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SteveAJones

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AntLantic Records

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On 9/23/2018 at 9:17 PM, SteveAJones said:

I too rate Robbie Blunt very highly. I too believe he's the best guitarist that Plant has worked with post-Led Zeppelin.

A fourth album was never in the works, nor were there any demos. Shaken 'n' Stirred was a commercial failure, and after the tour finale in September 1985 the band was essentially on hiatus. Robert sent out a press release in October 1986 that every one in the band was out and he later attributed this to tiring of their "menopausal rumblings"...LOL. The following month he signed a new management deal with Bill Curbishley, who convinced Robert that if he wanted to restore and maintain a viable solo career it was time to reincorporate Led Zeppelin music into his performances. Within a couple of months he began assembling what became the lineup for Now & Zen.

Porl Thompson did not accompany Page/Plant to Japan & Australia, leaving the tour after the conclusion of the 2nd North American leg in October 1995 because his wife was expecting. There was no role for him on the next album or tour as they went with a basic four piece with some accompaniment from Phil Andrews on keyboards.

Michael Lee & Charlie Jones became the odd men out when Robert changed musical direction after Page/Page, forming Priory of Brion. Besides, those two had other side projects of their own that they wanted to pursue.

Good old Robert jfc.  We realize he was trying to turn the corner, pushing new wave etc. (since what, '78?).  I think it worked up to a certain point.  Come '86-88 it was borderline Janet Jackson, Robert Palmer,  INXS style production.  Doesn't the timeline 85-86 include quite a bit, Live Aid, reunion secret rehearsals and tryouts (Bruford, Thompson), Firm tour?  LZ must have been on his mind.  It was a treat to hear it live again solo.

Regarding Lee, last instance I saw he was with JP doing Domino live.  Jones was on board at least through some of the 2001 tour?  I was quite surprised to see a different bass player on Sixty Six to Timbuktu.  Porl, played through at least early 2002 (cancer benefit in London).  The Dreamland album came out (I really enjoy), then poof, gone.  Probably not much info on these guys I suppose.

Good topics, thanks Steve.

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SteveAJones

SteveAJones

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5 minutes ago, gibsonfan159 said:

8/26/1970- Local musician Deborah Smith played bass on the encores during a show in Cleveland. Has she ever given a testimony to that event?

Testimony? Not that I can recall. What's to say, really? They needed a bass player and a local musician filled in.

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gibsonfan159

gibsonfan159

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3 minutes ago, SteveAJones said:

Testimony? Not that I can recall. What's to say, really? They needed a bass player and a local musician filled in.

Thought she might've given an account of that day somewhere. Filling in for the bass player of Led Zeppelin seems like nothing to just brush off as "another day". 

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SteveAJones

SteveAJones

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10 minutes ago, gibsonfan159 said:

Thought she might've given an account of that day somewhere. Filling in for the bass player of Led Zeppelin seems like nothing to just brush off as "another day". 

Actually, Sam has posted this to the timeline:

"I was asked to sit in with Led Zeppelin that night by Roger Abramson, a promoter with Belkin Brothers, who saw me in the audience and knew of my musical ability, and knew that the fans in the audience had come to the concert with the reasonable expectation of hearing live electric Led Zeppelin, as opposed to an acoustic set, necessitated by the hasty exit of John Paul Jones for the trip back to England for his father's funeral service."         (D. Smith Sept. 2014)

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76229

76229

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2 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

Actually, Sam has posted this to the timeline:

"I was asked to sit in with Led Zeppelin that night by Roger Abramson, a promoter with Belkin Brothers, who saw me in the audience and knew of my musical ability, and knew that the fans in the audience had come to the concert with the reasonable expectation of hearing live electric Led Zeppelin, as opposed to an acoustic set, necessitated by the hasty exit of John Paul Jones for the trip back to England for his father's funeral service."         (D. Smith Sept. 2014)

She filled in for the encore at that short notice?! Amazing. Surprised the bass tech or someone similar didn't do it.

