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.

Led Zeppelin

• Led Zeppelin is releasing a snowboard to celebrate the band’s fiftieth anniversary. The new “Misty Mountain Hop” board has been produced by Burton and will sell for $749.95. Every purchase will come with a copy of Led Zeppelin’s official photography book.

Jimmy Page

• Fender has revealed its recreations of Jimmy Page’s iconic Dragon Telecaster. The company will sell 50 Custom Shop models for $25,000 each in March. The company has also recreated the guitar from the time when Page fitted it with mirrors, and will also release cheaper production line recreations of both designs.

• Also this week, Jimmy Page announced that he will release a new amp this year which recreates the sound of Led Zeppelin. The Sundragon amp will be available in a limited edition of 50 amps, and then followed by a more affordable production line series of amps.

• We were curious about the photographs published to promote the Sundragon amp so got in touch with Fender. The company confirmed to LedZepNews that Jimmy Page used those photos to quietly reveal his restored original Dragon Telecaster, the first time it’s been seen in 50 years.

Upcoming events:

January 31 – The UK Americana Awards will be held in London. Robert Plant has been nominated for artist of the year.
February 24 – The Tate Britain’s Edward Burne-Jones exhibition, which features two tapestries owned by Jimmy Page, closes.
March – The Fender Custom Shop recreations of Jimmy Page’s Dragon and Mirror Telecasters will go on sale.
March 7 – Robert Plant will perform at the Love Rocks NYC benefit concert in New York.
March 8 – Patty Griffin’s self-titled new album, which features Robert Plant on two tracks, will be released.
April 8 – The “Play It Loud: Instruments Of Rock And Roll” exhibition, featuring Led Zeppelin items, will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
June 13 – Robert Plant will perform in Stockholm, Sweden.
June 15 – Robert Plant will perform at Bergenfest in Norway.
June 17 – Robert Plant will perform at The Big Challenge festival in Norway.
June 19 – Robert Plant will perform in Harstad, Norway.
June 21 – Robert Plant will perform in Bodø, Norway.
June 25 – Robert Plant will perform in Tromsø, Norway.
June 27 – Robert Plant will perform in Svalbard, Norway.
June 29 – Robert Plant will perform in Svalbard, Norway.
July 2 – Robert Plant will perform in Halden, Norway.
July 10 – Robert Plant will perform at the Kunst!Rasen Bonn festival in Germany.
September 20-21 – The 2019 John Bonham memorial concert is scheduled to be held in Redditch.
November – The “Play It Loud: Instruments Of Rock And Roll” exhibition will move to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

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

Led Zeppelin News Website: Check out the Led Zeppelin news website at

http://ledzepnews.com/

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Bath Festival 1970 Joe Jammer Footage:

Phew!

We can only hope for more!

An incredible find here via BFI – footage of The Joe Jammer Band on stage at the Bath Festival on June 27/ 29 1970. Hopefully one day similar footage of the Led Zeppelin performance may surface.

When I attended the Icons of The Hall event at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2017 I filed this report:

Before proceedings had got under way I studied the contents of a special display case that had various memorabilia on show – part of that was a vintage film label marked Led Zeppelin at Bath. I have previously been aware that Peter Whitehead had shot film of the band at the Bath Festival in 1970 but here was tangible evidence.

This was backed up by Professor Steve Chibnall during the forum when I asked a question about the Bath film. Steve revealed he had viewed the 20 to 30 minute silent colour footage (the label says B and W but Steve says it is colour ) and though it was rather dark in places it was usable and he hoped one day it could be restored and see the light of day.

Here’s hoping – this footage of Joe’s band captures all the spirt of the event…

View it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFYHNWsUzQQ&feature=youtu.be

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-bath-festival-of-blues-and-progressive-music-1970-online?fbclid=IwAR0O5oCIO7S-OYCvXn6_WRPSd2328LIb2B33Lk38foj-t12mIZ2irwsbDt8

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Evenings With Led Zeppelin – The Complete Concert Chronicle by Dave Lewis and Mike Tremaglio:

A commentary by Larry M.Bergmann, Jr.

So you have the Evenings With Led Zeppelin book before you  – and if you are reading this and have yet to indulge – you really should do – ordering details below..

