TBL 38 Update:

Firstly may I offer a massive thanks for all the kind comments and support re the announcement of the Jimmy Page interview scheduled for the forthcoming TBL issue 38.

Just to re iterate on subscription status – if you are a past subscriber and received the last issue TBL 37 – that completed the 2013/14 subscription and now is the time to re subscribe.

As previously mentioned – every subscriber will receive the special limited 10x 8 art print which features a photo of Jimmy Page on stage at the Festhalle Frankfurt on June 30th, 1080 taken by Tom Locke –  ideal for framing!

The take up of re- subscriptions has been somewhat slow up to now and there are plenty of regular past subscribers who have yet to sign up for the 2014/15 magazines.  I am sure you will not want to miss out – so please do so as soon as possible – your support is much appreciated.

Here’s the TBL 201/15 subscription order link:

http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/subscribe-now-to-the-tbl-201415-magazines-and-receive-a-free-10-x-8-led-zep-art-print/

Jimmy Page TBL Interview: 

By way of a preview to the Jimmy Page TBL interview, I did ask Jimmy, during the interview if he had a message for the fans regarding the reissue programme so far – this is what he told me:

Basically, these scheduled releases of Led Zeppelin – of which there’s been three out already, and there’s going to be Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy coming up soon, and of course all the rest of the catalogue will come out in due course… all of it has new information that people wouldn’t have heard before. In fact, they wouldn’t have heard it on bootleg before – at least a major percentage of it. Well, I’ve put it this way before but it’s absolutely true. It’s like a portal, it’s like a view point into that time when those recordings were made for those particular albums, those classic albums. And I knew right from the beginning, in thinking about this project, that it was for you, the fans.

Because we sort of understand the difference between just hearing Led Zeppelin and really listening to it. I knew that people with that level of understanding would really get off on it, hearing all of these different versions and things that they haven’t heard before.

The complete Jimmy Page interview will  be published in the forthcoming TBL issue 38 due to ship during the first week of November.

TBL 38 Limited John Bonham Collectors Cover edition:

As mentioned earlier in the week, I am making available a special TBL 38 collectors cover edition – this features a photo of John Bonham onstage at Earls Court taken by Dick Barnatt.

This is in a limited run of 200 all individually numbered and signed by the author.

if you would like to invest in what is sure to become a collectors item place your order as soon as – when they are gone they are gone!

The order link is here

http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/tbl-38-special-limited-edition-collectors-edition-with-john-bonham-cover/

Note : All TBL2014/15 TBL subscribers will receive the standard TBL 38 Jimmy Page cover.

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A Life in Music: Jimmy Page – TBL Meet

As previously reported, Jimmy Page will be launching his photographic autobiography with a special event staged by The Guardian in London on Wednesday October 15th at the  Cadogan Hall, London SW1

Myself and The TBL  crew are aiming to pitch up for this event – we plan to meet prior to the event in the Antelope pub about 4 minutes walk from the Cadogan Hall – it would be great to see all that can make it along. Here are the details:

The Antelope

22 Eaton Terrace

London

SW1W 8EZ

http://www.antelope-eaton-terrace.co.uk/

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Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page Promo:

Here’s the link to the official Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page Genesis Publications promo clip:

http://vimeo.com/107904371

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Jimmy Page in Japan:

Jimmy has been in Japan this week undertaking various promotional activates  for his book and the forthcoming reissues.  Earlier in the week he attended a press conference launch in Tokyo with Paul Smith for the Led Zeppelin limited edition scarves. See YouTube clip below.

He was scheduled for  a book launch event at  at Kinokuniya bookshop in Shinjuku, Tokyo, on October 9th..

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Jimmy Page Los Angeles Event:

To celebrate the publication of Jimmy Page’s official photographic autobiography, “Jimmy Page” — the first book by a member of Led Zeppelin — Genesis Publications (with Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado) will present “An Evening With Jimmy Page In Conversation With Chris Cornell”.

The event will take place 8:30 p.m. November 12 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

The audience will be invited to join Page and Cornell — the Soundgarden frontman — as they look through unseen photos and memorabilia, many drawn from Page’s archives. Page will revisit memories of his life in music, “from 13-year-old choirboy to Sixties session musician, through The Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin and beyond.”

“I always like to do something different. If you’re inspired by an idea, really make something of that inspiration,” Page said. “That goes for music, as well as anything else, even putting a book together! To have a photographic autobiography is a totally different way of looking at things, but it does the job very well and I think it will bring a lot of pleasure to people.”

