Thanks for the additional info.

Hi Dallas Knebs , Thanks for sharing your personal experience. I was in two minds as to whether to post the article, but generally if I find something LZ relevant, I put it on the site whether it is favourable or not.

Knebby, Thanks for posting these . I hadn't seen any of them before. Would you be able to share the story behind the note from Jimmy to the artist? (only if it doesn't break any confidences!)

The untethered decadence of Led Zeppelin Washington Post, The, 07/12/2012 In Led Zeppelin's heyday, the early 1970s, I noticed that certain women of my acquaintance seemed to shake with a near-visceral disgust when the band's name was mentioned. Now I know why. At first, rock journalist Barney Hoskyn's oral history of the band, "Led Zeppelin," captivates, and then slowly it begins to horrify. Not everyone described in it is a villain, but enough of the main characters become so grotesque that it's hard to avoid a sickly feeling that worsens as one turns the pages. As a group, the musicians and their entourage are like star athletes who turn up in the headlines as thugs; you can't forget the thrills they gave you, but you'll never feel the same about them again. In the beginning, the four musicians were like any other hardworking lads besotted with a new sound. There was singer Robert Plant, a blues enthusiast who could go on for hours about his favorite American roots musicians when the rest of the band just wanted to party. Guitarist Jimmy Page was one of the most in-demand session players before he helped form the group. Page's studio work sometimes had him playing next to the third member, John Paul Jones, a virtuoso on several instruments and a skilled arranger as well. Percussion was supplied by John Bonham, the loudest, fastest drummer of his and perhaps any era. Planty, Pagey, Jonesy, Bonzo, as they called each other: Like thousands of other young Englishmen of that day, they devoured the blues that American musicians took for granted, but they took their fandom one step further and transformed the sounds of Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell into something never heard before. In this they were enabled by Granty, that is, Peter Grant, the physical giant who became their manager and helped create a new business model that, in addition to the band's talent and passion, is the other half of the formula that rocketed Led Zeppelin toward unimaginable riches as well as unspeakable decadence. Whereas earlier business people tried to wring the most out of bands before discarding them, the new crowd went all in to nurture and guide the groups. Unless it's happened to you, you can't know what it's like to be eating beans on toast one day and pheasant under glass the next. The Led Zeps became gods before they became men. Hoskyns quotes Page: "People say, 'I grew up to Led Zeppelin.' And I say, 'So did I.' " No wonder it all went to their heads. The sex and drugs were nonstop, as is to be expected. What appalls here is the violence. Bonham, Grant and tour manager Richard Cole veer out of control again and again; a journalist says, "I've never seen anyone behave worse in my life than Bonham and Cole. I once saw them beat a guy senseless for no reason and then drop money on his face." True, cocaine and alcohol, especially in combination, make people do things they wouldn't do otherwise, but I've never read a musical history that uses the words "sociopath" and "psychopath" as much as this one. Not everyone was in on the mayhem, of course. Plant and Jones come off as decent chaps, overall. And when he wasn't leading the havoc, Grant was an extraordinarily successful manager. Part of his strategy was to keep the world's most outrageous band a relative secret by not issuing singles or appearing on television or cultivating the press; that way, as legendary groupie Bebe Buell recalls, "You didn't hear Led Zeppelin on the radio; you heard about them from the boys in your class. . . . I don't know if the music was designed to give boys power and sexual prowess, but I do know that when boys listened to it, they would become extremely cocky and full of themselves." In the end, the songs speak for themselves: The permanent appeal of "Black Dog," "Immigrant Song" and "Whole Lotta Love" make Led Zeppelin, along with the Beatles, the Stones and Pink Floyd, one of the rare bands with intergenerational appeal. Still, now I know why no woman ever asked me, "Who's your favorite Led Zep?" bookworld@washpost.com Kirby teaches at Florida State University and is the author of "Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll." Led Zeppelin The Oral History of the World's Greatest Rock Band By Barney Hoskyns Wiley. 538 pp. $35

