Jimmy Page at the Lez Zeppelin show in London 14/06/2013

[aen27]

Robert likes a lot of music,one thing,IMHO that makes him who he is.Having missed out on seeing Zep several times(age,no tickets,both in MA and CA) I only saw Physical Graffiti a few times but it filled a need to hear Zep live.No,not close but a roaring good time!I am talking about the early 90's when Zep wasn't -hip- LOL! Each venue was packed every time.

They are all friends,.....who inducted Jeff into the RRHOF?He could had his pick of any musician/guitarist and they would have stumbled over themselves to do it.Who did it???

Please.

I enjoyed getting a chance to see Zoso, since I never saw the orginal and did not win to see the O2.I will always remember being in the lottery with my aunt. That alone is a special memory to me. I still hope to see at least Jimmy play one day.

I know and understand that. Reading this forum one would never know that Jimmy is the most loved the way he is critised for his every move. No one picked up that he went record shopping again with Ross yesterday.

[magerogue]

Don't get me wrong but I've always felt the same way about tribute bands, I've always felt like what's the point? You know what I mean? If you have the talent to play stuff like Dazed and Confused note-for-note live, why the heck wouldn't you make your own music. That's what Zeppelin did back in the day right? The whole point about a band playing other bands stuff like covers is to practice, or just having fun too, but I mean really... recreating a whole show dressed like Jimmy and Robert from 1973 or whatever is just kinda "ridiculous". I think it's great and all that people still listen to Zepp and other bands that made music, not like these "artists" around today, but man...

I saw a great Zepp cover band in my town like a year ago, I had great fun watching the guys being Zeppelin for 45 minutes, but at the end I just went like "Holy crap, why the shit wouldn't these guys be making their own music instead of wasting time trying to be zeppelin!??" and that's how I always feel and have felt about tribute bands.

Same goes for those horible Guns N Roses cover bands and tribute bands around. Let the good times roll... to a certain point!

Ranting aside, I couldn't imagine the pressure of playing to an audience were Jimmy Page is one of the attendies. I would shit a brick if I missed a single note.

[Geezer]

I don't think Jimmy attends anyone's concert to promote their music.

[wallis-anne-young]

I don't think Jimmy attends anyone's concert to promote their music.

Well, he must be aware that if he attends a Lez Zeppelin concert, it is a kind of an endorsement. They will surely sell more concert tickets now.

[TheStairwayRemainsTheSame]

Well, he must be aware that if he attends a Lez Zeppelin concert, it is a kind of an endorsement. They will surely sell more concert tickets now.

Not at all, he probably just went. The people in attendance didn't know he would "appearing". Roy Harper, Donovan and Black Crowes he went on stage in surprise appearance he's not the type of guy to use his name for his own advantage.

[SteveAJones]

I am reading these postings with much amusement, and your suggested titles are hilarious, in particular "Tuesdays with Ross".

Those posts were meant to be humorous yet I was hoping someone would pick up on the connection to "Tuesdays with Morrie". Fame, like a spotlight, inevitably fades but the trajectory of life continues. It's heartwarming for me each time we are all reminded that Jimmy is alive and well and quite keen on music. Be it questing for vinyl treasure in London's record stalls or making surprise appearances in concert halls, his time is very much his own and I for one do not begrudge him in the least for it.

[Cookie0024]

I wasn't referring to you. You're doing a great job with all these breaking news and I enjoy them a lot. I was referring to some older threads on this site. I can swear I saw a thread full of photos of Page shopping in a supermarket with some close-up shots of what he was buying.

Ah ok, apologies for my comment then. Thank you. And I agree, there should always be respect for Jimmy's privacy.

[LedZepUFP]

It is with great honour, I share with you, our interview with the lovely Steph Paynes from 'Lez Zeppelin'. As some of you have seen, last Friday, Jimmy was in attendance at their concert. I have learned a lot & gained so much respect for these wonderful ladies. Their passion and love for the music, along with sheer determination to succeed in a world of 'male' Zeppelin tribute bands prove why they are one of the premiere Led Zeppelin tribute bands today. Be sure to check out the interview. Enjoy.

Special thanks to the ladies of Lez Zeppelin, especially Steph for not only providing pictures, but time & energy to answer all of our questions. You ladies rock!! ))

http://ledzepufplezzep.blogspot.ca/

[Tea41]

Not for nothing, that clip of Lez Zeppelin doing WLL was horrid. Laughable in fact.

