It's quite common to hear people in all parts of the UK saying "Ta very much", instead of "thanks very much".

Some really interesting articles there, SAJ. I have never seen any of them before.

Hi Scylla, I think we have to remember that altitude increases the effects of alcohol. Added to that, he may have taken some substance before boarding - we will never know! If the account is true, it sounds to me that there was more than one factor at play here. Presumably, the press would be getting their info from the cabin crew or passengers. Like you I can't understand why he would want to be arrested, particularly since US cops seem to be a lot stricter in their approach than ours in the UK.

The albums that make you wish you'd been there Webb, Robert. The Independent [London (UK)] 08 June 2013 Led Zeppelin How the West was Won (2003) The lumbering soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same failed to deliver an accurate document of Zep's live appeal. This crushingly brilliant triple-disc set, assembled by Jimmy Page from June 1972 performances found during the production of the Led Zeppelin DVD, does the trick. Download "Since I've Been Loving You"

Yes, I posted this newspaper article on the Random Newspaper Articles Thread on 11 August 2011 Post 354. .

Melanie, He must have been super pissed because I cannot recall ever having been so drunk that I would be requesting to be arrested.

Mackie, John; Andrews, Marke. The Vancouver Sun [Vancouver, B.C] 25 Mar 1993 Coverdale-Page Geffen * Ooooo, this is stinky. Trousersnake screecher (and noted Robert Plant soundalike) David Coverdale forms an unholy alliance with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page to try and capture that massive Zep market. It'll probably be huge out of the box - rock radio will jump all over this sucker - but this is basically a pretty pathetic facsimile of the real thing. Pagey comes up with the odd interesting riff, but Coverdale just sounds ridiculous trying to summon up the bloodcurdling wails and bluesy growls that made Led Zep Led Zep. This isn't even as good as Kingdom Come - what on earth was Jimmy Page thinking when he agreed to this project?

Coverdale drags Jimmy Page into the cliche-o-matic: Lepage, Mark. The Gazette [Montreal, Que] 20 Mar 1993 This is what David Coverdale has to offer to the advancement of world artistry and knowledge: "The boys are feeling hot tonight."And are there women to the left and women to the right, Dave? You betcher elfskin boots there are. While a breathless hard-rock community waits for the answer to how Coverdale wangled his name onto the front end of this FM programmer's dream, the rest of the world can go back to sleep in the cozy knowledge that Led Zeppelin is not, repeat not, back together. Nor is any facsimile of Zeppelin together, unless you consider Jimmy Page retooling his Druid Blues enough to warrant excitement. Maybe you do, all you Zephead faithful still walking around with Zoso patches on your Lois jean jackets. But for the rest of us, Coverdale's cliche-o-matic is enough to bleed away whatever second- hand enjoyment might be found in the return of Page, the Riffmaster General. Coverdale is no fool. Like a millionaire buying a title from some tired Brit nobleman, he's found a path to respectability. Now the guys at the record company can't laugh at him. He has Jimmy Page's home number. He also, predictably, has Robert Plant's number. Virtually every vocal is a lumpen remake of Plant's chest-beating wail. As for Page, the single Pride and Joy might be more enjoyable if the riffs weren't so meticulously compiled to appeal to every aspect of Zep fandom. An admitted master thief in his bygone days of black glory, Jimmy Page now leaves fingerprints everywhere. Over Now aims for Kashmir and gets as far as Long Island. There even remains some doubt that Page can still blaze. He crafts huge snow-drifts of chord progressions on electric and acoustic but dodges any flat-out burn. Coverdale is calling Take a Look at Yourself "R&B," which is an insult but typical of his pretension: it's a moderately graceful power ballad with Page in good form. The very titles of Absolution Blues and Whisper a Prayer for the Dying warn of Coverdale's attempt to capture the kind of heavy- handed mysterioso jabber that Zep owned in its heyday. So, since there is no subtlety to the album, we'll skip the subtlety here. David Coverdale is a flim-flam man, his lyrics shamefully inadequate. He would be a hair-farming parody if fans and critics weren't so inexplicably willing to forgive him his pseudo-aristocratic buffoonery, but all the Jimmy Pages in the world can't make up for a singer's hackdom. Coverdale makes this album an Escalator to Purgatory. Now playing forever at a rock station near you.

