For readers in the UK, I spotted this being sold at half price in the high street discount book shop chain (can't remember their name offhand). It's a worthy addition to any Zep fan's collection, and Chris Welch is a much respected music journo who knew the band well.

I also made reference in my post to the fact that the jewellery would make it difficult to play a guitar. People in the public eye like Jimmy know that the general public and fans are interested in their personal lives, irrespective of whether it is our business or not. Some of the members of this site are interested in the band's personal lives; some make it clear that they are not. I

Thanks SAJ, I couldn't see whether it was one, or three. You certainly couldn't play guitar with that without causing serious scratching to the guitar neck. It would certainly not allow for any slide guitar playing (not that JP has ever done much slide work). (I'll be in touch with the info promised. The work I'm doing is taking longer than expected:D ).

http://www.gettyimag...s-Entertainment Take a look at this photo of Jimmy from the Classic Rock event on November 10. It is easier to see close up what I am referring to if you click on the above link and then click on the 'download preview' link. You will notice that on the third finger of his left hand, he has started wearing rings again. Can anyone figure out how many rings he is wearing on that one finger, and does this mean he is involved with someone again? In any event, it would be damn difficult to play a guitar with that amount of jewellery on the ring finger:D

Good connected-up thinking SAJ. When I looked through Stan's website, he came across as having real integrity in terms of his music - a bit of a character, in fact. Definitely from the Golden Age of Rock and Roll, as Ian Hunter once put it! By the way Stan, if you read this, sorry about using the photos from your site. It's just we get a bit excited about this kind of thing!

SAJ, I looked up Stan Urban's own website, and in his bibliography he is saying it was in the seventies that he jammed with Robert and Jimmy. However, when I looked up the pictures category of the site, I found photos of him and Robert from 1978, and one of him with Jimmy from 1984. SAJ, there is an email address on his site if perhaps you want to contact him for more details.

Source: Gulf News I've underlined the relevant part of the text. Local News An 'Urban legend' for rock fans Posted on » Wednesday, October 27, 2010 A LEADING Rock & Roll pianist will take to the stage for two Bahrain performances next month. Denmark-based musician Stan Urban is gearing up for the gigs that will be held at the Upstairs Downstairs restaurant in Adliya on Thursday, November 4, and Saturday, November 6. The Scottish-born multi-instrumentalist specialises in 1950s rock and journeys down the musical path began at a young age when he acquired a piano accordion and started doing imitations of his hero Little Richard in a high pitched treble. He became an overnight sensation and landed a position fronting The Mystery Men aged just 13. The early 1960s saw Urban tour in a number of bands and he also gained acclaim for his performances as American icon Gene Vincent's accompanying pianist. His talent took him to Hamburg where he was a resident pianist for numerous outlets and other live entertainment venues. It was during this time that earned a slot as a support artist for a Chuck Berry concert in Berlin. During the 70s, Urban spent his days soaking up the sun in Ibiza, playing the piano to holiday makers and locals alike at a local bar and jamming with rock legends Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Urban's performances will take place at 9.30pm on November 4 and at 9pm on November 6. The shows are free to diners. Free transport is also being laid on from the Dilmun Club to Upstairs Downstairs - and back. Contact Upstairs Downstairs on 17713093 for more information.

Daily Mail Keith Richards: 'How I nearly died falling 7ft out of a tree' By Ben Todd Last updated at 4:58 PM on 26th October 2010 Keith Richards has revealed he nearly died after falling out of a tree while on holiday in Fiji. The star fractured his skull when he fell from the tree whilst on holiday with wife Patti Hansen, 54, Stones bandmate Ronnie Wood, 63, and his ex-wife Jo Wood, 55. At the time, reports had claimed the tree was 40 feet high - but Richards insisted it was no more than 'seven feet.' Near Fatal: Keith Richards leaving the Ascot Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, following brain surgery in 2006 And writing in his autobiography Life, which came out 25 October, Richards, 66, revealed he did not think anything of the accident until two days later when he developed a headache while on a sailing trip. ‘Forget any palm tree. This was some gnarled low tree that was basically a horizontal branch. ‘It was obvious that people had sat there before because the bark was worn away. And it was, I guess, about seven feet up.’ Richards, who had earlier been swimming, told how he decided to climb out of the tree when it was lunchtime. There was another branch in front of me and I thought I’ll just grab hold of that and gently drop to the ground. ‘But I forgot my hands were still wet and there was sand and everything on them and, as I grabbed this branch, the grip didn’t take. ‘And so I landed hard on my heels, and my head went back and hit the trunk of the tree. Hard. And that was it. It didn’t bother me at the time.’ Unbeknown to Richards at that time, he had just fractured his skull. Two days later, he wrote how ‘a blinding headache’ came on whilst they were on a boat trip. He explained: ‘I found out later I was lucky that the second jolt happened. ‘Because the first one had cracked my skull and that could have gone on for months and months before being discovered, or before killing me. It could have kept on bleeding under the skull. ‘But the second blow made it obvious.’ Richards was given a record-breaking £4.6million advance for his memoirs.

