TBL 42 FEEDBACK/ LAS VEGAS 1969 GIG CONFIRMED/JPJ WITH MINIBUS PIMPS/ROBERT PLANT ON NEW FAIRPORT ALBUM/LZ NEWS/1977 – IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO/DL DIARY BLOG UPDATE
TBL issue 42 Distribution Update and Feedback:
TBL issue 42 is out on the streets now – all subscriptions and pre orders are in transit and should be arriving in over 30 countries across the globe. Most UK copies have already been delivered.
Here’s some initial feedback, commencing with a piece on Chris Charlesworth’s Just Backdated blog:
TIGHT BUT LOOSE – Portrait of the Singer as a Young Man
The evolution of Robert Plant from prancing stallion to grizzled old rock warrior is something to behold. The photograph of Led Zeppelin’s front man on the latest issue of Dave Lewis’ Tight But Loose fanzine brings back memories of the youthful Plant as he was in 1969, a few weeks shy of his 21st birthday, hungry, passionate, perhaps a bit shell-shocked that so much had happened in so short a time and, above all, relishing in the sheer wonder of having musicians of the calibre of Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham backing him up as he sang. Once he grew a beard, let alone after he shaved it off for the first time, it was never quite the same but in ’69, there was something decidedly feral about him, like a big cat gnawing on the songs he sang. Offstage, however, he was a slightly green middle-class English boy, raised not to drop his (h)aitches, as nice as pie, perhaps a bit unsure of himself, quite unlike the cultured, well-travelled Page, the experienced session-hand Jones and boisterously blue-collar Bonham.
Most great groups take a year or two to get into their stride but Zeppelin was the Usain Bolt of rock, at full strength straight off the starting block, and the image of Robert on the front of this latest TBL caused me to do a double take. His hair covers his face and he looks like he’s about to fellate the microphone, so for a second or two I didn’t recognise him. Then I looked again and noted that the picture came from the Royal Albert Hall, June 29, less than a year after their first rehearsal, about one year before I first saw the group. They’d had a busy week that week with shows in Newcastle (June 20), Bristol (21), London (24, a BBC recording), Portsmouth (26), London (27, a second BBC recording) and the Bath Festival the night before, so they would have been at Olympic fitness. They actually did two shows at the RAH that day, and two other groups played before them each time, which suggests their set was short, not much longer than an hour, a handful of songs from the first album and a finale that evidently climaxed with Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’ for which the supporting groups joined them on stage – havin’ some fun tonight indeed.
But I digress. I was going to write about the contents of the new TBL but became side-tracked by its front cover. Indeed, I ought to have opened this little piece with my thanks to Dave for the fulsome coverage of No Quarter: The Three Lives Of Jimmy Page by Martin Power, a book I had a hand in, which occupies three pages of TBL 42, and I’m happy to say Dave welcomes it warmly. Dave points out that it is comprehensive (622 pages) but not salacious, a deliberate editorial stance agreed upon by the author and myself when the book was commissioned. You can find plenty of that in Hammer Of The Gods, Richard Cole’s Stairway To Heaven and Barney Hoskyns Trampled Underfoot, not to mention memoirs by the likes of Pamela Des Barres and Nick Kent, so Martin and I agreed he should go easy on the sex and drugs and concentrate on the music, of which there is a great deal, and not just LZ. I have reason to believe that a work in progress by a former NME writer of some distinction will not be quite so discriminating.
Taking pride of place in this issue of TBL is Dave’s take on LZ’s Complete BBC Sessions, for which he wrote liner notes, thus elevating him to the same role that Mark Lewisohn attained with The Beatles on their reissue series and, to a lesser extent, my own participation in Who reissues from the mid-nineties. It is pleasing to note that the time and effort that Dave has put into helping Led Zeppelin maintain their profile 37 years after they called it a day, not to mention the knowledge he’s amassed along the way, has been recognised in this way. As far as I am aware he is the world’s only full-time professional Led Zeppelin archivist. Groups, even those as sturdy as Led Zep, need fans like him.
Elsewhere there’s a feature on collecting singles on which JP played without credit, including such disparate names as Val Doonican and Brenda Lee, a low down on the Top 100 most valuable LZ albums, the usual info on bootlegs and the like, news on recent Page, Plant and Jones activities and a report on the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ court case which went the way TBL hoped it would: “Reason prevails,” observes its editor sagely.
Chris Charlesworth
See Chris’s blog at http://justbackdated.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/tight-but-loose-portrait-of-singer-as.html
More TBL 42 feedback:
Finally had chance to read TBL 42. Another great issue. Loved the inside story on The Complete BBC Sessions — it was a real treat to hear about your involvement in the process. The double page spread on the history of the TBL website was an unexpected surprise, but I think it’s my favourite TBL article yet! Great issue, packed with content, and the collector’s cover looks brilliant too.