This isn't an article as such - it's a review of Susan Fast's LZ book, but I thought I'd include it anyway. University of Toronto Quarterly 74.1 (2004/2005) 604-605 Susan Fast. In the Houses of the Holy: Led Zeppelin and the Power of Rock Music. Oxford University Press 2001. vii, 248. $22.00 In the annals of rock music, the British quartet Led Zeppelin remains both an iconic presence and a crucial dividing point. Ruling over the rock landscape for the initial two-thirds of the 1970s, the band, with its alternately thunderous and gentle musical approach, and its well-documented Dionysian excesses committed while on tour, eventually became one of the favourite targets of the punk-rock movement late in the decade, and soon found itself portrayed by brash upstarts such as The Clash and The Sex Pistols as the ultimate symbol of all that had gone wrong with rock and roll in the years since Elvis first shook his pelvis. Here in the new millennium, Led Zeppelin, its champions, and its detractors are still going strong: in the short space of time since Susan Fast's In the Houses of the Holy was published, Zeppelin has returned to top the charts with the CD and DVD release of How the West Was Won, which documents searing live performances from 1972; meanwhile, post-Zeppelin 'grunge' rocker Courtney Love has recently released the satirical 'Zeplin Song,' which excoriates a male companion for constantly playing the same Zeppelin hit on his guitar. No doubt none of this attention comes as a surprise to musicologist and music criticism professor Susan Fast, who places herself and her ecstatic (initial and continuing) response to Zeppelin at the centre of her work: 'Listening to the strength and energy of [Led Zeppelin's] "Immigrant Song" was an empowering experience,' Fast writes. 'I had no idea what the lyrics were, but that riff ... its timbre so insistent and confident ... and [singer Robert] Plant's majestic if incomprehensible proclamations, made that song where I wanted to live.' It is Fast's obvious love and enthusiasm for her subject matter that makes In the Houses of the Holy ultimately cohere, despite her at times unwieldy multidisciplinary critical approach, which combines journalism, musicology (including musical notation), critical theory, and even (in a democratic postmodern gesture) solicited fan responses. Of 'Stairway to Heaven,' the band's quintessential hit (and likely target of the aforementioned [End Page 604] Courtney Love satire), Fast notes that the song's movement from its folksy acoustic (rooted in seventeenth-century Tudor music) intro to its crashing electric climax comprises 'a journey ... from the rural/folk/archaic to whatever we might equate with electric instruments - certainly something more contemporary, technological, and ... urban.' The song's enduring appeal to a vast audience is rooted, she contends, in its creation of a living, contemporary mythology 'of connectedness to other people, to history, and to the supernatural world,' thus providing a psychic balm for those 'who feel alienated in their daily lives.' Especially valuable here is Fast's critique (aided and abetted by the aforementioned fans) of Zeppelin's oftentimes uppity and elitist academic critics, those who seek to define the band's music as mere 'cock rock,' and its female fans as naïve, innocent dupes of this rampaging group of metallic marauders. Employing Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque, Fast instead portrays the band's characteristic excesses, both musical and performative, as a challenge to defined cultural boundaries and to societal decorum. Inverting the feminist notion of the harsh 'male gaze' by which women are turned into objects of desire, Fast repositions singer Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page as, 'in one sense ... passive objects of the female gaze, a controlling gaze that is partly responsible for the man acting as he does.' Humorously, the author further contends that, 'however many reasons there may have been for Plant to wear tight pants, it must be acknowledged that one was to attract women ... this is so obvious to my nonacademic women friends that they are incredulous when I tell them that the point still needs to be made in academic writing.' Indeed, for all of the highfalutin' theorizing, pro or con, that surrounds a band as iconic as Led Zeppelin, perhaps one female fan of the band who speaks in Fast's book sums up the crux of the matter best: 'IT'S THE MUSIC, STUPID!' For those who enjoy intelligent commentary on the music, however, In the Houses of the Holy should suffice. John V. Walker

