LED ZEPPELIN'S 50th ANNIVERSARY PLANS?

[John M]

13 hours ago, Brigante said:

This is why, according to Kevin Shirley, Robert had various 'ad-libs - the baby, baby, babys' removed during the TSRTS remix.
Mind you, Shirley also said that when they got to ‘Does anyone remember laughter?’, Robert 'winced and asked if we could delete it.
I said, ‘No, you can’t erase that, it’s what people remember, part of history!’ So he very reluctantly allowed me to keep it in.'
THAT'S how picky Robert is with his vocals..

Does that mean that if they release a 1977 show Plant would have them take out when he said "Does anyone remember . . . Forests ??!!".  That was hilarious.  Plant making fun of himself.

[Jukkin]

A little depressing. 65 in a few months and hoping I live to get all the planned releases, plus Mark Lewison's volume 2 of his Beatles saga. God for the days when time had no meaning.

[tom kid]

I remember the excitement during the lead up the Stones 50th anniversary, culminating in the announcement of the four London & New York dates. There were fears the band would never play together again due to Keith's book, and his seemingly very frail physical condition.

Here we are 6 years later and they're still going strong, starting another tour. Granted, they are an oldies act now and have been for a long time, with their last release in 2005.

Sadly, I feel none of the same with the impending Zeppelin anniversary. And not just because there's 0% chance of any concerts being announced. If anything is released it will just be another rehash of already available material. This brings me to another area where the Stones are considerably better, the release of live shows, warts and all. The 'From the Vault' series has been great, with consistent releases every few months. Now, if only Jimmy and co would sign off on a similar series - they would sell like hotcakes.

Edited May 27, 2018 by tom kid

[Boleskinner]

Okay, so nearly half way through the anniversary year and so far we've had the announcement of a book and a hint of new music from Jimmy.

Checked Plant's tour itinerary and it's pretty constant but he has no gigs listed between Aug 2 and middle of September 14:

Tipsport Arena
PARDUBICE, CZECHIA
Aug 1, 2018
Junge Garde
DRESDEN, GERMANY
Sep 15, 2018
Telluride Blues & Brews Festival
 

So is this when we might see some activity? Is this why Plant's left it free or just coincidence?

[76229]

At the Other Place it says that there will be a "led Zep 50th anniversary fireworks partay" at the Cleveland Indians' match on the 14th July. Unless Page has suddenly developed a hitherto unsuspected interest in baseball, I'll assume it's been done off the sports team's initiative.

[Mark Williams]

On 14 June 2018 at 2:09 PM, Boleskinner said:

Okay, so nearly half way through the anniversary year and so far we've had the announcement of a book and a hint of new music from Jimmy.

Checked Plant's tour itinerary and it's pretty constant but he has no gigs listed between Aug 2 and middle of September 14:

Tipsport Arena
PARDUBICE, CZECHIA
Aug 1, 2018
Junge Garde
DRESDEN, GERMANY
Sep 15, 2018
Telluride Blues & Brews Festival
 

So is this when we might see some activity? Is this why Plant's left it free or just coincidence?

Robert''s final leg U.S tour goes through until Sept 23rd with a (current) final two end-October dates (with Van Morrion) last week of October. Therefore unlikely to see much 'in person' action,involving Robert at least,until Nov-Dec.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Mark Williams

[gibsonfan159]

Should we start to worry? Any new live material for the anniversary would surely warrant some massive hype and promotion by now. They're barely even promoting the official photobook, so it's not looking likely this year. 

[mysticman560]

I've been wondering about the lack of activity myself. Aside from the forthcoming book and re-release of "The Song Remains The Same", so far its turned out to be a very underwhelming 50th Anniversary celebration to say the least. I was hoping for a live release of a 1968 show, but that's probably a pipe dream on my part.

[Bozoso73]

It's hard to believe today is the 50th . . And nothing. . I thought today of all days there would have been a statement, a tease, a smoke signal but there is NOTHING.  Knowing that Jimmy loves to make a dollar and a cent I am shocked that there is no live show coming. Shocked and kinda disappointed. . 