Faint shades of Sabbath in Ozzy's addled brain The Independent on Sunday (London); Jul 4, 2010; Simon Price; p. 62 Considering all he's been through, Osbourne makes a decent job of resurrecting the old hits Rock Ozzy Osbourne Leas Cliff Hall FOLKESTONE One unshakeable fact emerges as I revisit Ozzy Osbourne's back catalogue while the train rolls on towards Folkestone: I bloody love Black Sabbath. It's all too easy to caricature Sabbath as pseudo-mystic dumbos, a Led Zeppelin for CSE kids, all upside-down crosses and Aleister Crowley, but find the footage of their early TV appearances and you'll see a straightahead, speed-freak, gonzo garage rock band, essentially a British Stooges, right down to their "motor city" origins. When they came into their own, however, was when they killed the speed and locked into a sludgy, dinosaur-footed groove, like a diplo-docus wading to its slow death through the La Brea tar pits, as exemplified by "Sweet Leaf", sampled by the Beasties, Buttholes and countless others. Sabbath exuded a specifically working-class strain of youthful nihilism, mistrustful of the treachery of the adult world, cynical about the employment conveyor belt, concerned only with making the rent, smoking weed and waiting for the apocalypse: "Hole in the sky, take me to heaven ..." And, in the forlorn, woe-is-me voice of Ozzy Osbourne, those sentiments had the perfect vehicle. Taking the Ozzy Osbourne of 2010 seriously, however, is a challenge. It wasn't The Osbournes that blew Ozzy's gravitas: he'd already done that himself with his campy 1980s persona. But since that series, he's become a nationally treasured, substance-damaged jester, shouting "Sharooonnn!" in novelty greetings cards, rerecording "Changes" - Sabbath's suicidal end-of-relationship lament - as a soft-centred Father's Day gift, and appearing in the Beeb's appalling patriotic montage before England's World Cup humiliation. He's got some ground to reclaim, and no mistake. And, to my mild surprise, the old man makes a decent fist of it. For starters, either I'm going blind, the make-up's thick, or the lighting's sympathetic ... or he really is looking relatively lean and healthy. Corpse-like pallor, black nail varnish, smudged eyeliner, maniacal grin: this is the Ozzy you want to see. Admittedly, he does that doddery, confused walk familiar from his family's reality show. Admittedly, the guy sitting side-stage with the laptop, advancing the lyrics line by line for Ozzy's autocue, is a vital member of the crew. Admittedly, his slurring speech is difficult to decipher, besides a repeated "I can't hear you!" which, at his age, might be a genuine cri de coeur rather than showbiz banter. But his charisma is so strong it's ridiculous, and that voice is as magnificently mournful as ever. Taking the stage in a diamante-sleeved cape for "Bark at the Moon", he hurls bottles of mineral water into the crowd. Immediately, someone sprays the contents back at him, whereupon he roars "Let's 'ave a fuckin' war!", and retaliates with a whole bucketful, a stunt he repeats three times. Solo hits such as "Shot in the Dark" and "Mama I'm Coming Home" are all very well, but I'm here for the Sab stuff, and tonight we get Beavis & Butt-Head favourite "Iron Man", "Fairies Wear Boots" (one of the brilliant Sabbath songtitles) and an encore of proto-punk anthem "Paranoid", whose opening line "Finished with my woman cos she couldn't help me with my mind" is a great blues lyric, never mind heavy metal. It matters little that I'm not hearing it performed by original Sabbath personnel, nor even by long-time sidekick Zakk Wylde. Ozzy has easily as much right to these songs as Tony Iommi, who sullied the band's reputation in the 1980s by putting out "Sabbath" albums featuring just one original member: himself. These days, Oz is backed by three tattooed longhairs of above average competence, and a drummer whose riser, hilariously, is half the height of the room. And they're perfectly adequate. What's a guitarist anyway, except a hired hand? He promises more songs if we "go wild", and I'd have sold my soul for "War Pigs" (if only to bellow along with legendary non-rhyme "Generals gather in their masses/Just like witches at black masses ..."), but the lights come up, so Folkestone must have failed to go wild enough for Ozzy's liking. Then again, maybe he just didn't hear us.

Ozzy 's regrets at show The Express 02 August 2010; EDITED BY LIZZIE CATT WITH LISA HIGGINS, DANA GLOGER AND JACK TEAGUE HIS family became reality television's most famous stars but Ozzy Osbourne now says he regrets appearing in the hit show. While he acknowledges MTV's The Osbournes revitalised his career Ozzy now thinks it was harmful to his family and says it's unlikely that he would ever repeat the experience. The 61-year-old singer, who starred in the show alongside wife Sharon and children Jack and Kelly from 2002 until 2005, says: "The kids couldn't handle it and my wife couldn't handle it - she had colon cancer. "On the one hand the show was phenomenal but on the other hand I had to watch my family suffer." Recalling the surreal experience of having his home turned into a television set he adds: "You go to bed one day and you wake up and the world's completely different. Everywhere there's cameras, you get attacked by the things." Despite the cost to his family the singer remains proud to have been involved in what he considers ground-breaking TV. "We invented a new form of television, " he insists. "We started the ball rolling for these new shows now. But would we do it all over again? I don't know. I don't think so." The Black Sabbath star was speaking as he re-ignited his feud with rival rocker, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, who dramatically clashed with Sharon back in 2005 during an Ozzfest event in San Benardino. "You know what? Unbeknown to me at the time he was going on stage every night and slagging me off and that really wasn't fair, " Osbourne now explains. "He needs a psychiatrist if he does that, he's nuts. It's an irresponsible thing to do."

