Jimmy Page Joins Twitter

OK, not exactly Jimmy Page, not a personal account tweeting, "@Rosshalfin having a really gross arugala salad," but there is an official news account for his website.

If you are a twit, follow the news from JimmyPage.com with @jimmypagecom.

Band of Joy Shines it All Around

Robert Plant and the Band of Joy played Moscow last night and added another song to their rapidly increasing repertoire, Shine it All Around.

Shine it All Around was the first single from Plant's last album with his band Strange Sensation, Mighty ReArranger, in 2005.

Here's a decent video of Plant and the Band of Joy doing Shine it All Around in Moscow:






h/t James Bonal at FBO

Jason and Deborah Bonham: Battle of Evermore

Near as I can figure, this is from a 2007 Rock Line Radio appearance. Jason Bonham and his aunt, John's sister, Deborah Bonham, duetting on Battle of Evermore. Always knew she could sing, but his voice is a bit surprising.

High Voltage BCC

Black Country Communion hit the stage at London's legendary Victoria Park for the High Voltage Festival yesterday. They played an hour long set, featuring music from both of their albums, plus some material from the band members repertoire.

The band members themselves enjoyed the show, with both Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa commenting on their social network sites that it was a successful show: "HV fest was off da hook... our fans were out flyin' the BCC freak flag," wrote Glenn Hughes after the gig.

Here's the Black Country Communion High Voltage Setlist:

1. Black Country


2. One Last Soul


3. Crossfire


4. Save Me


5. Song of Yesterday


6. The OUtsider


7. Man in the Middle


8. The Ballad of John Henry (Joe Bonamassa Song)


9. Burn (Deep Purple Song)

Robert Plant Plays Small Event in Whales

On a day off from touring with the Band of Joy, Robert Plant turned up in Wales to play for 200 fans paying £3 each. The show was a fundraiser in Monmouth was held in honour of Plant's former producer, Pat Moran who died in January.

From the Online Metro:

‘It was amazing – he’s a rock god and he was playing in a village hall,’ said lifelong fan Darren Martin, 45.

‘It was a real honour to be there and he chatted with the audience afterwards.’ The 63-year-old singer performed a mixture of Led Zeppelin numbers and some from his solo career, including the hit Big Log.

The fundraising gig was held in honour of Pat Moran, 63, producer of Led Zeppelin’s first three albums, who died in January.

Mr Moran’s brother, Brian, said: ‘It was very kind of Mr Plant to join in – Pat would have been very proud.

Plant also signed a t-shirt which will be auctioned on eBay.

****************
Updated: July 25th. From the comments at The Sun (Neville Farmer):

To clarify, Robert Plant kindly offered to play at a tribute gig in Monmouth for his late producer, Pat Moran, who died of Picks Disease. He didn't play any Zeppelin numbers but one of his own, Big Log, and some rock and roll classics. The audience were largely invited locals who paid nothing to enter (not £3) and were asked to donate towards the charity that looks after Picks Disease sufferers. The rest of the line-up was as follows: Robbie Blunt (long time Planty collaborator on guiltar), Ray Martinez (Showaddywaddy guitarist), Paul Martinez (bassist to Robert, Phil Collins, Stretch etc), Pick Withers (Dire Straits drummer), Dave Charles (Dave Edmunds drummer), Verden Allen (Mott the Hoople's keyboardist), me on lead vocals and special last minute guests, Dave Edmunds and Martin Chambers (drummer from the Pretenders). Support was by Hobo, whose first album was produced by Pat Moran, Amanda Ward from Rockfield Studios and Steve McInerney

Get The Led Out: Irving Plaza New York City

Get The Led Out are billed as the American Led Zeppelin Experience, and the East Coast's premiere Led Zeppelin tribute. They pulled their multiple guitars, keyboards, theremin and drum stool - mounted high over the drum set for percussive purposes - into New York’s legendary Irving Plaza on Friday July 15th.

With it’s smaller than usual stage and hard curfew of 10:30, Irving Plaza posed challenges to Get The Led Out, including one less set of on-stage speakers. At the end of the night, however, nobody noticed. GTLO provided a tight, clean almost flawless performance.

Opening with In The Evening, Paul Hammond gave his Stratocaster’s tremolo arm a workout, and the six piece band played a cleaner, leaner version than Zeppelin tended to play live, giving the song the live energy with a studio like performance. The message was clear, this was going to be good.

And so it was. Throughout, GTLO stayed faithful, almost to a fault, to studio performance while still managing to give the material that Zeppelin live energy. Whether it’s Hammond’s soloing on Since I’ve Been Loving You, drummer Adam Ferraioli playing the drum stool on the acoustic part of Ramble On, or guitarist Jimmy Marchiano’s tasty and note perfect spanish flavoured acoustic solo on All My Love, GTLO put in a lot of effort to replicate the songs and sound of Zeppelin.

