Yeah, there is no TSRTS version...Stomp wasn't played on the 1973 US tour. Methinks you might be referring to the "How the West Was Won" release, from the June 25, 1972 LA Forum gig...which does differ slightly from the 1975 Earl's Court version on the 2003 DVD release in a couple of ways. First, 75 Earl's Court Stomp as shown on the DVD is complete in that Plant sings all the verses, whereas on the "HTWWW" Stomp, Plant forgets to sing the last verse. Secondly, the instrumental break is longer on the 75 DVD Stomp than the 1972 HTWWW Stomp.

See, not all kids today are lazy obese slobs, haha. Way to go, Zac! You do us Californians proud. Zac Sunderland completes solo sail around the world The 17-year-old from Thousand Oaks is the youngest sailor to complete the feat. The journey lasted 13 months. By Pete Thomas, Los Angeles Times July 17, 2009 Toby Sunderland declared Thursday "Zac Day" in honor of his older brother -- and that it was. Hundreds of admirers could not wait for Zac Sunderland, 17, to guide his 36-foot vessel into Marina del Rey on Thursday morning, completing a 13-month quest to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. So they formed a conspicuous armada that included skiffs, sailboats and yachts, and greeted the mariner offshore. There were lifeguard boats, police boats and news helicopters, which buzzed in a light fog that gave way to sunshine as the shaggy-haired adventurer rounded the breakwater. Once ashore -- Sunderland's first steps as a figure of sailing lore -- he looked the way he generally has when reaching port: casual, as though he'd just returned from a Sunday cruise. This despite the magnitude of what he'd accomplished: Fewer than 250 people have sailed solo around the world, according to the American Sailing Assn., whereas more than 300 people climbed Mt. Everest just this year. Hundreds of people had lined the waterfront at Fisherman's Village. They clapped their hands and shouted, "You did it!" and at one point broke into a chorus of "God Bless America." To be sure, if sailing is a pastime purely for the wealthy, that was not evident on this historic morning. Sunderland, who departed Marina del Rey when he was 16 on June 14, 2008, not only broke a record held by Australia's Jesse Martin, who was 18 when he finished in 1999. He became the first person to solo-circumnavigate the planet before turning 18 -- a mark he'll never relinquish. And he did this without major sponsorship on an older Islander sailboat named Intrepid, as one of seven Sunderland children who live in a modest Thousand Oaks home. "I think society puts young people in a box -- people 15, 16, 17 -- and does not expect them to do much but go to high school and play football and stuff like that," Sunderland said. "This just shows they can do a lot more with some strong ambition and desire. My [advice] is to get out there and do your thing with all you got." Beyond the media were throngs of "Zac Packers," fans who have followed the sailor's odyssey on his blog. Among them was Wyatt Gardner, 9, a third-grader from Glendale, attending with classmates and their teacher, Kim Labinger. "It's amazing to see how a 17-year-old can do all this in a year," Gardner said. "I wonder what his mom felt like when he was out there all alone, dealing with squalls, pirates and rocks and stuff." Nearby was Joyce Rubin, who came from Studio City because she's also the mother of a 17-year-old. "I can only cringe at the thought of what this must have been like for his parents," she said. Laurence and Marianne Sunderland endured a lifetime supply of anxious moments, which included the time Zac was approached in the Indian Ocean by a mysterious-looking vessel that seemed sure to harbor pirates. Zac used his satellite phone to call home, frantically, during his family's Sunday dinner. He was instructed by Laurence to load his pistol and "shoot to kill" if necessary. The vessel, with its crew hidden, maneuvered directly into the sailor's wake before slowly veering away. Sunderland, whose voyage spanned three oceans, five seas and twice led him across the equator, once spent 60 hours without sleeping, while trying to fix broken rigging in 15-foot seas and gale-force winds. He endured brutally long windless periods while bobbing cork-like beneath a blazing sun, eating canned food and drinking nothing but tepid, desalinated water. As he approached the Caribbean island of Grenada, during his crossing of the Atlantic, Intrepid was swamped by a monstrous rogue wave that struck at 2 a.m. as Zac, who was working on deck, hugged the mast to avoid being washed overboard. "All I saw was this huge green wall," he said. "So I grabbed and hung on" as the boat rolled to one side and righted itself. He also experienced exhilarating moments sailing effortlessly as one with the wind, often beneath a night sky aglitter with more stars than seem imaginable. He passed beneath brilliant rainbows spawned by ominous black squalls sweeping ravenously across the water. The sailor praised the extremely tightknit global sailing community, which along with his shipwright father helped him fashion innumerable repairs. Without this support -- Laurence said he has missed six months of work flying to far-flung ports to assist his son -- he could not have achieved his goal. Unfortunately for Sunderland, however, a Brit named Mike Perham, who is a few months younger, embarked on a similar quest last November and is expected to complete his solo-circumnavigation, aboard a 50-foot racing yacht, in about three weeks. Barring significant delay he'll become the youngest. Then there's Australia's Jessica Watson, 15, who is poised to begin a nonstop global quest later this summer, which might ultimately trump both boys' endeavors. "There's always someone younger who's going to come along, and I'm fine with that," Sunderland reasoned, wiping hair from his face and smiling, seeming pleased just to be home. He acknowledged that little of what he has accomplished has sunk in yet, and said he has no idea how the voyage might have changed him. "Ask my friends in about a week," was his answer to the latter question, prompting laughter. But there's little doubt that it has changed him. Karen Thorndike, who 11 years ago became the first American woman to solo-circumnavigate the planet, said Zac will forever have this as his private secret. "And the secret is, he's done something amazing," Thorndike said. "There are no words to describe it and it's his secret. He did it. He found that energy; he found the strength; he found that knowledge. "If he didn't already know it before he left, he learned it along the way. And that's the biggest thing you realize -- is that you don't have to know it all before you do something, as long as you can figure out how to learn how to do it." As for Zac Day, Toby Sunderland, 11, was hopeful it'd involve cake, and he was not disappointed. pete.thomas@latimes.com