SAJ, I wanted to help get your Ozzy thread off to a flying start. Did you know that Ozzy does a column in the UK Sunday Times entitled 'Ask Dr Ozzy'? The ST do caution readers that Dr Ozzy is in no way medically qualified;). Here is an example from the October 17 2010 edition:- Ask Dr Ozzy The Sunday Times (London); Oct 17, 2010; p. 13 Full Text: (Copyright © Times Newspapers Limited 2010) 'The good thing about being Dr Ozzy is that I sometimes get the chance to save lives. So count yourself lucky -- under no circumstances suggest to your girlfriend that she should get a boob job' Dear Dr Ozzy My husband has bought a hot tub and put it in our garden, but I refuse to get in it as I've heard horror stories about the water becoming a breeding ground for germs. He says I'm worrying too much, and spends half the weekend in there. What's your opinion? Betty, Portsmouth You're both right. There's nothing better than being outdoors in a hot tub on a crisp October evening, drinking a nice glass of something cold. But if you don't maintain it properly, it can turn into a swamp, with algae, frogs and God-knowswhat-else floating in there. Even though it's shiny and blue, with pressure jets and mood lighting, a hot tub is still basically a big boiling cauldron of chemicals. The worst is when you have a party and a bunch of hairy blokes climbs in. Another thing with hot tubs: you gotta watch the heat. I used to get blasted on cocaine, feel my heart pounding, then try to calm down by jumping into 900-degree water. Once, my head almost exploded. But if your husband cleans his new toy regularly -- he can even sign up for a maintenance service -- there's no reason you shouldn't take a dip. It might even improve your love life. I wish my girlfriend was better endowed. Would it be rude to suggest a boob job? I'd pay for it. Stan, Cheshire The good thing about being Dr Ozzy is I sometimes get the chance to save lives. Stan, count yourself lucky, 'cos that's what I'm about to do: under no circumstances bring this up with your girlfriend. If I made this suggestion to Sharon, the Osbourne crown jewels would end up halfway up my esophagus. To be honest, I wouldn't blame her. I mean, imagine if the situation was reversed, and your girlfriend asked you to get an enlargement of your own? How would that feel? If it's that important to you, dump the girl and find yourself a Page 3 model. I'm a 28-year-old virgin (ouch). I recently met a girl and we tried to make love, but I couldn't 'finish'. She accused me of indulging in solitary pleasures and wearing the big chap out. Is this possible? We tried again in the morning but I couldn't even achieve match fitness. Chris, Reading This could just be nerves, Chris. Also, if you were drinking before your first attempt, that might have stopped you from reaching the fireworks ceremony. Then again, maybe you are "wearing the big chap out" -- you don't exactly seem to be denying it, do you? So my advice to you is calm down, don't drink beforehand, and cut out the five-knuckle shuffles. I keep getting a build-up of debris in my belly button. It freaks me out, especially in the shower, when the fluff looks like a black spider crawling down my front. Gary, Iver Heath, Bucks Where's this fluff coming from? What are you wearing under your shirt -- a shag-pile carpet? The first thing I'd suggest is washing more (ie, more than once a year) and using a cotton-wool bud. Maybe you've got a really big belly button? So why not put it to good use? After you've cleaned out the fluff, try keeping a pack of mints in there or something. That should stop debris building up. And mints always come in handy. I keep hearing humans need to drink eight glasses of water a day. This can't be right, can it? Billy, Leicester I tried drinking eight glasses of water a day for a while, and my bladder felt like a red-hot cannon ball. The way I look at it is: if you eat lots of fruit and veg, you'll get water from your food. On top of that, drink till you're not thirsty any more -- which means if you lose water from exercise, you'll be thirstier and need to drink a bit more. That's what animals do when they go to a watering hole. We ain't different. My wife keeps nagging me to get a pedicure. Is this really something men get done these days? What's wrong with a few jagged toenails? I'm a bloke. Pete, Merseyside You have two choices: get nagged, or give in. If it's any consolation, I'm the Prince of Darkness and I've had more pedicures than hot dinners. Think of your pedicurist as more or less the same thing as a "chiropodist". I'm at the point now where I quite like getting a good old foot pruning. Ozzy was talking to Chris Ayres Do you have a question for Dr Ozzy? Email him at askdrozzy@sunday-times.co.uk Warning: Ozzy Osbourne is not a qualified medical professional. Caution is advised SURGERY NOTICE BOARD Thanks to Jane, a Dr Ozzy reader who emailed to say how her brother handled a malodorous co-worker (Marie, Stoke-on-Trent, October 3). She says: "My brother turned to his colleague, lifted his arm, sniffed his own armpit, smiled and said, 'Well, it isn't me.' This did the trick."

For me, it has to be a song by the1970's British band called Lieutenant Pigeon. It was the second highest hit of 1972, entitled 'Mouldy Old Dough'. The words 'mouldy old dough' were the only lyrics! One of the band's old mum was on the piano! http://www.youtube.c...h?v=vy32skBSHs0 From Wikipedia:- Lieutenant Pigeon was a British musical group popular in the early 1970s. A spin-off from an experimental music band Stavely Makepeace,[1] it was fronted by Rob Woodward. The group's sound was dominated by a heavy ragtime-style piano played by Woodward's mother, Hilda. Lieutenant Pigeon achieved two UK hits: "Mouldy Old Dough", written by Rob Woodward with bandmate Nigel Fletcher, reached number one in 1972, followed by "Desperate Dan" (number 17 in 1973).[2] Both tracks were largely instrumental, with the titles providing virtually the only lyrics. "Mouldy Old Dough" (the title being an adaptation of the 1920s jazz phrase, "vo-de-o-do") became the second biggest selling UK single of the year, behind The Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' bagpipe version of "Amazing Grace". Lieutenant Pigeon scored a further hit, in the autumn of 1974, when it reached number 3 in the Australian charts with a cover version of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen". Hilda Woodward died, aged 85, on 22 February 1999.

