I will be at the Rufus Publishing stall at the VIP London Victoria Record Fair this Saturday September 7 to launch the book. Copies will be on sale on the day. I will be on hand  at the Rufus stall to sign copies of the book and Rufus Publishing will also have a selection of other titles on offer.

I’ve been working on this project for a good few months and I am  really pleased with the end result. I look forward to seeing all that can make it along.

Here’s all the book info:

Portraits of Robert Plant -Through The Eighties (Rufus Publishing)

On December 4, 1980 in the wake of the sad passing of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin announced that they could not continue as they were.

So began the solo years. For Robert Plant this decision led him to pick up a solo career he thought he had left behind for good back in 1968.

Initially, he surrounded himself with local musicians performing in small club venues as The Honeydrippers and from small acorns, a whole new world of musical opportunity opened up.

The visual impact of his now found solo career is fully explored in Portraits of Robert Plant – Through the Eighties.

This latest volume in the Rufus Publishing Portraits series captures over 200 black and white images of Robert Plant’s developing solo career covering the years 1981 to 1989. It chronicles the fast moving progress of a highly productive era commencing with The Honeydrippers moving though the the photo shoots to promote his Pictures at Eleven debut album, extensive on and off stage coverage of his Principle of Moments tour and on into the Now And Zen era.

Along the way it, takes in the Led Zeppelin regrouping at Live Aid in 1985 and the Atlantic 40th Anniversary show in 1988. There’salso appearances from the likes of Phil Collins, Anne & Nancy Wilson, Pete Townshend, Tom Petty, Neil Young Steven Tyler. The two London guest spots involving Jimmy Page are also chronicled.

This photographic celebration of Robert Plant’s journey through the eighties features many rare and previously photos from some of the foremost rock photographers including George Bodnar who toured extensively with Plant and his band.

The book is edited and compiled by Dave Lewis – the world renowned Led Zeppelin author and chronicler and the editor of the Rufus Publications book Five Glorious Nights -Led Zeppelin at Earls Court May 1975. It also includes an introduction by Mark Blake who has interviewed Robert Plant many times and is the author of the highly acclaimed Bring it on Home – Peter Grant ,Led Zeppelin and Beyond. The Story of Rock’s Greatest Manager. Dave has also contributed a 6,000 word personal overview of following Robert Plant’s career during the Eighties.

The book is 230mm square, case-bound, 240 pages, printed on luxury 170gsm matt-coated paper. It comes with a fold out poster and is presented in a black slipcase with a gold foil logo. The main standard edition comes in 500 numbered copies and sells for £55 plus shipping.

The ultra-limited Black Leather and Metal Edition measuring 375mm square and presented in recycled leather and a hand welded aluminum metal slipcase with a screen printed logo in a run of 50 numbered copies. This edition also comes with a unique lenticular for framing and will sell for £350.

Portraits of Robert Plant Though the Eighties is a permanent pictorial record of when, as he put it back in 1983, Robert Plant strived to find ‘’a reason for being, instead of a reason for having been’’

Ordering details here…

https://www.rufuspublications.com/rufusbooks/plant/

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Led Zeppelin Live On Blueberry Hill – the pioneering bootleg album …still a thrill…it was 54 years ago…

54 years ago on September 4 1970, Led Zeppelin performed a memorable show at the Los Angles Forum – it was captured by more than one enterprising fan and subsequently released on a variety of bootlegs. It remains for me and countless others one of THE essential Led Zeppelin recordings.

To mark the 54th anniversary of what we know and love as Live On Blueberry Hill, here is an TBL archive special this is one of the chapters in the Celebration II – The Tight But Loose Files book published by Omnibus Press in 2003.

Bootlegs and Led Zeppelin have been synonymous for over three decades. Despite manager Peter Grant’s heavy-handedness when dealing with those he caught taping their shows, the band are the most bootlegged act of all time, outstripping even The Beatles, Dylan, Springsteen and the Stones. Their final seven shows in the UK alone (five at Earls Court and two at Knebworth) account for over 100 different releases between them. Just about every known amateur recording of the band’s live gigs has made it on to CD. Given the length of their stage shows, the CD format, with its 75-minute playing time, is tailor made for presenting Zeppelin in concert, but even before the flood of digital compact format titles that emerged in the early Nineties there was no shortage of vinyl Led Zeppelin bootlegs.