THE REUTRN OF JIMMY PAGE; "I FEEL I HAVE MY HEART IN IT AGAIN" Hilburn, Robert. The Gazette [Montreal, Que] 21 Mar 1993 Led Zeppelin cast such an enormous shadow over rock that it's no wonder guitarist Jimmy Page, the group's founder and chief musical architect, is still trying to move out from under it. By the time the British band called it quits after the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, Zeppelin stood over even the Rolling Stones as the biggest live draw in the world. Interest in their music has remained high enough that their four- disc box set in 1990 became the biggest selling CD retrospective ever - an estimated 1 million copies sold. A second retrospective consisting of tracks not included on the box set is now scheduled. Page has made numerous attempts to reassert his musical imprint on rock, but nothing has reflected the power and confidence of his Zeppelin days - until now. Page's new project, in a partnership with vocalist David Coverdale, of Whitesnake and Deep Purple fame, recaptures much of Zeppelin's blues-rock power and intensity. Their debut album, Coverdale/Page, went on sale in Montreal record shops this past week and is selling fast. It is expected to make the top-10 chart on eXpress next week. If the rock world has spent more than a decade wondering if Page would ever regain his old touch, you can imagine his own anxiety. "I think everyone goes through a period where you have a fear of losing . . . that spark, and I went through some of that," the guitarist says, sitting in a Hollywood hotel room with Coverdale. "I was fully aware the work that I did during the '80s certainly wasn't of the quality of Zeppelin, but that wasn't necessarily my own fault. The other components weren't there. "But working with David was a totally different thing. It was suddenly right back to that original spark of creativity and ideas flowing. I feel I have my heart in it again." Page, 49, wears his rock legacy well. Already inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, he will be inducted a second time when Led Zeppelin becomes eligible for the Hall next year. Despite all the tales over the years of wild, indulgent Zeppelin behavior, Page comes across as a shy, soft-spoken man, which helps explain why he never tried to grab the personal spotlight c la Mick Jagger. His obsession was the music. "Zeppelin became so huge that it's hard sometimes for people to understand that it was really the music that we loved," he says. "I knew we were doing something substantial. I just knew it - and that's what interested me, not the rest of it. I was constantly writing for the band, working on production, all the rest of it. That was my life." Page says he was too devastated when Bonham died to continue the band. "John was a dear friend and one of the greatest drummers who ever lived," he says. "His death just knocked me sideways. I didn't want to play guitar, didn't want to listen to any music. "But some of the stories got out of hand. It was never a question of my sanity or a vow to never play again." In fact, the guitarist was ready to put Zeppelin back together by the time he remastered the tracks for the 1990 Zeppelin box set. "I think I had always hoped we could work together again in some capacity because basically there was such a wonderful songwriting collaboration. "The important thing (around the box set time) was that we all had the time to do something together again. I had free time and John Paul Jones basically had an empty year and Robert Plant was taking a year off." Page said talks about a reunion project went on for months, but Plant eventually rejected it. Page decided to make a second solo album - the project that turned into Coverdale/Page. "I waded through scores of cassettes, looking for a singer for the album, but I didn't get inspired by anyone," he says. "I was getting quite depressed. I certainly didn't want to do an instrumental album." The solution came with a phone call from his manager, Brian Goode: What about David Coverdale, the veteran British singer and ex- leader of Whitesnake? Page was intrigued. He didn't know his fellow Englishman, except in passing, but he did know the voice. The pair got together in New York early in 1991, and the partnership was started. "A lot of people could misconstrue the band as some sort of corporate (game plan) because we share the same record company, but that was purely coincidental. We didn't set out to make Led Snake," Coverdale says, joining the conversation. John Kalodner, the Geffen Records executive who worked closest with Coverdale, 41, and Page during the months of recording, believes the new album is Page's strongest work since Zeppelin's landmark Physical Graffiti album in 1975. "When people first heard they were working together, they figured it would be Whitesnake with Jimmy Page playing guitar." He says that's not the case. "Coverdale/Page is Jimmy Page. When I first heard the demos, I was amazed." The next step: a tour, probably this summer. And yes, they'll be doing Zeppelin numbers. "It'll be the ones David feels good about doing," Page says. "I enjoy playing them all. It's so (gratifying) that I was right (about Zeppelin). The music has stood the test of time. It is respected by your peers." Page pauses, as if reflecting on the changes of the last decade. "It's great to feel the old excitement and enthusiasm . . . to feel that things are going to be fine again."