So with book at the ready – here’s an excellent commentary by long time TBL contributor Larry Bergmann that will guide you through the extensive contents…

PART TWO –  1970:

Evenings With Led Zeppelin – The Complete Concert Chronicle by Dave Lewis and Mike Tremaglio

A commentary by Larry Bergmann, Jr.

1970 opens at the Town Hall Birmingham on January 7 with “Led Zeppelin and the lovely strangled cat sound” (Jimmy Page bowing the guitar), courtesy of the Wolverhampton Express and Star.

January 9 at the Royal Albert Hall…what can be said…one of the true epics…Jimmy’s comments about nerves because Lennon, Clapton and Beck had requested tickets are priceless. I remember years ago receiving a copy of this video, one of those “don’t let anybody know you have it” type of things. It was only 30-40 minutes and the quality was horrific. But it was still utterly transfixing. That’s also when I realized that the version of I Can’t Quit You Baby released on Coda was not from a “soundcheck”. And of course having this gig finally appear in such spectacular fashion on the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD is simply one of the great gifts.

A girl in attendance January 24 at Leeds told the Yorkshire Evening Post “It’s so wild.  So abandoned – you somehow lose your mind through your body.”  Ahem, moving right along…

Terrific ephemera highlights the entries for Leeds and Edinburgh.

There’s an absolutely killer shot of Page on the cover of a magazine called Jujut from February 23 Helsinki.

The entry for Gothenburg February 25 is terrific with very well written newspaper accounts which provide a vivid picture of the evening. Ditto February 26 Stockholm….both of these gigs were reviewed quite thoughtfully by the Swedish press.

The “shrieking monkeys”, or, er, “The Nobs” blow apart the K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen on February 28…Eva Von Zeppelin was doubtless pleased…

March 7 Montreux is one of the truly great gigs…I like the audience tape more than the soundboard, however the soundboard thankfully provides for the latter part of the gig that had previously been otherwise unavailable. This gig features an absolutely WILD version of How Many More Times, some of the most blistering minutes of Led Zeppelin ever captured on tape!

Vienna March 9 provides two photos of the beautiful Konzerthaus which Zeppelin was privileged to play on the night.

Hamburg March 10 and 11 gives us a rather strange illustrated promo of the group…a little bit ugly to be more to the point!

The Rheinhalle Düsseldorf, which the band played on March 12, was another magnificent setting. Again it’s nice to have the photographs of the venues at which the band performed, it’s one of my absolute favorite aspects of this book. A few songs from this gig turned up on the classic old Japanese bootleg LP White Summer, on the world famous MARC label. One of the tracks was Black Mountain Side/White Summer (I believe the opening portion was omitted from the recording), and it is a very stately version of the piece.

March 22 finds our friend Janine Gressel of the Seattle Times at it again…”(Plant’s) body movements and pseudo-sexual remarks made him seem a junior grade Jim Morrison. But Morrison, at his best, offered animal magnetism, Plant offered vegetable magnetism.”

Denver March 25 provides an unhappy but nonetheless quite entertaining review by Milt T. of Chinook…chin up, Milt!

For the March 26 gig in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Land of the Saints, the Salt Lake City Tribune gives us the headline “Group’s Nothing to Get Excited About” (perhaps Milt T. had phoned ahead to warn them). Yet reviewer George Raine, while seemingly attempting to dismiss the group (“Led Zeppelin is not good, nor is it bad”…Mr. Raine no doubt a decisive fellow), liked Jimmy Page’s playing, actually summing it up quite nicely.

The incredibly great first gig at The Forum in Inglewood, California on March 27 (long underrated in my opinion) was predictably savaged by Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn, a snobbish aficionado of “deep and meaningful” rock. The good news is there’s a really terrific photo of Robert here, arms in the air at the foot of the stage. In fact this gig is represented by quite a few prodigious pix by the great photographer Chuck Boyd.

Jill Melichar of the Houston Chronicle on the March 29 gig…”Page is the combined Segovia and Montoya of the electric guitar.”  Not bad company at all! She also reported that at the end of the gig, “Freaked-out fans swarmed the stage and the Zeppelin barely escaped.”

