ricci)
Another great read. Loved Mike Tremaglio’s 1971 tour watch. The Japanese dates are a firm favourite in this household. Well done on another great magazine Dave. (Steve Harrison)
Read with interest the article on the first ever Led Zeppelin gig, great investigative work. Loved the Zep 1 piece as well. (Colin French)
TBL 31 arrived in the post yesterday. Another great read – well done to everyone who helped put it together. For those of you enjoy tblweb.com but have never tried the magazine, I strongly urge you to give it a go. Much of what is in the mag is not available on the website (or anywhere else!) – thus the two are complimentary. Make it a New Year’s resolution for 2012! (Dave Linwood)
I’m about halfway through reading it, and a great read as always! Your research on the first LZ Gig is fascinating. (Ian Avey)
As you can be viewed from those comments see – this issue is a great way to get acquainted to the TBL magazine – if you have yet to sample the magazine now is the time-
In an era of here today gone tomorrow instantly digested info, the Tight But Loose magazine remains a true tangible collectable –with exclusive content that you not find on any web site – all pleasingly presented in an all colour format that can be stored, and re- read time and time again.
The ordering link for the standard edition is here
http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/?page_id=12233
There’s been a very strong initial demand for the special TBL 31 limited collectors cover edition. This features an alternate cover to the standard issue – on the front, a photo of Roy Harper and Jimmy Page at last year’s Royal Festival Hall , whilst the back cover has a collage (exclusive to this version only) of rare images representing the Japan and UK fall 1971 dates as chronicled in the magazine by Mike Tremaglio
This is being produced in a limited run of just 150 copies – all individually numbered and when they are gone – they are gone – to be sure of this unique TBL collector’s item order now to avoid disappointment!
Here’s the ordering link for the limited edition:
http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/?page_id=12887
TBL 31 distribution update:
All subscriber copies and pre orders will be in transit by the end of today and a large bulk of them went out at the weekend. UK subscribers can expect their copies to be turning up in the next few days with Europe and America/Rest of world to follow in the next couple of weeks.
So get ready to soak up another outpouring of TBL/Zep related news views and features –and let me know what you think.
Dave Lewis
January 16th, 2012
My last stand on this topic here. Some things non-Japanese don’t seem to know about the 1971 Japanese tour.
*When Warner Brothers Pioneer Inc. (now Warner Music Japan), who succeeded to the task of Nippon Gramophone and started to distribute Led Zeppelin records in Japan since the end of 1970, was founded in November of that year, Ahmet Ertegun was invited to attend the party in Tokyo to celebrate the company’s start. There he proclaimed that he would materialize Led Zeppelin’s tour of Japan next year.
*The tickets for the Tokyo shows were originally to be released on August 5th. But on the previous day, to the utter shock of the fans, the sudden cancellation of the tour was aired on the radio. This seemingly out-of-the-blue announcement totally upset their fans and unsurprisingly, the promoter, Kyodo Tokyo, received countless protest calls from them.
This decision was made because “John Paul Jones got sick and the group’s US tour itinerary will have to be rescheduled”– whether this was true or not, we’ll never know now.
The true reason of the cancellation aside, with Ahmet Ertegun and the band still discussing the matter, Kyodo staff carried on negotiations with the group’s management by international calls and finally they gave the green light, agreeing that the tour should go as planned. The cancellation was withdrawn only a day after, the 5th, and the tickets were issued on August 9th.
This little drama only added fuel to the fans’ expectation to the show. Had the tour been cancelled as initially announced, it might well have been tacked together with the Aussie tour the following year, and the whole Japanese saga would not have been the same.
*The tickets for the 1971 Osaka shows were printed on A4 sized paper, as promoter Kyodo Osaka decided that this was a big event! Some story tells, though, that some ticket agencies expressed their annoyance as to where they put the tickets!
*What actually happened at the now legendary mayhem during encore, Communication Breakdown, on Tokyo first night (Sept. 23rd).
