Dandu, I put the text of the Sunday Times interview on the 'News' forum yesterday afternoon. At the end of the article, the following was stated:- "The book Jimmy Page (Genesis Publications, Pounds 395) is published in September in a signed limited edition of 2,500. It is available, with free p&p, at The Sunday Times Bookshop. Tel: 0845 2712 135". I then expressed my concern for people who had already ordered some months ago and had paid postage and packaging charges. I have tried to find the book in the online Times book section, but it seems to only feature the likes of the George Case book. I am not certain, but I suspect that to get access to the Sunday Times Bookshop referred to above, you may have to subscribe to their site. I know that if you want access to the video of the Sunday Times interview, you have to subscribe. Or perhaps you have to order using the phone number which was given.

With Jimmy's rate of progress, he should ask for his job back with Red E Lewis and the Redcaps

Here is a Times UK article written after the sale was withdrawn. I have included it here because, although it covers rockers' art acquisitions in general, it talks about Jimmy as a collector. A rocker's best friend is his dealer The Times (London); Aug 17, 2010; Stephen Dalton; p. 51 Full Text: (Copyright © Times Newspapers Limited 2010) The long love affair between rock music and visual art has taken a bizarre twist with news that the Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page may have given four early sketches by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais to his late aide and chauffeur, Rick Hobbs. Now the sketches have been withdrawn from auction at late notice, possibly after Page himself intervened -- only deepening the mystery. It would come as no great surprise if Page turns out to be the source of the Millais sketches. The rocker has long been known as a cultured man of letters and keen collector of Victoriana. In addition, Millais himself was something of a rock-star figure in the 19th-century art scene, partly for his groundbreaking treatment of social and religious subjects, but chiefly for his adulterous love affair with the critic John Ruskin's wife Effie, whom he later married. More striking is just how prominent the relationship between pop fame and art has become since Page's stadium rocking heyday, with galleries and auction houses wooing the pop pound in these lean economic times. The salerooms of London and New York no longer attract just the mega-rich Old Masters of rock but a younger generation of pop performers including Kylie Minogue, Geri Halliwell, Alison Goldfrapp, Matt Bellamy of Muse and more. Robbie Williams has reportedly bought several Warhols, while Noel and Liam Gallagher have snapped up silkscreen prints by the former Beatles favourite Peter Blake. America's royal couple of pop, Jay-Z and Beyonce, have also amassed a large private collection including works by Damien Hirst and Richard Prince. Privately, some gallery owners and art-world insiders dismiss celebrity collectors as shallow dilettantes with more money than sense. But to write off these famous clients as philistines is to misunderstand the long kinship between rock and art, which have been engaged in a mutual exchange of glamour and gravitas ever since Tommy Steele bought his first Lowry. Given British pop's artschool tradition, from Page and his 1960s peers John Lennon and Pete Townshend, to Pulp and Franz Ferdinand, it makes sense that many musicians return to their first love when the royalty cheques start rolling in. "There's no reason why one would hold them in any less regard because of what they do," says Sam Chatterton Dickson of the Haunch of Venison gallery in London. "One often finds rock stars have come from an art background -- Bryan Ferry famously went to art school. Brian Eno is a very highly educated and very erudite guy and is a visual artist himself." Ferry is certainly one of British rock's most prominent collectors. The suave singer studied at Newcastle University under the Pop Art pioneer Richard Hamilton, and his band Roxy Music were something of a Pop Art statement themselves.Yet it was to an earlier chapter of art history that Ferry turned when he began making serious money in the mid 1970s. In keeping with his impeccably dressed 1930s playboy image, Ferry favours British art from the high Modernist period, including Bloomsbury group associates Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Percy Wyndham Lewis. He also owns an extensive selection of Victorian portraits, including a Sickert. In Junethisyear,thedapper crooner exhibited his collection in London, but confessed he longer buys much art because "I've run out of walls." Other prolific collectors include EltonJohn, who owns canvases byMagritte, Picasso, Warhol and more. He also has a work by the former Clash bassist Paul Simonon, Bacon & Egg, given to him by Lilly Allen. "I'm very into my art," said Allen at the time, "I wish I could paint but I'm rubbish." Madonna collects modern and Surrealist art, paying $1 million in 1987 for Fernand Leger's Les Deux Bicyclettes. She has since acquired about 300 pictures, including works by Picasso, Salvador Dali, Tamara de Lempicka, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman and two by Frida Kahlo. The singer's public obsession with Kahlo has been credited with boosting the profile of the proto-feminist Mexican icon -- and, by extension, the value of her own investment. Perhaps a more surprising art lover is Lars Ulrich, the drummer with the thrash-metal titans Metallica. Partly because of his Danish roots, Ulrich was initially drawn to the CoBrA group, a neo-primitive collective who worked in Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam in the early 1950s. This led him to more contemporary work in a similar neo-Expressionist vein, notably a prized piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Ulrich once compared the joy of contemplating his private collection to "hanging out backstage with Kid Rock". But when marriage and fatherhood loomed, the drummer fell out of love withart,selling three-quarters of his collection at Christie's in 2002 for a multimillion-pound payday. "Collecting is not about the trophy on the wall," he explained, "it is about the journey." Many musicians are not just collectors but visual artists themselves. When not curating his personal gallery, which stretches from Rubens and Tintoretto to rising stars, David Bowie is a keen painter and board member of Modern Painters magazine. David Byrne straddles the line between multimedia artist and collector, and is in a relationship with the visual artist Cindy Sherman. Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, U2 singer Bono and former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire have all taken up the brushes. Brian Eno has long blurred the line between sound and vision, most recently in his audiovisual installation, 77 Million Paintings. Some pop stars have graduated from collectors to patrons of the arts. In the 1970s, the Rolling Stones enlisted Andy Warhol to design their Sticky Fingers album cover. In the 1990s, when Britpop and the YBAs became bedfellows, Blur commissioned a video from Damien Hirst and an album cover from Julian Opie. Madonna and Nick Cave have both presented the Turner Prize, while Madge's most recent hits collection featured sleeve graphics by the street artist and Banksy protege Thierry Guetta. Christina Aguilera is also a fan of Banksy and British graffiti art, commissioning the London-based Dean "D*Face" Stockton to paint the cover for Bionic. As in all romances, the relationship between pop and art has had its rocky patches. But much like Jimmy Page's fondness for the Pre-Raphaelites, it is grounded in a whole lotta love, too. "Some gallery owners dismiss celebrity collectors as shallow dilettantes" Credit: Stephen Dalton

