Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

The rehearsals were held about fifteen minutes away from Old Mill House at Bray Film Studios on September 24, 1980. The purpose of them was to prepare for the North American tour, so presumably they ran through some of the material they were likely to include during those shows. According to my notes they began in the mid to late afternoon and ended at 8 pm.

Posted

I share your strong interest in the happenings at the rehearsal that day. Despite the efforts of many avid collectors and fans there is little known about September 24th outside of the testimony of the three surviving members of Zeppelin, Rex King, and a few roadies and sound technicians. For additional details I encourage you to seek out a copy of Dave Lewis' "Feather in the Wind" book, which is an excellent 1980 compendium and contains interviews with a handful of individuals that were present on that day.

There are in fact very few post 1980/07/07 photos of the band members when Bonham was still with us. Several of these have been posted in Steve's "Mysteries" thread - you will have to do some digging to find them. In fact if you go under the "TimeLine" section of this website and view the '79 - '80 photos you will find a photo of Bonham taken at his residence on or about 1980/09/18. The photo is labeled at the top "John Bonham - 1980" and the credit in the lower corner is given to Jason Bonham, who provided the image. The aforementioned Dave Lewis visited Zeppelin's headquarters in mid September 1980 about a week before the fateful rehearsal and spoke with Jimmy Page about the light show plans for the upcoming U.S. tour. Dave took photos that day, of Jimmy included, however quite understandably has not released them and retains them in his archives for potential future use.

As Steve and others have indicated this was a very laid back rehearsal and Bonham presented to it already quite intoxicated - after several hours of likely plodding along and per witness accounts falling off his drum stool several times, the group called it a day and returned to Jimmy's home. Bonham continued drinking vodka and light alcoholic beverages and retired around midnight. One can also find photos on this website of the staircase Bonham was helped up on by two men, and the doorway of the room in which he passed.

It is very likely better than images, video and/or audio (if there is any, and there very likely IS NOT) has not surfaced - it would serve little to comfort fans and non-fans alike.

Jimmy is quoted as saying something along the lines of "....we were all drinking, (Bonham) was just drinking too much..." This is what it comes down to, and the reasons for Bonham's excessive drinking at this stage have been discussed elsewhere...

I love the '80 tour, and Bonham performs very well on the good nights....best to leave it at that...

Posted

Thank you Steve, do you think they played Carouselambra that day? Any pics of that rehearsal?

Personally, I don't think they would have because I don't think they ever had any intentions of performing that song in a concert setting.

So far as I know there are no photos from that final rehearsal.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...