Well I didn't make that show as I was at the Hammer Museum early thursday evening before heading to the original Zero's reunion show at the Troubadour(with the MUFFS also on the bill! Kim still looks and sounds great!). But having been to Largo hundreds of times over the years(I slightly prefer its original Fairfax Blvd. incarnation), I have been lucky enough to see Jonesy pop in any number of times, usually during Nickel Creek, Watkins Twins or Watkins Family Hour nights at Largo. Jones just produced Sara Watkins recent debut album and I highly recommend it. Last time I saw Jonesy at Largo was February 2008...almost the same bunch as played this show the other night, only it was more cozy for it being at the Fairfax location. Shortly thereafter, Largo relocated to the larger Coronet Theatre on La Cienga Blvd., just opposite the Star Strip club, haha! Anyway, that night in February, one of the highlights was a rendition of "Going to California" with Jones on mandolin of course! Epic! Slayed the entire room. By the way, Benmont Tench is also a frequent guest at Largo shows, as is Fiona Apple, especially during Jon Brion's NOT-TO-BE-MISSED Friday night gigs. Whatever you think of Ms. Apple, you'll think of her in an entirely new light when you hear her wrap her vocal cords around some Great American Songbook song like "Am I Blue" or "Don't Get Around Much Anymore". Oh, and that blogger has it wrong...it is Mark Flanagan("Flanny") that owns Largo not Jon Brion. Anyway, if you are ever in Los Angeles, you owe it to yourself to see a show at Largo...try to make Jon Brion's Friday night show at least. But look at the schedule and see if either the Watkins Twins or the Watkins Family Hour is scheduled and you might stand a good chance at seeing Jonesy pop in for a bit of bluegrass. And Jones has been doing this for years before Plant hooked up with Krauss.