Delving into his personal archives, Page has revealed unseen photographs, memorabilia and every one of his passports. His passport stamps were used to verify all tour dates, making Jimmy Page an authorative historical account.

In addition to Page’s photos and those chosen from various sources, including fans and magazines, his book showcases a collection of iconic portraits and rare images by more than 70 of the greatest names in rock photography, including Ross Halfin, Kate Simon, Gered Mankowitz, Dominique Tarle, Pennie Smith and Jim Marshall. Page chose one of his favorite portrait shots for the book cover: a 1977 passport photo shot by Neal Preston on board Led Zeppelin’s private tour plane.

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Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters Brooklyn Bowl show:

Robert and SSS are due for an added date at the Brooklyn Bowl on October 9th. Robert is also confirmed for an appearance on the  “The Colbert Report,” on Comedy Central, earlier in the day. Robert conducted an excellent interview with Jian Ghomeshi in Toronto last week – see You Tube clip below.

Dave Rawlings Machine with John Paul Jones Los Angeles Times review

Pic – fan Tony Fornaro with JPJ at the Lobero Theatre- Santa Barbara- 2nd to last stop on the US tour for the Dave Rawlings Band.

Dave Rawlings waited until the final moments of his concert Monday night to introduce his mandolin player — which wouldn’t have seemed surprising if the guy in question hadn’t been a world-famous rock star.

That’s a reasonable way to describe John Paul Jones, even if the Led Zeppelin bassist looked more like a humble sideman onstage at Immanuel Presbyterian Church. The cathedral on Wilshire Boulevard is where Rawlings, a well-connected roots-music figure best known for his work with the singer Gillian Welch, ended a West Coast tour with the group he calls the Dave Rawlings Machine.

Jones wasn’t its only high-profile member, either. On Monday, the outfit’s shifting lineup included Welch on guitar, Paul Kowert of Punch Brothers on upright bass and, on guitar and banjo, Willie Watson, who helped found Old Crow Medicine Show (and whose recent solo debut was produced by Rawlings). Each looms large in the sprawling Americana scene that’s flourished in the decade and a half since “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” repopularized music by Skip James and the Carter Family.

Yet nothing about this cheerful, occasionally rowdy gig suggested that these heavyweights had come to make themselves feel important; their focus seemed firmly on keeping an old-timey string-band style alive.

“The emphasis on songs didn’t mean the players restrained their technical abilities.”

In part that meant revving up standards such as “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “This Land Is Your Land,” which the musicians sang in tightly braided vocal harmony that led Rawlings to tell the audience, “This is starting to sound like a folk concert.” Later the musicians joined voices again for a warmly affectionate rendition of “The Weight,” the late-’60s Band song that already feels twice its age.

But Rawlings and his mates also played material of their own, and it was that music — with its vivid juxtaposition of antique noise and modern imagery — that most honored tradition by demonstrating how useful it can be.

In “Sweet Tooth,” one of several tunes the group did from the Dave Rawlings Machine’s 2009 album “A Friend of a Friend,” he and Welch sang about addiction with a clarity of tone in beguiling contrast with the song’s cutesy candy metaphor. They were equally piercing in the tender “Bells of Harlem,” about a troubled person experiencing “a little joy at long last.”

And Welch flashed her sly sense of humor in “Look at Miss Ohio,” a finely detailed portrait of small-town life that Miranda Lambert brought to a wider audience a few years ago when the country star recorded it for her album “Four the Record.”

The emphasis on songs didn’t mean the players restrained their technical abilities.

Mikael Wood

See link at:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-dave-rawlings-machine-review-20141008-story.html

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Led Zeppelin News site

For current Zep news happenings be sure to check the  LZ News Facebook Page –  they are doing a great job of keeping up to date on what is a very busy period indeed!

See link at:

https://www.facebook.com/ledzepnews

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Deborah Bonham News:

Deborah Bonham 2014 Live Shows

Classic Rock magazine glows over her warm and fulsome voice”; Blues Revue describes her as “the Duchess of Blues-Rock”; Firework calls her “amazing woman”; and when Blues Matters caught her duetting with Dan McCafferty, it was “a vocal marriage made in Heaven.”