Robert has revealed how hard up and desperate he and Bonzo were in the mid-1960's before they hit the big time with Zeppelin:- http://www.express.c...t-on-the-record

Wild Fire Woman and 1111sticks, If you listen to Robert in this interview on Friday, 20 August when he attended a function for the Steve Bull Foundation, you will realise that he has found his West Country accent :D http://www.expressan...t-talk-charity/

Sean Atkinson, the man who runs the Facebook page entitled 'The Richard Cole Appreciation Society', has commissioned a picture of Richard. He states on the group page "Have comissioned a picture of Richard and people/things he knew..I will be presenting this to Richard soon. Also will be having a limited number of prints done which I will be selling to group members, if you are interested then please let me know."

I think you are now at the stage where this problem should be dealt with between you/ebay and paypal. Zeppelin forum members have given you as much help as they can.

Codyman, Was he at Boleskine on his own? From the mid-80's onward, he was married. Did he not mention his wife and son, James? Did your girlfriend go into the house with you? Here is a link to an article featuring Jimmy's former caretaker at Boleskine, Malcolm Dent:- http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/1327/A_rock_legend_and_black_arts_figured_in_Malcolm_s_life.html

Cheesehead, 1. What you should do is exactly what I and others advised you to do yesterday. Read the final paragraphs of my posting from yesterday. If you paid by Paypal, start a Paypal reclaim a.s.a.p. If you paid by other means, claim through Ebay. Paypal/Ebay require the goods to be returned before they will make the final refund. But in the meantime, start your claim now through Paypal/Ebay. When you are in the Ebay system try their 'help' facility and their 'community' facility because the latter allows you to ask for help from other Ebay members. 2. Make a separate complaint to Ebay about what you believe are counterfeit goods. 3. Remember to send the package back with postage which includes a proof of posting/sign on receipt facility. The bag the box was wrapped in is irrelevant to your claim. When you received the goods, you were entitled to unwrap them.

