Lid Magazine: Jimmy Page Edition

About a month ago I was perusing the usual Zeppelin related web sites and newsgroups, when I noticed Lid Magazine was putting out an edition with a Jimmy Page feature. What’s more, they were offering the magazine with a choice of four covers: Jimmy Page, Marlon Brando, Andy Warhol and Daido Moriyama. By the time postage was in and rates were exchanged, it cost me $31 Canadian.

I closed my laptop and thought to myself, did I really just pay thirty-bucks for a magazine?

I did. It arrived yesterday and what a magazine it is.

Lid Magazine is a fine arts magazine, featuring never seen before photographs and art. It is entirely in black and white and printed on photographic paper. It is, in short, a beautiful magazine. The all black and white gives it an elegant presentation, the pictures (and it is mostly pictures) are outstanding. If you, like me, think the world has lost some dignity and elegance in the last 30 or 40 years, you will love this magazine.

Lid Eleven features photographic stories on each of the cover subjects, with few words to let you know what you are seeing. In Jimmy Page you get a double feature: a piece on his new pictorial autobiography, Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, and an interview of Page by photo editor Dave Brolan.

The interview with Page is strictly related to his book, the choice of photographs, the process involved &tc. It is also the longest textual portion of the magazine. It is a magazine of few words, and the majority of them are in the Brolan/Page interview.

The feature on Page’s book is the meat of this edition, where this fan gets his $30 worth of magazine. Lid is a natural fit for a feature on Page’s upcoming Genesis Publication book. The high quality photographic reproduction on thick paper gives a hint of what the Genesis publication will be like. The twenty-one photographs, plus proof sheet from a Yardbirds photo session, are all new and of stunning quality. Favourites: Oakland ‘77 playing the acoustic, with cigarette (below); same show holding the double neck over his head; 1975 shot of him playing his Theremin; a 1977 shot of him “in the garden behind the Swan Song office”; an alternate take of the famous Knebworth photo shoot; and two backstage shots, at different venues, in his white poppy suit.

Two photographers whose pictures are included, Michael Zagaris and Kate Simon each pen a short piece on meeting and photographing Jimmy Page.

If you can find it, Lid Eleven is a great magazine and well worth picking up.