James Cook/LZ News
Guess what hit my doormat yesterday?! The latest Tight But Loose Led Zeppelin Magazine, Issue 42. Another great issue,tons to get into.I’ll be devouring it all over the next couple of days before a full blow by blow on my blog at the weekend! Have known Dave Lewis from a long long time now and hand on heart can say he’s got the same LZ bug as me and has a tremendous knowledge and enthusiasm for all things Zep. If you don’t get TBL, DO IT NOW!! Check it out on www.tightbutloose.co.uk Essential Zep reading….Enjoy!!
Andy Adams
Dave you’re a superstar as ever. You keep us updated, informed, happy, emotional, surprised, pleased, reminiscent and excited for the future.
Colin Barnett
Hi Dave
Another top issue! Love the history of the magazine from when you started it up again.
John Parkin
TBL #42 arrived today and was met with a great smile! As my wife said, “see you in a few hours”, as she understands! Thank you for yet another great read.
Wools
Las Vegas
Thanks for the latest TBL 42 that dropped on my doormat already on Tuesday. As always, you had to put everything else aside for a few hours because of the new issue. And a good one once again I loved your story about co-operating with Jimmy and his team on the liner notes. And keeping it secret! There aren´t too many people around who can claim to have worked closely with Jimmy Page himself on a Led Zeppelin release. The Paul Sheppard story was again very interesting it was nice to browse through the collector columns and especially Jimmy´s session singles story by Cliff Hilliard which was great.
Ilkka Pesu
Many thanks for all the encouraging feedback I’ve received which makes it all worthwhile.
If you have yet to indulge…don’t just take my word for it – as you can see from the above, it really is essential Led Zep reading. Ordering details below:
TBL 42 –with two vintage cover images:
The Limited Edition: order from the link below:
http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/tbl-issue-42-jimmy-page-cover-collectors-numbered-limited-edition/
The TBL 42 Robert Plant standard edition single issue can be ordered at this link:
http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/tbl-issue-42-the-latest-outpouring/
TBL Subscriptions:
You can also subscribe to the TBL magazine to receive issues TBL 41 (which will be sent immediately) TBL 42 (Robert Plant standard edition) and 43 ahead.
All subscribers receive a 10 x 8 John Paul Jones photo perfect for framing.
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TBL 42 – credits missed:
Somehow a couple of lines got left off the TBL 42 credits listing on page 2. This included Chris Charlesworth.
The following line also somehow got deleted in the main credits.
Design and layout by Mick Lowe at StudioMix Bedford. Very special thanks to Mike Tremaglio for text overseeing and Gary Foy for TBL admin.
Many apologies to those above – it was not intentional!
DL
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Led Zeppelin – Las Vegas 1969 concert date mystery:
TBL contributor Mike Tremaglio’s diligence for tracking the most accurate details of Led Zeppelin’s concert itinerary has once again proved dividends –
Over to Mike for the story…
Led Zeppelin – Las Vegas 1969 concert date mystery
For many years, there’s been a lot of talk and speculation among Led Zeppelin fans over whether or not the band had performed in Las Vegas in 1969. With anecdotes from fans, the backup band (Pinkiny Canandy), roadie Joe “Jammer” Wright and even John Paul Jones (via Sam Rapallo, webmaster of the official site), it seemed highly likely that the gig was played in Las Vegas.
Working with the assumption that the Las Vegas 1969 date was played, the question was always – when? An arbitrary date of August 11, 1969 was assigned to the concert based on the band’s summer itinerary and open dates. The topic was discussed at great length on the official website forum with ten pages devoted to the subject over a period of almost nine years.
Two years into the topic discussion, I speculated that August 7, 1969 might also be a potential date for the Las Vegas concert because that was also an open date (since the purported Berkeley, California show did not take place).
Years of frustration occurred after multiple inquiries into various database archives turned up empty. Imagine my surprise when I did a recent search on “Ice Palace” for August 1969 and this little gem turned up – see news story to the left.
This is the only “hard proof” – to date – of the concert performed by Led Zeppelin on August 7, 1969 (not August 11, 1969). Hopefully, additional documentation will soon arise.
Several years back, it was certainly a lot easier to discover the existence of a Baltimore Civic Center show performed on February 16, 1969. That show was not on anyone’s itinerary list, especially because multiple articles stated that the last show of the first US tour would be in Miami a day earlier. It was total serendipity when that one just popped up out of nowhere when I was doing some random archival searching on “Led Zeppelin” in the Baltimore Sun archives. Now if we can only find some proof of that alleged Wheaton, Maryland gig on January 20, 1969…
Mike Tremaglio, January 16, 2017
Here’s the link to the thread of this story on the official LZ site:
http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/4716-led-zeppelin-in-las-vegas/&page=10
Awesome work from Mike yet again -it’s this sort of attention to detail that will light up the book Mike is working on with me – Evenings With Led Zeppelin – the most accurate concert log ever produced – more on all this as it unfolds.