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TheStairwayRemainsTheSame

TheStairwayRemainsTheSame

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A family emergency forced John Paul Jones to return to England directly after the show, and the gig's start time was changed to 5:30pm.

Local musician Deborah Smith played bass for the encore: "I was asked to sit in with Led Zeppelin that night by Roger Abramson, a promoter with Belkin Brothers, who saw me in the audience and knew of my musical ability, and knew that the fans in the audience had come to the concert with the reasonable expectation of hearing live electric Led Zeppelin, as opposed to an acoustic set, necessitated by the hasty exit of John Paul Jones for the trip back to England for his father's funeral service." - (D. Smith Sept. 2014)

Cleveland Telegram review: Led Zeppelin concert wows Cleveland crowd

If people left the Led Zeppelin concert Wednesday with any feeling short of musical ecstasy, they must have gone to be heard and not to hear. Zeppelin burned their tunes into the half-filled Public Auditorium for nearly two hours while everyone dazedly moved only with the pulse coming from the stage.

They started the concert with the tunes from their first two albums that everyone has heard many times, but no one seemed to care. They just listened and worked it out in their heads. Where the early Zeppelin used noise, Jimmy Page picked and bowed his guitar as only he could, changing the noise of his old days into music that wouldn't quit. All the time lead vocalist Robert Plant wailed and moved as music was blasted to him.

The surprise of the night came as Plant, Page, and bass player John Paul Jones moved out in front with their acoustic strings. With Page on the guitar, Jones on the mandolin, and Plant on the microphone, they started in on the audience with Led Zeppelin III, their yet unreleased album. They displayed an honesty only music could as they dedicated this song to a friend that had just been killed in a motorcycle accident.

They finished the regular part of their concert with Jones and a far-out organ on a little known Zeppelin tune called "Thank You," then hit with "Whole Lotta Love." When they left the stage, the crowd clammered for more, not letting up until there was music once more. Zeppelin returned with John Bonham featured on drums. As the rest of the group left the stage, Bonham did everything possible to make his drums talk, plus a few things that weren't in the book.

When the remaining group members returned to the stage, Jones had split to England for family reasons and Plant said that was it, but as the audience pressed to the stage, they agreed to continue.

As they got set to do more, Page popped a string. To fill the gap Plant started to play his harp while Bonham started in on the tabla drums. When Page fixed his guitar, he joined in on the jam. They were then joined by a girl in a Belkin Production tee shirt (Webmaster note: Deborah Smith) who played bass to finish the night.

This time they left for good, leaving Led Zeppelin burned into everyone's mind, something you don't hear every day. (-Cleveland Telegram, 8-1970)

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gibsonfan159

gibsonfan159

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20 hours ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:

This doesn''t add up..

Noticed prior to the gig:

cleveland70change.jpg

 

Date gets changed, then he still has to go back home?

They moved the show up in hopes it would give Jones enough time to do the show and fly out afterwards for his father's funeral. They cancelled and rescheduled the next day's show in Milwaukee on the 27th and Jones was back in Detroit on the 28th. Gives you an impression of how grueling the road life is.

I still find it mind blowing that they allowed a local musician to come on stage, even if it was for the encore (Communication Breakdown). Maybe they did it to keep the crowd from getting riled over a shortened set. It was apparently a controversial show since half the fans couldn't make the earlier time, so they played to a mostly empty audience.

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SteveAJones

SteveAJones

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50 minutes ago, gibsonfan159 said:

They moved the show up in hopes it would give Jones enough time to do the show and fly out afterwards for his father's funeral. They cancelled and rescheduled the next day's show in Milwaukee on the 27th and Jones was back in Detroit on the 28th. 

2
2
2

Correct about moving the showtime up to allow JPJ time to catch a flight to London that evening. Joe Baldwin had been gravely ill for some time. In fact, several of the dates originally scheduled for early August 1970 had been postponed or canceled to allow JPJ to remain at his father's side. 