Edited August 12, 2018 by Bozoso73

[Realperson]

39 minutes ago, Bozoso73 said:

It's hard to believe today is the 50th . . And nothing. . I thought today of all days there would have been a statement, a tease, a smoke signal but there is NOTHING.  Knowing that Jimmy loves to make a dollar and a cent I am shocked that there is no live show coming. Shocked and kinda disappointed. . 

 

Just wondering if they consider the actual 50th to be the date they first performed as “Led Zeppelin,” which was Oct 25....in that case, pop-up performance by surviving members during Plant’s already booked gig at the O2 on the 26th?....it won’t happen but that would be sweet, and if they were going to do anything surprising and unplanned, that would be it....

 

[Strider]

Happy 50th birthday Led Zeppelin!

[anniemouse]

Happy 50th.

[SteveAJones]

17 hours ago, Bozoso73 said:

It's hard to believe today is the 50th...

It is hard to believe today is the 50th, because although it quite likely is it quite likely isn't. The date of the first rehearsal remains unconfirmed and at this point probably never will be confirmed.

17 hours ago, Realperson said:

Just wondering if they consider the actual 50th to be the date they first performed as “Led Zeppelin,” which was Oct 25.

For "business/commemoration purposes" such as promotion and marketing 50 years from the release date of their first album -- January 12, 1969 -- is the most appropriate date in my opinion.

The date of their first rehearsal remains speculative, and besides even prior to that they were involved with PJ Proby's 'Three Week Hero' album. They were billed as The New Yardbirds in Scandanavia and struggled to be billed correctly by promoters on their first UK tour, though we know Jimmy discussed his Hindenburg concept for the first album with George Hardie at The Marquee in London on 10/18/68 prior to that evening's performance.

I also like January 12, 2019 because it's just three days after Jimmy's 75th birthday--so there's obvious synergy there for celebrating Page the man as well as Page's music. Add to that it all more or less coincides with the start of a New Year and we have the perfect launch point! All that said, my hunch is they'll be going with October for primary product/release roll outs to capitalize on Christmas sales.

Edited August 13, 2018 by SteveAJones

[Strider]

3 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

It is hard to believe today is the 50th, because although it quite likely is it quite likely isn't. The date of the first rehearsal remains unconfirmed and at this point probably never will be confirmed.

For "business/commemoration purposes" such as promotion and marketing 50 years from the release date of their first album -- January 12, 1969 -- is the most appropriate date in my opinion.

The date of their first rehearsal remains speculative, and besides even prior to that they were involved with PJ Proby's 'Three Week Hero' album. They were billed as The New Yardbirds in Scandanavia and struggled to be billed correctly by promoters on their first UK tour, though we know Jimmy discussed his Hindenburg concept for the first album with George Hardie at The Marquee in London on 10/18/68 prior to that evening's performance.

I also like January 12, 2019 because it's just three days after Jimmy's 75th birthday--so there's obvious synergy there for celebrating Page the man as well as Page's music. Add to that it all more or less coincides with the start of a New Year and we have the perfect launch point! All that said, my hunch is they'll be going with October for primary product/release roll outs to capitalize on Christmas sales.

I have no problem with that approach. Whenever the date was when four musicians, two known entities from London and two unknown from the Midlands, walked into that little room and launched into their first rehearsal together by jamming on "Train Kept a Rolling", it deserves to be noted and signified in some way.

[Bozoso73]

5 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

I also like January 12, 2019 because it's just three days after Jimmy's 75th birthday--so there's obvious synergy there for celebrating Page the man as well as Page's music. Add to that it all more or less coincides with the start of a New Year and we have the perfect launch point! All that said, my hunch is they'll be going with October for primary product/release roll outs to capitalize on Christmas sales.