Tight But Loose has carried reports on Zeppelin bootlegs since its inception. As far back as the hand written first edition I was enthusiastically reviewing the then recently issued vinyl bootleg Ballcrusher which documented their BBC In Concert show. Issue number two carried an extensive report on what was already a legendary bootleg album, Led Zeppelin Live On Blueberry Hill. In 1995 I returned to that 1970 recording to laud its 25th anniversary for TBL 11.

Whatever the legal niceties of such releases, searching out their bootleg recordings is a necessity of every serious Zep fan. Their studio albums only hinted at the creativity the group were capable of. It was on stage in live action that Zeppelin really excelled.

During the Seventies ample proof of that fact arrived with each new bootleg record, none more so than the remarkable recordings made at the Los Angles Forum from the audience on the night of September 4, 1970, during Led Zeppelin’s sixth American tour. This chapter reflects on the lasting impact of that memorable bootleg recording and rounds up twelve other illicit evenings with Led Zeppelin.

Led Zeppelin’s impact on their initial American tours made them a prime target for the emerging bootleg recording business. The bands’ skill at extending and improvising on their studio record repertoire elevated their live shows to something very different from playing their albums.

During their first 18 months on the road they cleverly interwove the basic recorded material from the first two albums with additional impromptu jams. Early examples of this included the long jam on Garnet Mimms ‘As Long As I Have You’, employed on many of their 1969 shows, the medley of numbers to be found within ‘How Many More Times’ and an improvised jam session in the middle of ‘Communication Breakdown’. Then there was ‘Dazed And Confused’, Page’s late Yardbird remnant that by 1970 was developing into a marathon 20-minute opus with differing sections, including the violin bow episode and a call and response battle between Page and Plant.

‘Whole Lotta Love’, the Zep II opener, soon became another forum for exploration, usually a platform to playfully improvise a selection of Fifties rock’n’roll classics. During 1970 they also began previewing songs from the yet to be released third album – initially an embryonic ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ and then, in a bold move, the acoustic ‘That’s The Way’, a performance that helped break the myth that Zep relied entirely on Marshall amplifiers.

Two separate teams of fans were intent on recording the Zeppelin gig at the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles on the night of September 4, 1970, but it’s unlikely they knew what Zeppelin had in store that night. Both came away with lengthy representations of the band’s current state of play, recorded on reel-to- reel recorders close to the stage.

The recording that would became known as the album Led Zeppelin Live On Blueberry Hill was captured by a pair of west coast bootleggers whose previous credits included Dylan’s Great White Wonder set and The Rolling Stones’ LiveR Than You’ll Ever Be. The latter had been recorded on a Uher 4000 reel-to-reel tape recorder with 71/2ips inch reels and a Sennheiser 805 shotgun microphone. They took this set up into the Forum to record in stereo the Zeppelin September 4 performance. Unbeknown to them, a separate bootlegger known as Rubber Dubber also recorded the show and quickly issued it as a double bootleg album stamped Led Zeppelin Live Los Angeles Forum 9-4-70.

The more common Blimp label version (later to appear on the high profile bootleg label Trade Mark Of Quality) with a distinctive surreal cover insert came out within weeks of the LA show. It’s worth noting, however, that it was not the first Led Zeppelin bootleg to be released. That distinction fell to a vinyl album known as PB (the title derived from the chemical symbol for lead). This came packaged in a brown sleeve with the words P.B. Live on side one and Recorded Live – Pure Blues on side two, and was pressed in limited quantities around the Seattle area. Pure Blues subsequently reached a wider market when it was picked up by the Trade Mark Of Quality label and pressed as Mudslide. The actual source was a soundboard recording from Zeppelin’s opening night of their fifth US tour on March 21, 1970, at the Pacific Coliseum Vancouver. The 40-minute tape was notable for capturing a rare version of ‘We’re Gonna Groove’, the Ben E King/James Beatha cover which the band used as a set opener during their early 1970 appearances. They also recorded a studio version the previous summer for possible inclusion on Led Zeppelin II which would eventually surface on the posthumous Coda album.