Coverdale/Page a match made in rock heaven: Peter Howell Toronto Star. Toronto Star [Toronto, Ont] 13 Mar 1993 Coverdale/Page (Geffen): Tired of waiting for a Led Zeppelin reunion? Wish Whitesnake would get back together? Still bummed out that Deep Purple - what's left of it - cancelled tour plans a couple of years back? Wait no longer. This album collaboration between former Whitesnake/Deep Purple singer David Coverdale and Led Zep axegod Jimmy Page (out Tuesday) should satisfy all your hard rock cravings, particularly the Zeppelin ones. Originally titled North/South, it was inspired by a shared love of blues-drenched rock and shared desires: Coverdale needed a guitarist, Page needed a singer, and they both needed a hit. They have been granted their first two wishes, and the third may not be long in coming, because this is a great album. Coverdale's vocals are the revelation here. Long an admirer and imitator of Led Zep singer Robert Plant, he manages to conjure up appropriate memories without slavishly following the master. And having the opportunity to work with Page has been a tonic for himself and the famed guitarist, who plays the best riffs he's done since Zeppelin and also returns to the blues harmonica playing he first made his name with in the 1960s. Many comparisons are to be made with what has come before, with both the rockers and ballads recalling Led Zep's heritage: "Shake My Tree" brings to mind the rock storm of "Whole Lotta Love" while "Take Me For A Little While" is the beloved step-son of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You". "Feeling Hot" is a spirited return trip by Page to his "Immigrant Song", but it's also reminiscent of another group of Zeppelin followers - '70s glam-rockers The Sweet. (Hear it on StarPhone: 350-3000, press category 2005). And so on. The best thing about Coverdale-Page is the two don't sweat the similarities, they just get on with the job, with a nudge and wink to us all, as in the opening lines of "Absolution Blues": "Bless me, Father, I have sinned/ I've broken hearts, got drunk on gin,/ And still I lust for sweet young things . . ." Coverdale-Page is a welcome collaboration, all the more so when you realize it will give classic rock stations something new to play, instead of endlessly respinning Zeppelin and Whitesnake records.

Reliving Led Zep's greatest hits CRACKLE & POP Parsons, Tony The Daily Telegraph [London (UK)] 19 Feb 1993 Led Zeppelin have been offered #90 million to re-form for a North American tour. Loyal fans eagerly await the latest edition of the Led Zeppelin fanzine, Tight But Loose (available from Dave Lewis, 14 Totnes Close, Bedford MK40 3AX). Last year's Led Zeppelin convention in London brought together hordes of the faithful. And now comes the publication of two Led Zeppelin biographies in the same month - not bad for a band that broke up 12 years ago. The Led Zeppelin guitarist and the former singer of Deep Purple and Whitesnake have come up with an album that recalls the apocalyptic blues of Page's old band. One track in particular, Shake My Tree, has exactly the same visceral impact as Rock And Roll, Black Dog, When the Levee Breaks, and all those other magic moments. [Jimmy Page] still sounds like the most exciting guitarist rock music ever produced. And [David Coverdale] sounds like Robert Plant. "I wanted to please him," says Coverdale. "Not in a servile way but because I adore him." Plant's own solo career continues in May, when he releases his next album.