 

1 hour ago, Strider said:

I have no problem with that approach. Whenever the date was when four musicians, two known entities from London and two unknown from the Midlands, walked into that little room and launched into their first rehearsal together by jamming on "Train Kept a Rolling", it deserves to be noted and signified in some way.

Thanks guys and you're probably right on with this. . I'm not thinking like a business man and more of a fans POV. . I'm still wondering what the hell EV is gonna do with their putting out tid bits at a time. . 

[SteveAJones]

44 minutes ago, Bozoso73 said:

Thanks guys and you're probably right on with this. . I'm not thinking like a business man and more of a fans POV. . I'm still wondering what the hell EV is gonna do with their putting out tid bits at a time. . 

The date they signed to Atlantic Records is known and would support mid-November as a launch point. January "makes the most sense" but not the most business sense. Ultimately, it's all about capturing the Christmas retail sales season. This held true for the first boxed set and a few other big releases along the way.

EV jumped the shark awhile ago. I can't remember the last release that really captured my imagination, let alone purchased.

[zeplz71]

50 Years Ago, Led Zeppelin Held Its First Rehearsal: ‘The Whole Room Just Exploded’
By Jem Aswad    

https://variety.com/2018/music/news/led-zeppelin-first-rehearsal-50-year-ago-anniversary-1202903005/

 

Sometime during the week of Aug. 12, 1968, the band that would take over the world as Led Zeppelin held its first rehearsal in a small basement room in central London.

The preceding May, Yardbirds guitarist and session veteran Jimmy Page found himself without a band when the other three members — who’d seen some success since the group first formed in 1963, but had fallen out of fashion — abruptly quit. With a Scandinavian tour already booked, Page and manager Peter Grant united bassist/keyboardist and fellow sessioneer John Paul Jones (with whom the guitarist had performed on songs by Donovan and others) with two young musicians from the British Midlands, singer Robert Plant and powerhouse drummer John Bonham, both 20, who’d played together in a group called Band of Joy.

Page’s initial choices had been singer Terry Reid — who he’d seen when Reid was a fellow opening act with the Yardbirds on a Rolling Stones 1966 tour — and Procol Harum drummer B.J. Wilson, with whom he’d played on Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help From My Friends” album. Both declined — and how different would the world be if they hadn’t?

As the new quartet launched into the R&B chestnut “Train Kept a’Rollin’,” a Yardbirds live staple that the group had recorded in 1965, the chemistry, according to all four members, was instantaneous.

“We first played together in a small room on Gerrard Street, a basement room, which is now Chinatown,” Jones recalled in 1990, according to the band’s website. “There was just wall-to-wall amplifiers, and a space for the door — and that was it. Literally, it was everyone looking at each other, ‘What shall we play?’ Me doing sessions, I didn’t know anything at all. There was an old Yardbirds’ number called ‘Train Kept a’Rollin’.’ The whole room just exploded.”

“I could feel that something was happening to myself and to everyone else in the room,” Plant remembered. “It felt like we’d found something that we had to be very careful with because we might lose it, but it was remarkable — the power.”

While no recordings from the rehearsal have surfaced, that first song — which would be the group’s live opener for most of its first year of existence as well as its final 1980 tour, yet was never properly recorded — probably sounded like this performance from the San Francisco’s Fillmore West the following April. The arrangement hews to the late-period Yardbirds version, with some honking harmonica by Plant and an uncharacteristically brief but blazing solo from Page — albeit turbocharged by the band’s titanium-strength rhythm section.

“At the end, we knew that it was really happening, really electrifying,” Page said. “We went from there to start rehearsals for the album.”

Later that month the group did a session for singer P.J. Proby’s “Three Week Hero” album — Jones was already booked as the arranger and hired the others — and made their live debut with the aforementioned nine-date tour of Scandinavia as the New Yardbirds before heading into London’s Olympic Studios in September to record their debut with ace engineer (and Page’s longtime friend) Glyn Johns.