The UK music press of the time chronicled the constant stream of bootleg titles from the likes of Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that were being imported into the country. When reports of Zeppelin titles came to the attention of Peter Grant he was predictably angry.

In one of the few naïve statements of his career, Grant was quoted in the Melody Maker as saying: “As far as I know there can be no Led Zeppelin tapes available. After hearing some time ago that there was going to be an attempt to bootleg some tapes of the band, I flew to America. We’ve managed to retrieve all the tapes and we know nothing in existence that can be issued.”

When Grant heard that copies of Live On Blueberry Hill were being sold from a shop in Chancery Lane in London, Grant and Richard Cole, along with RAK management partner Mickie Most, paid the shop a visit. He questioned the proprietor on the Zeppelin album and with some not so gentle persuasion made sure he knew that this was one bootleg album it would be best to leave alone. In a separate incident a year later fearing another case of bootlegging, Grant smashed the equipment being used by a team of anti-pollution scientists set up to measure noise levels at a Zeppelin show in Vancouver.

For all his muscle Grant was ultimately powerless to stop the proliferation of Zeppelin underground records of which Blueberry Hill was the forerunner. If you knew where to look, such artefacts were possible to come by.

For this particular enchanted Zep obsessed teenager Blueberry Hill represented the forbidden fruit and back in 1972 I was determined to track it down. Luckily the then relative newcomer to the pop press Sounds offered a free service for readers’ classified advertisements. I scoured these columns religiously for many weeks and finally struck gold when I spotted an ad that ran along the lines: “Live albums for sale: Stones, Dylan, Zeppelin etc”. The list came back and amongst the many Dylan and Beatles titles there it was – Live On Blueberry Hill, a double album on the TMQ label, catalogue number TMQ 72002, and pressed on coloured vinyl, asking price £6. Back then six quid was a small fortune but it was more than worth it.

About three weeks later the postman dropped an LP size package on the doorstep. I anxiously ripped it open and there in all its glory was the genuine article: “106 minutes and fifty-three seconds of pure and alive rock” as the sleeve insert put it. Was it ever.

The excitement of playing that double album, on blue and red vinyl, remains an unforgettable musical memory for me. It was a novelty that never wore off. Indeed, the various incarnations I’ve obtained since – the Rubber Dubber vinyl set, the various re-issues, the various bootleg CD packages – all these have only heightened the listening pleasure of that celebrated Los Angeles stop-off during Led Zeppelin’s sixth American tour.

The overriding factor of the September 4 recording, regardless of which version you hear, is that it remains one of the greatest audience recordings of the era. The sheer dynamic thrust of Bonzo’s drum sound, the sinewy grind of Page’s guitar, Jonesy’s resonant bass lines and piecing keyboards and the outstanding clarity of Plant’s siren shrieks (suitably enhanced by the echo unit employed at the time), all merge into a ferocious mix that magically recreates the electricity of the occasion.

For anyone weaned the original TMQ long players, there’s an authenticity in their performances ingrained in the grooves that has rarely been captured so effectively. Alongside the 1975 Madison Sqaure Garden soundboard, the Earls Court shows and the LA 1977 gigs, there are few finer unofficial examples of the complete Led Zeppelin concert experience. The September 4, 1970, concert as captured on the TMQ double set was just choc full of off-the-wall surprises. There was no sign of any set list sterility back then – they just did as they pleased.

Moments to relish include:

The aural assault of ‘Immigrant Song’ (listed on the insert as ‘From The Midnight Sun’ as it had yet to be announced under its official title) exploding into ‘Heartbreaker’.

The slightly menacing tone of a relatively compact ‘Dazed And Confused’ with Plant bursting in mid way through screaming, “I don’t care what people say, rock’n’roll is here to stay”

Page and Bonham linked in glorious tandem for that solo exercise on ‘Bring It On Home’

The electric finale of ‘Moby Dick’ (“The big B!” exclaims Plant)

The unpredictability of ‘Communication Breakdown’ as Zep play The Buffalo Springfield and Beatles songbooks and throw in the rarely played live Zep I opener ‘Good Times Bad Times’.