Rolf's brush with pop Stairway To Heaven will never be the same again, now that Rolf Harris's didgeridoo version is bound for number one Sweeting, Adam The Guardian [Manchester (UK)] IT'S Number 9! It's nearly Top Of The Pops! Even the normally stone-cold-sober Music Week forgot itself so far as to describe Rolf Harris's cover version of Stairway To Heaven as "bizarre". They also added the absorbing factoid that 62-year-old Rolf has now joined that tiny showbusiness elite who have scored a hit single recorded after their 60th birthday. There was nothing to prepare us for Rolf's remarkable comeback. He hasn't been seen in the charts since the noisome Two Little Boys in 1970, a record which disappointed many who pined for the splendour of his earlier work, such as Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport and Sun Arise. Nor has Rolf's amiable TV manner and swift way with a paintbrush been in favour of late, though he'd be a natural for breakfast TV (except he'd be good at it, perhaps a fatal mistake nowadays). Rolf's return is brought to us, obliquely, by an Australian TV show called The Money Or The Gun, ominously described as "zany" in a record company press release. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's office in London was only slightly more helpful, managing to scrape together the information that The Money Or The Gun is "new-wave comedy" - it features bands and a live audience, and tends to send up its studio guests. They don't think it's still running. In any event, the show had the bright idea of getting an act to do its own version of Stairway To Heaven each week. The results, veering between heavy metal, Wagnerian-operatic, lounge-jazz and reggae, have been compiled on an album, Stairways To Heaven (Vertigo), featuring the Sydney Philharmonia, Vegemite Reggae, the Australian Doors, Rock Lobsters, Kate Ceberano and many more equally little-known performers. But it is Rolf's renaissance that concerns us here. The only blemish on the great man's return is that he will not be able to dislodge the Blessed Whitney's cover of the Dolly Parton lip-trembler, I Will Always Love You, from the top slot, since this has already been accomplished by 2 Unlimited. Otherwise, all credit must go to the versatile Antipodean for his brilliant exegesis of Led Zeppelin's venerable FM-radio stalwart. Note, for example, how he signals the sheer breathtaking sweep of his reappraisal by boldly removing the despotic backbeat supplied to the original by the late John Bonham. Having removed the aggressive machismo of the drums, and having rejected the overbearing male boastfulness of Jimmy Page's electric guitar solo, Harris supplants them with instrumentation which is altogether less declamatory and gender-specific (a teasing paradox in itself, since, as we know, all Australian men are lager-swilling, 'roo-skinning oafs). Wobbling saw, reticent accordion and snuffling didgeridoo combine to create an elastic shuffle, the perfect vehicle for Harris's multiple ironies and pointed, yet open-ended, questions. Marvel at how Harris's version is both reincarnation and critique of the original. In the same way that his no-nonsense brush technique can render the outline of a charging rhino with a few thick daubs of creosote, this veteran performer will have no truck with the woolly ambiguities of Robert Plant's lyric. Entire verses have been mercilessly excised in Harris's radical restructuring, since he has grasped - a crucial insight, this - that the song was arrant nonsense to begin with. Illuminating the line "you know sometimes words have two meanings" with the remorseless light of derision, Harris makes it clear that he can find no scintilla of evidence to support the supposition. Where Plant sought to sow seeds of metaphysical doubt, Harris finds only horse-shit. He scorns the word "misgiven" by pretending to hear it as "Miss Given", a frankly childish device which nonetheless effectively saws through the edifice of pretension erected by the seventies supergroup. Indeed, it may not be stretching our thesis too far to see in Harris's recording a far broader commentary on the troubled state of popular music. As shrewd a performer as he must, of course, be fully aware of the plague of cover versions currently clogging our charts. No less an authority than the Daily Mirror's Rick Sky has drawn our attention to the crisis. Harris, then, has daringly seized the opportunity not only to remake a song which had become embalmed in its own received, unquestioned "legendariness" - rock's pompous self-regard and overwrought sense of its own historical importance being key inhibiting factors working against young artists - but simultaneously to turn it into a series of scalpel-sharp observations on the malaise in contemporary popular culture. "Ooooh, and it makes me wonder," sings Harris, before turning to his companions and asking: "How does it affect you blokes?" The singer is making it clear that he cannot act alone; the deteriorating situation can only be tackled if enough people are persuaded to acknowledge the problem, to absorb its implications, and then to take concerted corrective action. We can only pray that Rolf Harris's message has not arrived too late. Vertigo releases Stairways To Heaven on March 1

The Guardian (pre-1997 Fulltext) [Manchester (UK)] 06 Feb 1993. FANS of the deeply unfashionable rock band Led Zeppelin are up in arms that the even more deeply unfashionable Rolf Harris has recorded a version of the 1971 song Stairway to Heaven. Zeppelin fans treat Stairway to Heaven as untouchable. Lest there be any confusion, it is important to realise that the Stairway to Heaven which Rolf Harris has recorded is not the same Stairway to Heaven that was made by Neil Sedaka in 1960 as a follow-up to Oh Carol. Sedaka's Stairway to Heaven stayed in the Top 50 for 15 weeks and got as high as number eight, the same place that was reached in 1985, in the kind of coincidence which would appeal to Led Zeppelin's occult-influenced founder Jimmy Page, by Stairway to Heaven by the Far Corporation, one of the few Anglo-German-Swiss bands ever to make the charts in this country. Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven is the long one that starts softly and ends very loud indeed, is best listened to in denim flares while drinking bitter in a bedsit. Of its creation, Robert Plant has recalled: "I was holding a pencil and paper and for some reason I was in a very bad mood. Then all of a sudden my hand was writing out the words 'There's a lady who's sure, all that glitters is gold and she's buying a Stairway to Heaven.' I just sat there and I looked at the words and I almost leapt out of my seat. Looking back I suppose I just sat down at the right moment."

Toronto Star [Toronto, Ont] 02 Feb 1993 Casting Call: Bonham lead singer Daniel McMaster has split, so the group's looking for a replacement. The band is headed by drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Interesteds should send tapes to Hard to Handle Management, 640 Lee Rd., Suite 106, Wayne, Pa. 19087.