There's a BBC programme which goes out in the morning on weekdays called 'Homes Under The Hammer'. It is a programme in which experts uncover the tricks of the property auction trade. Last week, when the two presenters were going round one of the houses bought at auction, 'Houses of the Holy' from Physical Graffiti was playing throughout as the background music.

Source:- Mail On Sunday I would draw your attention to the fact that the article says that the drug dealer known as the 'acid king' was never seen again after the raid in 1967, yet one of the photo captions states that here he is with Keith in 1973B). How the Acid King confessed he DID set up Rolling Stones drug bust for MI5 and FBI By Sharon Churcher and Peter Sheridan Last updated at 2:46 PM on 24th October 2010 It is one of the most intriguing chapters in the history of the Rolling Stones. The drugs raid on a party at guitarist Keith Richards’s Sussex home, Redlands, more than 40 years ago very nearly destroyed the band. And one of the 1967 episode’s unexplained mysteries was the identity of the man blamed by Richards and Mick Jagger for setting them up, a young drug dealer known as the Acid King. Crime scene: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards outside Redlands, the home that was raided by police in 1967 He was a guest at the party – and supplied the drugs – but vanished after the raid, never to be seen or heard of again. Jagger and Richards were arrested and jailed for possession of cannabis and amphetamines, though later acquitted on appeal. Richards claimed last week in his autobiography, Life, that the Acid King was a police informant called David Sniderman. The truth appears to confirm Richards’s long-held belief that the band was targeted by an Establishment fearful of its influence over the nation’s youth. The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Sniderman was a Toronto-born failed actor who told his family and friends he was recruited by British and American intelligence as part of a plot to discredit the group. After the Redlands bust, he slipped out of Britain and moved to the States where he changed his name to David Jove, and lived in Hollywood, later working as a small-time producer and film-maker. Informant: David Jove pictured with his wife Lotus Weinstock at a family wedding Maggie Abbott, a Sixties talent agent, met him in Los Angeles in 1983 and became his lover. He told her how he infiltrated the group but said he was now ‘on the run’. She said: ‘David was a heavy drug user but had a quick wit. He was the perfect choice to infiltrate the Stones. ‘He never showed any remorse for what he did. It was all about how he had been “the victim”. He was a totally selfish person. ‘Mick had been my friend as well as a client and I thought about trying to persuade David to come clean publicly. ‘But he was always armed with a handgun and I feared that if I gave him away, he’d shoot me.’ His identity was confirmed by a scion of a family of American philanthropists, James Weinstock. Close: Jove, pictured here with Keith Richards in 1973, was a heavy drug user with a quick wit. As a result, he was easily able to infiltrate the Stones' inner circle Still rocking and rolling: Keith Richards has recently published his autobiography, Life Two years after the Redlands raid, ‘Dave Jove’ married Mr Weinstock’s sister, Lotus, in Britain. ‘They’d come up with some new way to make acid and decided to go to the UK and sell it,’ Miss Abbott said. But David was caught carrying pot by Customs. ‘Some other guys turned up – he implied they were MI5 or MI6 – and they gave him an ultimatum: he’d get out of prison time if he set up the Stones.’ The British agents were in cahoots, he told Miss Abbott, with the FBI’s notorious Counterintelligence division, known as Cointelpro, which specialised in discrediting American groups deemed to be ‘subversive’. On Christmas Day in 1969, ‘Jove’s’ new wife, Lotus, gave birth to a daughter, Lili. Their marriage lasted 18 years, though they never lived together. ‘I first met David when I returned to California from Bali, where I had gone searching for God,’ said James Weinstock, Lotus’s brother. ‘One New Year’s Eve, he showed me a gun and said he’d just killed a man who was messing with his car.’ Later he was rumoured to have murdered a TV personality, Peter Ivers, the presenter of a TV show that ‘Jove’ produced. Miss Abbott said: ‘There was talk that Peter had decided to leave the show and David was angry. ‘I discovered “Jove” wasn’t David’s real name when he shot himself through his heel with his gun. ‘When we checked him into hospital, he used a made-up name and later I found out his real name was Sniderman.’ Satisfaction: The Rolling Stones pictured in their 1960s heyday His first half-hearted admission was to Mr Weinstock: ‘He told me he was tight with the Rolling Stones in England, but had a falling-out with them,’ he said. ‘He was arrested for some ser­ious offence, but managed to extric­ate himself, and he said it all looked very suspicious when the police busted the Rolling Stones. They froze him out after that.’ In 1985, Miss Abbott and an old friend, Marianne Faithfull, went out for dinner in Los Angeles. Miss Abbott introduced her to ‘Jove’ – but Ms Faithfull soon told her she wanted to leave. Miss Abbott says: ‘When we got into my car, she said, “It’s him, the Acid King. He set up the Redlands bust. Don’t ever see him again”. ’ Miss Abbott added: ‘Two months after the evening with Marianne, I finally had it out with him. ‘To my amazement, he told me everything. He said, “It’s a relief to be able to talk about it”. ’ ‘Jove’s’ final confession was made to his daughter, Lili Haydn, now a 40-year-old rock violinist. She said: ‘Shortly before his death he said he was the Acid King. ‘He told me he wasn’t a drug dealer. He felt he was expanding the consciousness of some of the greatest minds of his day.’ Later in his life he was ostracised by his glamorous LA set after his drug use became ‘voluminous’. He died alone in 2004.