I posted this elsewhere but thought this might be a better place for it as Steve seems to be the master. As follows: I'm slightly embarrassed to have to be asking this, as I know I should know what this is but I just can't put my finger on it, soooooo.... I was listening to the "Dazed & Confused" from the May 14, 1973 New Orleans show, and just after the call and response part of the solo, the band breaks into this jam that sounds like a song I have heard before...but I am drawing a blank after racking my brain all day. To help out, I am specifically listening to Godfatherecords' "Drag Queen of New Orleans" boot, and the mystery jam lasts from approximately 21:00 to 21:35 of Dazed & Confused on Disc 2. It sounds killer and I don't remember ever hearing the band play this jam in any other Dazed & Confused, but something about the jam suggests another song. So if any of you out there have this show and can help identify the song this jam is based on, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Maybe I should posit this in Steve Jones Mysteries thread....

Given that apart from the couple of times he broke strings during TSRTS, it was mostly during the solo of Stairway or during Sick Again on the 77 tour(which he played on the double-neck as it followed directly from TSRTS) that I saw him break strings, I would say that it was the 6-string part that broke more often than the 12-string. Again, I am not a guitar expert, so don't know if it was type of strings he used or the nature of the guitar combined with his slashing attack that prompted the breaks...just struck me over the years that I saw him break strings more often than any other guitarists of the period: Beck, Clapton, Van Halen, Perry, Trower, Townsend, Gallagher et al.

Thanks cookie, I'll look for that next time at the swap meet.

Well, considering that they NEVER played "For Your Life" live until the O2 reunion, there is no PAST performance to improve upon. Which, IMO, makes "For Your Life" a perfect candidate to put up a clip of in the video archive section. I also nominate "Good Times, Bad Times"(another song never, or rarely, played), "No Quarter", "Kashmir" and "Trampled Underfoot" as good choices for the video section of this site.

Hey, another bit of news I missed...well done Plant! And belated congrats to Pagey as well! I suppose if I was younger I might spout off about this "not being rock n roll", but hey, at this late date, whatever achievements the band members acrue is alright by me. Especially when you consider they got practically zero recognition in the 70's by the music establishment. Now how about one for JPJ?!?

Jon Brion, in an interview with Guitar Player, once said that he liked guitarists who attacked their instruments and didn't baby them. Well, judging from all the broken strings I witnessed over the years, Jimmy certainly didn't baby his guitar when he played...he must have been one of the hardest picking players I have ever seen. What really strikes me, looking back now, is many of his broken strings occurred on his Gibson double-neck; usually during "Song Remains the Same" or "Stairway to Heaven". So I was wondering if there was something(the bridge arrangement maybe?) about the double-neck that made it more susceptible to breaking strings or if it was just Jimmy's way of playing? Of course, I saw Jimmy break strings on his Les Paul...a couple of Dazed's, an Over the Hill or two...but it was probably his double-neck that I saw him break the most strings, about 5 times in all, maybe 6. And this is just counting the Led Zeppelin years...I'm not counting the times I saw him solo or with the Firm or the Plant/Page and Black Crowes tours.

I slightly embarrassed to have to be asking this, as I know I should know what this is but I just can't put my finger on it, soooooo.... I was listening to the "Dazed & Confused" from the May 14, 1973 New Orleans show, and just after the call and response part of the solo, the band breaks into this jam that sounds like a song I have heard before...but I am drawing a blank after racking my brain all day. To help out, I am specifically listening to Godfatherecords' "Drag Queen of New Orleans" boot, and the mystery jam lasts from approximately 21:00 to 21:35 of Dazed & Confused on Disc 2. It sounds killer and I don't remember ever hearing the band play this jam in any other Dazed & Confused, but something about the jam suggests another song. So if any of you out there have this show and can help identify the song this jam is based on, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Ooooooh, I have been wanting to get my hands on those 1972 Nassau and Seattle shows for years, but have never been able to find them at the places I go for live shows. I am assuming these shows are both sourced from audience tapes...or is there a SBD? Is there a particular audience source that is better than the rest? What titles should I look for?