Onstage over the last few years, she has sung, too, with Paul Rodgers and Robert Plant, and all of that is just for starters. Deborah Bonham brings the superlatives out of everyone, and one listen to Spirit, her newly-released fourth album, will tell you why… and send you scurrying back to listen to it’s predecessors. Read More

17 Oct LOWDHAM Village Hall, Ridge Hill, Notts NG14 7EL t:0115 9663596 www.warthogpromotions.com/

3 Nov LONDON Royal Albert Hall (with Paul Rodgers)

7 Nov ULVERSTON Sports Club, Priory Road, Cumbria LA12 9HT www.ulverstonlivemusic.co.uk/

8 Nov TYNEMOUTH ‘FREE’ Convention, Park Hotel, Grand Parade NE30 4JQ t:07948 017380 www.facebook.com/groups/283891801717416/ E: freeconvention@aol.com

14 Nov ESSEX Touchline, Hullbridge Sports Club, Lower Rd, Hockley SS5 6BJ www.touchlinelivemusic.co.uk/

21 Nov SWINDON Riffs, Greatfield SN4 8EQ T:01793 778304 www.riffsbar.com/

22 Nov HAVANT Spring Arts Center, East St, Havant, Hampshire PO9 1BS www.thespring.co.uk/

More details at

www.deborahbonham.com

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Scarlet Page Resonators book :

Here’s the ordering details of Scarlet Page’s Resonators book

We are pleased to announce that Scarlet Page’s book, RESONATORS, featuring exclusive photographs of Jimmy Page, is now available to pre-order exclusively at www.redgiantpublishing.com

This beautiful large format book is strictly limited to 1,480 copies worldwide and is available in both Deluxe and Collector editions.

Including over 120 exclusive and never before seen photographs taken over the past two years, Scarlet’s personal approach and style has produced beautiful and intimate portraits of The Resonators, capturing sides of guitar legends rarely seen by their fans.

Guitarists included within RESONATORS are; Wilko Johnson, Jimmy Page, Brian May, Paul Stanley, Sir Paul McCartney, Peter Green, Joe Walsh, Slash, Nile Rodgers, Mick Jones, Jeff Beck, Paul Weller, Mark Knopfler, Noel Gallagher, Serge Pizzorno, Wayne Kramer, Albert Lee, Billy Corgan, Johnny Marr, Graham Coxon, Justin Hawkins, Robert Fripp, Steve Jones, John Squire, John Frusciante, Hank Marvin, Kelly Jones, Dick Taylor, John Squire, Phil Manzanera, Hank Marvin, Phil Collen, Vivian Campbell and Jack White

The Book

Each book is individually signed and numbered by Scarlet Page, hand-bound in quarter leather and printed on 200gsm acid free matt art paper with silver gilt edges. The book has been printed and bound by one of the world’s leading makers of fine limited edition books. In over 8,000 words of brand new text, Scarlet tells us the stories behind the pictures.

The Deluxe Edition is limited to 300 copies worldwide and is presented within a beautiful and stylish RESONATORS presentation box and accompanied with a signed RESONATORS collage print. In addition the Deluxe Edition also comes with a hand crafted portfolio box containing 34 beautifully printed 8’ x 10’ images, one for each of the guitarists featured in RESONATORS.

Ordering  details at:

http://www.redgiantpublishing.com/news/item/31/

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DL Diary Update:

Prior to heading over to Kensington last Thursday, on the recommendation from my good friend Krys Jantzen, I popped into the John Varvatos store in Conduit Street just off Regent Street. This is the high fashion outlet that recently opened with a major launch attended by Jimmy Page, Ringo Starr Iggy Pop etc in attendance – Jimmy has also done modelling for the Varvatos brand.  The store is most impressive – a sort of hard rock café meets high fashion – it has a variety of rock’n’roll posters on display, books, limited edition guitars and the type of rock’n’roll clothing finery  that the likes of Jimmy etc can be seen in. In effect…it rocks but of course at a high ticket price. It’s a great shop with a great atmosphere – a destination place for anyone visiting the area. Oh and it sells vinyl

The store has a compact range of vinyl mixing original pressings, Japanese pressings, mobile fidelity pressings and 180 gram stuff. I spotted some very fine Miles Davis stuff, Bad Company on US Swan Song etc. The pricing in line with everything in the store is pretty high ticket with little coming in under £25..some fantastic stuff though…and a range of turntables too…

Their in store music is also great as whilst in there I heard Alice Cooper’s No more Mister Nice Guy, John Lennon I Don’t Wanna be a Soldier, and Led Zeppelin Dancing Days – what’s not to like! Well worth a visit if you are in town….

Back to the events of last week.

