TBL CELEBRATION DAY COUNTDOWN DAILY NEWSLETTER: NEW YORK LATER TODAY/ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW/ LONDON PREMIERE TBL PRE– SCREENING MEET DETAILS/ ROBERT AND JPJ AT HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL /ON THIS DAY 40 YEARS GONE
To mark the impending momentous worldwide screening of the Led Zeppelin Ahmet Ertegun 02 reunion concert on October 17th, we are counting down to the day with a daily Celebration Day Newsletter post. This will feature relevant news and updates and archive features
Countdown to the Celebration Day…8 days to go.
NEW YORK PRESS CONFERENCE AND PREMIRE SCREENING TODAY
The Celebration Day excitement unfolds ….
Later today in New York, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham will hold a press conference at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and then attend the premiere of the Celebration Day film at the Zeigfield Theater.
If you are attending either or both events we look forward to hearing your feedback and reports – and of course views on the film.
This is where it begins to get very exciting
Keep an eye on the TBL site and Facebook page for coverage tomorrow.
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW:
In new interviews with David Frike to be published in the October 25th issue of Rolling Stone both John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page offer perceptive comments regarding the 02 reunion concert.
Celebration Day is “almost like being onstage with us,” Jones says. “We always had that interaction,” he adds, referring to Zeppelin’s legendary concert prowess in the Seventies. “But nobody could see it, because the lighting wasn’t there.” Before the O2 show, Jones notes, “I remember Dick saying in one of the early meetings, ‘I’m going to need 14 cameras.’ Everybody went, ‘What?’ It paid off.”
“With Led Zeppelin, it has always been that mystique of how the music is done – how it works, why it works,” observes Jimmy Page “The closer you can get in on that and the more lingering it is, the better.The thing about Led Zeppelin was that it was always four musicians at the top of their game, but they could play like a band,” Page says. “Even in the first couple of rehearsal days, running up to the O2, we were playing pretty good. But we really wanted to shine as a band.”
On the inevitable question of another reunion Jimmy remarks ‘I think if there had been any more concerts to be done, we’d already be talking about them. So I don’t see it.” Celebration Day, he adds, “is a testament to what we did in 2007. There it is.”
Read more at this link
And in the October 25th, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.
CELEBRATION DAY LONDON PREMIERE PRE – SCREENING TBL MEET:
The venue for the Celebration Day London Premiere pre-screening meet on Friday October 12th is The Distillers pub 64 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 9PH
http://hammersmith.thedistillerspub.com/
This is situated to the left of the Hammersmith Apollo. We are aiming to be there late afternoon around 4.30. We look forward to all that can make it.
ROBERT PLANT AND JOHN PAUL JONES MAKE SURPRISE APPEARANCES AT HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL
Robert Plant and John Paul Jones both made appearances — albeit separately — at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival over the weekend. On Saturday, Robert Plant joined Patty Griffin ) during her solo acoustic performance.
Meanwhile, John Paul Jones made a few guest appearances as well: on Saturday, he joined Robyn Hitchcock onstage. Later in the day, he joined bluesman Seasick Steve for his set (. The following day, Jones jammed with the band Giant Giant Sand.
More details here:
YOU TUBE VIDEO CLIP OF THE DAY:
Here’s the one off version of Ben E. King’s Stand By Me as performed 40 years ago today…more on this below
ON THIS DAY: OCTOBER 9th 1972
40 years ago today, Led Zeppelin performed a stand out show at the Festival Hall in Osaka Japan
Here’s a look back at another great touring period:
JAPAN 1972
After completing work on Houses Of The Holy the group paid a return visit to Japan, playing six shows over a nine-day period.
This tour signified a long overdue overhaul of their set, with ‘Rock And Roll’ now installed as a particularly appropriate set opener. Four new compositions were presented – the previously played ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’ and ‘Dancing Days’ and the new coupling of ‘The Song Remains The Same’ with ‘The Rain Song’. The latter coupling was introduced by Plant on different occasions under the working titles of ‘The Campaign’, ‘The Overture’ and ‘Zep’. As with their last Japanese visit, they were not afraid to introduce some off-the-wall cover versions for the Japanese audiences. A version of Ben E. King’s ‘Stand By Me’ in Osaka on October 9 emerged as one of the highlights of the tour.