I don't know where you are getting your $60 figure, as I never paid more than $25 for my Genuine Master boots, and usually it was around $15 to $20, depending on if it was a single or double disc. And okay, maybe they were just re-EQ'ed from exisiting tapes, but compared to the EQ travesties I have heard from Tarantura, Empress Valley and other companies, GM always sounded way better than the other boots and the original tapes even. They had a warmth and presence and depth that made it easy to listen to at high volume without getting ear fatigue. Just because you have the ability to digitally alter or EQ a tape doesn't mean you know what the hell you are doing. GM's Black Dog seemed to be one of the rare few who did. And from what I have heard from other fans(not having had the chance to listen for myself yet), this Winston Remasters guy also seems to know.

and Back to the topic, I think it was all just part of the overall plan of the band to demystify things a bit, to come off a little more human and less like gods. Especially with Jimmy speaking! I remember when I first heard the 80's boots and how stunned I was hearing Jimmy introducing Black Dog. All through the 70's, Jimmy was the guitar player with mystique and Robert was the golden god front man. You never heard Jimmy say anything during a show, with the exceptions of his doing backing vocals on Whole Lotta Love, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, and Tangerine...he just played. Oh sure, you could see him chatting with the rest of the band during concerts, but unless you were right up near the stage, you couldn't hear what he was saying. And while he did give interviews during the 70's, it was mostly print, not broadcast, so you still never heard what his voice sounded like. I think after punk and after the big Knebworth shows, the band said okay, let's try to ramp things down a bit and reconnect with the fans on a grassroots level. Out went the drum solos and violin bow solos and the lasers and the big epic 30-40 minute jams and hey, why not have Jimmy say a few words! That's just what I think. Or I could be wrong...which I am sure some of you won't waste any time in pointing that out.

Whoa... I just saw this and at first I thought it was somebody posting an archival article about Plant's 1975 crash. My heart skipped a beat when I looked and saw it was contemporary...good to see that nobody was hurt. BTW, I was under the impression that Plant and Krauss were in Nashville recording the new record; now that Plant's been in jolly old to pick up his CBE and now this car crash, does this mean that the record is finished, or is there more recording to be done? Would love it if we get a new Plant & Krauss record before the end of the year.

LOL! Creem's photo captions ruled!

Well, I don't download any music, offiical releases or live boots, at all. For one thing, I have just basic computer capacity to begin with...so I can't download anything even if I wanted to. But, from what I've heard from friends' mp3 files and whatnot, I don't like the sound quality from dowloads anyway. I would rather have a show on vinyl or cd or cassette. Plus, the couple times in the past I've searched through someone's file-sharing site, I found many shows mislabeled with wrong dates, venues, song titles, etc. And one time when I did a trade with someone, I got a cd with clicking sounds throughout and those annoying 2-3 second pauses between tracks; which is fine for a studio cd, but it absolutely ruins a live recording for me when the cd pauses and cuts off the opening seconds of the next track. So I am sorry if it offends your moral compass, but I don't mind paying $5-30 for a live concert recording that I can preview at the swap meet to check out the sound quality and make sure the show is what the label says it is; plus you get some cool art work and photos in the bargain. If I had someone to trade with I would, but I lost track of the guy I used to trade with back in the old days, and haven't been able to find anyone that was competent and trustworthy in the interim. All of the bands that I collect live shows of(Zep, Stones, Floyd, Radiohead, Cure, Wilco, Bruce...) are bands that I already own ALL of their official releases, some many times over. So it is not like the band is losing money...I've given more than my share of money to them over the years. Most of these shows are never going to be released, and if they are, even if I already have a boot of the show, I dutifully go out and buy the official release...i.e. "How the West Was Won".