The way it isn't Brown, Craig. The Times [London (UK)] 07 Jan 1993. THE news that Rolf Harris has recorded his own version of the old Led Zeppelin hippy anthem "Stairway to Heaven" has been met with horror from old hippies the world over. "The song is sacred to some people," a sound manager is reported as saying. "There could be a backlash of Zeppelin fans steamrolling old copies of Rolf Harris's `Two Little Boys'." It is said Led Zeppelin fans have been particularly upset by Rolf's addition of a didgeridoo and piano accordion accompaniment to lend a little cheer to the piece. It is now commonplace to suggest that pop has run out of steam. Some date this to the recording of the `B' side of Napoleon XIV's 1966 hit, "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!", which was called "Aaah-Ah, Yawa Em Ekat Ot Gnimoc Er'yeht" and was once rumoured to have cleared a restaurant of 40 diners in two minutes flat. But as far back as 1907, when Edward Madden and Theodore F Morse recorded "I'd Rather Be A Lobster Than A Wiseguy", something of a dearth of zippy new ideas has been in evidence. In 1926, Hooley Ahola's Vikings recorded "Cock-A-Doodle I'm Off My Noodle"; in 1929, Leslie Sarony recorded "Don't Be Cruel to a Vegetabuel"; and in 1933, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh capped them all with "Hey Young Fella Close Your Old Umbrella". Sixty years later, Rolf Harris's didgeridoo version of "Stairway to Heaven" might almost suggest that, against all received opinion, there really is such a thing as musical progress.

Rolf's hit goes down like a Led balloon Gaskell, John. The Sunday Telegraph [London (UK)] 03 Jan 1993 Just as the punk Sid Vicious offended Sinatra-lovers with his caterwauling version of My Way, so has Mr [Rolf Harris] now disgusted thousands of Led Zeppelin fans with his Australian folk rendition of Stairway to Heaven, a song central to the rock creed, hallowed by many awards and voted number four in a recent poll of the top 500 tracks of all time. The jolly ersatz version by Mr Harris - a hit in Australia and receiving much airplay in Britain - is enlivened by wobble-board backing, didgeridoo and frequent exhortations to sing along. It has left Led Zeppelin disciples lock-jawed in incredulity. Trevor Dann, former Sunday Telegraph rock columnist, now managing editor of Greater London Radio, thought Mr Harris's rendition was a classic oddball record to be considered among the all-time greats of the genre. It stands comparison with the disc jockey Pete Murray doing a talking version of Bob Dylan's Forever Young. That was a corker. Absolutely abysmal.

ROCK OF AGES; IT HELPS TO BE MALE AND DEAD TO BECOME THE SUBJECT OF A ROCK'N'ROLL BIOGRAPHY: Kelly, Brendan. The Gazette [Montreal, Que] 12 Dec 1992 Death also features prominently in Stairway to Heaven, a memoir written by former Led Zeppelin tour manager Richard Cole. In many ways, Stairway to Heaven is a tribute to John Bonzo Bonham, the Led Zep drummer whose legendary alcohol and drug intake finally cost him his life in 1980 and ended the Zeppelin era. Heroin and booze seem to have been the stimulants of choice for Zeppelin and their entourage, but Cole never goes into any real depth about the drug abuse. You get the impression that Cole was doing more drugs than any of the band members, and he ends the book with a rather facile ode to the joys of his new, sober lifestyle. He spends a lot more time writing about the sexual exploits of the Zeppelin boys, with endless tales of encounters mainly with underage groupies. Again, Cole was an enthusiastic participant here, and it quickly becomes clear that Cole and his good friend Bonzo were the leading party animals in the Zeppelin gang. There are some amazing stories - not the least of which involves Bonzo nearly being sucked out of the band's private jet while sitting on a toilet - and Cole provides a bird's-eye view of the quintessential decadent, jet-set, rock superstar lifestyle of the '70s. It's a great portrait of a bygone era that is light years removed from the business-like, Perrier-and-push-ups rock world of the '90s. But don't go looking for any great insight into the creative process behind the music. Cole describes every concert and album as classics, and he is much more interested in detailing the on-the- road debauchery than in explaining anything else.

The Ottawa Citizen [Ottawa, Ont] 07 Nov 1992 Stairway to Heaven: Led Zeppelin Uncensored, by Richard Cole with Richard Trubo; Harper Collins; $26.75: The 1970s supergroup's tour manager attempts to cash in on the Zeppelin legend. Like the Stones, this band lived up to the rumors of notorious excess. Despite his efforts, Richard Cole never gets to the heart of the band's eclectic musical scope in his often tawdry and very superficial history. Too bad. This ever popular band's music deserves better