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JPJ with Minibus Pimps: This just in…
Minibus Pimps in Paris!
In a change to the previously advertised ‘ Deathprod’ concert, we are very pleased to announce that John Paul Jones and Helge Sten will be performing together as ‘Minibus Pimps’ on 16th April as part of Presences Electroniques.
Minibus Pimps is a unique and unconventional UK/Norwegian collaboration featuring John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin’s legendary multi-instrumentalist), and prolific electronic musician, improviser and producer Helge Sten (Deathprod, Supersilent), which has existed since its first performance in 2011.
Their debut album ‘Cloud To Ground’ contains seven tracks all recorded live at different venues, from London’s Café Oto to venues in Norway and Denmark. The secret of Minibus Pimps’ colossal sonic gas giants is their use of the Kyma computer system (created by Symbolic Sound). Instruments such as guitar, bass and violin are fed into the system and radically transformed by self-designed digital instruments and processors until their sources are barely recognisable.
More details at http://www.inagrm.com/presences-electronique-2017-0
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Robert Plant on new Fairport Convention album:
The new Fairport Convention album 50:50@50 features Robert Plant on a version of “Jesus On The Mainline”
The album can be purchased online, at the winter tour shows or in the shops in March.
Dave Pegg reveals on their website:
”The album also demonstrates Fairport’s chameleon-like aptitude for collaboration. We become Robert Plant’s backing band for Jesus On The Mainline (recorded live after a single run-through at The Mill theatr…e in Banbury) and we are joined by Pentangle vocalist Jacqui McShee on Lady of Carlisle.
There are many other delights on 50:50@50 and I really hope you enjoy listening to it. After 47 years in Fairport I’m very proud of what the band has achieved in its first five decades and I’m proud of 50:50@50, a fitting tribute to half a century of music-making.”
Full details at
http://www.fairportconvention.com/
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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.
The complete Led Zeppelin News email goes out every weekend. To receive it each week sign up here: http://tinyletter.com/LedZepNews
Jimmy Page
Photographer Richard Young posted another photograph of Jimmy Page visiting his gallery in London at the end of 2016. The gallery is where Page’s Equinox bookshop used to be in the seventies. See the photo here.
- Led Zeppelin magazine Tight But Loose says in its forty-second issue that a “warts and all” biography of Jimmy Page “could be forthcoming ahead”.
- Tight But Loose posted extracts of a 2014 interview with Jimmy Page to celebrate Page’s 73rd birthday on January 9.
- Classic Rock Magazine (and the Classic Rock Awards) have been acquired by publishing company Future. The future of the magazines and events looked uncertain after owner Team Rock went into administration, but a deal has been worked out to acquire them and keep them running. Future used to own Classic Rock Magazine but sold it in 2013.
Robert Plant
- Robert Plant was photographed with some charity campaigners on December 17. The Shuttle reports that Plant met the campaigners in the Wagon and Horse pub, and he offered to donate a prize for their charity raffle in aid of Children with Cancer UK.
John Paul Jones
- Tight But Loose says in its forty-second issue that John Paul Jones “has various projects in the pipeline for 2017”. We know his opera is on the way, but what else is there to come? Well, John Paul Jones’ friend Nick Beggs said in an interview with Classic Rock Magazine last January that John Paul Jones’ “next project” is “killer”. That doesn’t sound much like an opera.
Upcoming events:
March 10 – “Song To Song,” the Terrence Malik film featuring Robert Plant, will have its world premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
March 17 – “Song To Song,” the Terrence Malik film featuring Robert Plant, is scheduled to be released in the US.
Many thanks to James Cook.
The complete Led Zeppelin News email goes out every weekend. To receive it each week sign up here: http://tinyletter.com/LedZepNews
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1977 and all that…It was 40 years ago:
In the first of what will be regular posts recalling the Zep events of 40 years ago, here’s the background to the headline that set the tone for the early months of 1977.
40 years ago on January 15 1977, I was very excited to see this headline in the National Rockstar music paper. This short lived addition to the music papers was actually published at the local Beds County Press. The story revealed that Led Zeppelin had begun rehearsals at the Cabin Studios in Fulham – this was actually the Manticore Studios owned by ELP. They were rehearsing in preparation for a US tour due to start late Feb/early March (it would eventually commence in in April due to Robert Plant’s laryngitis problem).
This was very big news indeed for this then 20 year old mad keen more than obsessed Zep fan. I vividly remember calling the Swan Song office the next day and speaking to Unity Mclean – she told me they would be booking an extensive US tour but no UK dates were planned as yet, though they were looking at a big summer outdoor appearance.. By the way, this call was made from a pay phone red call box just around the corner from where I lived – as at the time we had no phone at home.