One of the bands that made the 1970's such a great, fun decade!!! The "Kimono My House" album was when I first heard and got into them. Their look didn't bother me at all...I was already long into glam, T. Rex, Bowie, Roxy Music, Sweet, etc...to me, Ron was referencing Charlie Chaplin more than Adolf Hitler with his mustache. Sparks have had several periods where their fortunes would rise and fall..."Angst In My Pants" was a huge hit in 1982; KROQ(influential LA new-wave radio station) played it all the time. Lately, they seemed to have been on the upswing again as younger generations have discovered their brand of smart idiosyncratic pop. 2002's "Lil' Beethoven" kicked off their resurgence in recent times. Probably not for everyone...if all you listen to is Cream or heavy metal, you probably won't get what Sparks are about...but the little girls understand.

I'm not sure what you're on about.

Yes, that was surprising glicine. But Nick Kent had a sly way about him...he also drank and drugged as much as the rock stars he was covering, so that might have helped put his interview subjects at ease. Another item of note about this interview is "Bonzo's Montreaux" is obviously being referred to when it is mentioned that Jimmy has just returned from Switzerland producing a percussion track by Bonham and that he felt certain that it would be on the next album. When I read this the first time back in 1977, I couldn't help but wonder what it would sound like, and when "In Through the Out Door" finally was released I recalled this bit from the interview and wondered where the Bonzo piece was; Jimmy couldn't have meant the small bit of tympany at the beginning of "In the Evening". Sure enough, when "Coda" came out 2 years after Bonzo's death, "Bonzo's Montreaux" finally made its appearance, 5 years after this interview first mentioned it.

I am not surprised Page intimidated her, Chicago, as he was ferocious on the 1971 tour. Especially at Orlando, where Jimmy is seemingly adrenalized even more than usual, to the point where between nearly every song he is throwing down these licks left and right...check out the slinky riff he plays leading into "Celebration Day"! Man, I can't help but crack a smile every time I listen that...it is just a CRYING SHAME that the soundboard doesn't include "Celebration Day". 1971 "CD's" were spectacular, especially for Jonesy and Bonzo's interplay, and it's always a loss whenever a chance is missed to hear a good quality CD. For instance, I weep for what is missing from the 9.14.71 "Going to California" show; how could this taper leave off "Celebration Day"? Back to topic: yes, Orlando 71 was another magic show from that period...the soundboard I've heard is good, but not spectacular. To my ears, the audience recording of 9.14.71 sounds better than the Orlando sbd. But at least we get "Celebration Day" albeit in muddy audience tape sound, whereas the 9.14.71 "CD" appears to have been lost forever.

Awww...I'm blushing. Thanks for the compliment.