Highlights of the night were many, including deep cuts Down by the Seaside and Night Flight, the latter of which is a personal favourite, the three guitar attack on Black Dog, an astounding force, and a three song acoustic set which featured Paul Hammond’s mandolin playing and the beautiful Diana DeSantis performing a duet on Battle of Evermore with singer Paul Sinclair.

Sinclair, it should be noted, was strong throughout. He has the ability to sing the Robert Plant vocals all night, just as strong on closer Whole Lotta Love as he was at the start of the night. Keyboardist Andrew Lipke's playing is perfect, even where John Paul Jones wasn’t, and took up some work on guitar as well. So strong are the musicians in GTLO that Lipke took the guitar solo in Black Dog, and it was almost done before I noticed: the keyboard player may have been taking the solo but the music didn’t suffer because of it.

If I had to find fault with Get the Led Out, it is a quibble. Both Dazed and Confused and No Quarter are played at the faster, studio tempo instead of the slower tempo the originals used to play them live. The slower tempos made the songs more eerie and mysterious and they are better songs at the slower tempo. This is, however, a matter of opinion more than execution, and GTLO has decided to duplicate, as close as possible, the studio versions, tempo included.

If you are heading out and feel like Led Zeppelin some night, a tribute band can be a great way to go. Get The Led Out is among the very best, offering a very close aural experience to Led Zeppelin’s records, filtered through live energy and the concert experience. I can do nothing but recommend them.

Setlist
Set One

1. In the Evening


2. Trampled Underfoot


3. Good Times, Bad Times


4. Since I’ve Been Loving You


5. The Ocean


6. No Quarter


7. Babe I’m Gonna Leave You


8. Ramble On


9. Down By The Seaside


10. Dazed and Confused

acoustic set

11. Going to California


12. The Battle of Evermore


13. Tangerine

Set Two

1. Night Flight


2. All My Love


3. Moby Dick


4. Black Dog


5. Heartbreaker


6. Living Loving Maid


7. The Wanton Song


8. Kashmir

encore

9. Over The Hills and Far Away


10. Stairway to Heaven


11. Whole Lotta Love

Get The Led Out is

Paul Sinclair - Vocals and Harmonica
Paul Hammond - Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Mandolin
Jimmy Marchiano - Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Vocals
Billy Childs - Bass Guitar, Vocals
Adam Ferraioli - Drums Percussion
Andrew Lipke - Keyboards, Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Vocals, Percussion
Diana DeSantis - Special guest vocalist on "The Battle of Evermore"

Visit them at www.GTLORocks.com

Two Led Zeppelin Blogger’s are Walking Through Times Square...

Lemon Squeezing’s Steve, The Lemon, Sauer and I were walking through Times Square on Friday. We were heading towards downtown, going to Irving Plaza to see Get the Led Out, when we ran into Elmo. Little more will be said, except to note that one of us took an ass kicking, and Elmo is one smug red furry monster...

We took in a few Zep related sites, most notably 96-98 St. Mark’s Place, where we did pictures and had an organic, all natural iced tea at Physical GraffiTea.





When we got to Irving Plaza, Nech Tytla, the guru of FBO, was standing out front. His expected attendance was iffy due to some personal stuff, but he managed to get away for a few hours and we were glad to see him.



Backstage, I met Paul Hammond, who let me noodle on his Jimmy Page Signature Model Les Paul, a sweet guitar. When Jimmy Marchiano came in Paul introduced me. I had met Jimmy outside earlier in the afternoon, and we discussed Gold Top Les Paul’s as he and I both own one. “Yea, I know him,” Jimmy says. “He owns a ’79 Gold Top.” With a quick handshake and a smile, I knew I just met someone I liked.

We enjoyed the show from right up front (review to follow) and partied with what Steve described as a MILF. Myself, I later told my wife I met a Rachel: from Long Island, her light brown hair framed a pretty, roundish face. Definitely a Rachel, although until Friday it never occurred to me the Friends character was meant to be a type. Somedays I have so much to learn.

After, the first question Jimmy asked me was, "how did the Gold Top sound?"

“Pretty good,” I answered, but I really meant, 'F*#%ing amazing.'

The band played a solid set list, the only song missing that I was expecting was The Song Remains The Same, but I’ll take the addition of Night Flight to the set list as a trade off any time.



Highlights where watching Paul Hammond and his B-Bender on All My Love, due to which I missed most of the song, The Wanton Song, which is always a great live rocker, and the acoustic set. Kudo’s to singer Paul Sinclair’s girlfriend, Diana DeSantis, who nailed the Sandy Denny part in Battle of Evermore.