Cheesehead, Don't worry about asking for advice - this is a considerable amount of money to pay for something which is not as it should be. What I am going to say is on the assumption that you are in the UK. Your recourse in law is against the seller, not the manufacturer - it doesn't matter if it is a manufacturer's fault. Think about it - if you went into a high street shop to buy a shirt which turned out to be faulty, you would receive the refund from the shop. The shop returns the faulty goods to the manufacturer who in turn would reimburse the seller. Because you bought on Ebay, you should be covered by the Distance Selling Regulations. I have copied a link which gives a brief explanation. http://www.out-law.com/page-430 Take a look at the Sale Of Goods Act 1979 with its definition of 'satisfactory quality'. <LI>‘Satisfactory quality’ is further defined by section 14(2B) of the 1979 Act, so that the quality of goods ‘includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods – (a) fitness for all purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied, ( appearance and finish, © freedom from minor defects, (d) safety, and (e) durability’. I have been a regular buyer on Ebay for six years, and my advice to you is to apply now for a Paypal refund now because the partial refund which is being offered to you does not put the goods as a whole into a state of 'satisfactory quality'. It is very easy to start the process and the site will guide you through it step by step - I've had to do it many times. You are give the opportunity to put your points, and the seller either refunds you immediately or puts his reply. If the dispute goes beyond a certain number of days without resolution, Paypal makes the final decision as to recompense. Tell the seller that the goods are not complete, and that you will return the discs to them for a full refund. In fact, what I have always done in the past is return the goods to the seller anyway (but make sure you send them by a tracking postal service) and claim your refund. That way you would have proof that the seller has received them back, and carry on claiming for your full refund. If you didn't pay by Paypal, start a refund claim under the Ebay refund system. If you get your money back, buy the goods from another source.

Hi 'Codyman70', Welcome to the site - hope you enjoy it. What you say about Boleskine is interesting. Would you possibly share with us here how you came to get inside the house. Were you a friend of the factor, Malcolm Dent? Did you ever get to meet Jimmy? When I was as school, us kids were taken on a geography field trip to a place called Lagganlia. This was December 1974. I asked the poor soul who was being paid to drive us around if he knew anything about Jimmy, and all he could say was that Jimmy was 'very popular with the local women'!!!

This is reported on Billboard. At least Jason would be keen. A comment at the end from a contributor says it wouldn't be a reunion because Jason was not a member of Zeppelin. Speaking only for myself - I'd be ecstatic if it happened - I couldn't care less that he wasn't an original member. http://www.billboard.com/events/i-d-love-a-led-zeppelin-reunion-jason-bonham-1004109040.story?tag=hpfeed#/events/i-d-love-a-led-zeppelin-reunion-jason-bonham-1004109040.story?tag=hpfeed

Did you pay by Paypal? If you don't receive your replacement item, you could make a Paypal claim, as long as you do it within the time limit.

Thanks PlanetPage and Alice 75. I thought it was commendable that Mr Hobbs didn't utter a word about any of the band's private business. It is quite a rare thing nowadays. There are photographs of Mr Hobbs on both his own page, and his condolence page, on a social networking site, but I don't think it is appropriate for me to post them here.

I told in my first posting on this site about the sad passing of Jimmy's personal assistant, Rick Hobbs earlier this year. Here is an article regarding the auctioning of some of Mr Hobbs' personal effects. 'Tucked inside Rick's Led Zeppelin LP covers, there were found four pencil sketches by the great Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais, believed to be gifts from the band for his devoted service.' There is also interesting detail about his work for, and relationship with, the band:- http://www.thisisthe...p_for_auction/. They’re expected to fetch £4,000 at an auction on Saturday, August 14. (Source: Classic Rock Magazine website)

Here's one of Scarlet and Tom together:-

This is truly trivia (or scraping the barrel, depending on your viewpoint!), but UK society magazine 'Tatler' states in its 2010 Restaurant Guide that Jimmy is a regular at Chutney Mary Indian restaurant on the Kings Road, London. A description from the 2009 Guide states 'It claims to be London's most romantic Indian restaurant and it isn't far off the mark. Coruscating crystals and candles light the dining room and conservatory and the food is extremely refined ('No more brown food on the plate,' is the mantra of co-owner Namita Panjabi). Chutney Mary is a very swish, smart restaurant that has for a long time been upping the ante for Indian food in London.' www.chutneymary.com

Hi Conneyfogle, Could you expand on what you mean by 'apparently Ross has his own people'. Have you been told that RH is involved in the site's development etc? It always looks to me like Ross has taken over Jimmy's life! My vote would go to Steve A Jones - he has an excellent writing style, is a dedicated fan and takes great care over the accuracy of what he writes. SAJ would bring a fresh perspective to the project.

Hi Toni, If you look a few topics down on this Led Zep Trivia forum, you will find a topic which I started when I found a posting on a groupie site by Bebe Buell. http://forums.ledzep...ks-about-jimmy/ Some of the ex-groupies have their own website, like Pamela Des Barres, which you could check out. A few of the girls (PDB and Lori Maddox) are on Facebook. They are also featured on the FamilyZepp website. Hope this helps.