I have been looking for articles to post on the site. I found this one from the International Business Times following the Kennedy Centre Honours. I think I hate the person who wrote it. He/she makes so many digs at Zeppelin e.g. saying that Peter Grant was "... essentially a thug" and "Thank God Bonzo never lived to see this". I am sure Bonzo's family, friends and fans would rather he was alive no matter what. Source: International Business Times, 20121218 Led Zeppelin: When Rock Stars Age And Become Ordinary If anyone needed a reminder that rock-and-roll is indeed dead – dead and buried with no hope of resurrection – ample evidence was provided recently in Washington DC when the surviving members of immortal super-group Led Zeppelin received The Kennedy Center Honors at the U.S. State Department for “lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts.” Messrs. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones (none of whom are US citizens as far as I know) were also feted by U.S. President Barack Obama. “When Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham burst on the musical scene in the late ’60s, the world never saw it coming,” Obama gushed. “It’s been said that a generation of people survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album, and a generation of parents wondered what all that noise was about… Appreciate the fact that the Led Zeppelin legacy lives on.” Obama also playfully referred to the band’s violent, self-destructive lifestyle on the road. “We do not have video of this, but there were some hotel rooms trashed and mayhem all around, so it’s fitting that we’re doing this in a room with windows that are about three inches thick and Secret Service all around,” the president quipped, before referring to the rockers’ advanced ages. “We honor Led Zeppelin for making us all feel young, and showing us that some guys who are not completely youthful can still rock.” In a world where aging rock stars receive MBE awards, knighthoods from Queen Elizabeth and even appear as panelists on schlocky TV ‘talent’ programs, one should not be surprised by rock musicians appearing with the highest pillars of the Establishment. However, the spectacle of Led Zeppelin with the most powerful man on earth – and everything that implies – was bizarre and beyond depressing. When I was a boy, Led Zeppelin dominated pop-rock music like a colossus – they supplanted The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as the biggest, baddest, most popular and influential band on the planet. Not only did they sell an enormous amount of albums (reportedly at least 300 million records globally to date), generate tremendous revenue and wealth, but lived a life of excess and profligacy that established a standard of licentiousness that has never been matched, much less exceeded. Indeed, Led Zeppelin, who were managed by a former wrestler named Peter Grant who was essentially a thug, lived out every red-blooded boy’s wildest nihilistic fantasies – incredible wealth, sex with thousands of girls, the consumption of every known type of alcohol and drug, and the ability to do virtually anything without fear of prosecution or any kind of responsibility and accountability. But it came at a heavy price – Page developed a multi-year heroin addiction and, most tragically, drummer John Bonham died in 1980 at the very young age of 32, leading to their break up, exactly ten years after The Beatles disbanded. In retrospect, in the pantheon of immortal rock bands, Led Zeppelin occupies a space somewhat below the Beatles, Stones and The Who. Detractors point out that Page and Plant were mediocre songwriters (in fact, many of the group’s earliest songs were simply re-workings of American blues records) and, worse, their massive success virtually single-handedly created the phenomenon known as “arena rock” where bands performed in huge outdoor stadiums before tens of thousands of fans. Having wisely shunned appearing on TV, Led Zeppelin prompted (forced) fans to see their heroes in person at wild, loud – often four-hour long marathon -- concerts. Partly due to the efforts of Grant, Led Zeppelin was granted extraordinary (perhaps unprecedented) creative control over their material, including the content of their albums and their release dates. Moreover, lead songwriters Page and Plant gained lucrative royalty rates that made them the envy of their peers. Led Zeppelin’s sensational rise – and seemingly endless string of colossally successful LPs – coincided with the moral deterioration of the rock music genre. By the mid-1970s, under the stresses of high inflation, rising unemployment, and the Arab oil embargo, the idealistic, communal nature of 1960s pop-rock music – best exemplified by the stirring songs of The Beatles and Bob Dylan – had vanished, replaced by cynicism and nihilism. This movement would reach its peak in the explosion of violently angry British punks, but Led Zeppelin already embodied this negative spirit a few years earlier. However, the characterization of Led Zeppelin as a “heavy metal” band is patently unfair and inaccurate. Indeed, I would estimate that at least one-third of their output comprised gentle acoustic ballads, often inspired by folk and Celtic music (a world away from head-banging rock-and-roll). I always regarded Led Zeppelin as a better-looking, but somewhat less inspiring, version of The Who. Whether by design or by coincidence, Led Zeppelin’s parallels with the earlier group were uncanny. There was the dark-haired, cerebral, tormented, intellectual leader and principal songwriter (Page and Pete Townshend); the handsome, muscular, sexy blonde front-man (Plant and Roger Daltrey); the quiet, immobile, unemotional bassist (Jones and John Entwistle); and the wild, uncontrolled, manic, suicidal drummer who died young (Bonham and Keith Moon). Now, more than 30 years after their glorious peak, the surviving group members are old men in their 60s. Plant, still wearing his now grey-hair long, is stooped and seemingly frail; Page, a legitimate ‘rock guitar god,’ is aged and subdued, while Jones, perhaps the most nondescript, anonymous rock star in history, looks like a retired insurance salesman. Bonham avoided this sad spectacle by dying young – after all isn’t that in keeping with the true ethos of rock and roll? Witnessing Led Zeppelin wearing tuxedos and glad-handing with US politicians reminds us that rock-and-roll is simply a business – a multi-billion dollar industry – that is just as soulless and profit-driven as any other ‘boring’ corporation. It’s really all about money and joining the mainstream establishment. Thank God Bonzo never lived to see this. Source: International Business Times, Tue, 18 Dec 2012 Item: 416353.20121218