While legendary for such songs as “Communication Breakdown,” the blues classic “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and the electrified folk song “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” the outtakes show that the group explored other territory in the sessions, such as the soul-inflected “Baby Come on Home,” which would have cast the album and the band in a different light.

From that point on, the ascent escalated quickly. The band played its first U.K. show on Oct. 4 at London’s legendary Marquee (the group is pictured above performing at the club two weeks later), changed the name to Led Zeppelin by the end of that month, signed with Atlantic Records in November, launched its first U.S. tour on Dec. 26 and released the album in January.

The group played an incredible 145 shows in 1969, and by the end of the year they had released their blockbuster “Led Zeppelin II” (featuring their breakthrough single “Whole Lotta Love”) and were headlining venues like London’s Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Boston Garden and Detroit’s Olympia Stadium.

Of course, from there, Zeppelin went on to become one of the most popular rock bands in history, dominating the 1970s, influencing countless thousands of musicians and, according to unofficial estimates, selling more than 200 million albums worldwide. And it all started in that little basement room …

 

 

[Realperson]

6 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

It is hard to believe today is the 50th, because although it quite likely is it quite likely isn't. The date of the first rehearsal remains unconfirmed and at this point probably never will be confirmed.

For "business/commemoration purposes" such as promotion and marketing 50 years from the release date of their first album -- January 12, 1969 -- is the most appropriate date in my opinion.

The date of their first rehearsal remains speculative, and besides even prior to that they were involved with PJ Proby's 'Three Week Hero' album. They were billed as The New Yardbirds in Scandanavia and struggled to be billed correctly by promoters on their first UK tour, though we know Jimmy discussed his Hindenburg concept for the first album with George Hardie at The Marquee in London on 10/18/68 prior to that evening's performance.

I also like January 12, 2019 because it's just three days after Jimmy's 75th birthday--so there's obvious synergy there for celebrating Page the man as well as Page's music. Add to that it all more or less coincides with the start of a New Year and we have the perfect launch point! All that said, my hunch is they'll be going with October for primary product/release roll outs to capitalize on Christmas sales.

I can see that....January would probably be the last date to celebrate it...they have a few “milestone” dates they could use between now and then....it’s just the radio silence that’s so frustrating...October is only two months away

 

[SteveAJones]

5 hours ago, Realperson said:

I can see that....January would probably be the last date to celebrate it...they have a few “milestone” dates they could use between now and then....it’s just the radio silence that’s so frustrating...October is only two months away

Someone pointed out TSRTS will be released on Sep 7th, which coincides with the first date of their 1968 Scandanavian tour, so it seems things will be starting soon.

[anniemouse]

Do you think that the new mode of the industry could still offer hope. Artists release something without warning a couple of days before release. Would Zeppelin follow that trend.

[SteveAJones]

1 hour ago, anniemouse said:

Do you think that the new mode of the industry could still offer hope. Artists release something without warning a couple of days before release. Would Zeppelin follow that trend.

I don't anticipate that from Led Zeppelin at all.

New releases are an opportunity to get Jimmy Page out of the house and on the road, if only for a cup of tea and a chat.

Additionally, the label will expect him to support a heavy promotional campaign to maximize sales.

[76229]

15 hours ago, zeplz71 said:

50 Years Ago, Led Zeppelin Held Its First Rehearsal: ‘The Whole Room Just Exploded’
By Jem Aswad    

While no recordings from the rehearsal have surfaced, that first song — which would be the group’s live opener for most of its first year of existence as well as its final 1980 tour, yet was never properly recorded — probably sounded like this performance from the San Francisco’s Fillmore West the following April. The arrangement hews to the late-period Yardbirds version, with some honking harmonica by Plant and an uncharacteristically brief but blazing solo from Page — albeit turbocharged by the band’s titanium-strength rhythm section.
 