I did harbour a plan to head up to London and hang out around the Mainticore Studio in the hope of catching a glimpse of them. However, soon after, I contacted Glandular fever and was off work for three weeks. I also was weighing up how I might even get to one of the New York Madison Square Garden gigs. This was the era of Freddie Laker’s budget airline Sky Train. As it turned out, my weekly wage of £22 selling records at WH Smith was not quite in the Sky Train league and it was not to be. I did hatch a more cost effective plan to wave them off at the Heathrow when they flew out. That is another story for another day.
All this potential 1977 Zep activity was fuelling my idea to produce a Led Zep fan magazine which would be further inspired by the arrival of the Punk fanzines later that year.
‘’Led Zeppelin back in action’’…that headline all of 40 years ago kick-started a hive of Zep activity that year for me – and the imminent arrival of The Song Remains The Same film to Bedford’s Granada cinema for a week on January 23 was yet more reason to cheerful. More on that ahead…
DL
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DL Diary Blog Update:
Friday treats at the Vinyl Barn –at an exceedingly cold Vinyl Barn last Friday morning, the captures amongst the sleet and snow: Immediate Records Singles Collection on the Collector Series label, this has the Jimmy Page produced Nico single on, Louis Bellson and his Drums album on UK Columbia – 1961 original pressing, and a bit of cool jazz – 1969 Gary Burton Throb album on Atlantic Orange and plum label. Inspirations before I faced the dentist from which I am a little bit sore- it always going to be a risk going on Friday the 13th!
The real bad luck occurred the next day when the filling I had dropped out – so it was back to the dentist on Monday and Tuesday – I hadn’t been to a dentist in over three years – I’ve now been five times in a month!
Saturday night is alright for records. With the prospect of a Saturday evening of bland reality TV such as Let it Shine and The Voice, the good lady Janet and I had a dedicated evening to digging some cool sounds on the player – and it was great fun to search out some old faves as can be seen in the pic below. This trend continued over the weekend…
It provided the opportunity to catch up with some recent acquisitions amongst them:
The Rolling Stones – Stray Cats – the special compilation album from the Stones Mono box set.
Yes – Something’s Coming The BBC Recordings 1969 -1970.
Elvis Presley I’m Leavin’ – great compilation of his early 1970s output -RSD release.
Jimmy Webb – El Mirage superb 1977 album produced by George Martin.
Lesley Duncan Everything Changes and Sing Children Sing – reflective singer songwriter who worked on various sessions for the likes of Elton John,Dusty Springfield etc and recorded some fine albums of her own in the early 70s. I dug these out after reading an excellent feature on the lady in a recent issue of Shindig magazine.
Stephen Stills/Manassas – Pieces – double album of various outtakes and key performances.
Ray Charles What’d I Say – classic 1959 London/Atlantic recording.
Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You – UK Atlantic 1967. Quality album from the legendary songstress – and one of the esteemed JPJ’s favourite albums.
Plus
Paul Simon – Paul Simon -his first album from early 1972
Bob Dylan – Desire
The latter pair always make for good Winter listening.
Good to see Tottenham continuing their recent winning ways with the 4-0 win over West Brom. The visit to Man City on Saturday will be a stern test. I’ve also been enjoying the FA Cup third round action – Lincoln City’s 1-0 replay win over Ipswich had all the ingredients of the magic of the FA Cup.
Elsewhere, it’s been keeping on top of the TBL 42 orders coming in and more promo work on getting the TBL 42 word out there. There’s also been some key planning time to asses the TBL workload ahead -more on all that as it unfolds.
Dave Lewis – January 18,2017
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.loose
The TBL/DL Facebook page has regular updates and photos – be sure to check it out.
And follow TBL/DL on Twitter.
And finally – YouTube clip:
Robert Plant with Fairport Convention performing Jesus On The Mainline – August 1993:
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“It was certainly a lot easier to discover the existence of a Baltimore Civic Center show performed on February 16, 1969. That one just popped up out of nowhere when I was doing some random archival searching on “Led Zeppelin” in the Baltimore Sun archives. Now if we can only find some proof of that alleged Wheaton, Maryland gig on January 20, 1969” –Mike Tremaglio, January 16, 2017
This mysterious Wheaton gig (the night of Nixon’s Inauguration) has taken on a bit of local folklore. Sort of like the Bunny Man or Horsehead Bridge, where all manner of carnage is said to have taken place. Local film producer Jeff Krulik even managed a documentary on the subject, but not having seen the piece, I can’t comment on its veracity:
http://bandwidth.wamu.org/led-zeppelin-played-here-interview-jeff-krulik/
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