Hi 'Duckman' Your experience with Halfin doesn't surprise me. At the premieres for 'It Might Get Loud', he was trying to stop fans taking photographs (outside in the open) when Jimmy was turning up at the theatres. He uses his association with Jimmy to keep himself in the limelight. I laughed at his diary entry for 11 June 2010 when he posted a new photograph of himself to try to attract women (his girlfriend dumped his earlier this year). He said "Here you go girls, slightly well-used, free and single..." At the same time, he put the new photo on his Facebook page - the sweet smell of desperation. He is mainly interested in women from the Far East. May I suggest to him that he visits the Edinburgh Festival because the LadyBoys of Bangkok are doing their annual show, and these guys may be the only ones that find RH in any way attractive.

Last night, Monday 26 July, the BBC were running a trailer for their forthcoming history programme, The Normans. They played the guitar intro from 'The Battle of Evermore' continuously throughout the ad (didn't feature the vocals). Here is a link about the programme:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/07_july/22/norman.shtml

Rolling Stone Keith Richards' gorgeous former model wife has beaten cancer of the bladder. Link from the UK Daily Mail below:- http://www.dailymail...tle-cancer.html

'Knebby' date='14 July 2010 - 08:33 AM' timestamp='1279096407' post='468889' Bob Geldof approached Robert. Robert told him he would consider it and let him know, as he would be on a US tour at the time and had commitments. Geldof then announced his name in the list of artists who would be appearing when he revealed the gig at a press conference - a typical Geldof trick, leaving the artist to risk looking like a jerk if they backed out. Geldof pulled the same trick with Madonna in 2005 at the 'Make Povery History' gig in London. He announced her appearance before she had the chance to do so, thereby committing her to perform. Madonna put Geldof in his place beautifully when she was interviewed backstage at the concert by Fearne Cotton. FC asked 'did Bob phone you to do the concert?' to which Madonna replied 'Bob doesn't have my phone number'. She then said that Geldof had had to go through mutual friends. I have never bought into the 'Saint' Bob thing, nor have I believed that his intentions were entirely altruistic. On Monday, the Daily Mail featured an excerpt from a book by showbusiness agent, Jon Roseman, which appears to confirm this contention to some extent. I've copied the relevant passage here:- "..... Thankfully, not every shoot was so problematic and I'm proud to have worked on some excellent videos, including one which promoted the Boomtown Rats' single I Don't Like Mondays in 1979. Everyone raved about it, including Bob Geldof, who never seemed to love anything very much except Paula Yates. But the band's popularity waned in the Eighties, leading to a curious encounter I had with Geldof in early 1985. It was a few months before the historic Live Aid concert burst onto the world's TV screens and I happened to be in New York visiting a friend at CBS Records. When I learned that Geldof was in one of the meeting rooms there, talking on the phone to one of the other Boomtown Rats, I popped in to say hello. Seeing me at the door, he waved at me to sit down and continued with his animated conversation. Listen we've got to do it,' I heard him say. 'It could be the way back for f***'s sake.' At the time, I thought it seemed that he might have seen Live Aid as a chance to revive the career of his band, as well as benefiting the people of Ethiopia. No one, including him, had any conception as to what an iconic event it would turn out to be ......" The rest of the article is off-topic for this thread, but it's worth reading for an insight into Roseman's dealings with the big names in rock. I've posted the link below:- www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1294148/Rod-mind-cocaine--I-breaking-Britt-Eklands-house-The-lurid-confessions-showbiz-insider.html#ixzz0tkdGKOQ4

Hi Danny, The subject of JPJ and JP not going to Karac Plant's funeral has rumbled on for years. I wish I had kept my Zeppelin newspaper cuttings because I am sure I remember reading some years after the funeral that Jimmy Page said he had written to Robert asking if he wanted him to attend. My recollection was that he couldn't understand why RP was now making out that he (JP) simply didn't attend. If John Paul Jones and Jimmy had turned up, it would have meant all four band members were present and the public might have taken photographs/asked for autographs at a small child's funeral. I think that both JP and JPJ are sufficiently well mannered to have made approaches as to whether their attendance at the funeral would be advisable. I realise that you have a contact who was/is very close to the band and, also, that lovely Knebby is a friend of Robert's, but I am going to say it anyway. What is worse JPJ and JP not attending a funeral, or Robert cheating on his wife and the mother of his children for years with a succession of groupies?