Thing is, this is true of Dazed as a song, but not true of the whole set. As brilliant as that recording from the Fillmore is, the set list 8 months earlier would have been very different. The first shows would not have had Communication Breakdown, probably not Pat's Delight. My guess is September 1968 = Dazed, one of the blues covers, Smokestack Lightning / How many more times, As long as I have you, Flames, old Yardbirds tune, possibly For Your Love. That is substantially different to the Fillmore set, and makes it all the more frustrating there's no known recording of the Scandi shows.

[mysticman560]

I think the September Scandinavian shows would have more closely resembled a late period Yardbird's show not necessarily in terms of a set list but rather in the approach to the material. The tour was intended to fulfill previous booked Yardbird's dates. I would imagine the first shows would include the Train Kept A-Rollin', one of the blues covers, White Summer, a John Bonham drum solo, How Many More Times, As Long As I Have You, For Your Love, and of course, Dazed and Confused. I don't think its unreasonable to think that an embryonic version of Communication Breakdown emerged into the set during the tour. Most of the tracks on Led Zeppelin I reflected what was performed during the September '68 gigs. As much as it would be great to have a recording from this tour, I think the possibility of an audience recording being captured is unlikely because I don't think the interest in a reconfigured version of the Yardbirds was very high at the time to the degree that someone would have taped on the shows. If a recording existed, it would certainly be fascinating to hear what the band sounded like and to hear their approach to the material.

Edited August 14, 2018 by mysticman560

[76229]

1 hour ago, mysticman560 said:

I think the September Scandinavian shows would have more closely resembled a late period Yardbird's show not necessarily in terms of a set list but rather in the approach to the material. The tour was intended to fulfill previous booked Yardbird's dates. I would imagine the first shows would include the Train Kept A-Rollin', one of the blues covers, White Summer, a John Bonham drum solo, How Many More Times, As Long As I Have You, For Your Love, and of course, Dazed and Confused. I don't think its unreasonable to think that an embryonic version of Communication Breakdown emerged into the set during the tour. Most of the tracks on Led Zeppelin I reflected what was performed during the September '68 gigs. As much as it would be great to have a recording from this tour, I think the possibility of an audience recording being captured is unlikely because I don't think the interest in a reconfigured version of the Yardbirds was very high at the time to the degree that someone would have taped on the shows. If a recording existed, it would certainly be fascinating to hear what the band sounded like and to hear their approach to the material.

I think JPJ specifically said Communication Breakdown emerged from onstage jamming on "Train..." late on the September tour. It'd be fascinating to hear some more audience reminisces from that tour than just Jorgen Angel (great as his are). I.e. what on earth did die-hard Yardbirds fans think of this new beast? The equivalent now would be, imagine there's no internet and little information, and you go to see your favorite band. Suddenly there's three new people on stage and the sound is heavier & more aggressive & bluesy. Do you embrace it, demand your money back or just indifferent?

I was hoping this would be the kind of thing in the photo book out in October, but it looks from previews like it's for casual fans rather than die hards.

[mysticman560]

1 hour ago, 76229 said:

I think JPJ specifically said Communication Breakdown emerged from onstage jamming on "Train..." late on the September tour. It'd be fascinating to hear some more audience reminisces from that tour than just Jorgen Angel (great as his are). I.e. what on earth did die-hard Yardbirds fans think of this new beast? The equivalent now would be, imagine there's no internet and little information, and you go to see your favorite band. Suddenly there's three new people on stage and the sound is heavier & more aggressive & bluesy. Do you embrace it, demand your money back or just indifferent?

I was hoping this would be the kind of thing in the photo book out in October, but it looks from previews like it's for casual fans rather than die hards.

I've always been intrigued by the band's early period in the Fall of 1968,, it's a shame there is so little information about it such as visual/audio artifacts, as well as eyewitness accounts of the performances. It's great that Jorgen Angel's photographs emerged (and his recollections) as well as a few other photographs, but I'd to think that there must be more information out there somewhere beyond adverts/notices in the press; I guess it's wishful thinking but it would great if one day a recording surfaced from one of the gigs in the Fall of '68.

Edited August 14, 2018 by mysticman560