Zacron 1943-2012

"I remembered  those old gardening catalogues. You'd turn it to roses and find out what kind of manure to use." Jimmy Page would later say of the cover for Led Zeppelin III.  "There are some silly bits..."

Although Page had the original idea, he turned the project over to his old friend Richard Drew, aka Zacron. After 4-months work Zacron came back with the now iconic cover, which Page has called "very teeny-boperish." Teeny and/or boperish or not, I can attest that I spent hours playing with that cover, examining the objects in the wheel.

Classic Rock Magazine today is reporting that Zacron died in January from bowel cancer. The news only comes to light now because the artist had been estranged from his family, and they are only learning the news themselves now. It must be a very difficult time for them, and RambleOnRadio's condolences go out to the family.

From a Whisper to a Scream: The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin by Dave Lewis

I was driving home from Chicago and put Led Zeppelin III on the CD player. Since I've Been Loving You came on and I said to my wife, "hear the squeak?" She agreed she did and I said, "that's his bass drum pedal.

"How could you possibly know that?" the woman who thinks I know far too much about Led Zeppelin asks.

"I just read it in Dave Lewis' new book."

As Dave says on the insert he's signing for all the books, "enjoy listening to the book." Yea, well Dave, I used to enjoy listening to Since I've Been Loving You until I noticed the squeaking bass drum pedal.

From a Whisper to a Scream is a biography of Led Zeppelin told through the music. Missing is the superfluous: no sharks, no groupies, no drinking or drugs. Just the music, year by year, album by album.

Starting with The Yardbirds demise, Lewis takes you through Led Zeppelin's 11 year journey album by album, song by song and, to a lesser extent, tour by tour with the music always being the sole focus of the narrative. By focusing on the songs, how and when they were created, recorded and performed, Lewis creates a biography that's extraordinarily detailed.

It's chock-a-block full of information, some that was new to me, presented in such a way From a Whisper to a Scream also works as a resource. It is simply, one of the best Led Zeppelin books out there.

From a Whisper to a Scream can be bought through TBLweb.com, and should be considered a must read for any Led Zeppelin fan.

Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience Tour Dates

Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience has a series of dates scheduled in the fall, starting with 2 dates in Chile and three in Australia in September. They then return to the US for shows in California and Nevada in October.



September 5th, 2012: Caupolican Theatre - Santiago, Chile
September 7th, 2012: La Tortuga - Concepcion, Chile

September 13th, 2012: Enmore Theatre - Sydney, Australia
September 14th, 2012: Forum Theatre - Melbourne, Australia
September 15th, 2012: Challenge Stadium - Perth, Australia

October 6th, 2012: Silver Legacy Casino - Reno, NV
October 7th, 2012: The Warfield - San Francisco, CA
October 8th, 2012: The Uptown Theatre - Napa Valley, CA
October 9th, 2012: Crest Theatre - Sacramento, CA
October 11th, 2012: The Greek Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
October 12th, 2012: Aliante Casino - Las Vegas, NV
October 13th, 2012: Fantasy Springs Resort Casino - Indio, CA

Expect more dates to be announced.

Buy Your Bootleg Audio Here...

Tonight's Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters concert at the HMV Forum in London will almost certainly be bootlegged and on the torrent download sites by the weekend. But in a new twist, Plant himself is making the show available for download via livedownloads.com.

In a first for Plant, Live Downloads will make the show available for purchase in 4 formats. The show will likely be available sometime through the night, and very possibly someone attending the show could download it upon arriving home. It's reasonable to assume it will be available by mid-evening tonight here in North America. Some companies also make the shows available for purchase on USB drive at the hall, although there is no word on whether that will be available tonight.

File types available are:

MP3 - $10.00
FLAC - $14.95
FLAC-HD - $19.95
ALAC - $14.95

New Band of Joy Album Due Next Year

In preparation for The Sensational Space Shifters show at the HMV theatre in London tomorrow, Robert Plant sat down with Tim Cumming of Britain's The Independent, Plant reveals that his next album (first mentioned here) will be a Band of Joy album, and that it is complete:

...Buddy Miller and I created Band of Joy... and we've recorded a new record that's far, far out with psychedelic pedal steel and all sorts of stuff.

The album is set for release next year according to the article.

As for the Sensational Space Shifters, "So long as it feels good, I'm not trying to break the bank..."

Sounds like Band of Joy has a future, and The Sensational Space Shifters will be Plant's side project for a while.

DVD Review: Robert Plant and the Band of Joy Live From the Artists Den

The presser for the Robert Plant and the Band of Joy Live From The Artists Den DVD states that Plant presents "six Led Zeppelin classics..." Yea, well...  If you've come here from a google search for "Whatever happened to Robert Plant Led Zeppelin?", stop reading now. That Robert Plant left the building some time ago.



If, however, you have followed and enjoyed Robert Plant's solo career, keep reading, there's good news.

Live From The Artists Den was recorded on Feb 8 and 9th, 2011 at the intimate War Memorial Auditorium. The Band of Joy had progressed and developed over the winter of 2011, and by this stage had developed a bit of an edge. That edge is in full flower on the Live From The Artists Den DVD of reworked Led Zeppelin songs, songs from the the Band of Joy album and some old-timey Americana.

Truthfully, by the time The Band of Joy rolled into Nashville even a known to be sceptical blogger was becoming sold that Band of Joy was doing some interesting music. That impression is proven fully on Live From The Artists Den.

The Band of Joy was fully a band in every sense of the word by the time this show was recorded for PBS. So far gone is the Golden God from the land of ice and snow that Plant takes a secondary position on a series of songs while guitarists Buddy Miller, Darrell Scott and his "companion" Patty Griffin take a song each. Plant even moves into the background physically during these moments, doing his best bass-less John Paul Jones imitation.

But the Band of Joy had an edge, and it is fully on display on Live From The Artists Den. While Plant purrs his vocals, the guitars virtually growl, giving a dark, rock edge to the country and traditional tinged setlist.

The DVD itself is first rate, the videography providing an intimate feel - catching the band members smiling at each other for example - and spreading the screen time around the band. This is no Robert Plant show, and no Robert Plant DVD. It is Band of Joy all the way.

If you missed the Band of Joy when they came around, as I did, it's OK: you can see them now up close and personal, a DVD so good it feel like your there.

Information on the DVD is here, including the tracklist.

For IT Guys Only

The online e-mail forum For Badgeholders Only is currently down. The server that hosts the internet's best Led Zeppelin forum went kaboom sometime around Saturday. Bob Rood, the technical wizard behind FBO's curtain, is beavering away at replacing the frazzled internal parts, and hopes to have everything up and running again sometime tonight.

If you don't subscribe to FBO, you can do so by clicking here and following directions at the bottom of the page. An archive is also available here (although it is also currently offline.

It's well worth subscribing.