Pittsburgh on March 30 moved one fan, Tom Davis, to poison pen a letter to the editor which appeared in the Tartan, newspaper of the private (and rather monolithic) Carnegie Mellon University.  Suffice to say that Mr. Davis did not enjoy the show, and summed up his experience “At least if the subject comes up I can say ‘Yeah, I saw Led Zeppelin and they weren’t so hot’, and sound sophisticated.”  A comment which says a lot on any number of levels…

Raleigh April 8 features a great newspaper photo of Jimmy taken from the back of the stage.

April 13 Montreal…we hope reviewer Juan Rodriguez of the Montreal Star was able to get over the calamity of seeing the group and pull himself back together, along with his other contemptuous contemporaries who were writing “music reviews” for the Quebec papers at the time…

On April 17 the band play a storming set at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, sandwiched by two remarkable moments…in the afternoon they are presented with the keys to the city by the mayor, and in the evening the manager of the Coliseum pulls a gun on Peter Grant and demands that he take the band off the stage as the fans are going crazy at the end of the concert! Just another day at the office for the Zeppelin!

In London on April 23, Jimmy makes an appearance on the Julie Felix Show at BBC Lime Grove Studios in London where he delivers a superb acoustic version of White Summer/Black Mountain Side. Rather predictably, the BBC botches the preservation of the tape and it was thought lost until a somewhat damaged copy was unearthed a couple of decades hence.  I was thrilled to be among the first fans to see it after all those years, at Dave Lewis and Andy Adams’ 1992 Led Zeppelin convention in London.

A fantastic spread of press photos adorns the entry for the gig in Reykjavik, Iceland on June 22.

The Festhalle in Frankfurt (July 18) was another of the really beautiful European halls.

July 19 Berlin – According to Allan McDougall of New Musical Express, the band even had “the tough Berlin police (bopping) in the aisles!” Chris Welch of Melody Maker had Peter Grant foiling at least two would-be bootleggers in the audience who were trying to record the gig.  It would prove over the years to be a largely futile effort (thankfully, for us obsessives)…sorry, Peter.  In fact, despite Grant’s best efforts, a tape of this very performance survives…

Pgs 226-27 feature a lengthy and very interesting treatise on the cancelled August 14 appearance at the purported Boston College Eagle Rock Festival.  Long story short, after the festival was canceled by the mayor of Boston, it was thought that Zep would play two dates in one day at Boston Garden in September, one gig for the disappointed festival fans, and an additional gig for non-festival ticket holders.  Of course, a Mr. P. Grant (who was already holding a sizable and non-refundable deposit on the now cancelled festival date), played hardball with the festival’s promoter and the Garden, and negotiated a big additional fee for the two arena gigs.  But when tickets for the first show (scheduled for 5:15pm) did not sell well, the band partially reneged, announcing they would only play one show.  Grant would only agree to a fraction of a refund on the canceled gig.  This series of events basically cemented the hatred for Zeppelin by Boston officialdom and some members of the town’s showbiz community, and the resultant horrible press they received in the aftermath certainly didn’t help their image with some of the town’s rock fans either.

Tulsa on August 21 is a personal favorite. It’s here I should point out the excellent job of Lewis/Tremaglio tracking the songs played in the medleys and how many (more) times they were included over the years…a nice touch for all us trainspotters!

On September 1, the band finally get a good review from the Seattle Times, and Carole Beers liked R. Plant, “whose gyrations and emoting make Tom Jones look like Bing Crosby”.  Well!

September 4 LA Forum aka Live On Blueberry Hill…great observations about the bootleg being released before Led Zeppelin III was, which afforded the listener previews of four songs from that LP, and that it was the first time fans could hear a Zeppelin concert in its entirety.  And yours truly will add that this was the fifth consecutive night the band had performed a concert!  Not a bad show for what had to be a fatigued (in more ways than one, no doubt) Zeppelin!

The Blueberry Hill date also brings one of my few quibbles with the book, I can’t quite understand Dave and Mike’s decision to reprint the vile commentary from R.E. Maxson of the Los Angeles Free Press, who seems to have been a disturbed individual at the time.  Hope he was able to get some help…

John Mendelsohn’s absurd review in the Los Angeles Times was of course typical of that paper’s years-long “view” of the band.

Boston September 9, the Beantown media predictably get their revenge…no need to dwell too much on their twaddle, dutifully reprinted in the book, as Rolling Stone critic Timothy Crouse gives away the game. “…those of us…who could not see much merit in (Zeppelin’s) derivative music, could not quite understand the prolonged applause, the cheers and the V signs.  To us, it seemed that Plant had tricked the audience into responding to the group as culture heroes.  We felt slightly cheated.”  Critic Jon Landau, later to help propel Bruce Springsteen to fame, also weighed in quite negatively.