Further to my opening post, I have managed to get a look at the book. The only photo of Jimmy at Boleskine is the one posted above - it covers pages 62 and 63. Doug's comments on page 62 are as follows- "Led Zeppelin had reached world domination in rock music when I photographed Jimmy Page, who was remarkablly down to earth, and a very pleasant guy to be around. This picture was taken in the early 1970's in front of Boleskine House on the banks of Loch Ness, which was the former home of the mystic Aleister Crowley. Jimmy had recently bought the house and had started a campaign to prevent pylons scarring the landscape of Loch Ness. He was instrumental in getting the support of the local community and was successful in his protest." Doug then mentions that Jimmy chose the above photograph to be featured over two pages in his 2010 photobook.

T & B, Is it possible that there is a corner table with a lamp behind Jimmy? If so, it is not the most professional photographic lighting attempt.

Truth and Beauty, I don't recall him doing the usual 'my guitar is my mistress' routine in the interview. BTW I bet all the Pagettes on the board would love to be where that guitar is!!

Cookie, from memory, the photographer is named. Esquire is not as 'upmarket' a men's style mag as GQ.

Yes, he was definitely joking. From memory, he makes a comment to the effect that the industry is now dominated by record company types like Simon Cowell (as compared to being influenced by musicians)

I have seen inside the magazine. I will put here what I can remember of it. The question and answers session takes up the left hand page, and on the right hand page there is a new photo of JImmy which was taken in a hotel bedroom in New York in October 2012. JImmy is standing next to a large bed (calm down ladies!!!). The photographer is not Ross Halfin. The most important part of the interview is where JImmy says that he will be playing live next summer. Now, if the interview took place at the same time as the photoshoot, then 'next summer' would be this summer - 2013. At the beginning, when Jimmy is asked about the band's hedonistic activities, he replies that it was the other band members, not him, as he was always in bed with a hot cocoa!!!! Throughout the answers he stresses that it was the music that was important. He emphasises that it was the coming together of 4 top professional musicians that was the key to the band's success. When asked about Crowley, he states that people forget he was also interested in the Pre-Raphaelites. He says that when he was in the Yardbirds, his clothes got completely ripped off him at one gig. He talks briefly about his drinking and says that what used to be waking up with a hangover, turned into a 2 day hangover.

I found this posted today at Peter Makowski Wordsmith on Facebook. I don't know if it has been posted before.