Freshly minted nuggets from the yet to be heard Zep III on record such as ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ and the rarely played ‘Out On the Tiles’.

The tentative introduction of the acoustic material, a stark and sensitive ‘That’s The Way’ and the rare try out of Page’s instrumental solo ‘Bron Yr Aur’, a clear five years before it was officially released

‘Thank You’ preceded by the meandering organ solo from John Paul Jones and finishing with a drawn out ending featuring Page’s delicate strumming.

‘Whole Lotta Love’ and the ensuing Zep 50’s revival show and finally the breathless rendition of Fats Domino’s ‘Blueberry Hill’

“Goodnight and thank you for everything,” utters a breathless Plant at the close, followed by “Did ya dig it?” by the evening’s MC.

Yes we did and still do

The greatest live album of all time? It’s certainly up there with the best, official or otherwise.

The reason is simple. It captures a group of musicians brimming with confidence. On stage that night in September 1970 Led Zeppelin were truly coming of age.

Live On Blueberry is also something of a yardstick for the bootlegs industry. Back then Zeppelin’s recorded output was just the tip of the iceberg. On stage live was where the real action occurred and, indeed, where they really built their reputation. Peter Grant summing it all up when he told me: “Led Zeppelin was primarily an in-person band… that’s what it was really about.”

Bootleg recordings of the band offered a whole new level of appreciation and Blueberry Hill was the watershed for the subsequent flood of live Zep bootlegs that would emerge throughout the next three decades.

The whole bootleg CD market may be well out of control now, beyond any reasonable realm of quality control, but there was a time when bootlegs like Blueberry Hill were considered almost as important as the group’s official output by fans and chroniclers alike and, if they were honest, probably the group themselves.

Maybe that’s the greatest compliment that can be paid to this iconic bootleg recording. It remains as essential a part of their discography as any of their official albums.

54 years on Live On Blueberry Hill is still an absolute thrill.

Dave Lewis  -September 4,2024 

See more at this link:

https://www.loudersound.com/features/why-a-live-bootleg-could-be-the-greatest-album-led-zeppelin-ever-made?fbclid=IwAR0g9S0OcDWj1pL1QuWTQ8fUVRhQhRUggoBZdOt9xerK7iax_R4YcHdqd3I

Here’s the latest Led ZepNews Update:

Jason Bonham flew to the UK because of a family emergency

Jason Bonham abruptly dropped out of touring with Sammy Hagar and flew to the UK this week due to a family emergency. It has been claimed this was because his mother, John Bonham’s widow Pat Bonham, is seriously ill.

Jason Bonham’s upcoming September shows with his own band, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening, have been cancelled.

The only public comment Bonham has made about this came in an Instagram comment earlier this week when he wrote: “I’m in Uk with my family as we navigate a very difficult situation. I need all your prayers right now”.

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An update on ‘The Ultimate Music Guide: Page & Plant’

Earlier this month we mentioned a new one-off magazine titled “The Ultimate Music Guide: Page & Plant” created by the publishing company behind Uncut Magazine.

At the time, it was unclear whether the introduction by Robert Plant advertised on the magazine’s cover was new or not. This week, we got in touch with the magazine’s editor who confirmed Plant’s introduction is the same one that appeared in “The Ultimate Music Guide: Robert Plant” that was published in 2022.

If you belong to any Led Zeppelin groups on Facebook, you may have seen a number of excited posts about the release of this magazine that repeatedly directed people to the website YourCelebrityMagazines to buy it for almost twice the price of ordering it directly from the publisher.

We did some digging and found something surprising: Those posts were actually created by an employee of YourCelebrityMagazines who pretended to be a Led Zeppelin fan to aggressively market the magazine to fans. The same person has also pretended to be a fan of many other musicians and actors to sell magazines to their fans.

We reached out to YourCelebrityMagazines to ask about this bizarre sales tactic. They didn’t reply, but their employee’s Facebook account has been deleted.

Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page spent the week in Nashville

Jimmy Page visiting the Ryman Auditorium on August 27, 2024 (Facebook/Ryman Auditorium)

Jimmy Page spent at least several days this week in Nashville, Tennessee where he visited the Ryman Auditorium and posed for a photo on stage.

One of our LedZepNews spies had a shock in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville on Thursday when they stumbled upon Page admiring some of the guitars on display there.

What is Page doing in Nashville, besides soaking up country music history? Our guess is he’s visiting the headquarters of guitar maker Gibson as part of his ongoing partnership with the company to produce replicas of his guitars.

So far, the only replica announced was a $50,000 replica of Page’s Gibson EDS-1275 double neck guitar that was unveiled in March. So you have time to start saving up (or remortgage your home) if you’d like to snap up whatever Page and Gibson release next.

Robert Plant

Robert Plant is finishing his tour with Alison Krauss

This week is the final week of Robert Plant’s tour with Alison Krauss, with the pair due to play their last scheduled show together later today in Vail, Colorado.

Plant and Krauss performing in Flagstaff, Arizona on August 26; in Santa Fe, New Mexico on August 28 and August 29; and in Colorado Springs, Colorado on August 31.

It’s not yet clear whether Plant and Krauss will resume touring together next year. Plant’s schedule is full until the end of 2024 with scheduled shows with Saving Grace.

Here’s a video of the full August 29 show in Santa Fe, New Mexico:

And here’s a video of most of the August 25 show in Highland, California:

Plant seems to have stayed in Santa Fe, New Mexico on August 30 as he was photographed with Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury at the 100th burning of Zozobra on August 30 (click through to the second image in the below Instagram post).

repstansbury

A post shared by @repstansbury

We weren’t familiar with this tradition, but we’ve learned this week that Zozobra is also known as Old Man Gloom and burning him every year represents destroying people’s worries.

Here’s Plant having lunch and posing for a photograph with a fan in Flagstaff, Arizona on August 27:

dawleygirl

A post shared by @dawleygirl

Upcoming events:

• September 1 – Robert Plant will perform with Alison Krauss in Vail, Colorado.
• September 15 – The exhibition “The Wiltshire Thatcher – a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex” featuring the original photograph from the cover of Led Zeppelin’s fourth album will close at Wiltshire Museum.
• September 21 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Bewdley, UK.
• October 8 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Bari, Italy.
• October 9 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Naples, Italy.
• October 11 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Rome, Italy.
• October 12 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Florence, Italy.
• October 14 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Bologna, Italy.
• October 15 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Turin, Italy.
• October 17 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Como, Italy.
• October 18 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Bolzano, Italy.
• October 20 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Padua, Italy.
• October 21 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Trieste, Italy.
• October 23 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Brescia, Italy.
• October 25 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace at the Baloise Session music festival in Basel, Switzerland.
• October 27 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Antwerp, Belgium.
• October 29 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Paris, France.
• Late October – “Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love: A People’s History” by Richard Houghton will be published.
• November 5 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Harrogate, UK.
• November 6 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Stockton, UK.
• November 23 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Woking, UK.
• November 24 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Southend, UK.
• 2025 – An expanded version of Live at the Greek, the live album featuring Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes, is due to be released.
• October 2025 – John Paul Jones’ song cycle for Dame Sarah Connolly will premiere in London.That was our 356th email. Have any questions or feedback? Reply to this email and we’ll get back to you.Follow Led Zeppelin News on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on news as it happens, and check ledzepnews.com for the latest news.

Many thanks to James Cook 

The complete Led ZepNews email goes out periodically. To receive it sign up here:http://tinyletter.com/LedZepNews

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

http://ledzepnews.com/

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TBL Archive Special : Little By Little…

Robert Plant Wembley Arena – Tuesday, September 10 1985 – it was 39 years Ago today…

Krys Jantzen flagged this one by sending an excellent pic taken by him outside the Wembley Arena venue on the night.

39 years ago -that is just incredible because it does seem like a second…or a lifetime ago.

Robert only performed two proper UK gigs in 1985 on this night and two days earlier at the Birmingham NEC.