Hi Deborah J, Could it be Jackie de Shannon? She was blonde and American.

Yes Magic, and it is being repeated on the same evening at 2320 hrs for anyone who missed the first showing.

SAJ, I was thinking about this too, just after I posted it. It doesn't make sense to me either, and I have to say that I think it is a piece of made up nonsense. Jason's children are 17 and 14 years old - they are not small children who would perhaps have never met, or seen recent pictures of, RP,JP and JPJ. Obviously, I do not know if they were in attendance at the O2, but they are bound to have seen the post-gig press photos, and they were in Robert's company shortly thereafter. The three remaining LZ members have not aged that much since December 2007.

I've underlined some parts in the text to which I want to draw your attention. From: The Montreal Gazette 'Through Dad's eyes, you know' Jason Bonham, son of late Led Zeppelin drummer, and tribute band doing it the way Zep did it on stage By BERNARD PERUSSE, The Gazette October 23, 2010 8:26 AM "I was trying to impress just the three guys on stage. I never looked past the edge of the stage," Jason Bonham says of reunion concert with surviving members of Led Zeppelin three years ago. When Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died with 40 shots of vodka under his belt 30 years ago, he had acquired a reputation as one of rock's unhinged wild men. Like fellow basher Keith Moon, who had met a similar end with pills two years earlier, Bonham was synonymous with rock-star excess. Bonham's son, Jason, was only 14 when he lost his father and his memories are more idyllic. He remembers the man he still constantly refers to as "Dad" as being up at 6 a.m., making sandwiches and preparing the cooler before waking him. The junior Bonham is now out on the road playing drums with Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, a band that pays tribute to the beloved hard-rock avatars and plays two sets of Zep evergreens tonight at the Metropolis. But apart from the automatic blood cred, Bonham recently took his father's place behind the drum kit with the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin -Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones -for a high-profile reunion show. Technically, it wasn't the first time the survivors played together since the group disbanded in 1980, in the wake of the elder Bonham's death. But the one-time return of Led Zeppelin three years ago at London's 02 Arena, before 18,000 excited fans, was the first full show since the breakup. "I was trying to impress just the three guys on stage. I never looked past the edge of the stage," Bonham remembered during a telephone interview this week. "It was to get a smile from Jimmy or a nod from John Paul Jones or a glance back from Robert. That was my goal on that evening." Bonham said that during the performance of Dazed and Confused that night, he even had a moment straight out of The Song Remains the Same, the 1976 Zeppelin concert-fantasy film. It happened when Jones looked back at him to share a quick laugh over a small mistake. "I just said 'Oh, my God, it's that moment!' Through Dad's eyes, you know? I'm looking at this guy who, in the movie, was staring back at him." After that show, speculation about a more permanent reunion, or at least a tour, seemed out of control. Eventually, however, it was reported that Plant had declined further participation. The singer took Bonham and Bonham's son to a soccer game a few weeks after the 02 show and explained everything, Bonham said. "We had a good chat and I understood," he said. And while he wasn't about to betray any confidences, Bonham said there was more to the whole thing than meets the eye. "It's not as simple as 'Robert didn't want to do it,' " he said. Page, Jones and Bonham did get together in 2008 and while some media reported that they were auditioning new singers, Bonham said they were only writing new material. "It was never going to be Led Zeppelin," Bonham said. He did, however, say he would love to finish the songs the three started and expressed hope they would be used in a future project. While Bonham's tribute band might not be Led Zeppelin either, it does, with technological help, feature his father. Unseen photos from family archives, shown on stage, keep the late drummer alive and the mystery of what Bonham, as a child, was playing on that drum kit in The Song Remains the Same will be revealed during the show. Most intriguingly, the carefully choreographed use of video allows the two Bonhams to play a drum solo together on Moby Dick -a moment, Bonham said, that always leaves a few "tearful eyes." The raison d'etre of the group, of course, is to pay homage to the Led Zeppelin repertoire without making it sound like a museum piece. Changes are constantly made to the set list, Bonham said, and he warned against expectations that the songs will sound like the studio versions. After all, it's not like Led Zeppelin didn't take colossal liberties with their material on stage. "I gave the guys in the band about 30 to 40 different bootlegs to listen to," Bonham said. "The real diehards know exactly what we're doing. It's really cool when you see someone get it. They go 'Oh my God! They're doing the Birmingham gig, 1971!' " Bonham, who said his favourite performance of his father's is on Achilles Last Stand, from Presence, contended that the Zeppelin catalogue refuses to get old, constantly yielding neglected treasures like Night Flight on Physical Graffiti. His own children, a 17-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son, have seen and appreciated the vintage records and photos, but his son was shocked when Bonham showed him a recent shot of the surviving members. "He looks and goes 'But they're old!' " Bonham said, laughing. "He couldn't get it, you know? To them, Zeppelin are still a young band." His son, he said, plays drums a little, but hasn't shown an intense desire to carry on the family tradition and get behind the kit. "Who knows? My dad didn't start playing until he was 15," Bonham said. "So I said to my son, 'You've got another year.' " Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience plays tonight at 8 at Metropolis, 59 Ste. Catherine St. E. Tickets cost $49.50. Phone 514-790-1245 or go to www.admission.com.

