And yet it was picked up by the BBC & the Guardian! Sad comment on journalistic standards. I posted on Steve Hoffman that the story was obviously b*******s yet everyone there seemed to believe it was true.

Dunno about that but the kid on the left of the pic was sired by some synthpop bloke in the 80s.

Oblique reference to the Rain Song?!

It's so typical of his sense of humour though. Puncturing the Zeppelin mystique.

"My peers flirt with cabaret Some fake the rebel yell I'm moving up to higher ground I must escape their hell" Tin Pan Valley. His view on botoxed up hair dyed ageing rockers couldn't be clearer. Thank God Plant's aged with dignity.

I wonder if Tyler suggesting bringing in Marti Frederiksen brought back Mickie Most / Little Games style flashbacks for Page?! "outside songwriter? bugger off!"

I would've happily switched out Misty Mountain Hop for In The Evening, and Trampled for Achilles. According to Mick Wall Plant vetoed anything "too heavy metal", which meant no Immigrant Song and no ALS.

The weirdest piece of news this 50th anniversary (?) year. A painting of Percy got nicked! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-46322935

When there are five of them in the pic, who's the bloke on the right? Atlantic's lawyer?

I was under the impression his dates with Tim Rose were 3rd July to 31st? Page saw him in London on the 31st at the Country Club, Hampstead. Supposedly Bonzo told Peter Grant after he'd joined the New Yardbirds that he'd committed to do the Isle of Wight festival with Rose and was "encouraged" by Grant to change his mind.

Having read this now I can offer a review. First - buy this book! It's brilliant, and has a lot more information about Grant's early life than anything else I've seen. Some great photos of Grant on tour with the New Vaudevilles, with Richard Cole barely recognisable without his beard. Warren & Helen Grant are both extensively interviewed and other people are too, who I'd not seen mentioned before. (Spoiler alert for those want to read it without knowing the surprises) The book makes clear that not everyone agrees this stuff was real. Cole swears it was, Phil Carson says it was just paranoia due to drugs. Either way its indicative of the madness surrounding the band towards the end. There was a supposed threat to rob the second weekend's Knebworth takings from "East End gangsters" though again this is disputed as possibly down to drug-related paranoia. Either way, it looks like, after the Drake robbery, certain people were alerted to the fact that the band's management were carrying huge amounts of cash around. My reading of it was, if Grant was paranoid, maybe he had reason to be. Anyway, highly recommended for all Zepheads. A corker of a book.

She filled in for the encore at that short notice?! Amazing. Surprised the bass tech or someone similar didn't do it.

You can see the resemblance between Robert and his Mum. Edit: if there is a photographic blindspot, surely it's JPJ's parents, who I've never seen a picture of. Given they had a vaudeville double act, you'd think somewhere there'd be a photo from a local paper or similar.

http://justbackdated.blogspot.com/2018/10/bring-it-on-home-peter-grant-led.html Chris Charlesworth's review of Mark Blake's new Peter Grant biog. Looks brilliant and I'll get this asap. To judge by the review the revelation of the actions of this character Herb Atkin shed a new light on the Zeppelin story.

These holographic concerts are the kind of thing that would've been written about in dystopian sci fi 30 years ago. You might say it's no different to seeing a tribute band, but imo there's something morbid about it. Intellectually bankrupt music industry.

Is it my imagination or did Page's voice on that interview sound more grainy than normal? He might just have the flu or something, but he sounded frail, or possibly just my imagination.

Peter Grant wouldn't have been happy. "Pirate fackin merchandise! An' it's not even spelled right!!"

When Zeppelin played the massive outdoor Knebworth Festival in 1979, Grant actually made Preston fly over the crowd in a helicopter and shoot the audience itself, so he’d later have evidence if the promoter tried to stiff him on some of the proceeds while claiming a smaller number of people showed up than actually did. When this inevitably happened, the forward-thinking Grant took him to court and won extra damages, based on the photos, which he’d had analyzed using some special new software. Hum. So the story is it was special software rather than NASA? Either way this isn't quite the way Freddie Bannister remembered it, but it's a happy anniversary / most positive light story, so fair enough.

I can imagine Plant saying "i'm washing my hair that night", but a bit surprised Jones wasn't there.

Two links to promo articles for the new book https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2018/10/03/heres-a-sneak-peek-of-a-one-of-a-kind-book-about-legendary-rock-band-led-zeppelin/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5ded7a736d94 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6234183/Never-seen-pictures-Led-Zeppelin-years.html Yeah, it's the Mail... Some good pics though

Just read a review of this in Planet Rock, and seriously looking forward to it, it looks like a corker. Mentions are made of a bloke on the Zeppelin scene in the late 70s who was an FBI informer (!), and other craziness. Plus the best bit is said to be "revelations of a plot to rob the Knebworth takings"! This is one for pre order, no doubt.

Just been listening to Heartbreaker on YouTube. The sound quality is superb, the band are cooking, overall, miles better than the usual soundboard quality. Wow!

Speculation but wasn't some of the gear "unofficially borrowed" in the early days? I recall a story about an amp blowing up at Canterbury and Jeff Beck, in the audience, suddenly realised it was one of his band's that Grant had "borrowed". So perhaps in the early (UK) days Bonzo was using someone else's kit. I wonder if anyone would know if when he played with Tim Rose, his kit was rented, was his, or belonged to Rose.

Someone must have taken photos of the early UK shows too. More than just the two that are known about (that blurred colour pic plus the b&w pic that started the question over Bonzo's UK '68 kit in the first place)... I fantasise that the 50th anniversary might jog a few memories and someone might think "hang on I was at that gig at the Roundhouse / Klooks Kleek / wherever, wonder if I took me camera?"

Cheers! Are there any on stage pics from 1968 that were previously unseen? Anything from Scandinavia beyond the ones already known about (3 onstage & 3 offstage)?