Post Christmas splurge on concerts this past week. David Bowie Celebration (Feb), Buckcherry (March), Kansas (April), Rival Sons (May), Bryan Ferry (Sept) and The Who (Oct). My kid's band is wrapping up album two and they are keen to be back playing live so there will lots of their shows I hope.

All I can say is keep looking. There's amazing music currently being made if you are open to change. The talent is out there but the radio doesn't support it so you have to search. An example for me is Chance The Rapper's 'Same Drugs'. Just amazing and his lyrics are off the charts. Using imagery from Peter Pan and drugs to explain the dissolving of a relationship, the Beatles would be proud.

I love Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Kind of disappointed that Bonham disrespected him, especially when it was his gig and stage.

This doesn't make sense to me given the inactivity between the 1977 tour and 1980. John just had a long run at home and would have been in his best mental health place in years if what you are saying is true.

Page was already known and would have made it to some level of fame regardless of Led Zeppelin. He was a premier songwriter and producer. JPJ was already having and would have continued to have a great career as a session musician and string arranger. John Bonham most likely would have made it but most likely as a replacement drummer in a band that had already made it to some extent. As the drummer, making it is almost entirely tied to what band and songwriter(s) you join up with. Robert probably had the least chance of making it outside of Led Zeppelin. He was the most unknown and not much of a songwriter in the early years.

When The Levee Breaks - to show off his inventiveness with beats Good Times Bad Times - to highlight his bass drum technique In My Time of Dying or Achilles Last Stand - to show off his power

They were on tour. They brought in Pino Palladino to play out that tour.

SAJ - Has it ever come up why Robert Plant was so against the medley and jam in Whole Lotta Love in LZ's latter years? Of all the excesses that a Led Zeppelin live could have, I never thought this was one of them. I never thought it grew stale unlike the D&C jam, nor did it go on too long and be the bloated excess that No Quarter, Moby Dick and WS/BM and noise solo often were. I thought it paid homage to their influences in a very joyful way and really highlighted what an unstoppable unit they were on stage.

I genuinely like the first Firm album. Initially it was a let down but then I viewed it as being a Honeydrippers type record but with originals. In that vein, the diminished prominence of Jimmy's guitar makes sense and his playing really quite subversive. I take the album for what it is and appreciate it for what it is.

As the release is a 10", my best guess is it would be either the four Led Zeppelin songs played at Jones Beach that are not on Live At The Greek or the for Black Crowes songs played. Most likely the former. The Led Zeppelin songs were; Wanton Song, Misty Mountain Hop, Hots On For Nowhere and Bring It On Home. The Black Crowes songs were; No Speak No Slave, Horsehead, Remedy and She Talks To Angels.There was also a cover of Muddy Water's I Can't Be Satisfied played.

Yes.

Release How The West Was Won on vinyl for the anniversary and the long version of All Of My Love for Record Store Day and I'd be happy as hell

This is hard to say because the songwriting credits often don't tell the tale. If you didn't know the descending riff in Kashmir was by Jones, you could think that was hard/brilliant composing by Page. Either way it's brilliant but a lot easier for the credited songwriters when an uncredited songwriter comes up with a key part.

Yes, Jimmy Page was a sloppy player. Not that he couldn't be a very fluid player, see his 1968-1971 and previous session work playing. But he consciously chose form over function with regards to his playing style and presentation. Every inch he lowered his guitar his fluidity took a hit and resulted in sloppiness. From 1975 on he had horrible pick attack on his strings. This resulted in his consistent breaking of strings, the Earls Court version of Stairway To Heaven on the dvd bares this out. I can't find it at the moment but I've read an interview article where Jimmy stated he had to adopt his playing style to incorporate the lowered guitar and stance.

That was my initial thought but the box presentation is inline with the other live box sets.

Their first real show and they were good. Dirt pop at it's finest, or so my son tells me. Even though their album has been out less than two weeks, people were singing along to some of the songs. They drop a reggae groove into a song or two, very nice to see reggae mixed into pop music.

Never seen Explosions In The Sky and quite excited too. It should be the perfect venue for them. Sticky Fingers is an Australian band. I find them hard to label. Oasis big wall of sound meets some reggae rhythms by lads who love a pint. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ZSPDXxFWM

Jealous about those shows. Sam the Astronaut - Tomorrow night @ Media Club - My Kid's current band, alt pop. Duran Duran - August, big arena show. Explosions In The Sky - September in a beautiful 995 person venue. Sticky Fingers - October. Very cool Aussie band. Very fun live. My favorite venue in Vancouver, holds 1,150 people. Margo Price - October. Really looking forward to this. Best release of the year in my opinion. Old school country that really struck a chord with me somehow. Small and personal venue. Opeth - October. Been waiting to see them for five plus year. The Kills - Novembers, somewhere in France.

I can't see The Song Remains The Same getting this deluxe box treatment. It's already been expanded and re-released on LP and cd, the movie has been upgraded to blu-ray. What would we get in a deluxe box that we don't already have? A photo book and download card? HTWWW, I could see that getting a deluxe box set. They could expand the song list and put it out on vinyl for the first time, along with the download card and photo album. Whatever they do, I will accept with happiness and not gripe about what they haven't done.

My annoyances are; No complete, unedited concerts. Like SteveA said, the continued playing of White Summer. It would have been fine as a minute long intro to Kashmir and that's about it. All of My Love being released without the extended guitar solo. It should have at least been included on the deluxe version. Lack of 5.1 mix included with box sets. The price of BBC box set. Higher than any of the previous box sets.

I for one am very happy with this release. Have i ordered and can't wait for it to arrive. Jimmy is going to do things his way. We all know what that means, so instead of bitching about what I'm not getting I'll be happy instead with what I am getting. I am hoping that a vinyl and deluxe package for How The Wets Was Won is in the works. If I eventually got that with an Earl's Court package I'd be a pretty happy camper. If those never occur, I'll still be happy dropping the needle on what I do have.

I saw them on the current tour and found the difference between Glen Tipton and Richie Faulkner to be extreme on stage. Richie, the new guy works every song hard. Working for crowd participation and putting on a show. Glen Tipton (and Rob Halford) seem in much more of a basking in the glow of what they've accomplished mode. Good show with great songs but not a great show. I think metal bands need to bring a hunger to the stage and I don't think that's Priest at this point in time. Sure didn't stop my from spinning some Priest last night though. Still and always will love that band.

Steve - Have you heard any rumours of the Page & Plant recordings being re-issued on vinyl? The complete Unledded would fit very nicely on a double album.

Woz70 pretty much nailed this. Page went from being technically proficient, artistically brilliant and sloppy to moments of brilliance and sloppy. His lack of playing time and practice showed in the latter years. I think a 1980 version of Bron-Y-Aur-Stomp would have made me cry for what he once was. One thing I'm surprised that is not mentioned more is his horrible pick technique. Partially a function of playing low slung but he was forever hitting strings with his pick edge, leading to a lack of fluidity in the sound at times and his abundance of broken strings,

Blue Rodeo - Outskirts, Casino, Lost Together, Five Days in May David Bowie - Outside, Earthling, Hours Accept - Blood of a Nation Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (and other stories) The Steven WIlson is unbelievably good.