I was trying to find a place for this interview from Bev Bevan where he talks about playing with Jason recently. Show is set to rock the region Mail (Birmingham); Oct 8, 2010; Martin Hutchinson; p. 34 Full Text: (Copyright 2010 Birmingham Post and Mail Ltd.) IT'S only rock 'n' roll - but we like it! A new show featuring a veritable who's who of Midlands' rockers tours the region over the next few weeks. The line-up includes country/folk singer Raymond Froggatt and Hartley Cain from his band, Geoff Turton from The Rockin' Berries, Bev Bevan and Trevor Burton from The Move and Birmingham's first pop star Danny King. Bev Bevan, who has also drummed with ELO and Black Sabbath, says: "We've been doing the Brum Rocks concerts for about four years now and this show has evolved from that. "It's really been restricted to the Birmingham area but the promoters wanted to take it further afield and introduce other people. "It's coming together nicely, but it's a real workout for the drums. The show actually opens with a drum solo and then the drum standard, Let There Be Drums." Bev reveals he was inspired by the music of the 50s. "If I had to pick a year when music was at it's best, I'd have to say 1958-59; all American Rock and Roll, plus Move It. Those songs really inspired me." He agrees that It's Only Rock 'N' Roll has quite a line-up of stars. "Danny King was there at the beginning. He was doing the Hamburg club scene back in 1957! He's one of the original rock and roll singers. He also discovered Trevor Burton, who was playing in his band at 15 years old." Trevor went on to form The Move with Bev in 1965. "In the show, we'll do some Rock and Blues stuff and a couple of Move hits like I Can Hear The Grass Grow and Blackberry Way," Bev says. "Geoff Turton has a great high voice and he does some of the Rockin' Berries hits as well as Pretty Woman and Young Girl. Ray Froggatt does his own songs like Red Balloon. "We're doing a tribute to our old friend Jimi Hendrix, as it's 40 years since he died, with a version of Purple Haze and Danny King's version of Yesterday, with just him and an acoustic guitar, will bring the house down." Bev, who turns 65 during the tour, is known primarily as a drummer but he gets to exercise his vocal chords. "I'm dusting off Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart which I sang on the first Move album in 1968," he smiles. "I'm really enjoying my drumming these days," he add. "It's like I've got a new lease of life. "We had a bit of a get together recently at my old friend John Bonham's house, where his widow still lives. Jason, his son, was there and started playing the drums. I remembered that I used to play with him and his dad when he was about seven years old. John and I were drumming away and little Jason had a small kit made up in between us and played along."

