Jimmy Page in Beijing

[Johnnie Gestappo]

You're sure he played it in the studio? Were you there? You're "proven" that he air guitared it ... I'm sure you can prove that he played it in the studio so that it didn't need to be played live.

Hmm. The vocals were live. Why wouldn't the guitar be live as well? The slide parts were almost entirely, if not entirely covered by the string instruments, so why would he have to do anything but run his hands up the neck to simulate it?

He wrote the musical landscape for the singer, not to show whether or not he could play a song that he's played a thousand times before. I hope you guys are joking and this "did he play it or not" issue isn't something you really care about.

Do you seriously think he was performing that live? I'd say watch it again, very closely.

[Mercurious]

That said, i also think it was so damn awesome that Jimmy Page played the closing ceremony of the Olympics - who would have thought?!

Not most people! I hope British Olympics realizes the brilliance of the person whose idea this was! Amazing things happen it seems when you just call Jimmy up and see what he's up to.

As for whether he was air guitaring or not, I'm doing my best NOT to think about it, gestapo ... though it does beat watching college football on a Saturday afternoon.

[Aquamarine]

For heaven's sake--YES, he was miming to/playing along with a pre-recorded tape, and YES that was him playing on that tape. Big deal on both scores. Leona wasn't singing live either, except in the sense that she was singing along with the recording.

(When I say big deal on both scores, I mean it would only have been a big deal if it hadn't been Jimmy playing on the recording. WHICH IT WAS.)

[aen27]

Ross Haflin wrote about his and Jimmy's trip to China in the new issue of Guitar World with Tony Iommi on the cover.

http://www.rosshalfin.co.uk/diary/october-...ctober-2008.php