Okay, as promised in the Jimmy Page Circus 1976 thread, here is the Jimmy Page interview published in the April 1977 issue of CREEM magazine, written by Nick Kent, well-known NME scribe in the '70's. Along with talking about the upcoming 1977 US tour and Kenneth Anger, this interview is where I first read about his desire to do a chronological live album. Enjoy! Jimmy Page: Shy Rock Star Almost Unburdens Himself Nick Kent, Creem, April 1977 I'VE KNOWN Led Zeppelin professionally for probably 4 years now, starting back in the winter of I972 when I was sent out on the road with them only to find myself ending up in a fairly ludicrous but nonetheless highly tense argument with Jimmy Page in the dressing-room on the very first night. I immediately took a dislike to the band personally, but found myself so blown apart by their live gigs of that time, that whatever vitriol I might have harbored from such unfortunate encounters was dissipated into instant "rave-review" time when it came to actually putting pen to paper. The resulting piece was, in retrospect, a quite horrendous piece of well-meaning gush, the memory of which I'd prefer buried for an eternity but anyway... For some unknown reason, thereafter I became accepted by the band and co., and recall one night, maybe six months later, running into Page by chance and spending a most enjoyable evening ensconsed in informal chitchat with the gent. From then on, I seemed to run into the guitarist and other members of his band regularly and always found them to be thoroughly pleasant human beings, particularly Peter Grant and Page, who both seemed to me the very paradox of the images that had been served up by certain factions of the press, i.e. Grant, the fearsomely uncouth semi-gangster type, and Page, the hedonistically depraved Crowley fanatic, scourge of the groupies and all-purpose heavy-duty evil presence. The main aspect of Page the interview subject that has always become apparent to me as soon as the trusty cassette is turned on, has been the man's overriding reticence, his distinct fear of actually being probed for copy, his at times desperate concern for privacy at-all-costs in regard to topics that seem so totally innocent and lightweight to the on-looker. I've been slotted in at the end of what appears to have been a day of fairly gruelling gang-bang interview scheduling. As the photographer and I enter the Swan Song offices, a Japanese journalist is being shown out, and an American writer is about to be led up for his shot, while the guy from the London Evening Standard is still waiting his half-an-hour's worth. After an hour we're led up to the interview room to encounter a Page obviously torn and frayed by the day's verbal duties. He's been left rather unsettled by the last caller. Well, nothing much has changed in that respect – if anything Page has become even more reticent, constantly checking himself in the middle of what seems the most mild utterance, to work out whether what he is saying could jeopardize some aspect of the band's communal year-away-as-working-tax-exiles. A single question, for example, referring to the number of times the four band members have come together for whatever reason in the past year, takes Page a good seven minutes of checking and counter-checking before the answer can be given satisfactorily. "I just don't trust those sort of writers. You never know what they're after. It's useless trying to explain Crowley and all those things to them..." His manner is wired-up, slightly uncomfortable to behold. The first topic, of course, is The Song Remains The Same. It's a late Wednesday afternoon, and I've worked it out to strict 50-50 odds as to whether Page and the Swan Song reps will have got hold of the NME issue with my highly derogatory review of the film. No one has, in fact, so I'm safe in one respect. Still I decide to voice a number of my criticisms straight off. I didn't really like it. I don't think it did you as a band, justice. "How do you mean?" Page is coiled up, listening, nervy. I think you undersold yourselves, I say, quickly attempting to counter the vagueness of the accusation, by zeroing in on the live album and voicing my dissatisfactions there. Before I can specify, Page leaps in. "Ah, well that's just one of those unfortunate things, because if you start picking that apart... well first and foremost it's a soundtrack album and as such simply has to be available. As for an actual live album... well my idea, prior to Robert's accident which dictated virtually everything we've done since was to do a chronological affair with tracks dating back to I970 with 'Communication Breakdown', say, and going through the various incarnations right up to tracks we'll be doing on the next tour for Presence." That would be great, I mutter. "It will be great," Page counters. BUT TO return to the film; Page is fairly defensive about it, concerning himself with those aspects that have to be taken into account to gain what he considers the fullest appreciation of the affair. "There's a lot of points to be weighed up. It's a musical, yes, but it's also a documentary. For example, the robbery ...you've got to take that into account... the fact, for example, that when we were onstage playing those gigs, half the band actually knew about it and half the band didn't know. So the playing isn't totally... Plus it was right at the end of a tour. "You're saying we're underselling ourselves, O.K., well we weren't going to put anything about the robbery in, but then again it is relevant. It's all pretty honest, I think." Further points worth taking into consideration concern the minimal amount of footage actually shot during the tour. Out of a fairly mammoth U.S. tour, only one date in Baltimore and two nights at Madison Square Garden were filmed. Backstage footage was coincidental with the concerts. "Oh, forget about it as a film of the tour! As regards the gig, well it's not a terribly good night and it's not terribly bad. Certainly not a magic one but not... tragic." The fantasy sequences were all filmed some three months after the tour itself had been finished in the late summer of '73. Bonham's scene seems to be Page's favorite, and when discussing the amount of thought that went behind the conceptualizing of each member's fantasy, Page is at least candid. "Let's just say that when we weren't viewing the thing as a tax write-off (laughs), there was as much commitment and dedication involved as goes into anything we do. "There's no point in us making excuses. The facts are there to be understood. ' "I just see it... it's not a great film... just a reasonably honest statement of where we were at that particular time. That's all it can be, really. "I mean, it's still very difficult to view even now, particularly with this build-up. I'd like to see it in a year's time, just to see how it stands up. "Because it's extremely relevant to the band, because simply, for us, it