Great drumming point by The Chase above, thanks. Mr Baker is clearly a bit of a loon. However, as some others have already pointed out, the influence of Cream on bands around them in the mid- to late-60s should not be underestimated. E.g. the story goes that Queen's Brian May was looking for a "Ginger Baker/Mitch Mitchell-type drummer" when he met Roger Taylor around 1969. In those days, Cream were constantly name-checked in admiration by many in the rock fraternity and beyond. The thing is, so many bands who were influenced by Cream - such as Zeppelin - ended up surpassing what Cream had achieved with even more success. Perhaps this is where any sour grapes lie with Mr Baker et al.

So many serious threads here, I thought that this will brighten up anyone's day. Folks, any worries about the future of humanity can be allayed by this adorably wonderful little video from Italy showing a little kid who frowns at hearing pop music and turns into a excited happy child upon hearing Zeppelin's WLL. Just so sweet it's soooo cute. Watch the whole thing - the fella goes crazy during the psychedelic breakdown part. http://www.youtube.com/embed/7apWU-GOS2Q?rel=0

Hi there. There's a reference to Jim Morrison in the Robert Plant Hot Press interview from 2010 (full text transcribed by me here): Incidentally, speaking of Morrisons, did you know The Doors' Jim Morrison? Yeah. He was propagating his own myth. Pretending he knew nothing about the music, and that he was in fact the Lizard King. We played with him a few times. I saw him fall off the stage. He went to seed very easily. A shame, really. I still think of amazing moments that he had. But that was a much more kind of tangential time musically – said the old man with the silvering beard [strokes chin and grins]. There was great music. And there was radio that supported great music. But here's the winnowing of an old man... so I must away.

There was an advert in Ireland's Hot Press magazine in late 2000 promoting an upcoming concert in The Point venue, part of the planned European tour. Ah, what would never be... Still, some kicking performances to listen to.

Great to hear the unbridled geekiness of the above posts. Yes, material goods won't bring ultimate satisfaction, but by Jove, they do help pass the time. Sorry to hear about Rock Historian's loss of all that rare well-loved stuff. As Freddie sang, "carry on, carry on...". Now, apart from my Classic Records 200 gram collection of all the Zep studio albums (literal audio orgasms in every weighty groove), my favourite item of LZ collection is the original sheet music book of ITTOD, which I found in a 2nd hand bookshop in Vancouver in 1994 for only CAN$12. I tried to remain calm when buying it cos I don't think they knew how rare it was. It's a lovely package with great photos, an essay and is bookended with two semi-transparent pages of each side of the inner sleeve. It was a great way to figure out chords and, especially, the lyrics of that album. Suddenly Carouselambra made sense!

Thanks Steve. It does seem, then, to be a rare case of Zep not owning 100% of one of their works, which is odd considering they apparently funded TSRTS themselves. Ho hum, guess we'll have to live with it.

[The internet allows some people to communicate to others in a way that, if done in real life, would be considered the height of rudeness and shameful self-entitlement. Whither grace, etiquette, wit and just a little politeness, please! The world is full of enough empty cacaphonies]. Now, to the esteemed OP: We have read many times about how TSRTS visuals were not allowed to be recut at all, leaving some awful edits - notably the one beat cut in No Quarter - whereas the soundtrack was free to reassemble. My question is: do we know precisely why the visuals were deemed completely untouchable? It seems strange in an era where re-editing is a commonly accepted procedure (even if one considers that there might not be much extra footage to work with). Do we know if this was a legal judgement or private agreement between the band, the directors and Warner Bros, or simply part of the original contract? Cheers, TK

SAJ, baby, please come on home. Peace. TKx

Ooh it's coming to a nail-biting finale! Does Strider get his tickets? Will he get abducted by a gang of tough-yet-sweet Zep groupies who make him their mascot? Tune in folks, for the next exciting episode of Strider's 1977 Tour Thread!

Ah it's lovely to hear these stories. Mine LZ doscovery was a slow burner. It was in the mid-1980s, where, as a young teenager, my sister - who was an anachronistic hippy rocker in Ireland - had a copy of Physical Graffiti. This was a magical album for a youngster to paw and wonder at the mysteries within. All those strange photos. So different from the relatively straightforward covers of my other early love, Queen. One of her talented friends had even written the song titles at the bottom of each side of the inner picture sleeves. Such was the quality of the printing that I thought, in my naivety, that it was part of the actual artwork. Perhaps I should upload those for y'all to see? Anyway, in my early, hesitant rock music explorations, I singularly fell for side two of PG. Just loved it. Over and over again. It's a comfort zone thing - the kinda thing that only kids and teenagers can do with some music and films. HOTH, TUF, then Kashmir. Just magical. The drums! (I got into playing drums once puberty hit, btw, gladly giving up my previous instrument, the piano accordion!) Then one day, I took the audacious step of flipping the record over and listened to side one. Hmm, now this was interesting. Custard Pie was kinda cool. The Rover had a nice melody. But when I heard In My Time Of Dying, I became obsessed with the track. The drums, the slide guitar - and just what the hell was Robert Plant saying? Didn't matter. It felt amazing and had a power anything I'd ever heard - before or since. Perhaps my burgeoning loins were smelling something that would take my brain years to catch up on. Such was my love for IMTOD that it became The Song to listen to when my older brother and I would come home from school for lunch. Arrive at 1:15pm, and if both parents were out, I'd put on IMTOD at high volume while we made sandwiches. The 11-minute running time was perfect to prepare our lunch and get our afternoon schoolbooks ready. Then when it finished, we'd retire to the living room and watch - and here is where the tastes of a teenager can really fail in retrospect - Neighbours on BBC1. Maybe my loins were searching for something else... And then at 1:50pm we'd hop on our bikes and zoom back to school. It was a wonderful ritual, the memory unsullied even by Neighbours. "Aaawww Madge!" We also had The Song Remains The Same on double vinyl, which some became a favourite, even though I couldn't handle side two with Dazed And Confused - it was too slow, too murky, even a bit too spooky. Time, of course, has changed that perception. At aged 14 or so, a schoolbuddy lent me a tape of ITTOD and, apart from In The Evening, the album didn't really appeal to me. Again, time and changing perceptions... Eventually, in 1990 the Box Set came out and I bought it, even though my family didn't even have a CD player! Thankfully, a friend did and the true unveiling of the Zeppelin canon began for me. The rest you can surely work out for yourselves... Finally, it does bother me that in my love for Zeppelin that a lot of current rock/indie bands cannot even come close. Even critically acclaimed and popular artists who sell out gigs tend to leave me cold - too trapped in a machine-like 4/4 dance groove. Not enough organic swing. I do try to change my perception, but few bands have the swing and swagger that Zep had. My search continues (and I'll refrain from naming current artists who do impress me). That's all for now, folks.

Further to Tom Kenny's Kenmare, Co. Kerry wedding reception in 1998... At the Page & Plant gig at The Point (now O2), Dublin in 1998, Plant made several references which went along the lines of: "Let's pretend we're all at a wedding reception in Co. Cork/Kerry/SW of Ireland" and like "it's a beautiful summer's days for a wedding in Ireland..." Stuff like that a few times throughout the gig. It was initially a bit puzzling. "Another whacky Plantation." Until one figured out that it was some in-joke reference between Plant and friends. The show, by the way, was ace. I'll always be thankful to the Italians right in front of me who kindly proffered me a doobie during the encores. Made Rock And Roll even more groovy, man. But of course, your honour, I didn't inhale. *cough*