Neil Young has never had much time for journalists - or even his fans. So how did Rod Liddle, a journalist and lifelong admirer, fare when he met his hero for the first time, in California? The Times (London); Oct 3, 2010; Rod Liddle; p. 26 Full Text: (Copyright © Times Newspapers Limited 2010) We're at a log-cabin restaurant in the middle of a damp, silent redwood forest just south of San Francisco, a handful of miles from Neil Young's ranch. Young is inside, finishing an interview with the Canadian broadcaster CBC, and I'm next, so this is a nervy time, because the singer is not terribly keen on journalists and most usually takes the piss out of them, or is truculent, or monosyllabic, or just grouchy. Difficult, one way or another, and full of disdain. It is not nice to be disdained. I crunch around outside in the gravel and dirt lot, smoking -- this may be the only place in California where you can smoke -- and wonder how I might ingratiate myself. But that doesn't usually work either -- as we will see, he has even less time for his fan base than he does for hacks. Inside, the television lights are being dismantled, so I make my way into the bar area and tentatively ask Jasmine, the CBC babe: "Happy, then?" "Believe me," she replies, "shit like this don't determine my state of happiness, y'know. This is just, like, work." Uh-oh. There's another reason to be nervy about this interview. For 36 years, I have had the perfect relationship with Neil Young: he makes an album, I buy it; he plays a show somewhere, I go see it. This has been true since, as a 14-year-old kid, I bought On the Beach, unheard, on the strength of a damning review I'd read in, I think, the NME. The reviewer was so utterly mystified, I just had to have the record, so I saved up my pocket money for six weeks and bought it. Only much later was On the Beach cited as a work of unparalleled genius, and so on, and much the same process applied to his next extraordinary release, Tonight's the Night -- first the mystification and bewilderment, then, rather later, the extravagant praise -- and, for that matter, many, many subsequent recordings. This in part explains his disdain towards the press: often, they don't get it. Yet I'm not sure I want to jeopardise what has been, hitherto, a perfectly happy relationship. You don't get many perfect relationships in life, do you? Now he is seated across the table from me in this charming backwoods restaurant, flanked by his producer and fellow Canadian, the appropriately leather-clad and affable Daniel Lanois, with whom he has collaborated on his latest album, entitled, punningly and as a backhanded compliment, Le Noise. It is an odd thing, being face to face with Neil Young. He is much bigger, much more substantial than you would assume from those emotive whining vocals. He doesn't have the hollowed-out, drugaddled, skeletal face of many rock'n'roll survivors, your famous Keith Richards mask. Nor the expensively acquired youthfulness of the more mainstream old lags of pop. Rather, with the acres of stubble and the pouchy skin around the eyes, the encroaching sideburns, the dress-down grunge T-shirt and loose jacket, he resembles a 64-year-old plumber whom you have called out early on a bank holiday to fix your cistern, who is not awfully pleased to have been called out and who is probably going to overcharge you as a consequence. There is a worryingly appraising look in those eyes and the shadow of an ironic smile playing about that lopsided mouth. Le Noise is a very good album indeed, perhaps Young's best since Sleeps with Angels, back in 1994. A lot is made by both Young and Lanois during the interview of the unique nature of the album -- just Young alone with an acoustic or electric guitar, which is then subjected to Lanois's clever sonic interference, with those strangulated vocals sometimes looped and Young's two favourite electric guitars squalling or growling away in the background. It is (surprisingly) true that, live records apart, Young has never recorded an album in this way, without a band, although I am not sure it is quite so singular in the history of popular music as the two of them seem keen to insist. "This is what the old bluesmen, you know, John Lee Hooker, were doing. This is getting right back. We hit the mother lode with this one," Lanois says, full of congratulatory awe at himself and Young. Well, yes, they were, up to a point -- and quite a few non-old-bluesmen have done the same since, not least the late John Martyn. They are protesting a little too much, and making claims that they do not really need to make -- for this is, as I've mentioned, a wonderful album, and Lanois is no small part of it, not merely tinkering around at the edges, but even convincing Young to drop whole verses, to change the structure of his songs. It is a genuine collaboration and commended as such by the album title. If there is a similarity with any former album of Young's, it is with Freedom (1989), a collaboration with another auteur-producer, Niko Bolas, where gentle acoustic melodies are suddenly usurped by howling guitar and feedback. "This is a close-up," Young asserts, "an extreme close-up. You can't have anything better." Young continues, saying he enjoyed the freedom of not having to write songs for a band: "I wanted to make a solo record, where I don't have to make any decisions about having to write in a certain way because of, you know, the band. This opened certain doors for me, where there's no limitations." It is interesting for a fan, like me, to know that he writes in this way, that the songs sort of follow the band, from the magnificent raucous lumbering of Crazy Horse to the plangent country rock of the Stray Gators (who gave him his biggest British hit with Harvest, back in 1972). With this record, Young apparently performed sitting alone with a guitar, then Lanois went to work in the studio. Le Noise has been greeted with equal parts adulation and that usual mystification by both the press and the Young obsessives. The fan sites want another crunching rock album, like Zuma or Ragged Glory, or maybe another sweet country album, like Harvest or Comes a Time. They get cross when he does stuff like Le Noise, just as they got cross when he made Tonight's the Night. They get cross when he confounds expectation -- yet almost every Neil Young record has confounded expectation. That, you might argue, is the point. Young guffaws. "You never, ever listen to your fan base. The last thing you should ever do is follow your fan base. That's all they are -- a fan base. There's no ownership. I don't have to deal with them... They get angry about the very things that they seem to value, that make them fans in the first place," he says, humorously exasperated. That sense of ownership of the artist, enhanced by the internet sites, has a fascistic side to it. One Neil Young site has asked: "Should Neil be allowed to follow his muse?" Young shakes his head: "These people... should your fan That's all are -- a I don't deal with they need to have something to do." It is true that if the fans had had their way, there would have been no On the Beach orTonight's the Night; and if the fans of those two albums had had their way, no American Stars 'n Bars, or Trans. He does something different every time. This is what marks him out as a performer; that and the fact that he has a better grasp of that limited and overrated medium, rock music, than anyone you care to name. It is probably true that Young could not have written a song as neat and perfect as Bob Dylan's Simple Twist of Fate; it is equally true that Dylan could not have made an album as musically attuned as Tonight's the Night, where the raw performances and instrumentation matched the tenor and feel of the songs. Tonight's the Night still stands as his greatest album, the closest -- in Young's words -- that he has come to art. But if you ask him to compare it to any of his other records, he won't play ball, won't engage. They are all good, or all bad, or all indifferent, or all three of these things. He won't draw lines between them, even those that are genuinely awful, such as Journey Through the Past and the comparatively recent Are You Passionate? I ask him whether he is a good judge of his own material. "God, no, no, no, I'm a terrible judge. That's why I had him for this album," he says, nodding to Lanois. He has been eviscerated, too, for the occasional political faux pas, as far as the liberal music press was concerned -- the lefty hippie who said that maybe Reagan was a better bet than Carter back in 1980, and later supported Ross Perot's bid to win the presidency. On the first point, there are surely few who would disagree with him now. "I'm not going to not say things just because other people might disagree with them," he says. He insists that he is not primarily a political songwriter, and that he tries to see even the most right-wing of politicians, such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, as human beings. A few years back, he released Living with War, a fine and again confounding album full of rage about George W Bush's war against Iraq, the furious Let's Impeach the President. It sits oddly with his assertion that he is not political, but he has said it was made because so few contemporaneous -- ie, young -- artists were making the same sort of stand. What about the likes of Conor Oberst, of Bright Eyes, I ask him? "I meant in the mainstream. Such as, hey, you know... how about Britney Spears? It would have been great if Britney Spears had made a record about it . You know, she's awesome, a brilliant performer, made some great records." have to them' I like the idea of a Britney album about the invasion of Iraq. I think that's a good call, and some enterprising producer should get on the case right now. Before my time is up, I ask Young about Time Fades Away, a lost live album of his that has never been released on CD, and is much loved by that aforementioned fan base. Young is capricious and stubborn even over past material of his that the critics adore -- On the Beach was not released on CD for 20-odd years, and Time Fades Away will have spent nearer 40 languishing only on vinyl (which might nonetheless be the best medium for it). Yes, he says, Time Fades Away will be released as part of his archive series, a long and exhaustive process. It will be released one of these days. Then I'm out of there, the log cabin in the woods, and the next journalist waiting is saying to me: "Happy, then?" Well, hey, bud, shit like this don't determine my state of happiness. 'The last thing you should do is follow your fan base. That's all they are -- a fan base. I don't have to deal with them'