sums up a certain era. "In a nut-shell, the film sums up an era when the band finished its sets with 'Whole Lotta Love.' That doesn't mean anything now, does it? It's only the Top of the Pops signature tune, now, anyway (laughs)..." On the tour following the '73 Song Remains The Same epic the band virtually dropped all reference to 'Whole Lotta Love', except for the occasional few bars thrown in at encore-time. Instead the finale was given over to 'Stairway to Heaven'. SO THINGS are looking healthy again for Zeppelin after what can only be described as a fairly disorientating year for the collective, as well as certain individuals within the group, it appears, Page being paramount amongst them. Again there is great hesitancy regarding the subject's talking about the year's more intimate troubles. The past I2 months, though, have seen Page return to Charlotte, his old lady of longstanding and the mother of his daughter, Scarlet, and therefore a more domestically ordered existence. "The troubles... well for a start, Charlotte's been very ill but that's something one doesn't need to go into, really, only that...if you've been with someone for a long time and they get ill, then you immediately have that responsibility ...I don't really need to say anymore." Page seems a changed man from the days that seemed to reach their hiatus during the '74 tour of America. Then, the guitarist, at once unattached, was staying up for days and nights on end in some kind of mortal combat with the forces of Nature, pushing virtually everything to the limits and cultivating some potentially bad habits in the process. According to Page, though, the pressures I witnessed him testing himself on back then were nothing to what went down during the recording of Presence in Munich. "That was the ultimate test of that whole... lifestyle. I mean, that was I8 hours a day at a real intensity every day. You just plunge in and, I mean, you don't start thinking about three meals a day." Presence, by the way, is Page's favorite Zeppelin album, "Or at least the one which, when I think back on the sessions, I consider the most fulfilling. I mean, but maybe that's a rather bad yardstick to use for what one's favorite album is. Every record had had its moments." So what happened after Presence's completion? "Well, as far as I was concerned, it was a case of sorting out a year's problems in... say, a month, and not finding the whole process as simple as that. I mean, suddenly I had time to look around and suddenly I became aware of certain people who'd been taking incredible advantage of me in the year I'd been away." Page shies away from going into any great details but makes mention of a couple whom he let stay at his main home of residence and who, apparently, immediately "assumed the identity of me and Charlotte. That got very ugly." And then there is the case of one Kenneth Anger. Two days after Page had returned from Switzerland where he'd been producing a lavish total-percussion track dreamed up and executed by John Bonham (which Page reckons is a cert for inclusion on the next Zep album), he was faced with a copy of a British rock paper carrying possibly the most snide vitriolic attack in recent years to appear in a music periodical. Anger's beef was that Page hadn't finished the soundtrack to his movie, Lucifer Rising. Anger made all sorts of wild accusations, implying that Page was possibly having drug problems ("Page's affair with The White Lady"). amongst other things, which for starters is complete fabrication. Page, in fact, almost brightens to the thought of putting his side of the Anger epic into print. "I must start by saying that I've lost a hell of a lot of respect for him. I mean, the level of pure bitchiness he was working on...at one point he was writing silly little letters to everybody he thought I knew so that they would naturally bring it up in conversation when they saw me. "This whole thing about 'Anger's Curse'; they were just these silly little letters. God it was all so pathetic. I mean, I've got to get my side across now because it's just gone too far. Hell, you know that I did the film music and you know when I did it, so you must have thought it odd when Anger came out against me like that, right?" (Page in fact rented a rough cut of Lucifer Rising and showed it to an informal gathering, yours truly included, complete with his soundtrack, in L.A. early in I975.) "Well, he's implying that he'd received nothing from me, which is totally untrue. I gave him everything in plenty of time, OK." What Page also claims is that he helped Anger personally locate a screening/editing room in London and that Peter Grant was also interested in maybe investing something into the completion of the film, and offered him accommodation in London's chic Gloucester Place Mews. "So OK, I'm a mug! Cos one day this whole thing just blew up. And that's all I knew about it. This bitchiness is just an extension of Anger's Hollywood Babylon." Anger had apparently been angling for a further backer for the film, Page claims. "Now whether he thought in his mind that he was indebted to me somehow and that he felt he had to get me off his back I don't know. I mean I didn't start hassling. I just wanted to see the bloke finish the bloody film, I mean its whole history is so absurd, anyway. I just assumed that it was unfinished because he was such a perfectionist and he'd always end up going over his budgets. All I can say is: Anger's time was all that was needed to finish that film. Nothing else!" Anger also made allegations that his belongings had been held – impounded by Page and sundry cohorts. "What a snide bastard. His stuff was just all over the place and I just got some roadies to get it all together for him. Christ, he even turned that one round against me. "I mean, I had a lot of respect for him. As an occultist he was definitely in the vanguard. I just don't know what he's playing at. I'm totally bemused and really disgusted. It's truly pathetic. I mean, he is powerless – totally. The only damage he can do is with his tongue." Page has somehow relaxed now, the saga of Anger having been completed (and there are more details but enough is perhaps enough for now). "So much of this year has been taken up with petty little time-consuming things. It's not been a static period so much as an unsatisfying one. There have been so many niggling little things to take care of – things so petty readers would never believe Jimmy Page rock guitarist would need to involve himself with (laughs)." A final shrug: "It's changing now though. I mean, playing live – that whole stimulus – has been missing, and Christ, when we did that first rehearsal it just clicked all over again. I just feel that I've cleaned out a load of problems and now I'm ready to get back in the fray, so to speak. "Something epic is going to happen musically anyway. That's what I feel. This next tour... you'll see." © Nick Kent, 1977