Knebby, I don't know how you managed to get them copied over! I spent about an hour last night 'right-clicking', but no joy! You may have noticed that there is a photo of JImmy with the late Chrissie Wood. The notes underneath say it was taken at the Chislehurst Caves party (the Pretty Things album release). There is also a nice photo of Bonzo with one of his vintage car acquisitions. What crossed my mind was that whoever posted these may be 'an insider'.

SAJ, If you go to the undernoted address, you will find among the related stream of photos a picture of Richard Cole's wedding to Tracey Heron Webber where the guests are standing outside on the steps of Chelsea Register Office. I hadn't seen it before – like most others, the only one I have seen was taken inside the Golden Lion Pub at the reception. I was unable to get the photo copied over to here, perhaps someone else can manage. http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/jimmy-page-walk-of-fame-london/Memory/063f4444-65c6-44b8-bbf3-a00c00d3dd77 When this page opens, it will take you to the photo of Jimmy at the London Walk of Fame. Go back one page from this to get the RC wedding photo.

Here's hoping that you will continue to copy the new posts from Jimmy's site over to here . It has been much appreciated by all of us in the past.

I am hoping that the announcements are not going to be more highly priced merchandise like we have seen previously with the book and signed photos. I have moaned my head off on this site about the photos. Like everyone else here, I'd like to hear about a tour from Jimmy, or the release of new material. Stuff that all members/LZ fans can afford. Maybe I am being naive.

This is an article from my archive regarding a well known Scottish photographer who stayed with Jimmy at Boleskine. I have included one of Doug’s photos, which I am sure you will all be familiar with. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/50-years-of-scottish-history-through-the-lens.18711768 50 years of Scottish history through the lens Barry Didcock Senior features writer Sunday 2 September 2012 For nearly 50 years Douglas Corrance has been photographing the people and places of Scotland, capturing historical events that still resonate today as well as solitary moments that would have gone unrecorded had he not been present with his camera Titled Scotland: Five Decades Of Photographs, it is published on September 13 (Lomond Books, £25) and also features portraits of influential Scots such as Richard Demarco, Billy Connolly, James Kelman, Ian Rankin and Richard Holloway, as well as Led Zeppelin guitarist Page, whom Mr Corrance got to know when the band was at the height of its powers in the mid-1970s. "I did get quite friendly with him," Mr Corrance recalled. "I remember one time there was nobody at his house and somebody had left his Bentley there so I had to take him out there in my beaten-up Renault, and buy some bread and beans to cook him beans on toast when we got there. "But he was a lovely guy and we had some good times. I photographed some of their concerts and got a little insight into the rock and roll life as well."

According to Jimmy's friend, Peter Makowski, there will be new posts and announcements soon on Jimmy's site. Here's what Peter said yesterday on one of his Facebook pages. Peter Makowski-Wordsmith2 Yesterday "Don't forget to check out Jimmy Page official website-@jimmypage.com .I'll be back working on it next week with Matt'the wonder boy' and promise you there will be some exciting new posts and announcements......" Incidentally, Olympian cyclist, Sir Chris Hoy has tweeted about meeting Jimmy at the airport passport control and commented on what a 'nice bloke' Jimmy is.

Questionable? I have never been in the habit of posting anything here which I believe to be a lie. Contact the couple who post their blog. They have no reason to lie. The reason it was removed from here was more likely to be due to it being true.