In parallel with the West, back then in Japan, there were many “idealists” who claimed that rock concerts should be for free. Apparently there were some in the audience (weather they paid to go in or not is unclear, though), and one of them, wearing a steal helmet that was a symbolic item of the student protest happening all over Japan in those times, dashed to the stage, his purpose seemingly expressing his disgust against the concert organized by the “capitalist promoter”. His action immediately alarmed the security, causing them to run after and catch him. In the subsequent chaos taking place in front of the stage, the lights were put on despite that Led Zeppelin were still playing. The rest is as you hear on the bootleg.
Back in the dressing room, the members were reported to get furious, expressing their anger that the encore was spoilt. Today, this incident forms part of their Japanese legacy, but is it only me who feels the audience may well have missed the opportunity to be rewarded with another encore, Thank You or Rock And Roll, maybe both? We’ll never know…
*There are some theories in the foreign countries about which of the 1971 Japanese dates were officially recorded. According to the November 1971 issue of New Music Magazine, all of the Tokyo and Osaka shows (four in all) were recorded in eight channels and Page took the tapes back home for assessment.
The famous soundboard sources of the Sept. 29th Osaka show in circulation in bootleg form since mid-Seventies are rumored in some quarters to have been sneak-recorded via cables secretly plugged in from the band’s equipment, a stealth act done by a Warner Pioneer staff member who accompanied them throughout the tour and also took charge of the above recordings approved by the band.
My Japanese marathon finishes here. Thanks for reading.
TBL #31 continues to inspire me to post another piece of comment.
I bought the Led Zeppelin album with turquoise logo at Beano’s in Croydon, on December 23rd, 1993. I remember the date because I attended the Robert Plant show at the Brixton Academy that night (and before I left Japan, I had seen Coverdale/Page at the Osaka-jo [castle] Hall on 20th and 21st. What a Zep week that was!).
The price I paid was 70 pounds. In his article, Nick Anderson reports that it was still on offer for that price in the shop in early 2000 so it had stayed that way for more than six years, at least.
They had three copies in stock then, and the shop assistant allowed me to put together a combination of the best-in-nick disk and sleeve out of them. Therefore, it is safe to assume, the swapping was, and still is, a common thing to do.
And the disk I picked up was a truly remarkable, literally mint copy, no scratches, no spindle marks left. Seemingly it had not been played much at all, probably only a few times if any.
Satisfied with my hunting, I took a bus and aimed westward, my mind full of expectation of the show. That was a time before aficionados started to talk about the publishing credits and the matrix numbers…
Years later, with more knowledge and information acquired, I felt somewhat disappointed to find that the label on my disk had Warner Bros/7 Arts credit on it, and that the inner groove had the “changed” matrix number. And this is where my “sour grapes” make action…
The April 1969 issue of the aforementioned New Music Magazine (that was the first issue of the mag and out on March 20th by the way) published an article on the new group from Britain, Led Zeppelin, and reported that they finished their American debut on February 15th but they stopped in New York on their return home to write the scores that were to be published by Warner Seven Arts.
Interesting, eh?
The point is, is there any slim chance if Warner Bros/7 Arts credit precedes Superhype Music credit, rather than the other way round? I know this hypothesis can’t explain that Warner credit comes with the “changed” matrix number, though. Which leads to another point to make — has anyone out there come across a disk with Warner credit and the “unchanged” matrix number, as well as one with Superhype credit and the “changed” matrix number?
The speculation kept a-rollin’…
One of many pieces published in TBL #31 that hooked me is Simon Cadman’s overall survey on the jimmypage.com “on this day” feature which I can’t say I check every entry, everyday. And what caught my attention is Jimmy’s quite sarcastic comment on the Berkley Community Theatre show, Sept. 13th, 1971, which jolted my memory and made me reach for an old copy of a Japanese magazine…
The November 1971 issue of our own New Music Magazine (that was first published in 1969 to introduce the rise and the movement of rock music et al as part of counter-culture, then thriving in America and Britain, to the Japanese) has a Led Zeppelin in Japan feature. In his article titled, Airship Guys Raid, critic Ichiro Fukuda remarks what Robert told to him at the welcome party that was held after the infamous Tokyo press conference.
“When we went down to San Francisco and played at the theatre in Berkley, the audience was no good at all. They were sitting there indifferently, until someone stood up and started to scream, and then everybody followed, shouting, ‘More! More!’ We were so disappointed.”