BOOKS IN BRIEF STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN: Led Zeppelin Uncensored Fillion, Kate. The Globe and Mail [Toronto, Ont] 31 Oct 1992 Anyone hankering for a particularly revolting serving of sex, drugs and rock and roll should pick up tour manager Richard Cole's memoirs of 12 years on the road with heavy metal band Led Zeppelin. There's the obligatory thumbnail sketch of the band's origins, followed by hundreds of blow-by-blow pages recounting the debauchery of men who sold millions of records, made a pile of cash, and still thought the world owed them something. No need to read between the lines - Cole has a remarkable memory for sexual minutiae. There are two types of females in his book, "girls" and "birds," and he and the boys in the band preferred the prepubescent variety. They chained them to beds, initiated them sexually with fish (and on one occasion, octopuses), and defecated in their shoes and purses. However, Cole dismisses the charge of sexual exploitation as "a bum rap . . . they made themselves available to us. We never forced them into doing anything they didn't want to." Along the way, the band trashed hotel rooms and made a lot of liquor companies extremely wealthy. Cole tells little about the music except to assert that it's still the best in the world, and the light he sheds on the musicians is similarly murky. He has nothing to say about the rumours of guitarist Jimmy Page's occult obsessions, and tells us repeatedly of the late John Bonham's soft and gentle side but depicts him as a walking, talking cure for penis envy. Still, Stairway to Heaven has a certain merit as a tell-all book that really does. In fact, it tells too much, at least about the dried-out, de- toxed but none-too-repentant Cole. He prattles on about himself at such tiresome length that Coat-tailing to the Betty Ford Clinic would have been a more fitting title.

Rockinghorse lays bare Alannah Myles's soul: Peter Howell TORONTO STAR. Toronto Star [Toronto, Ont] 07 Oct 1992 If Alannah Myles had listened to her record company, she might have turned the smoldering rumors of her relationship with ex-Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant into a roaring conflagration. Then again, if she'd listened to all the voices screaming in her ear after the spectacular success - 5 million sales and a Grammy - of her 1989 debut album, Alannah Myles, she might well be dead now. "I now see why people like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all did themselves in at a very youthful age," the leather and denim clad Myles said in an interview yesterday, commenting on the crazed existence that followed her rise from Toronto bar belter to international singing star. "Because had I been younger, or had I been pushed just a little bit more, there is a chance perhaps that I wouldn't want to live either. . . . Maybe I would have driven my car off the edge of a cliff of a Malibu beach." Her green eyes flashed as she offered the insight into the personal hell of exhaustion, physical illness and mental fatigue she fell into, after 18 months on the road promoting her first album. Myles's new album Rockinghorse, on sale Tuesday, is about confessions and baring the soul - right down to the cover, where she's a very barenaked lady riding a black horse. The biggest confession of all might have been if she'd allowed record weasels to persuade her and Plant to sing a duet on the album's first single, "Song Instead Of A Kiss," a ballad Myles wrote with her musical collaborators Nancy Simmonds and Chris Ward, using poetry written especially for her by poet-musician Robert Priest. Inquiring minds have been wondering about Myles and Plant ever since he picked her to open his shows during a U.S. tour a couple of years back. And the weasels tried to send the wondering into warp drive, by sending a tape of Myles's song to Plant and requesting he add his famed vocals. "He was embarrassed, because he didn't want to insult me," said Myles, who put the kibosh on the plan as soon as she heard about it. "He wasn't going to do a duet with me, certainly not a love song that was meant for me. But he did give me some vocal suggestions which are incorporated into it. "There are some Robert Plant-isms that come out of my mouth because he's one of the most influential and strongest rock singers of the century. So why wouldn't I be influenced by him? Here I am, a spoiled little wench, having an opportunity to be given direction from the source." In fact, she said, "Plant-isms" can be heard on other songs on the album, such as the title tune "Rockinghorse." She got the idea for the naked-lady-and-pony cover shot not from celebrity breast- barer Madonna ("Sorry, Madonna, my idea first - I got the idea a year and a half ago") but from the album jacket for Led Zep's Houses Of The Holy. She also joked that she had to slap down her guitarist, Kurt Schefter, whenever his rockin' blues licks strayed too close to Jimmy Page territory. But a romance with Robert Plant? Aw, c'mon. "We're friends. I like the man, I think he's a lovely man. But beyond that, I can't help you." Rockinghorse is, however, very much an exploration into Myles's loves and personal experiences, not unlike Peter Gabriel's new soul- exposing record, Us. Gabriel has freely told the world that Us was directly inspired by his divorce from wife Jill Moore, his break-up with his girlfriend, actress Rosanna Arquette, and the years he spent in therapy working it all out. "If I'm referring to anybody in particular, I would never tell you," Myles said of songs such as "Lies And Rumours," which has the intriguing lines: "I fell in love with danger/Now I'm going through these changes by myself." "Peter Gabriel may feel it's his need as a large star (to name names), but not me. I've given you a record and I've given you my confessions, and that's all you're getting. "Because I'm private, and it's a very difficult thing for me because I'm so private, to both reveal myself and my feelings, and then to turn around and deny them to the press. It's my wanting to maintain that sense of mystery for myself." She's not as shy about revealing her inspiration, however, and the confessional tone and sexual freedoms - check out "Make Me Happy" - of Rockinghorse flowed out of Myles's constant listening to fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell's classic 1971 album, Blue. She credits Blue on the CD liner notes, and when she went to Mitchell's home in Santa Monica recently, she had a chance to give personal thanks to the source of her muse. "I went up to her very sheepishly and told her: 'If I had an idol, it would be you. I don't have any idols, I never did and I never will, but you come as close as you possibly could to those requirements.' "I thanked her for being who she was." You can bet you'd never catch Peter Gabriel or Robert Plant being that honest.