http://sumoboat.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/busy.html

http://www.contactmusic.com/news/jimi-hendrix-tops-new-greatest-guitarist-list_1368641 Jimi Hendrix has seen off competition from a string of Brits to top a new Greatest Guitarists poll. The rock legend landed at number one on the Rolling Stone list ahead of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck, who make up the top five. Guitar greats like Pete Townshend, who comes in at number 10 on the top 100 countdown, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana and Eddie Van Halen offer their tributes to select axemen on the list. In an essay about Hendrix, The Who star Townshend writes, "I feel sad for people who have to judge Jimi Hendrix on the basis of recordings and film alone, because in the flesh he was so extraordinary... He had a power that almost sobered you up if you were on an acid trip. "He was shy and kind and sweet, and he was f**ked up and insecure... There was also something quite sad about watching him... Toward the end of his life, he seemed to be having fun, but maybe a little too much. It was happening to a lot of people, but it was sad to see it happen to him." Townshend also admits he gave up trying to become the world's greatest guitarist after seeing Hendrix onstage: "I didn't have any envy; I never had any sense that I could ever come close. "I remember feeling quite sorry for Eric (Clapton), who thought that he might actually be able to emulate Jimi... because I thought Eric was wonderful anyway. "Once, I think it was at a gig Jimi played... (in London), Eric and I found ourselves holding hands. You know, what we were watching was so profoundly powerful." The experts who voted for the top 100 guitarists included Phish star Trey Anastasio, Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Albert Hammond, Jr. of The Strokes, Joe Walsh, Joe Perry and Lenny Kravitz. The top 10 list is: 1. Jimi Hendrix 2. Eric Clapton 3. Jimmy Page 4. Keith Richards 5. Jeff Beck 6. B.B. King 7.Chuck Berry 8. Eddie Van Halen 9.Duane Allman 10. Pete Townshend

From the UK Daily Mirror, Wednesday, 18 May, 1983. I seem to recall the charges being dropped.

I am still searching in my databases for something on Jenny Marriott - it will take time as I have access to hundreds of databases! The method of searching which I am finding most productive, is to search for 'steve marriott' and 'jenny', rather than 'jenny marriott' alone. I have had a look in an arts/antiques database, but nothing came up. I have also looked in yet another newspaper database which covers every national and local newspaper for the UK, and the Daily Mail article below (edited for brevity and relevance) was all that I could find where Jenny is specifically mentioned. (She wasn't even mentioned in his obituary in The Times, nor in any of the accounts of his tragic death.) However, this computerized newspaper database only goes back to 1991. Chris Farlowe, who collaborated with Steve Marriott in the run up to the ARMS gigs, runs an antiques stall called Out Of Time, so perhaps if you were able to make contact with him, he could possibly help. Daily Mail, Friday, October 21, 2011 Marriott's first wife, Jenny , once reminisced in an interview for Small Faces fanzine, The Darlings Of Wapping Wharf Launderette, that, while living at Eyot Green, Marriott 'was having a lot of hassle with the neighbours, and ended up writing Lazy Sunday about his time there'. She explains that Marriott installed several huge speakers from a music studio in the house, saying: 'I didn't blame the neighbours; it must have been hard living next door to him. They complained continuously about the noise, and rightly so.' Those same speakers may be the ones Marriott is seen lounging next to in the promotional film made for the song, which was partially filmed in the garden at Eyot Green. In the same film, he and the other band members do a brief dance, togged up in fancy clothes, with the neighbour's house in the background. Morrall's four-bedroom, fourstorey property was also once owned by presenter Des Lynam, but it's easy to see that, at the time, it was the perfect pop pad. 'It was built in 1962, so when Marriott moved in a few years later, it was still new and trendy,' she says. 'In those days, Chiswick was bohemian. Several record labels were located here, so a lot of musicians based themselves there too. It's more low-key these days.' The properties in Eyot Green, with floor-to-ceiling windows, straight lines and communal green areas, are very different from the surrounding streets of Victorian cottages with tiny courtyards.

SAJ, I have looked at my computerised databases for the following UK newspapers for 1975 to present - The DailyMirror, The Daily Express and The Sunday Express - searching for 'Jenny Marriott' and nothing has come up for her. I searched for articles about Steve for the 75/76 era to see if they mention an antiques shop in connection with his name, and there is nothing. The articles at that time about Steve seem to be about his new partner, their baby and Ronnie Lanes' visit to them at their new home. I have attached the scans here just in case you don't have them and are interested. I shall access my other databases to see if they shed any light on the first Mrs Marriott. BTW Like Knebby, I am trying to PM you - would you clear some of your inbox (assuming I am not on 'ignore'!)