Well I have to say last week will go down in the annuls of my Led Zep adventues as one of the greatest. Two audiences with Jimmy Page in the space of two days – now that is some going. The Olympic Studios playback was another incredibly exciting event. Hearing the new companion disc previews in such glorious sound quality was an absolute thrill.

Two days later and finally an ambition completed.

So yes, at last, the opportunity to conduct a formal interview with Jimmy Page. A long held ambition of mine has been fulfilled.

Now I’ve been reading interviews with Jimmy Page for nearly 45 years. Many memorable ones spring to mind – Richie Yorke’s encounters in 1970 and 1971, Chris Welch’s various Melody Maker chats, Nick Kent for the NME, the Knebworth ‘79 interview with Chris Salewicz in the same paper, and much later, Jimmy’s conversations with Mick Wall in Kerrang! and Classic Rock.

Jimmy has always been a good interviewee with a lot to say. Another interview that springs to mind is Cameron Crowe’s 1975 on tour rap with Jimmy for Rolling Stone. Back then, in the pre TBL days, holed up in my Zep bedroom den and devouring every interview as a passionate teenage Zep fan, the idea that I might one day fire the questions at Jimmy was pretty inconceivable.

So, it did feel like I am about to have my own Almost Famous moment, in the way that Cameron Crowe is depicted in the film.

In the past, I’ve been lucky enough to have had a fair few informal chats with Jimmy over the years – stretching back to 1980 and the Over Europe tour in Cologne, Frankfurt, Mannheim and Munich, in the Swan Song office in September later that year (a week before it all ended), in the spring of 1982 in Swan Song to talk about the Coda album , backstage at Robert Plant’s Wembley Arena show in 1985, on tour with Robert in 1995 and 1998 and at various record fairs in recent years.

Up until last week though, I have never conducted a one-on-one formal interview. Was I nervous? You betcha I was nervous!  I slotted in a quick pre interview pint at the Queens Arms pub nearby, scene of more than one TBL pre-gig meet, notably that bizarre Teenage Cancer charity gig in early February 2002, when Jimmy and Robert appeared separately on the same bill.  While I was in there  the sheer magnitude of what I was about to undertake did hit home. Informal chats are one thing, a one on one interview conversation is something much more substantial.

I’d diligently prepared a host of questions with the central theme of Led Zep IV and Houses Of The Holy, and a list of things extracted from an ongoing file I’ve had under the title ‘Questions I’d love to ask Jimmy Page’. Given the time restraints, I knew the latter may have to wait for (hopefully) another time. No matter, this was a major coup for the TBL mag.

Once I was at the Gore Hotel the nerves subsided. Despite the fact that the day’s schedule was running late and time was at a premium ( I was allocated a 30 minute slot) it went very well . As I was led into into the extremely plush sitting room where Jimmy was conducting the interviews on his own, well  it was a bit of a pinch me I’m dreaming moment. Jimmy greeted me very amiably, dressed in usual black attire and scarf (instant mental flashback at this point: Jimmy on stage at the Indianapolis rehearsal in 1975, in polka dot scarf).

Seated opposite each other, on extremely comfortable sofas, I set up my recording gear – digital dictaphone and back up cassette recorder( analogue rules!)

So I was finally face to face with Jimmy Page one on one. And the opening words had to be…

’’Shall we roll it Jimmy…’’

During the interview Jimmy talked with much passion about the forthcoming Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of The Holy reissues, his plane to release more unreleased soundtrack experimental music via his website, his record collecting and his desire to be seen to be playing again (  I really need to be playing… if I don’t, it would be such a waste. I’ve got to do it while I feel this passion for what I do.’’)

After the interview , there was just enough time to hand over to Jimmy an album I’ve brought along for him – The Everly Brothers’ Two Yanks in England. ’’Oh, that’s the one with the Hollies on” he reamked Jimmy, astutely. And he should know… he played on it.

Very graciously, Jimmy signed my Feather In The Wind book (again putting in the number as 666) . I also showed him a photo of him and I from Feather In The Wind, taken on June 18th 1980, before the Cologne gig. ‘’Oh that a Brazilian football shirt I’ve got on there’’ he noticed.

As we both posed for a ‘then and now’ photo, he laughed, ‘‘We look a whole lot younger then!”

Younger then and older now, but neither of us any less fervent for the band – his band, that really is a way of life.

‘’Thanks for all your enthusiasm, Dave’’ is his parting shot. No, Jimmy… thank you for all yours.