This was the Shaken’ N’ Stirred tour – in support of the rather difficult third album released in May. Robert had toured the US that summer and bang in the middle of all that came the call to perform at Live Aid. The axis was well and truly spun because despite the chaotic nature of it all – it had ignited the flame again.

Shaken’ N’ Stirred – yes a difficult album and very left field in a Plant experimentation sort of way. At times the time signatures did go all over the place (Kallalou, Kallalou anyone?). But when it was good as on Little By Little, Easily Led  and the superb Sixes And Sevens, it was very good indeed. I remember playing the quasi- rap Too Loud to all sundry in proclaiming Robert’s contemporary status.  I also remember getting very excited about the 12inch single and double pack seven inch release of the second single from the album Little By Little. We were on holiday in Weymouth when it came out and purchased it from the local branch of the long gone John Menzies chain.

On stage, it was still very much a Zep free zone  – though at times he relented slightly. I’ve just played In The Mood from the bootleg CD of the Wembley Arena gig and it reminded me that a cry of Hot Dog during that number was the nearest we got to getting hot under the collar for the days of yore. That, and a few lines from Since I’ve Been Loving You during the close of Slow Dancer and a Boogie Cillun insert in Young Boy Blues – but that was yer lot back then – it was still a case of ”No led anything”.

This was the mid 80s and the order was changing.

I too was actually in something of a new era. Newly married the year before, my writing energies had transferred into writing two weekly music columns for the local newspaper – I did get the odd Zep mention in and did review this gig. I was also well ensconced in the music retail world and was about to embark on an exciting challenge that would see WH Smith open their own stand alone record stores called Sound FX – I was to be the manager of the Bedford store.

Zep related wise ,I was still as keen as ever to follow the respective careers so when these dates were announced it was a must see situation.  The Birmingham gig on the Sunday had been a little under par due to some sound problems but for London we had a right result.

The set list lined up as follows:

Intro music – Song To The Siren by This Mortal Coil – this is a stunning version of the Tim Buckley number with vocals by Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins – I remember buying this the next week. Robert would later cover this track himself, performing it live with the Priory Of Brion and Strange Sensation and recording it for the 2002 Dreamland album.

In The Mood/Pledge Pin/Pink and Black/Little By Little/Burning Down One Side/Too Loud/Thru With the Two Step/Messin’With the Mekon/Slow Dancer/Good Rockin’At Midnight/Young Boy Bluies (including Boogie Chillun insert/Sea Of Love/Honey Hush/Encores: Like I’ve Never Been Gone/Big Log/Easily Led.

The good lady Janet was next to me in our fourth row tickets – and backstage before the gig, we had seen and spoken to Robert as well as Jimmy Page who was in attendance. This one felt like an event being a major London gig – amongst others backstage I also recall seeing Slade’s Noddy Holder.

One of the other things that spring to mind from that night is the merchandise. Alongside the usual t shirts that was a high quality though rather garish Shaken’ N’ Stirred pink and black sweat shirt. it was on sale for a then extortionate £20 – twice the rice of admission of the gig – our good friend Kam invested in one and every time he wore it, we ribbed him for years as being the most expensively dressed man in the house!

The gig itself was a hugely enjoyable one. This presentation featured the Honeydrippers segment where, aided by the Upton Horns and The Queen Bees, Robert donned a sparkle T shirt to zip through Good Rockin’ Tonight, Young Boy Blues which included a Boogie Chillun interlude, Sea of Love and Honey Hush. Overall it was a high energy performance on a large stage that did look slightly like a block of cheese.

Little did we know that this gig would be a very significant one. Overall, I remember it as being a really good performance – the good lady Janet rates this as one her fave gigs.

For this would be the last live performance of this line up that had carried Robert from 1983. So it was goodbye to Robbie Blunt, Phil Martinez, Jezz Woodroffe  and Richie Hayward. As Robert stated in 1988. ”A little light came above my head at Wembley. It happened half way through the set. I might’ve been singing ‘squeeze my lemon until the juice runs down my leg’or ‘I’m a fool for a cigarette’. No seriously, It could have been anything but I realised that I’d taken this little journey round and round in circles ever decreasing and dumbfounding everybody by showing how to waste a perfectly good career’.

