Jimmy Page confirms 2018 release(s)

[Boogie Chillen 82]

35 minutes ago, ZepHead315 said:

The Paris '69 show could very well be a sign that he's softened his stance on what could pass for official release in terms of sound. 

That's a key point. Another thing to keep in mind is that Jimmy has access to the sales numbers. He knows how much the BBC and HTWWW compilations have generated, he certainly knows how successful the reissues have been (my guess, based on his decision to promise us more stuff, would be very), and what is more, he has seen several other prominent acts recently release vintage live material to great success. The Stones released a bunch of shows as individual releases, including two from the same tour (Leeds and Hampton). Priest too, as mentioned above. Jimmy must know all of this, he probably knows the numbers too (which my guess again would be are a success, given that the Stones kept and kept releasing) now the question is will he follow suit. If his comments in that interview are any indication, he is indeed going to.

The dad's stocking comment made a few posts before is relevant as well. Most people buying this stuff are now advanced in years, folks like myself are an exception, those who grew up with Zep and possibly have seen them back in the 70s are still the target audience and they're expected at this point to be able to afford spending whatever these will cost. So now is the time to give them the ultimate gift. Will he release crappy shows that make him look bad? Of course not. But there are plenty that easily measure up to and even surpass BBC and HTWWW, and as long as the sound quality is not below Paris, those are the ones that are probably being considered.

Jimmy, if you're reading this, keep the Plantations though? Pretty please?

[IpMan]

48 minutes ago, SteveAJones said:

He's secure in the knowledge that his career is essentially over. He's good with doing 15 to 20 dates a year for ever diminishing audiences with a band that poses no artistic or social challenges whatsoever. There's no shame in this as one either goes out on top when they are young or they gradually fade away.  

He sold out Phoenix in a week. I guess the Phoenix fans must not have received your memo.

If you don't like his musical direction that is your right, however, good or bad Robert is doing EXACTLY what he wants to do. No one could ask for a better epitaph than that right there, the freedom to take chances, follow your muse, and to hell with everything else. Believe me, I too wish he would kick up the actual rock a bit but the fact remains I respect the hell out of him for his decisions and the chances he has taken. You know who I do not respect? Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Roger Daltry, Pete Townshend, etc. talk about beating the cash-cow to death and then dragging around it's corpse.

[Boogie Chillen 82]

1 minute ago, IpMan said:

He sold out Phoenix in a week. I guess the Phoenix fans must not have received your memo.

If you don't like his musical direction that is your right, however, good or bad Robert is doing EXACTLY what he wants to do. No one could ask for a better epitaph than that right there, the freedom to take chances, follow your muse, and to hell with everything else. Believe me, I too wish he would kick up the actual rock a bit but the fact remains I respect the hell out of him for his decisions and the chances he has taken. You know who I do not respect? Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Roger Daltry, Pete Townshend, etc. talk about beating the cash-cow to death and then dragging around it's corpse.

+ 1

I wouldn't see the Stones today if someone gave me tickets. Nostalgia only works if you can pull off the material. A good cover band in their 30s or even 40s would probably blow them off the stage today.

[SteveAJones]

1 hour ago, ZepHead315 said:

Steve, you yourself just admitted that he's done it before. The Paris '69 show could very well be a sign that he's softened his stance on what could pass for official release in terms of sound. I even admitted above that it was an extremely slim chance. But I think if Page were going to release anything from 77, it'd be those LA or NY soundboards. No way in hell he would release Seattle 77 unless he was going to frankenstein the hell out of it. He'd almost certainly do the same for any other release anyway. The point is, nobody know what these new releases over the next decade will be (assuming it will indeed last that long). If the whole copyright law thing extends to soundboards (as has been debated at the hotel), then Page could conceivably do this. Besides, if he's going to waste the remainder of his life, it might as well be putting out new releases instead of just saying "I'll be performing later this year" for the zillionth time.