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TheStairwayRemainsTheSame

TheStairwayRemainsTheSame

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On the One Show (BBC evening show), this year or last Ronnie Wood said he had the opportunity to go visit Elvis on his deathbed, Ron turning it down.

And then later on in life finding out none other than Robert and Jimmy were with Elvis on his deathbed.

The clip:  https://youtu.be/M3IC5FDfpBg?t=1657

Now Ron MIGHT mean before he actually died in August 77. No way in hell was Robert in the USA after Oakland.
Ronnie is good mates with the group, with Page I know at least.
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SteveAJones

SteveAJones

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51 minutes ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:
On the One Show (BBC evening show), this year or last Ronnie Wood said he had the opportunity to go visit Elvis on his deathbed, Ron turning it down.

And then later on in life finding out none other than Robert and Jimmy were with Elvis on his deathbed.

The clip:  https://youtu.be/M3IC5FDfpBg?t=1657

Now Ron MIGHT mean before he actually died in August 77. No way in hell was Robert in the USA after Oakland.
Ronnie is good mates with the group, with Page I know at least.

Ronnie is a character! He told the same story about five years ago (link below). He seems to be confusing the events of May 11, 1974 (Led Zeppelin met Elvis in his hotel room following his concert at The Forum in Los Angeles) and Elvis untimely death in August 1977. Last Stones concert in Memphis at that point was July 4, 1975, about five months after Ronnie jammed with Led Zeppelin in New York. I don't think he toured with The Faces during this time, and besides Elvis was normally on tour. However, Ronnie was living in Malibu so it's possible he was in Memphis at some point on his own, perhaps when Elvis was hospitalized earlier in 1977.

  

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PeaceFrogYum

PeaceFrogYum

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1 hour ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:
On the One Show (BBC evening show), this year or last Ronnie Wood said he had the opportunity to go visit Elvis on his deathbed, Ron turning it down.

And then later on in life finding out none other than Robert and Jimmy were with Elvis on his deathbed.

The clip:  https://youtu.be/M3IC5FDfpBg?t=1657

Now Ron MIGHT mean before he actually died in August 77. No way in hell was Robert in the USA after Oakland.
Ronnie is good mates with the group, with Page I know at least.

That would be kinda tough as Elvis was never on a deathbed, he died of a heart attack in his home suddenly. Elvis was in between legs on his current tour when this happened as he played his final gig on June 26th 1977 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. His next scheduled date was August 17th in Portland Maine, the day after his death.

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TheStairwayRemainsTheSame

TheStairwayRemainsTheSame

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1 hour ago, PeaceFrogYum said:

That would be kinda tough as Elvis was never on a deathbed, he died of a heart attack in his home suddenly. Elvis was in between legs on his current tour when this happened as he played his final gig on June 26th 1977 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. His next scheduled date was August 17th in Portland Maine, the day after his death.

Well famously on the toilet but I'm assuming there's times Elvis was in such pain before that he thought that was it. Ron might be confusing 75 with the year of his death and discussing this Bill Wyman + Zep meeting. Maybe Ron didn't go along...

Ron has been known to be wrong about Zep, first and foremost saying Jimmy approached him in 68' to join!

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SteveAJones

SteveAJones

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5 hours ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:

Well famously on the toilet but I'm assuming there's times Elvis was in such pain before that he thought that was it. Ron might be confusing 75 with the year of his death and discussing this Bill Wyman + Zep meeting. Maybe Ron didn't go along...Ron has been known to be wrong about Zep, first and foremost saying Jimmy approached him in 68' to join!

Elvis was hospitalized in April 1977 and there were many times he should have been. Anyway, one has to take anything Ronnie Wood says about the past with a huge grain of salt because he just doesn't recall things correctly. If you really want to know what happened you ask Bill Wyman, who has an impeccable memory and an extensive archive to support his assertions.

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