Judging by the tone of that statement this was a man at a definite career crossroads. Live Aid had put the Zep spark back in his mind. There was a plan to meet with Jimmy and John Paul Jones in Bath for a get together to see what might happen.

As it turned out nothing much did. This re- grouping at a village hall near Peter Gabriel’s studio in early 1986 did show some promise but ultimately came to nothing. ”Two or three things sounded promising, a sort of cross between David Byrne and Husker Du” commented Plant later adding ”For it to have succeed in bath I would have had to have been far more patient than I had been for years”. The rehearsals fell apart when drummer Tony Thompson was injured in a car smash.

What happened next? Well Jimmy went off to make the Outrider album and Robert gathered a new set of musicians around him – come in Phil Johnstone, Chris Blackwell, Doug Boyle and Charlie Jones which led to the excellent Now And Zen album.

When I turned up at Leicester University to see a low key warm up date of his new band in January 1988, It was evident that Robert Plant was at last more than comfortable with his past. For the first time in his solo career, Robert performed Led Zep numbers. In The Evening and Trampled Underfoot felt like a rebirth that night and it remains one of my favourite all time ever gigs.

As for me, well Sound FX proved not to be the future of music retail (the writing was in the wall when I saw the design of the counter which was made to look like a beat box cassette player complete with hand rail – most embarrassing!). WH Smith sold the chain to Our Price in 1986 -a wise move as we were now part of a very successful chain and with the CD boom about to hit, there would be great retail days were ahead.

Writing wise, I had formulated a plan for a major Led Zeppelin reference work. I’d already began looking for a publisher and I was initially turned down flat by Chris Charlesworth at Omnibus Press who in a classic rejection letter advised me that Omnibus and I quote ”only sold music books by bands that sold lots of concert tickets like Bon Jovi’. Sensibly he revised that view a year later and went with the idea – the result was the A Celebration book published in 1991.

39 years on, I am not too sure if Bon Jovi remain shaken’n’ stirred for their particular passion but I know Robert Plant does..

Little by little – the days pass by…

Dave Lewis – September , 2024.

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TBL Archive Special 2:

The Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Reunion Concert at the 02 Arena  – press announcement 17 years gone…

17  years ago this week on September 12 2007, I was in attendance at the official press conference to announce the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Led Zeppelin reunion concert. It was the beginning of what would be an incredible few months. Here is the TBL posting that appeared on the evening of September 12, 2007 – one of the most important announcements in the history of this website…

Led Zeppelin to reform for Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert:

Just back from an incredibly exciting afternoon at the official press conference to announce the reunion of Led Zeppelin.

Staged at the O2 View Cinema at just after 4pm, promoter Harvey Goldsmith unfolded the events that has

made this momentous announcement possible. Central to that of course is the late Ahmet Ertegun. This concert is a tribute to the lasting legacy of the much loved music mogul. ‘’For us’’ commented Robert Plant in the press release ‘’He WAS Atlantic -this performance stands alone as our tribute to the work and the life of our long standing friend’’

By way of introduction a few clips on the giant screen from the newly released DVD of Ahmet’s life

were screened. As the interview clips segued into Jimmy ’s White Summer solo from the Albert Hall through How Many More Times from the Danish TV and onto Achilles at Knebworth, I had shivers down the spine. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

This is what it was all about and it’s going to happen again.

Harvey went on to explain how he approached Jimmy, Robert and John earlier in the year to do this show. At first it was going to be a thirty minute slot but as Harvey explained ” They came back to me after the first rehearsals and said we don’t want to do thirty minutes…I thought ‘Oh no it’ll be one song’ – no they said… we want to do a full set…’’

Asked if this was the beginning of further reunion activity Harvey would not be drawn other that to say if they were happy within themselves then he would love to see it.

Other questions from the floor revealed that there were no plans as yet for the show to be filmed for a DVD release and that a ballot was felt to be the best way to give all fans a fair at obtaining tickets.

Throughout the proceedings, Harvey talked passionately and proudly of his past association with Zeppelin -and how honoured he was to be staging what he described as an unprecedented event.