[nat431]

This is Embarrassing.

"ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby...ain't nothin' like the real thing"

Maybe he was out getting "inspiration" for the re-mastering? LOL. Maybe he just likes to keep his profile out there, in case he does get inspiration to do his own thing again. Maybe he was saying to himself "hey, if they can do it, I can do it". It would have been a lot more interesting if he would have jammed with them! Who was he in the company of?

[SteveAJones]

It is with great honour, I share with you, our interview with the lovely Steph Paynes from 'Lez Zeppelin'. As some of you have seen, last Friday, Jimmy was in attendance at their concert. I have learned a lot & gained so much respect for these wonderful ladies. Their passion and love for the music, along with sheer determination to succeed in a world of 'male' Zeppelin tribute bands prove why they are one of the premiere Led Zeppelin tribute bands today. Be sure to check out the interview. Enjoy.

Special thanks to the ladies of Lez Zeppelin, especially Steph for not only providing pictures, but time & energy to answer all of our questions.

It's a good interview, but the unasked question is are they lesbians are is the band name merely a marketing tactic?

Edited to add:

Found this...

----------------

Heartbreakers Lez Zeppelin

By Yusef Najafi

Published on July 12, 2007

Don't ask the girls in Lez Zeppelin if they're lesbians -- they won't dish.

''Keeping a little bit of mystery to a group is very old fashioned, but in my opinion, it's much more intriguing. And besides, it's really about the music,'' says Steph Paynes, the lead guitarist of the all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band.

http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/music.php?ak=2848

----------------

I'll take that to mean the band name is strictly for marketing purposes.

[Geezer]

[LedZepUFP]

It's a good interview, but the unasked question is are they lesbians are is the band name merely a marketing tactic?

Edited to add:

Found this...

----------------

Heartbreakers Lez Zeppelin

By Yusef Najafi

Published on July 12, 2007

Don't ask the girls in Lez Zeppelin if they're lesbians -- they won't dish.

''Keeping a little bit of mystery to a group is very old fashioned, but in my opinion, it's much more intriguing. And besides, it's really about the music,'' says Steph Paynes, the lead guitarist of the all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band.

http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/music.php?ak=2848

----------------

I'll take that to mean the band name is strictly for marketing purposes.

What does it matter if they are lesbians or not? That wasn't my main goal to ask about their sexual orientation. It's about the music, not what they do behind closed doors.

[TheStairwayRemainsTheSame]

I don't think they are anyway them being lesbians is probably the main thing we should be talking about

I hope the one most front is lesbian

[Disco Duck]

I don't think they are anyway them being lesbians is probably the main thing we should be talking about

I hope the one most front is lesbian

What I want to know is which lady plays which instrument? In other words, who is their Robert Plant, their John Paul Jones, etc.?

[Geezer]

What does it matter if they are lesbians or not?

Why doesn't it matter?

[PlanetPage]

It is with great honour, I share with you, our interview with the lovely Steph Paynes from 'Lez Zeppelin'. As some of you have seen, last Friday, Jimmy was in attendance at their concert. I have learned a lot & gained so much respect for these wonderful ladies. Their passion and love for the music, along with sheer determination to succeed in a world of 'male' Zeppelin tribute bands prove why they are one of the premiere Led Zeppelin tribute bands today. Be sure to check out the interview. Enjoy.

Special thanks to the ladies of Lez Zeppelin, especially Steph for not only providing pictures, but time & energy to answer all of our questions. You ladies rock!! ))

http://ledzepufplezzep.blogspot.ca/

...thank you for posting the enjoyable interview, indeed it is an Honor for the Iconic Men of Led Zeppelin to be loved and respected by feminine charm, the Iconic photographs of Jimmy page has always reflected his very softer and feminine, glamourous side, and that is perfectly matched by Steph Paynes...they both look naturally beautiful in that memorable photograph...

[kenog]

The Independent (UK)

Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page: A whole lotta love from four women

When Jimmy Page met the female Led Zep, he was in awe, he tells David Sinclair

David Sinclair

Friday 12 July 2013

Lez Zeppelin, the female Led Zeppelin tribute band, had an idea that there might be someone special in the audience when they were playing their gig at the Garage in north London. But it wasn't until they ended with a swirling, shrieking, shuddering encore of “Whole Lotta Love” that the band's guitarist Steph Paynes saw a shock of white hair by the bar at the back of the venue and knew for certain that her alter ego, the real Jimmy Page, was there.

