Especially if it includes some dynamite unknown stuff that he's "suddenly discovered". First rehearsal, 1968 UK gig recordings....yeah I know but I can dream

Be interesting to know what date they're planning. 12th/19th Aug for the first rehearsal? 7th Sept for the first gig? 4th october for the first UK gig, or Boxing day for the first US show? Or, all of the above?

RIP Frank Vincent "Go get your shine box!"

Been listening to this new band. They rock and.... that name! Scientists have discerned a certain Zep-influence. There's even a lyric about how the West was won.

RIP Holger. There is a crossover between Can & the drone stuff that JP experimented with in the 70s but mostly I just liked Can because they were a great band.

This band are the real deal and might become as big as late '80s Guns & Roses. THAT big.

RIP Elvis, today is the 40th anniversary of his death.

According to Mick Wall, Bonzo was at the time prescribed a medication called Motival (fluphenazine) but a quick google shows this has weight gain not loss as a side effect. Wall also says ("according to band insiders") Bonzo had got off heroin at that time, but again, usually this results in putting on weight not losing it.

RIP at 81 Glen Campbell, the Rhinestone Cowboy.

Um, no offence, but have you watched England play recently?! Germany beat us easily back in March with mostly their reserves. Can't see past Germany for the WC as Brazil are still rebuilding after the 7-1 & Spain are a shadow of their former selves. Since 2014 Argentina have made a mess of two major (Copa America) finals. Chile would be my dark horses for the semis, mighty team.

I doubt that was Weiss. To me Mr. Fry sounds like he is talking about Richard Cole sorry, should have made it clear. I meant "was the involvement of these people at Knebworth related to Weiss' supposed relationship with the mob" (re: kingzoso's theory in post further upthread). I agree Tom Fry clearly isn't describing Weiss but the "Mean Streets" bloke was an American so definitely not Ricardo Cole either. On the other side of the ledger Freddie Bannister said one of the people on Grant's side he dealt with during the schemozzle, identified himself as a retired Met Police inspector! Make of that what you will.

In Barney Hoskyns' Trampled Underfoot there's a long section on Knebworth, and Freddie Bannister's assistant Tom Fry describes a backstage encounter when the row over how many attendees there had been at the first show was going on. The encounter is with a bloke "who looked like he'd stepped out of Mean Streets", and he was convinced said bloke was a mob man. Whether this relates to Weiss, or whether Weiss' connections were real or rumoured I don't know. But as other posters have said, Zeppelin were generating a huge amount of cash, and where there's cash business...

I reckon a "telll all" book about Steve Weiss would make Hammer of the gods look like Mary Poppins. Cole said the rumour that went round back then was that Weiss' father had worked for Meyer Lansky

Apparently even in his Way of Life days he liked to stand on the drum seat and get his shirt off!

I bet if you'd have asked 100 people in the music industry in 1980, will Jimmy live to see 1990, 99 would have said no. In that sense he did extremely well to pull out of it. We're lucky he's still with us.

Joking!

Fantastic photos. I won't even try not to envy you for being there! Oh for a time machine! Incidentally, there's a bloke who looks like Hendrix in the front of the first pic. Now who says him & Page never met?

Too bad there's not more of Jones or Bonzo either. Most of the photos are either the gangster sequence, Grant's cars or the rescuing fair damsel part. Amazing to see them in such good condition though!

Rod is one of those artists where you think "great voice, shame about the choice of material". Similar to (in a completely different genre) Alicia keys, who wastes a great soul voice on "contemporary" R&B sh**

The comments about Plant are intriguing in the extreme, especially given I believe what Curbishley says 100%, he's that kind of bloke. I can understand his comments about being driven by not wanting to go back to where he was brought up. Life in Britain after the war was unbelievably grim and in the East End especially grim. I don't know the background in his case but can imagine his association with the Krays came about just by being around East End venues - the Krays had many interests in boxing and nightclubs. Interesting also that Don Arden backed down when confronted with Charlie Kray, shows he recognised when he was up against a genuine threat. Great interview that paints a picture of what it was like in the industry back then. In the early days of rock and roll in Britain, talent managers tended to have come from the "disreputable" end of the London stage industry. And more than a few in the London music industry had connections to gangsters, I think it was Lionel Bart who introduced Grant to John Bindon?

Doesn't look quite such a sinister image now, does it?

What I just fail to grasp is why anyone would move into a historic home in a historic neighborhood and then wish to make such drastic changes and improvements which would run counter to the homes design and neighborhood history and charm. Because that person has no class or character?

Agree (mostly) with chillumpuffer on this. For me the real jump the shark moment was late 90s when the ticket prices were jacked up to pay for the wall. It went into the realms of only being affordable by Joshs & Jemimas who like, really want to get in touch with the countryside (while living in Islington & driving 4x4s). It's the patronisation of the festival by similar upper middle class wankers that's led to the appearances by Katy Perry & Kanye West. To these Hoxton twats it's all like ironic, yah?

Yep, they rented the space out after moving while they stilll had the lease, presumably purely to make extra cash. The first pic at this link http://londonist.com/2015/02/led-zeppelins-london is Ronnie Scott's as was pre-65. (Londonist.com has quoted 19th Aug '68 but I've seen both dates given in various sources)

Rather than being above it, the rehearsal room was the old site of Ronnie Scott's, before it moved (in 1965) to its current site in Frith St. The building above at street level is now a Chinese restaurant called Ykkusan. ETA: I know they rehearsed Train Kept a Rollin, and apparently As Long as I have You, but does anyone know what the other songs rehearsed were? I wonder did Page introduce the others to Dazed & Confused this early, or was that at the rehearsals at Pangbourne before going off to the Scandinavian dates?