Yes, he has done it before on exceptionally rare occasions and only when absolutely necessary. Case in point is Paris '69, which never would have seen the light of day as part of an official release were it not for the companion disc concept. He needed something as content to fill that gap for the first album, and Paris '69 became the most convenient and expedient option. Please note it wasn't a stand alone release, merely a companion disc. Seattle '77 has more than just sonic problems, it's a mediocre performance.

[SteveAJones]

42 minutes ago, IpMan said:

He sold out Phoenix in a week. I guess the Phoenix fans must not have received your memo.

        He's Robert Plant. He'll always sell out a 2,132 seat venue in a major market.

38 minutes ago, Boogie Chillen 82 said:

I wouldn't see the Stones today if someone gave me tickets. Nostalgia only works if you can pull off the material. A good cover band in their 30s or even 40s would probably blow them off the stage today.

Interesting. I wouldn't cross the street to see Robert Plant with his current band, but it's quite likely I'll fly in for the UK Stones tour this summer. A good cover band probably can COVER the material quite well, but they can never claim to have BOTH written it and lived it. The performances aren't half-bad either, and some nights are still quite magical.   

[Urozep]

Why not let people just live and let live??? I saw the Who this summer in Vegas and it was great!! And I respect RP as well-- just don't understand why he wouldn't do both??? Phil Collins- hardly my favourite artist-  had a great career as a solo act and as prt of Genesis.  LZ does t have to be  "big". --

[ZepHead315]

On 2/18/2018 at 6:01 PM, SteveAJones said:

Yes, he has done it before on exceptionally rare occasions and only when absolutely necessary. Case in point is Paris '69, which never would have seen the light of day as part of an official release were it not for the companion disc concept. He needed something as content to fill that gap for the first album, and Paris '69 became the most convenient and expedient option. Please note it wasn't a stand alone release, merely a companion disc. Seattle '77 has more than just sonic problems, it's a mediocre performance.

I'll quote what Your Overlord said on Royal Orleans. For the record, I'm not saying you're wrong, just that at this point, no one knows:

Quote

I grant you that Jimmy has tended to follow your philosophy in the past over mine, but things are changing.

1. He is basically a retired musician who is ready to put some of this stuff out because it is a capstone on a career.

2. The model for these big box sets are well established now, and most of his contemporaries are doing the same thing, and it IS the 50th anniversary of the band.

3. The copyright law has somewhere between a moderate and a profound effect on this. We don’t quite know the scope of his exposure to it, but it is clearly a game changer to a certain extent.

We are in uncharted waters and Jimmy is looking through 2018 eyes right now, and not 1990 eyes.

 

[gibsonfan159]

On 1/30/2018 at 10:01 AM, Realperson said:

Yeah, as a guitar player, slides are notoriously difficult to get good sound on a 12-string. He did a good job with it for most of the solo. The problem was the notes at the end higher up on the fretboard really fell out with the slide, hence it sounds out of tune. He probably should have adjusted the arrangement of the solo to avoid running into that issue IMO 

Remember this is the double neck he's playing. The angle for playing with a slide might've been more difficult if the six string sat too low. I'm willing to bet that's why he played it on the twelve.

[SteveAJones]

51 minutes ago, ZepHead315 said:

I'll quote what Your Overlord said on Royal Orleans. For the record, I'm not saying you're wrong, just that at this point, no one knows.

Personally, I think "50th Anniversary of the band" and "copyright concerns" are equally overblown. Unlike the Stones, for example, we don't even have a consensus on what the 50th Anniversary date is, aside from the year. Post-1980, Page arguably never followed the new release strategy of his contemporaries, and arguably has been well behind the pace on more than one occasion. For example, it took Led Zeppelin five years to get the 02 Arena show on the shelves. All of that aside, it's almost nonsense talk when he speaks in terms of live releases over the next ten years. Someone predicting today what will happen across the next ten years at the age of 74 elicits little more than a "Whatever, Grandpa" from me. 