“I'd dreamt of that moment for so long,” says Paynes, who put the group together 10 years ago in New York. “In my mind, I play as if he's out there every night. But this was a real fight-or-flight moment.”

Four women tramping over the hallowed ground of Led Zeppelin's musical legacy; what would Page make of it? As the band left the stage to tumultuous applause, he strode purposefully towards the dressing room and banged on the door. “He came in and he was gushing,” Paynes recalls. “'Finally, this is the way it should be done,' he told us. 'Each and every one of you is brilliant'.”

Page corroborates their story. “They played the Led Zeppelin music with an extraordinary sensuality,” he proclaims, some days later. “They certainly played with an energy and passion that highlighted their superb musicianship.” This is high praise from the man who knows better than anyone what it takes to perform the songs of Led Zeppelin, and speaks volumes about a group which has managed to elevate the often tacky business of being a tribute act into a creditable art form.

The first thing you notice about Lez Zeppelin is, of course, that they are all women. But by the end of the show it is the “superb musicianship” and obsessive attention to detail which they bring to every facet of their performance that leaves a more lasting impression. Paynes, who either plays a Les Paul or a double-necked, six and 12-stringed guitar, has long black hair and a saturnine look. Shannon Conley, who has long, blonde hair and a lean, willowy figure, sings in a high, throaty glissando, and plays occasional harmonica.

The bass player Megan Thomas also plays keyboards (with bass pedals) and mandolin on certain numbers, while the drummer Leesa Harrington-Squyres performs with a muscular force majeure that recalls the behind-the-beat heft of the late John Bonham with uncanny accuracy. She has even mastered the no-sticks sequence during the drum solo which comprises most of “Moby Dick”.

They are good by any standard. But the fact that they are women, strutting and preening like rock gods of old, plays odd tricks on your mind. For all their much avowed machismo on and off the stage, there was a duality about Led Zeppelin and their music which was not fully appreciated at the time. Hearing Conley singing Robert Plant's melodies in exactly the same keys as the original recordings, the thought occurs that Plant (in those days, anyway) was a man with a woman's voice. And seeing Paynes playing her guitar with a violin bow and making her lithe, lunging stage moves, you realize how slight and coquettish Page was.

“What Jimmy was witnessing was complete and utter passionate surrender to his music and all of its moods, all of its sexuality, by musicians who are in a place where we can do that,” Paynes says with a typical flourish. “I think he was kind of stunned.”

Paynes is kind of stunning. A committed Anglophile, she first came to Britain as an exchange student to study at the London School of Economics. She later formed a band in London and got herself some work writing for the NME and other journals. She played in a militant all-girl punk band called 1-900 Boxx who featured in the movie Rhythm Thief and she toured in Ronnie Spector's band.

Everyone thought she had gone mad when she announced her intention to form an all-female band playing the music of Led Zeppelin and the task has not been easily accomplished. Lez Zeppelin is currently on its third vocalist (“Roberta III”), second bassist and third drummer. (“The guitarist remains the same,” Paynes says.)

But the band has been gaining fans in high places ever since. Their recent visit to the UK began with an appearance at the Isle of Wight festival, where the promoter, John Giddings, had booked them as the opening act on the Big Top stage.

Paynes actually first met Page in October 2012 when she buttonholed him at a party after the New York premiere of the Zeppelin movie Celebration Day.

“At one point I reached out and touched his face,” she says. “It was completely autonomic. I had to feel if he was real. I said, 'Jimmy, I just want to tell you, it's really hard being you'. He laughed and said, 'I know'.”

Will she and Page meet again? “I hope so,” she says.

“I hope it's just the beginning and not the end.”

[slave to zep]

thanks for posting

i'm glad that Jimmy liked them. i am one of the fans who actually like tribute bands, if they are good, because i simply love to hear the Led Zeppelin music played live.

and they can sometimes introduce younger audiences to this great music.

[Pagesbow]

Jimmy should go and see Zepparella, Gretchen Menn is the best "female Jimmy"

[Disco Duck]

thanks for posting

i'm glad that Jimmy liked them. i am one of the fans who actually like tribute bands, if they are good, because i simply love to hear the Led Zeppelin music played live.

and they can sometimes introduce younger audiences to this great music.

You're not alone. I enjoy a good tribute band. It's nice to hear the favorite songs of my youth being performed live in the same manner I first heard them. It's also good to know that younger musicians dig said music.