Back out in the bar area, as the next journo was ready to go in. I clocked a look at the framed pics of the food splattered Rolling Stones, taken in this very building at their Beggars Banquet album launch back in 1968.

Then a walk across the road and a final glance over at Albert’s place. It had been a long day and maybe it’s all in my head but I’m sure I could hear the strains of an instrumental version of Stairway To Heaven, (ala the Arms arrangement) coming from within the confines of this lovely old building.

That night at the Royal Albert Hall back in 1983 signalled something of an artistic rebirth for the man. During our interview , hearing his desire to get back out there and be seen to be playing again, well, I have a feeling another rebirth is on the way. In fact, it strikes me that the grand old building would be and appropriate setting for such a return. Here’s hoping.

After the interview I headed over to Euston meet my lifelong friend Dec for a beer or two. Dec has been hearing my Zep tales for over 40 years – we laughed when I recalled one story – this would have been around 1974 – Dec being an avid singles collector played a single by Neil Christian and the Crusaders down the phone to me ( holding his phone near his record player!) for me to hear if Jimmy was on it. I was at the time in a public phone box as at home we had no phone. The things we did back then in the name of extending knowledge of the guitarist…the one I’d just interviewed. Who could have foreseen that situation occurring as back in 1974 as I listened intently on that public telephone as a queue formed outside to use it!

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Unsurprisingly it’s been very full on this week with TBL 38 text, design and lay out. Some important pieces to sign off lay not least of course the Jimmy Page interview.

I also decided to celebrate the launch of the TBL subscriptions by offering the alternatel John Bonham cover in a limited run – collect them both! And many thanks to Ross Halfin and his assistant Kazuyo for supplying a fantastic cover for the standard TBL 38 issue.

In between all that, there’s been Adam’s departure to Eastbourne to commence his UNI course – since then it’s been well quiet around here and watching Match Of The Day on my own on Saturday’s and Sunday’s is going to take some getting used to.

Not much time here recently for a great deal of vinyl activity –the only recent addition being Greg Allman’s 1973 solo album Liad Back on the Capricorn label.   On the player, plenty of Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy as I got into JP interview mode – loving in particular Misty Mountain Hop, the instrumental blast of The Song Remains The Same and the similar exercise deployed for Over The Hills And Far Away on the companion disc. Get ready to love em too. In the box marked melancholy, Nick Drake has fitted – bill and sometimes only his plaintive tones will do and as he would have been 74 on October 9th, John Lennon’s Imagine album has been on.

I’ve been reading the second instalment of Danny Baker’s autobiography Going Off Alarming. An uplifting laugh out loud romp through the erstwhile writer and broadcasters memoirs. His devil may care ‘’it will all turn out alright’’ attitude throughout, makes for refreshing and uplifting reading – angst doesn’t get a look in -oh that I could be so cavalier and carefree in my approach to life –I’m too much of a worrier for sure. Nice one Danny.

There’s a little bit of respite to the intensity of TBL matters with the annual Bedford Beer Festival in town until Saturday –always a bright light on the social calendar, things of course can get a little dimmed if a Dragons’ Gold or two is consumed.

A quick visit yesterday revealed they have an ale called Stairway To Heaven on offer – brewed by Burton Bridge of Burton On Trent – described as ‘’(5%) Smooth strong ale with a distinctive hoppy aroma’’. It smelled and tasted well good – hey does anybody remember real ale!

Next Wednesday there’s another opportunity to share the room with one James Patrick Page again when he participates in a special Life In Music event staged by the Guardian to launch his photographic autobiography. This is a habit I could get very used to….

DL-  October 10th, 2014

Stop Press And Finally:

Jimmy Page BBC Coverage:

A piece about Jimmy’s book is due to air on BBC Breakfast this morning (Friday October 10th).

A film clip about Stairway To Heaven is also running on BBC News Online –

This is a fantastic and moving film produced by Amanda Bruckshaw for BBC Online News – this was being filmed and recorded as I was waiting to do my interview with Jimmy last week at the Gore Hotel Kensington – that knowing smile at the close…priceless… The heart and soul of Led Zeppelin as explained by the co composer…profoundly moving and particularly poignant for me, as within an hour of this being filmed I was interviewing him myself…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29550639

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YouTube Clips:

Paul Smith Led Zeppelin Scarves press conference launch in Tokyo, Japan:

Robert Plant Interview:

Until next time…

Keep listening, keep reading…

Have a great weekend

Dave Lewis/Gary Foy – October 10th 2014.

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