Well, sorry, I guess I’m about to dwell on the twaddle… First of all, who are the “us” and “we” to whom Crouse is referring?  For whom, exactly, does he presume to speak? Himself and Jon Landau?  One thing critics of their ilk always missed, Led Zeppelin never set out to be “culture heroes”.  Zeppelin was there to rock the house and show the fans a great time, and that’s precisely what went on for twelve years. And as one can hear on the tape, the crowd at Boston Garden on the night rather enjoyed the gig…

Journos such as Crouse and Landau were the ones tying themselves into knots whilst trying to manufacture “culture heroes”.  And on occasion when the fans obviously didn’t agree with the assumed intellectual superiority of such critics as themselves, the Crouses and Landaus of the world presumed said fans were “tricked” (or worse).  They couldn’t come to grips with the obvious conclusion that, for whatever reason(s), THEY were the ones who supposedly weren’t getting it.

September 19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City brings an end to the tour, and to the 1970 touring schedule altogether. Two shows on the day, one at 2pm and one at 8pm. The second gig is without doubt one of the all-time greats, the band blew the place apart, playing it seems everything they could think of, and then for good measure threw in the kitchen sink! At both gigs, Plant acknowledged the great Jimi Hendrix, who had tragically passed away in London on September 18.

Then it was on into 1971….

Larry M.Bergmann, Jr.

To be continued…

To order the book:

Stock Availability Update:

 THE BOOK IS  AVAILABLE VIA AMAZON UK AT

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evenings-Led-Zeppelin-Chronicle-1968-1980/dp/1783057017?pd_rd_wg=8yG8k&pd_rd_r=96711cf5-5f25-4e56-b2d7-779e1cc923f8&pd_rd_w=dgz5Z&ref_=pd_gw_simh&pf_rd_r=0ZZPAZQ99FPF923R5AZF&pf_rd_p=14f91171-0541-58ad-938b-3aec945f4cb7

AND AMAZON IN THE US HERE:

https://www.amazon.com/Evenings-Led-Zeppelin-Complete-Chronicle/dp/1783057017/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543278667&sr=1-1&keywords=%22evenings+with+led+zeppelin%22

AND BARNES AND NOBLE IN THE US  HERE:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/evenings-with-led-zeppelin-dave-lewis/1128973527?ean=9781783057016

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TBL Archive Special:

Seven nights with Led Zep in 1977

Led Zeppelin (on film) at the Granada Bedford January 1977.

The young DL gazes adoringly at the poster outside the Granada Cinema Bedford January 1977 – no prizes for guessing where this poster ended up – you got it – on my bedroom wall!

42 years ago this week  I was about to commence a seven night stint in the company of Led Zeppelin….or to be more specific their film The Song Remains The Same.

The newly released celluloid masterpiece was on general release and doing the rounds nationally and cue fanfare…had rolled into my home town of Bedford.

Yes Led Zeppelin alive on film in the quaint market town of Bedford for seven nights only and I needed to be there every night. Simple as that.

Now this event in the life of this then 20 year old Zep fanatic was big news. I’d already seen the film six times before Christmas, the first three nights in London including the premiere plus screenings in Cambridge.

Now I had the luxury of walking from my home in Dents Road to Bedford High Street every night for seven days to view it at the local Granada cinema. This long since knocked down theatre was a grand old building that alongside its cinema presentations was a stop off for the many pop group package shows of the 1960s. It played host to The Beatles twice and Jimi Hendrix. In April 1964 the seven year old DL witnessed his first ever gig there featuring The Dave Clark Five.

The whole week was a total blast as various friends and relations joined my then girlfriend Fiona and me in seeing just what all this Zeppelin film fuss was about. My good friends (and past Earls Court and future Knebworth companions) Tom Locke and Dec came along on the opening Sunday where we stayed for the 4pm and 7pm shows. Luckily there was no Wallbangers football match that day to get in the way.