Concert review: Zeppelin party a fine experience By Rob Hubbard Special to the Pioneer Press Updated: 10/20/2010 12:58:39 PM CDT As legend has it, when guitarist Jimmy Page told Who drummer Keith Moon that he wanted to start a hard rock band built around the blues, Moon replied, "That should go over like a lead zeppelin." But go over it did, with that little London-based blues band becoming one of the iconic rock bands of the '70s, filling stadiums and setting standards for excess that eventually brought about the demise of its drummer, John Bonham, and, consequently, the band. Three years ago, the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited for a London concert with Bonham's son, Jason, manning his dad's old kit. They sounded so good that it's understandable why Bonham the younger craved the possibility of a tour together. But the others declined. However, the drummer decided to go on without them, gathering some musicians expert at Zeppelin covers and heading out on a tour as "Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience." On Tuesday night, the band performed its first U.S. show at Minneapolis' State Theatre, and it proved to be a fun celebration of Led Zeppelin's music, at its best when it tapped into the bluesy roots of the band's sound. Yes, the big anthemic show stoppers were present "Stairway to Heaven," "Kashmir" but the most exhilarating moments came when the blues were served relatively straight up, as on "The Lemon Song" and "Since I've Been Loving You." The nearly three-hour show wasn't a thrill ride, but instead a fine living history exhibit for boomers who still like to get the Led out now and then. From early on, Bonham made it clear that he saw this tour as an opportunity to sing the praises of his father's life and legacy, perhaps gaining a sense of closure about a loss he suffered at the age of 14. So the audience was shown plenty of home movies of Bonham the elder in his childhood, teen years, and playing with young Jason as an adult. He also showed up for a drum duet with his son on "Moby Dick" and provided the thundering thump beneath "When the Levee Breaks." John Bonham was indeed a legendary drummer who's inspired a couple of generations to take the rhythmic road less traveled, but it did begin to feel a bit odd that the three surviving members received almost no mention. That said, their roles were more than capably filled by the musicians of the "Experience." The standout was guitarist Tony Catania, who delivered Page's licks with all the right off-kilter abandon. But bassist Michael Devin was also exceptional, proving a considerably more showy player than John Paul Jones. While all had ample shoes to fill, vocalist James Dylan may have had the hardest task of all in imitating the distinctive wail of Robert Plant. Alas, he was often buried in the mix in the early going, and grew raspy as the evening went on. But he had the audience to lean on as they unleashed their choral capabilities on the a cappella bridge of "The Ocean" and the balladic beginning of "Over the Hills and Far Away." At such moments, the true spirit of the evening came through: This wasn't about re-creating a Zeppelin concert, but having a party with their music. And it was a pretty fun one.

SAJ, You are very welcome. I was happy that your 'mystery' was solved. If only all Zeppelin related 'mysteries' could be solved.

Ax man ... Axl Rose and co played too longSuzan/PA 16 October 2010 YOU can't teach an old dog new tricks - or GUNS N' ROSES for that matter.The veteran rockers face a hefty fine after breaking two 11pm concert curfews. They are notorious for shocking timekeeping and, true to form, overran with both their shows at the O2 arena in London this week - by a total of three hours. LADY GAGA was the last star to break her 11pm curfew at the venue, by 25 mintues last February. She was in line for a £10,000 fine for the privilege - which worked out at £400 a minute. By that calculation, Guns N' Roses could now be hit for £72,000. An O2 spokesman confirmed that the promoters would incur a cost for the late finishes. The venue was also forced to put on extra transport for fans after 20,000 concert-goers missed the last Tube home. But it was a small price to pay for the surprise appearance onstage of original band member DUFF McKAGAN. The bass guitarist joined frontman AXL ROSE for four hits, fuelling rumours of a reunion between the band that made debut album Appetite For Destruction. An all-star line-up might be sooner than we think - Axl will need the extra cash if he continues to play past his bedtime. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3182753/Overruns-and-Roses-fined.html#ixzz12YDdeIiO

Robert Plant next week. :D

This clip only lasts 6 seconds. I've watched it over and over, and it does appear to be Jimmy - silver white hair in ponytail. He appears to be with his youngest daughter. he was obviously not wanting to be bothered when with the kids - understandable. From: boomnoise | 21 August 2010 | 157 views jimmy page tells pokes 'no! I'm with my daughter!' http://www.youtube.c...u/1/0Y-1VxY05Qk