Any night in New York is a good night, but a hot New York night after getting an ass kicking from a guy in a puppet suit, Getting the Led Out and discussing the merits of JimmyPage.com over beers with a couple of guys who have met Jimmy Page, and have friends who are intimates. It simply doesn’t get better.

Happy Birthday Jason Bonham

Has it really been four years since Jason Bonham sat in his fathers stool, and kept the Led Zeppelin clock ticking?

Today is Jason Bonham's 45th birthday, a tribute to how old all of us are who remember him as a kid. And a birthday in Vienna with good bandmates, that can't be so bad.

Happy 45th birthday Jason Bonham, from one Zeppelin fan to another.

Jimmy Page at Shepherd's Bush

With just an hour to go until Jimmy Page was scheduled to launch his new website, JimmyPage.com, Page stepped out with The Black Crowes at Shepherd’s Bush O2.

Page came out for the last song and played the Elmore James classic, Shake Your Money Maker.

“The Crowes rocked tonight… Jimmy came on wearing roller skates!!” joked Peter Noble on his Facebook feed. “Amazing show.”

O2 Rehearsal MP3's Leaked

Leading up to the Dec 2007 Led Zeppelin reunion at the O2 arena in London, the members of Led Zeppelin met at the Shepperton studios, in the UK to rehearse. An MP3 version of four of the rehearsal songs has leaked online at The Big O Zine.

The four songs are Good Times, Bad Times, For Your Life, Since I've Been Loving You and Rock and Roll. On the Led Zeppelin newsgroup FBO, commentators have been mixed on the release. Some have commented on Jimmy Page's superior playing, John Paul Jones sounding strong. Others have noted that Robert Plant is not giving 100% (not uncommon for singers at rehearsal), and that Good Times, Bad Times and Rock and Roll are being played a key lower than originally recorded. For my money, all those comments are correct, but would add I don't like Jimmy Page's tone, especially on Good Times, Bad Times.

However, this is historically interesting and important archival material. Listen also for the harmony vocals on the chorus Good Times, Bad Times - Jason Bonham, perhaps?

The songs are currently only available on MP3, but are still well worth a listen for any Led Zeppelin fan.

Led Zeppelin's Last Flight - July 7, 1980

Thirty one years ago Jimmy Page stepped on stage at the Eissporthalle in Berlin dressed in a grey suit and black shirt with a black scarf draped around him. He stepped on his wah-wah peddle and played the train whistle intro to Train Kept a Rollin'.



Led Zeppelin played a 14 song, 144 minute set for the 6,000 German fans, the last show on their Over Europe 1980 tour. It turned out to be Led Zeppelin's last show.

The concert featured a 14 minute version of Stairway to Heaven, with Page playing one of the longest solos he ever played on that song. The band also did extended jams on Trampled Underfoot and Whole Lotta Love.



Set list - Led Zeppelin, July 7, 1980. Berlin, Germany

1. Train Kept a Rollin'


2. Nobody's Fault But Mine


3. Out on the Tiles Intro/Black Dog


4. In The Evening


5. The Rain Song


6. Hot Dog


7. All My Love


8. Trampled Underfoot


9. Since I've Been Loving You


10. White Summer-Black Mountain Side/Kashmir


11. Stairway to Heaven


12. Rock and Roll


13. Whole Lotta Love

Dave Lewis of Tight But Loose has just released a new book on the Led Zeppelin Over Europe, 1980 tour, called Feather in the Wind - Over Europe 1980. It is chock full of information and pictures. The book is a must read for Zeppelin fans, as it fills in the story of that last, vastly underreported tour.

Feather in the Wind - Over Europe 1980 can be ordered from the Tight But Loose website, and can't be recommended enough.

Limited Edition Robert Plant Print

St Pauls Gallery has made a print available of Robert Plant by former Wolverhampton Wanderer, Jody Craddock. The print by Craddock shows Plant on stage "using a monochrome colour path and soft atmospheric techniques."

The prints sells for £475 (US$775, €548, ¥63354) and can be ordered from St. Pauls Gallery.

Busy Weekend for John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones has been seen around town with his new BFF, Seasick Steve this weekend. On Saturday, Seasick Steve played the legendary Roundhouse as part of the iTunes festival.

Steve was joined on stage by Jones, Jack White and Alison Mosshart to play Write Me A Few Lines.



On Sunday, Jones and Seasick Steve turned up at Milton Keynes and joined the Foo Fighters onstage to play Steve's Back in the Doghouse.



Jones has joined Steve a number of times to play Back in the Doghouse, and other songs, lately, and Jones performed on the song on Seasick Steve's new album, You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks.