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I saw the Firm In Oklahoma City in 1986! They were fabulous! It was the first time that I had ever seen Jimmy and it was a great experience!

There was a torrential thunder and lighting storm that evening. Supposedly power to the venue went out momentarily during the concert. Do you happen to recall any of this?

Edited by SteveAJones
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I thought the Firm had some really great moments, particularly live. Songs like "Closer", "Together", "Someone To Love", "Midnight Moonlight", "Tear Down The Walls", & "Live In Peace" worked much better in a live context than on record. Love the live versions of "City Sirens", "The Morning After The Night Before", & "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" as well.

I really would like to see Page & Rodgers collaborate on something again, even if it's a Willie & The Poor Boys situation which I liked their 2 songs together on that album better than Honeydrippers album as far as oldies covers are concerned. I'd like to see Page jam with Tony Franklin again as well. I was actually a big fan of his fretless playing in the band. His style just worked well withen the bands particular framework.

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I had the pleasure of seeing The Firm in the Frankfurt Kongresshalle at the start of their first European tour. A fantastic night as it was the first time I had seen Jimmy. It was a relatively small venue which is sadly no longer there.

Highlights included :

Going for a beer before the show and suddenly realising Jimmy was walking very close behind me with his entourage on the way to his dressing room . There was a security guard at the dressing room door, Jimmy waved his hand and said "out of the way Fritz !" and with that was gone before I could say a word.

Being in the front row for the whole show. It was a real thrill to be standing in front of him as he sat down and did White Summer/Black Mountain side. It felt like a private guitar lesson.

The band were obviously having a great time and Jimmy looked delighted to be on stage again.

Absolute highlight : Getting his guitar pick !

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I had the pleasure of seeing The Firm in the Frankfurt Kongresshalle at the start of their first European tour. A fantastic night as it was the first time I had seen Jimmy. It was a relatively small venue which is sadly no longer there.

Highlights included :

Going for a beer before the show and suddenly realising Jimmy was walking very close behind me with his entourage on the way to his dressing room . There was a security guard at the dressing room door, Jimmy waved his hand and said "out of the way Fritz !" and with that was gone before I could say a word.

Being in the front row for the whole show. It was a real thrill to be standing in front of him as he sat down and did White Summer/Black Mountain side. It felt like a private guitar lesson.

The band were obviously having a great time and Jimmy looked delighted to be on stage again.

Absolute highlight : Getting his guitar pick !

Only your second post I see - nice to "meet you". I would like to exchange PMs with you sometime concerning that concert and the venue. Meanwhile, here is a link to five front

row photos I posted in Photo Forum (if you haven't seen them already):

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?showtopic=3069

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Only your second post I see - nice to "meet you". I would like to exchange PMs with you sometime concerning that concert and the venue. Meanwhile, here is a link to five front

row photos I posted in Photo Forum (if you haven't seen them already):

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?showtopic=3069

hey i was at that show as well, only 16 years old and very much impressed by the musicality of the band, only turned off a little by paul rodger's hawaii shirt..

it was one of my first major concerts ever and i made it to row 3 or 4 ;) jimmy looked a little sick in the beginning of the show, the pics u got here must be from a a few songs into the set when things had settled a bit. oooh, listening to the overture (gustav holst's "planets" as i found out much later) as the room darkened and the taped classical music ending on the climax and stage lights switch ON & there really is jimmy page onstage and they start off with "closer" was very very uplifting for my young heart then. the closer riff became an instant classic for me. of course, no one knew midnight moonlight by then or any other band tune as the album was released months later, but the tunes and solo spots were really great for me & me school friends.

i recall getting to the hall as early as afternoon, cause we wanted to try & see if we could get in for soundcheck already.. to our own non-belief we actually somehow managed to get in the hall !! and attended part of the soundcheck - but it was roadies or technicians doing it, not the band itself. still very kool tho for me to see jimmy´s brown telecaster before the actual gig! now, if i only could find my ticket stub, believe it or not - i had number 001 !

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hey i was at that show as well, only 16 years old and very much impressed by the musicality of the band, only turned off a little by paul rodger's hawaii shirt..

it was one of my first major concerts ever and i made it to row 3 or 4 ;) jimmy looked a little sick in the beginning of the show, the pics u got here must be from a a few songs into the set when things had settled a bit. oooh, listening to the overture (gustav holst's "planets" as i found out much later) as the room darkened and the taped classical music ending on the climax and stage lights switch ON & there really is jimmy page onstage and they start off with "closer" was very very uplifting for my young heart then. the closer riff became an instant classic for me. of course, no one knew midnight moonlight by then or any other band tune as the album was released months later, but the tunes and solo spots were really great for me & me school friends.

i recall getting to the hall as early as afternoon, cause we wanted to try & see if we could get in for soundcheck already.. to our own non-belief we actually somehow managed to get in the hall !! and attended part of the soundcheck - but it was roadies or technicians doing it, not the band itself. still very kool tho for me to see jimmy´s brown telecaster before the actual gig! now, if i only could find my ticket stub, believe it or not - i had number 001 !

Very privledged! I'm exchanging PMs with Arms of Atlas concerning this concert. I have

a few questions about it, specifically if the Kongress Halle was demolished and if the Alte

Oper opera house was built on the site. I also wanted to know if he had seen any press,

posters, or flyers for this show. I have the poster for Audimax in Hamburg ("The New Band for 1984" with their names) but I think each date may have had a poster issued.

Edited by SteveAJones
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Very privledged! I'm exchanging PMs with Arms of Atlas concerning this concert. I have

a few questions about it, specifically if the Kongress Halle was demolished and if the Alte

Oper opera house was built on the site. I also wanted to know if he had seen any press,

posters, or flyers for this show. I have the poster for Audimax in Hamburg ("The New Band for 1984" with their names) but I think each date may have had a poster issued.

each

Hi Steve,

as far as i know the alte oper is not on the same place where they tore down congresshalle, but is a real old opera as the name suggests. built in (google) 1880, got burned down in 2nd WW2, reconstructed and then reopened for (mainly classical) concerts on august 28th 1981. http://www.alteoper.de/_en/indexstart.html

about flyers for the gig, def there were posters and flyers for the frankfurt show, i remember handing out flyers myself as a holidayjob for the local ticket agency, thats why i got the very first batch of tickets for that gig. i might still have some flyers (with my ticket?) somewhere.

posters were not much, i def remember seeing one at the ticket office. kinda big colored letters on dark background,the logo/artwork had not been released, but came with the album

another thing is, upon cleaning up my basement a couple of months ago, i found an old cassette recording we made with sony walkman plus mic then. it´s close to 90 minutes and doesnt sound half bad on my ghetto blaster in the kitchen:) back then we thought we were the coolest bootleggers ever to record a famous band whose album had not even been released, but of course we never did anything much with it - but we listened! i am not much of a torrent freak - are there any decent recordings of that gig floating around ?

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Hi Steve,

as far as i know the alte oper is not on the same place where they tore down congresshalle, but is a real old opera as the name suggests. built in (google) 1880, got burned down in 2nd WW2, reconstructed and then reopened for (mainly classical) concerts on august 28th 1981. http://www.alteoper.de/_en/indexstart.html

about flyers for the gig, def there were posters and flyers for the frankfurt show, i remember handing out flyers myself as a holidayjob for the local ticket agency, thats why i got the very first batch of tickets for that gig. i might still have some flyers (with my ticket?) somewhere.

posters were not much, i def remember seeing one at the ticket office. kinda big colored letters on dark background,the logo/artwork had not been released, but came with the album

another thing is, upon cleaning up my basement a couple of months ago, i found an old cassette recording we made with sony walkman plus mic then. it´s close to 90 minutes and doesnt sound half bad on my ghetto blaster in the kitchen:) back then we thought we were the coolest bootleggers ever to record a famous band whose album had not even been released, but of course we never did anything much with it - but we listened! i am not much of a torrent freak - are there any decent recordings of that gig floating around ?

You've given me some excellent leads. The poster you described sounds a lot like the

one produced for Hamburg, which makes sense as I think Lippman & Rau promoted the

entire tour. I can reconfirm that. I'll have to get back to you concerning recordings as

I don't have my list with me at the moment. I know that the Lund, Sweden concert is

in circulation and I have quite a few other Firm concert recordings '85-'86.

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You've given me some excellent leads. The poster you described sounds a lot like the

one produced for Hamburg, which makes sense as I think Lippman & Rau promoted the

entire tour. I can reconfirm that. I'll have to get back to you concerning recordings as

I don't have my list with me at the moment. I know that the Lund, Sweden concert is

in circulation and I have quite a few other Firm concert recordings '85-'86.

My pleasure, Steve. Yes the poster i´m sure is the same as for the hamburg gig, it had the "new band for 84" tag & names and most definetely it was a Lippmann & Rau tour of germany, just like i think all previous LZ concerts here had been arranged by L&R agency. i believe Fritz Rau was a good friend of LZ thruout their whole career, thus it was natural to work with follow up projects.

had the pleasure of meeting the man once shortly in Wiesbaden in the mid 80s. he is considered a true rockn roll+++ legend, worked with everybody in the biz and pulled a lot of strings in the entertainment sector here.

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The Firm Tour Merchandise (1984-1986)

Some, but not all, of the official tour merchandise

1984 European Tour T-Shirt (Front)

StevesCamera2362.jpg

1984 European Tour T-Shirt (Back)

StevesCamera2363.jpg

1985 USA Tour Button

StevesCamera2329.jpg

1985 USA Tour T-Shirt (Front)

StevesCamera2364.jpg

1985 USA Tour T-Shirt (Back)

StevesCamera2365.jpg

1986 USA Tour T-Shirt (Front)

StevesCamera2366.jpg

1986 USA Tour T-Shirt (Back)

StevesCamera2367.jpg

1986 USA Tour Program

StevesCamera3278.jpg

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The Firm Tour Merchandise (1984-1986)

Some, but not all, of the official tour merchandise

1984 European Tour T-Shirt (Front)

StevesCamera2362.jpg

1984 European Tour T-Shirt (Back)

StevesCamera2363.jpg

1985 USA Tour Button

StevesCamera2329.jpg

1985 USA Tour T-Shirt (Front)

StevesCamera2364.jpg

1985 USA Tour T-Shirt (Back)

StevesCamera2365.jpg

1986 USA Tour T-Shirt (Front)

StevesCamera2366.jpg

1986 USA Tour T-Shirt (Back)

StevesCamera2367.jpg

1986 USA Tour Program

StevesCamera3278.jpg

thanks so much for posting these, steve. i hadn't seen those before. i really like the way they did the lettering, i think it's really cool. and i think The Firm was a great name for a band. never got to see them..... and probably will not get to see Them Crooked Vultures either. why do we have to be so far away...... :(

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