JPJ during No Quarter 17/7/77 Seattle

[tom kid]

JPJ seems to be pissed off his during his solo. Now at first I thought this was due to Page's erratic playing but it seems to be during his piano solo, not whilst Page is playing. He seems to stand up near the beginning from the keyboards and throw his arms in the air. Does anyone know why he did this? Or have any theories as to why?

On a side note, does anyone know of any instances that JPJ, Robert or Bonzo got pissed off with Page's erratic playing during the '77 tour and later?

[Nutrocker]

As I recall, in one Zep book or another (one of Dave Lewis' I think) Jonesy mentions how the Seattle Kingdome show was like "a soundcheck in the dark" and they could hardly hear the audience. Supposedly he stood up and started waving his arms to get a reaction from the audience. The audience recordings of this show seem to correspond to this, actually- the crowd does seem to get louder at that point...

As for Plant/Jones/Bonham's reactions to Jimmy's '77 performances, the Seattle video actually says a lot- there are a few times when the camera is on Bonzo and he seems to be shaking his head almost at Page's fumbles. There's also the classic shot when Page is trying to wind up his "No Quarter" solo and Bonzo seems to be giving him a look as if to say, "Are you finished yet, Jimmy?"

Edited August 11, 2009 by Nutrocker

[reswati]

To me it seemed that JPJ wanted to switch to the other keyboard, but the transitional sounds made by the theremin kind of failed, leaving him somewhat helpless.

Edited August 11, 2009 by reswati

[Nutrocker]

To me it seemed that JPJ wanted to switch to the other keyboard, but the transitional sounds made by the theremin kind of failed, leaving him somewhat helpless.

This is true -at that point in the video you can see JPJ sort of grin, shake his head and say something possibly along the lines of "OK!," or "That's enough!" regarding Page's theramin noises. Thing is, Jonesy does his arm waving bit during the piano solo; like I said, that corresponds on the audience tapes where the crowd indeed gets louder at that point. There's also a point during the piano solo, right before Page and Bonham kick in for the Boogie Section, where Jonesy says something to somebody, presumably his technical assistant (?). "Louder!", perhaps?

At least, that's my theory...mind ya, for the longest time, I thought Jonesy had that telephone on top of his keyboards at Knebworth in case a quick 999 call (English 911) or something needed to be made in case Page or Bonham went down on stage ala Chicago or San Diego '77...apparently the phone was actually part of some inside band joke or something like that.

[King_of_Zep]

IMO Jones already had built up a sequence on which the rest of the band could jam on, but they don't reply, so he waves his arms at them to join in, still no reply, so he continues.