MONDAY OCTOBER 9 1972
OSAKA, JAPAN
FESTIVAL HALL
Set: Rock And Roll/Black Dog/Over The Hills And Far Away/Misty Mountain Hop/Since I’ve Been Loving You/Dancing Days/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Dazed And Confused (inc. Down By The River – The Crunge)/Stairway To Heaven/Moby Dick/Whole Lotta Love (inc. Everybody Needs Somebody – It Must Be Love – Milk Cow Blues – Leave My Woman Alone – Lawdy Miss Clawdy – Heartbreak Hotel – Act Naturally – Going Down Slow – The Shape I’m In)/Stand By Me/Immigrant Song.
Plant: “We’ve just come back from Hong Kong. We went to Hong Kong for a few days and we’re well knackered!” Nevertheless, this is a truly exciting show and probably the best of the tour.
Robert comments on the title of ‘The Song Remains The Same’. “We can’t find a name for it. We’ll call it… ‘The Campaign’.”
‘Dazed And Confused’ is beginning to evolve into an even longer epic than ever before – Page’s pre-violin bow sequence is the foundation for Plant to ad-lib lines from Neil Young’s ‘Down By The River’. By the time they reach London in December, it will be the regular spot for the ‘summer of love’ anthem, ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)’.
Tonight there is an added bonus, courtesy of John ‘Samurai’ Bonham. This is the only show of the Japanese tour to feature Bonham’s ‘Moby Dick’ drum solo and after tonight it would not be played again until the summer 1973 US tour.
The highlight of the concert is undoubtedly the ‘Whole Lotta Love’ medley, which is reminiscent of the marathons from the 1971 Japan visit.Tonight, the band delve deep to produce some really rare and obscure references, including ‘Milk Cow Blues’, ‘Leave My Woman Alone’ and ‘Act Naturally’. Page even plays a few riffs from the Stones’ ‘Satisfaction’ after ‘It Must Be Love’.
A full version of Ben E. King’s ‘Stand By Me’ (with a line from Aretha Franklin’s Don’t Play That Song For Me thrown in) is an unusual but pleasing choice as a first encore, followed by a storming version of ‘Immigrant Song’ – always a crowd pleaser in Japan.
Bootleg CD References for this show include:
Let Me Get Back to 1972 (H-Bomb Music) Tapes from the Darkside (H-Bomb)
Magical Dreams (Wyvern Legend) Live-Japan Warm Ups (Tarantura)
Text taken from Led Zeppelin the Concert File by Dave Lewis & Simon Pallet – you can order the book at this link
http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/?page_id=15416
CELEBRATION DAY COUNTDOWN PLAYLIST:
In the run up to the countdown the TBL deck is going to be alive with a relevant daily playlist. This is a great time to dig around your collection and add to the build up with Zep inspiration, be it certain tracks, CD’s or albums on your ipod, or deck.
I intend to root out some great Zep stuff to play every day of this period. My line up for today is as follows:
Led Zeppelin Tapes From The Darkside 3 CD set – it was 40 years ago today…
Three Days After CD – the June 73 LA Forum bootleg – having fun and nothing but fun…
Led Zeppelin Outtakes vinyl LP – good to hear some old outtake faves on vinyl
That’s mine – let me know what you are being inspired by in the run up –list your playlist choices in the comments section below.
AND FINALLY….. 02 REUNION SHOW QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“The passion and intensity is still there. We sounded great in rehearsals. It would really take your breath away- I was very happily surprised. I can’t believe how well [Jason] fits into the scheme of things. He’s a great drummer,he hits really hard. He’s got certain musical mannerisms of his dad, but he doesn’t really play like his dad, although it’s uncanny because he sounds like his dad when he speaks.” John Paul Jones 2007
Until tomorrow…keep reading – keep listening…
Dave Lewis/Gary Foy
October 9th , 2012
Don’t forget that you can follow Dave Lewis/TBL on Twitter – LedzeppelinTBL
and view additional photos etc at the Tight But Loose Facebook page (add us as a friend) at
A few years ago, I came across an interesting post on the net by someone who attended the Osaka Oct. 9th show. According to his recollection, Led Zeppelin didn’t return to the stage for encore for quite a while, around 15 minutes or so. In the meantime, the lights were turned on and the announcement to inform the show was over was made to the protest of the audience. As the crew began to dismantle the gear, the members at long last took the stage again to the sheer delight of the fans, and launched into Stand By Me triumphantly. I assume that they came up with the idea of performing the song while they were back in the dressing room, and tried it out through a quick rehearsal on the spot, which explains the delay and, moreover, how on and capable they were on that night!
By the way — although I don’t have a bootleg copy around now, I remember Robert makes a typically cryptic statement at the end of the show that goes like, “Tonight we are very plagiarized here,” or to that effect. I’d be grateful if someone out there assures or corrects me about it.
Leave your response!