No Monday morning feeling that week either. Absolutely not. A day in the WH Smith shop selling the records and tapes of choice to the Bedford public and then the nightly prospect of 137 minutes of Zep up on the big screen. It was pure heaven. Bedford Earls Court/Knebworth crew member Phil Harris was with us on the Tuesday night and another Bedford Zep fan and Wallbanger player Nick Crawley  came along as well. Dec was back on Wednesday and again on the Friday where we sat through the afternoon and evening screenings.

Dec was also with me a year later when we made two bus rides in driving snow to see the film at Western Favell in Northampton. Now that’s what I call comradeship!

Here’s the line up on the local cinema circuit for that memorable week of January 23,1977. With all the Zep screenings, there was no time to check out the double X sex bill!

On the Thursday my late Mum and late sister came along to find out just exactly what it was that so inspired the junior one of the family. A lovely touch. This week of weeks ended on the Saturday and not even a family marriage could get in the way. My cousin was getting married that day but we still managed to sneak out of the reception for two hours to attend the final showing (viewing number nine for the week!) By then the manager of the Granada had seen our many visits and gave us free tickets. We even made the local press putting the record straight about some errors in the local review.

It was an incredible week looking back and it set the year up a treat. I did actually go down with glandular fever not long afterwards which is another story for another day. What we all wanted of course, was to see Led Zeppelin back onstage –the nearest I got to them was the hour I spent at Heathrow Airport on May 17 as they flew out for the second leg of the US tour.

It was to be another two years before the glory of Knebworth.

In between all that I went on to see The Song Remains film around 30 times in UK cinemas from 1976 to 1979. It was the next best thing during their enforced absence. These excursions to see the film included the aforementioned bus ride out with Dec to Western Favell shopping centre near  Northampton on a snowy January night in 1978 and a late night showing in Luton when it followed a porn film – I kid you not!  I also saw it a fair few times at a small cinema near Wardour Street in London called The Essential. This was an art house cinema that regularly aired rock films of the day.

The arrival of the video age of course would soon make it much easier to view. I  invested in a bootleg copy in early 1981 – not of brilliant quality but it had to be had!

It can now be viewed at the click of a YouTube link – the thought that one day the footage would be easily accessible on a mobile phone would have seen astonishingly futuristic back in that memorable week of January 1977.

As much as it’s great to have such easy access to it – it will never be quite as rewarding or exciting as those seven trips I made into Bedford St Peters Street  during that week way back in 1977. It was like having the band live down the road available at will for a nightly fix. Seven nights in 1977…what a week that was…

Dave Lewis -, January 30,2019.

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The Beatles – it was 50 years ago …

50 years ago today on January 30,1969 the four lads who shook the world shook the boards of the Apple Records HQ at 3 Saville Row and then let it be…we shall never see their like again…

Planet Rock – new issue:

The new issue of Planet Rock issue 12 has an excellent 20 page feature on The Rolling Stones – this has a superb piece by Peter Grant biographer Mark Black on The Rolling Stones 1968 -1971 era, plus interviews with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards by Liz Barnes – it had me revisiting that classic trio of albums of the era that namely Beggars Banquet. Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers… well worth checking out this issue also has features on Ronnie James Dio, Ginger Wildheart and more

https://www.planetrock.com/magazine/

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Buddy Holly – it was 60 years ago this week

A music retail story:

The music lived on in Our Price Records –it was 30 years ago this week …

60 years ago on February 3 1959 , Buddy Holly died in that fatal airplane crash with Richie Valens and The Big Bopper

30 years on back in February 1989, that anniversary was marked on BBC 1 with a documentary film about Buddy’s life n Friday Feb 2. Having watched this excellent film I saw a bit of a retail opportunity as I knew at the Our Price record shop I managed in Bedford we had a fair bit of Buddy Holly stock. On the Saturday morning I searched out this stock – it comprised of a budget priced Music For Pleasure compilation and a few other titles – of which we had a fair few cassettes.

So seeing the potential sales in all this we racked them out at the front of the store – and created a hand written sign for the window that proclaimed:

”February 3rd 1959 –

The day the legend died

February 3rd 1989

The music lives on…”

Here are some pics I took on the day…

Throughout the day we had the Buddy Holly hits album playing and all this did the trick. By the end of the day we had sold out.

There’s a BBC 4 documentary on Buddy Holly on Friday night. As it did 30 years ago, it’s likely to inspire sales again – this time there are a whole lot less shops to go into and purchase a Buddy Holly album –not doubt many potential buyers will order via Amazon or download or stream some tracks.