ZEPPELIN rules - almost: The Gazette [Montreal, Que] 20 Sep 1992 Led Zeppelin dominated the gold and platinum certifications in August in much the same way that it dominated rock'n'roll in the '70s, Billboard magazine reports. The band's four-CD boxed set has sold 750,000 units. The second album from 1969 has sold 6 million and the third album, from 1970, 3 million. Led Zeppelin's 10 multiplatinum albums have sold more than 45 million copies in the United States alone. Only the Beatles have sold more albums. Their multiplatinum total: 56 million.

Led Zeppelin tour manager bares all in racy book: Farber, Jim. The Ottawa Citizen [Ottawa, Ont] 06 Sep 1992 A job like "tour manager" sounds innocent enough. But as Richard Cole writes in his memoir of Led Zeppelin (the band he road-managed for 12 years), his job description went far beyond scheduling airline flights and supervising security. Also included was "escorting girls to the rooms of the band (after picking out choice ones from the crowd) and keeping Zeppelin nourished with drugs." Which, if you know your Zeppelin lore, were full-time positions in themselves. No wonder Cole had no trouble packing the 400 pages of his book, Stairway to Heaven (HarperCollins, $20 U.S.) with tales of the band's fleshy excesses. Chapter titles alone tell the tale: Handcuffs, Heroin, Great Dane, plus most sweepingly, Those Zeppelin Bastards. "Quite a lot went on," says 46-year-old Cole with masterful understatement. "But I only put in the book things I actually saw and remembered." Like the time the band, their manager Peter Grant and Cole downed 280 drinks in just four hours -- and lived. Or when Cole brought a bunch of non-groupie, teenage girls onto the band's private plane and kidnapped them, flying them across the country. "A few weeks ago, one of those girls called in during a radio interview I was doing to promote the book," Cole says with a laugh. "She said that that was the best time of her life. Now she's married to Alex Van Halen." But if this particular girl understandably remembers her kidnapping, Cole says Zep singer Robert Plant is less convinced about events in the book. "I heard back from someone that Robert's comment was, `How is it he can remember all these things? I can't remember anything. I don't know whether these things are true or not.' The difference is, being the tour manager you have to be alert all the time." True enough. After all, you never know when the band is suddenly going to demand you sober up and get rid of the groupies they have at the time in favor of some fresh ones. Once, the guys demanded just such a thing when in midair on their private jet. As luck would have it, the group landed at an airport where their friends in Bad Company were unloading some groupies they'd had their fill of. A quick swap solved the mutual dilemma. But wait. The tender tales don't end there. Cole also sets the record straight about the famous "shark incident." Suffice it to say, this oft-rumored event involved a baby version of the finned creature, a willing young woman and a rather frazzled hotel chambermaid. It's safe to say such tales will go over better with male readers than female. "Led Zeppelin always had more of a male audience anyway," shrugs Cole. In the group's defence, the author says they were young, the women were eager, and the band was so successful it was never given limits. "Who was going to say no to them?" Cole asks. "They were a money factory."

Is Stairway to Heaven the best song ever?: The Gazette [Montreal, Que] 03 Nov 1991 Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven is the most requested song of all time on FM rock stations. The group's fourth album has sold 10 million copies since its release in November 1971. "It continues to be a favorite among music listeners who are younger than the song itself, listeners who, in some cases, were no doubt conceived while the tune blasted from car speakers," Esquire magazine says of the song in a five-page feature in its current issue. Nobody can explain the song's popularity, much less offer a meaningful interpretation of its lyrics. But can 10 million be wrong? Maybe. That's why we want to hear from you. Do you think Stairway to Heaven is the greatest song of all time? Answer our Question of the Week by calling The Gazette's Info-Line at 521-8600. Select category 2010 and leave your response. A touch- tone phone is required to register your vote. Please leave your name and phone number after giving your response. If what you say grabs our attention, we might just call you back to hear more. You have until Friday to answer by touch-tone phone. You can also fax or mail your reply to us. Our fax number is 987-2399. Our mailing address is the Sunday Gazette, 250 St. Antoine St. W., Montreal, H2Y 3R7. We'll print the results of the poll in next Sunday's paper.