Jimmy’s entry indicates the incident was on Sept. 13th (and Robert isn’t specific on the date), but does it end there? Yes, here I’m talking about the following day at the same place, the show captured on one of the definitive bootleg titles, Going To California.
I have never been that impressed by the performance since I first heard it in early 1975. The band’s playing is okay, but not in the same league as the subsequent Japanese shows in terms of creativity and intensity. And the community feel that made them so special is completely lacking here. The cool (in the word’s negative sense) atmosphere reminds me of Ally Pally ’72 — Robert’s final scream, “Woman!”, echoes in vain, drowned in the hollowness, a sea of apathy.
In my humble opinion, Berkley, Sept. 14th, 1971, is one of those overrated shows, thanks to its early bootleg status and the remarkable sound quality for the era. Sorry if I sound too harsh for my iconoclastic, almost blasphemous view on the show, especially for those who are so fond of the bootleg (including you, Dave)…but somebody has to set the record straight, which is (potentially, at least) supported by Messrs. Page and Plant.
Just my two cents…
Cheers for TBL 31 Dave, it arrived during the week and has been essential reading over the weekend over a glass of wine or two 😉
To paraphrase Jack White’s comment about Led Zep…”well I sort of don’t trust any Zep fan who doesn’t subscribe to TBL”
Essential reading for any Led Zeppelin fan. You gotta have Tight But Loose, simple as that.
Another stellar issue Dave. Well done!
Got my copy on 19th. I have so many comments to give to TBL #31. In particular, I read Mike Tremaglio’s detailed, ever insightful Zep chronicle with interest, because this is the Japanese tour feature. Let me start from here.
First of all — and I posted this before — the Festival Hall and the Koseinenkin Kaikan are two different venues! The idea that they are identical and the former is an English translation of the latter is a common mistake shared among foreign Zep fans since Luis Rey put it that way in his book, Led Zeppelin Live. And the venue they played at is the Festival Hall, NOT the Koseinenkin Kaikan.
Although overshadowed by the longer, more famous Osaka second night (Sept. 29th), much to the aid of the existence of the seminal soundboard source, back then, many of the critics and the journalists who followed the band from Tokyo to Hiroshima and Osaka agreed that the Osaka first night (Sept. 28th) was the best show, for its most relaxed and spontaneous performance.
One thing worth noticing is that the full length rock ‘n’ roll medley on the Osaka first night is yet to be unearthed (the source tape in circulation cuts off after Hello Mary Lou), which puts how long it lasted in speculation. It may have even surpassed the Tokyo first night in length — who knows?
Richard Cole’s recollection of poor Phil Carson ridiculed on stage by the members of the band is just ridiculous — nobody I met attended the show mentions such an incident, and the recording eloquently proves it. As you hear, when they finished C’mon Everybody, both Phil and roadie Clive Coulson were introduced triumphantly by Robert. All I can say is, typically Richard the boaster!
As I am writing this, the news has just come in; the great Etta James, the legendary female R&B singer, passed away. On 1972 Osaka Oct 9th show, Led Zeppelin started the rock ‘n’ roll medley with her signature song, Something’s Got A Hold On Me (often misquoted as It Must Be Love or I Say Yeah, among others, in publication), instead of the usual Boogie Chillun’, a rare occurrence indeed. So many rare moments in both 1971 and 1972 Osaka shows — no wonder the Osakans feel we were in for a treat!
R.I.P. Ms James. See this…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzibSiJv8hc
Just got my copy in the mail today in the US. Can’t wait to read it after supper. Looks good as usual.
Got back from a few days away to find issue 31 on my mat. Had a browse, and looks really good (as always!). Won’t really have time before the weekend to read through for the first time. Roll on the weekend. In the meantime, tuning in to internet radio may be worthwhile for Zeppelin fans, the official launch is …
http://ledzeppelinradio.listen2myradio.com/ broadcasting from 2pm on Thursday 19th January. I had a listen on Tuesday night on what I assume was a test broadcast, and got some great live Zep tracks and interactive chat with other like minded listeners and ‘DJ’. A big well done to all at TBL for the continuing quality of the magazine and website.
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Tight But Loose Magazine created by Dave Lewis 1978. TBL/Web launched by Dave Linwood 1995. TBL logo by Mike Warry.
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