I was able to remind Harvey Goldsmith the story of how he once asked me to take a pic with his camera of himself with Ahmet at the side of the stage before the Zep Frankfurt show in Europe 1980. He couldn’t recall if it came out (ah the curse of the Olympus Trip camera!) but hey it was a long time ago!.

Coming back across a sweltering London on the tube I could see the headline on one of the evening papers – It read ‘’Led Zep back with a whole lotta love‘’.

This is a day I and millions of others never thought possible.

Dave Lewis – September 12, 2007

So there it was – all of 17 years gone – the excitement was already mounting…and the end result on that night of nights would be magnificent..

Dave Lewis – September  2024

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VIP Victoria Record Fair – Saturday September 7,2024: 

The VIP Record Fair is staged at the Horticultural Halls, 80 Vincent Square, Victoria, London this Saturday, September 8

This is always an excellent Record Fair and  I will be behind the Rufus Publications stall to launch the Portraits of Robert Plant Through The Eighties book – I look forward to seeing all that can make it along

Here’s all the VIP Record Fair info::

THIS SAT 7^th SEPT – LONDON VICTORIA IS BACK

VIP Record Fair. Horticultural Halls. Victoria. London.

Looking for rare records or crate diggin’ for some vinyl bargains?
This  BIG EVENT is for you!

The UK’s major record buying event with a premier selection of QUALITY SELLERS.

Special record buyer in attendance . Call 07850 445624 for a chat, before the event.

Info –

https://vip-24.com/venues/londonvictoria.htm

 

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Monday September 2:

The good lady Janet and I would like to say a massive thanks for all her many Birthday wishes, comments and cards received for her 60th birthday.

We had a truly fabulous weekend and it was so great to see many of our friends at the fantastic annual Beatles jam at the brilliant Esquires venue yesterday.

Special thanks to Mat Roberts, Pete Burridge and Lee Abrahams. Oh and thanks to everyone who was there for putting up with my drumming on a rather disheveled version of Don’t Let Me Down – Ringo has nothing to worry about!

Wednesday September 4:

It was 54 years ago today:

On this day in 1970 Led Zeppelin performed a much bootlegged gig at the Los Angeles Forum – hence you can never have too many copies of Led Zeppelin Live on Blueberry Hill.

I have a fair few versions on CD and this is one is my CD favourites.

An original Tarantura label release packaged as an original master recording in a long form box. Not the most complete recording but very good indeed.

I vividly remember buying this at a P and J record fair in London Victoria in early 1994. The renowned dealer Bob Langley turned up with a crop of newly released Tarantula releases. They were top dollar prices with the Blueberry Hill set coming in at £80.

This was an era where if you did not invest there and then you may not see it again and I was happy to shell out for an iconic recording and of course some 30 years on from making that purchase, this one still sounds great.

Thursday September 5:

On my Birthday great to meet up with three of my ex Wallbangers FC team mates Dave Bunting Shaun King and Geoff Klein – I’ve known these guys for some 49 years – and feel very blessed by their friendship. Note coffee is the new beer (for now!) – just in case we get called up for a game next Sunday

Thursday September 5:

Birthday Reflections – pictured in 1991 at the time of the publication of my book Led Zeppelin A Celebration which was all written in this room…surrounded by a few of my favourite things…

Thursday September 5:

Birthday Reflections – here’s some pics from Dents Road the council house where I lived from age 2 to 27. All the early TBL mags were created in my bedroom and posted from 52 Dents Road – I have great affinity for this place – my childhood roots and more remain here…

Update here…

After all the wonderful Birthday activities and celebrations, it’s been back to work here and the main focus ahead will be to get back on the DL Memoirs project. I now have a good 45,000 words proof read and checked (thank you Sue and Ian!) with more to do. Once the Robert Plant book is up and running I will be getting down to writing more text. I am just coming up to early 1975 and my Zep at Earls Court experiences and there’s a lot to pack in on that chapter for sure. There’s also another writing project brewing so it’s going to be a busy time ahead…

Until next time…

 Thanks for listening 

Dave  Lewis –  September 5 2024

TBL website updates written and compiled by Dave Lewis

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