It won’t be quite the same as going out and interacting in a record shop the way it was in Our Price in Bedford all those years back…to paraphrase one of Buddy’s finest -it doesn’t really matter anymore…or maybe it does…

Dave Lewis – January 30 , 2019. 

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VIP Victoria Record Fair – January 26,2019:

It was great to be out and about at the Victoria Record Fair last Saturday – As is often the case, I found myself doing as much talking as I did browsing through the racks – but that was an absolute pleasure when the company included the following: Paul Sheppard, Ian Saikia,  Andy Brennan,  Keith Creek, Alastair Chorlton, John Gunne , Matt, Nick C, Carl, Mick, Steve L, James, Tom and Phil. All in all it was a tonic to be amongst like minded devotes of recorded music in it’s various formats

At the VIP Victoria Record Fair I was well pleased to find this vintage copy of Record Collector issue 14 October 1980. It includes my first ever contribution to the mag – a feature on Led Zeppelin collectables written all of 39 years ago.

I took it over to show the guys on the Record Collector stall who were mightily impressed. The magazine celebrates it’s 40th anniversary this year and I may well be one of their longest contributors – since that vintage issue 14 I have racked up over 30 features and contributions –mainly on Led Zep but also covering The Rolling Stones, The Who, Paul McCartney & Wings, Nick Drake and Rod Stewart. I’ve worked with a fair few editors over the years and have immensely enjoyed contributing to what I consider to be still the best collectors mag around.

Last year, Mike T and I wrote the very well received Led Zeppelin 50 greatest Gigs feature for issue 483 published last August. I worked on the layout with the new editor Paul Lester and it came out really well. Paul is putting his own identity on the mag -if you are a lapsed reader of Record Collector, it’s well worth checking out again.

I was also well pleased to find a copy of the Two Originals Of Led Zeppelin which has the Led Zeppelin I and II albums as a double package. This was a popular series of albums issued in the late 70s that featured double packages of Warner/Atlantic artists including Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Carly Simon etc. The Zep set was issued without permission and was withdrawn. Not seen too many of these around recently so it was a great find this and a bargain at just £20!

It was great to hook up with Paul Sheppard and show him his excellent contributions to the forthcoming TBL issue 44 mag… as can be seen Paul picked up some very nice Zep CDs…and the very fine Led Zep at Knebworth book. I also met with Julian Walker pictured below right in the excellent Royal Oak pub. Julian and I discussed plans for a TBL gathering to mark the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin at Knebworth on August 4. More on all that soon.

The traditional post record fair TBL crew pic …

DL Diary Blog Update:

Friday treats at the Vinyl Barn – at the always excellent Vinyl Barn last Friday I was well pleased to find a copy of the 1972 Leon Russell album Carney which includes the brilliant US hit single Tight Rope – A &M UK pressing with insert – top stuff – Thanks Darren !

It’s very full on here with the wrapping of the TBL mag and preparing for it’s arrival and distribution. In between all that, it was great be out and about at the Victoria Fair  and in the evening the good lady and I attended the 50th birthday party of our good friend Kev Bailey  -Kev has been involved in promoting bands in Bedford for many years – it was great to see many old faces that I worked with at the Our Price shop. A top night indeed.

It’s all gone a little pear shaped for Spurs – the injury hit side could not overcome Chelsea in that penalty shoot out and then lost to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup fourth round. The only bright moment of the 2-0 defeat at Palace was when watching it in the Fox the unmistakable image of Classic Rock news editor and big Palace fan came flashing on the screen in a crowd shot pictured chatting to his son Eddie. Nice one Dave!

So January is nearly behind us…

This particular mantra is always a tonic at this particular time…

’’January is a 31 day hangover but February brings lambs, daffodils and the air fills with a magical quickening that tells you spring is on the way. February is short so whatever you’re trying to stretch, whether it’s your salary, your calorie intake or your booze units, February’s unique compactness helps you spread it just that little bit thicker. A good enough reason to raise a glass”.

I’ll certainly drink to that notion …cheers!

Dave Lewis – January 30, 2019

Until next time, have a great weekend

TBL Website updates compiled by Dave Lewis

with thanks to Gary Foy and James Cook

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