The Nick Kent interview with Jimmy Page you are referring to appeared in the April 1977 issue of Creem magazine. As Creem often reprinted Nick Kent's(and other's) articles from NME, it is possible this interview appeared earlier in NME. I will post the 1977 Nick Kent interview in a seperate thread. As to this particular 1976 Circus interview, this issue is one of the ones I lost in an apartment fire I had years ago, burning lots of my rock and roll memorobilia. Luckily, I still have a few of the Circus poll winner issues, one with Robert Plant and Linda Ronstandt on the cover, another with Plant and Ann Wilson as Man & Woman of the Year, and the Nov. 1980 issue with the Cars' Ric Ocasek on the cover that had John Swenson's article about Bonham's death. Hey old-time Circus readers, remember Lou O'Neill Jr., the "Rona Barrett" of Rock 'n' Roll? He always had that "Back Pages" column...on the back page, natch! Still, I always was a "Creem" man myself...best rock mag of the 70's! But I always found time to also read Circus, Crawdaddy, Trouser Press, Rock, Audio, Zig Zag, NME and Melody Maker. Rolling Stone(with the exception of Hunter S. Thompson's articles) was good for wiping your ass or house training your puppy.

Thanks for that link cookieshoes...damn that's a shame nobody taped more of it. I started taping shows in the 80's and I usually started my tape 5 minutes or so before listed show time just so I could make sure I would get the intro music...I also did it because the first two minutes or so on a cassette are susceptible to wow and flutter. Still odd that they only used the drone for 5 shows, don't you think? Why wouldn't they have used it on the entire US tour?