Mostyn, Clive. The Vancouver Sun [Vancouver, B.C] 22 Oct 1991 EX-ZEP IN TOWN Former Led Zeppelin guitar god Jimmy Page is in town recording an album at Little Mountain Sound. The singer for the project is - believe it or not - Whitesnake warbler David Coverdale, who has come under fire in the past for sounding like a Robert Plant soundalike. Vancouver's Mike Fraser is manning the recording consol.

Zep joins Lennon in CD return: Boxed sets of their hits sometimes miss the mark: Mackie, John. The Vancouver Sun [Vancouver, B.C] 05 Nov 1990 THEY'RE CRAFTY devils, those record companies. They've hyped the sound of compact discs so well, music fans are spending millions upon millions of dollars re-buying music they already own on record or tape. Hence, albums that were dead in the water saleswise and deleted from record company catalogues years ago are suddenly re-appearing on CD, often sporting spiffy new covers or as part of the increasingly popular boxed sets. This has its good and its bad points. On the plus side, lots of great music is being unearthed from the vaults, and long-neglected artistes are being rediscovered by a new generation of fans. On the other hand, record companies often take the easy route to big bucks, simply re-packaging already available material instead of putting some effort into digging out some unreleased or hard-to-find nuggets. This fall, a flurry of multi-CD retrospectives (from the likes of Kate Bush, Frank Sinatra, Robert Johnson, Elton John and the Byrds) is set to hit the racks, along with catalogue re-releases of an artist's entire output (Island Records just put out 13 remastered Bob Marley albums - more reggae than any sane person would want to listen to in a lifetime). The first couple of multi-CD sets are already out: a four-CD, 54-track Led Zeppelin box, and a four-CD, 73-track John Lennon package. Both contain a surplus of great music, but casual fans might want to think twice about whether their hefty purchase price ($50 and up) is worth it. The Zeppelin package looks great, and comes with sympathetic liner notes from three respected rock critics (Cameron Crowe, Kurt Loder and Robert Palmer). The recordings were re-mastered by Jimmy Page, who'd been unhappy with the sound on previous Zep CDs, and the results set your speakers a-sizzlin'. As for the music . . . well, part of the Zep legacy still sounds surprisingly fresh and vital (mainly the stuff that hasn't been played to death on rock radio), but there are songs (chiefly Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love and Black Dog) that have been overplayed so much they've lost that certain je ne sais quoi. THE MUSIC that has really worn well comes from Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti: Kashmir, No Quarter, The Ocean. There's an aura of mysteriousness, a moodiness to vintage Zep that made them truly distinctive, and in his prime, Jimmy Page surely was a riff monster. But Robert Plant's lyrics are more often than not gibberish, and listening to too much of old Percy ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ing at once can drive you round the twist. For the completist, there is a rare track (Hey Hey What Can I Do, previously only available as the B-side to the Immigrant Song single) and a pair of unreleased songs culled from the BBC Archives (Travelling Riverside Blues and White Summer/Black Mountain Side). But three new tracks out of 54 hardly makes this an essential buy - especially when you can flip on the radio to the FOX or Chargex and hear a Zep tune every 20 minutes. The Lennon set is culled from his solo work, and while it's extensive, it fails to unearth any new material whatsoever. This is ridiculous, considering that there are literally dozens of unreleased Lennon demos and alternate takes currently available on bootleg CDs - not to mention all the unreleased Beatles material featuring Lennon. (There are apparently six volumes of bootleg Lennon CDs, and the bootleg Beatles Ultra Rare Trax series contains some fabulous material.) THERE IS no arguing about the quality of the music that is included, however. All the great Lennon solo material - Imagine, Jealous Guy, Instant Karma, Cold Turkey, Working Class Hero, Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - is included, and even his consciousness-raising political chants (Give Peace a Chance, Power To The People) have retained their power. What's striking about the set is the constant pain Lennon exorcised in his music. He could deliver a lyric about being Crippled Inside to a jaunty vaudeville beat, but it's a recurring theme throughout. The naked pain he exhibits on Mother, the frightening intensity he displays when he's evoking the hell of heroin withdrawal on Cold Turkey, the resignation and depression with which he delivers Working Class Hero all make for riveting listening, and stand up to his best work in the Beatles. He was a brilliant lyricist and an incredible singer - too bad the definitive collection of his work is still to come. NOT MUCH NEW: Robert Plant (left) with Led Zeppelin and John Lennon (above) see careers rehashed in boxed CD sets.