[paplbojo]

My order of preference would be

1977

1973 Euro

1979 Copenhagen

1971 Japan

Wouldn't it be something to get them all over the next ten years...! I choose to dream...

[ohjimmy]

I'm sure we'll also be getting an update Mothership ...it's been ten years since that release. 

[SuperDave]

30 minutes ago, ohjimmy said:

I'm sure we'll also be getting an update Mothership ...it's been ten years since that release. 

I wouldn't think so with that release.  Only reason would be to get it in line with others and current technology.  Then again Jimmy could go back to some of the others like the 1990 box set and Early Days and Latter Days and do the same and for BluRay.  As soon as he does the original 1990 set, the others are done as well.  Not sure if this needs to be done and would be just for BluRay as cd remastering was done on these. 

I hope I'm accurate on this and if not feel free to add to the specifics as I would appreciate this.

 

[SteveAJones]

20 minutes ago, SuperDave said:

I wouldn't think so with that release.  Only reason would be to get it in line with others and current technology.  Then again Jimmy could go back to some of the others like the 1990 box set and Early Days and Latter Days and do the same and for BluRay.  As soon as he does the original 1990 set, the others are done as well.  Not sure if this needs to be done and would be just for BluRay as cd remastering was done on these. 

I hope I'm accurate on this and if not feel free to add to the specifics as I would appreciate this.

Mothership (2007) was meant to serve as a replacement ED & LD, which are phased out. 

Mothership vinyl format was re-released in 2015 with the remaster campaign content.

[SuperDave]

1 minute ago, SteveAJones said:

Mothership (2007) was meant to serve as a replacement ED & LD, which are phased out. 

Mothership vinyl format was re-released in 2015 with the remaster campaign content.

Thanks for the info and specifics on these Steve as I wasn't sure!

[ohjimmy]

Keep your eyes open for Record Store Day.....I'm sure Page has something up his sleeve. 

[tmtomh]

Yes, Mothership was updated in 2015 on all formats - vinyl, CD, and digital download - with the new 2014/2014 reissue mastering. A massive improvement over the horrid, brickwalled original 2007 mastering of that collection.

Ironically, the tracks on both versions were mastered by John Davis, but thankfully  he had very different marching orders the second time.

[SuperDave]

Good thing regarding John Davis as the original mix was not the best.

[Walter]

[Strider]

18 minutes ago, Walter said:

Is that a blueberry that bird is pecking at?

[Walter]

No idea, it’s been linked to the inner fold on Zep III. 

8 minutes ago, Strider said:

Is that a blueberry that bird is pecking at?

 

[tmtomh]

The bird image appears a couple of times on the Zep III front cover, but at a different angle and by itself.

The only place where the bird appears in that position/angle, pecking at that ball or whatever it is, is on the Zep III inner gatefold, lefthand side. The ball is resting atop a spire on a castle with a "Private" sign in front of it.

Presumably the announcement will be something from Zep III, perhaps a Record Store Day reissue of a single containing a couple of tracks from Zep III, or maybe (I am totally speculating here) the unreleased but widely bootlegged "Feel So Bad medley" that comes from the same Zep III session as Hats Off to (Roy) Harper and Trouble in Mind/Key to the Highway.

Of course, the total dream scenario would be the announcement of a Zep III-era new live release, which would point to the legendary Bath Festival show. But I think that's highly unlikely because Bath happened a few months before the release of Zep III, and because if they're releasing Bath it obviously would be for the 50th anniversary, and the press releases thus far have strongly implied that the 50th anniversary celebration releases won't happen until September.

Doesn't really matter, though - in about 12 hours we'll know what it is.

[The Rover]

7 hours ago, tmtomh said:

Yes, Mothership was updated in 2015 on all formats - vinyl, CD, and digital download - with the new 2014/2014 reissue mastering. A massive improvement over the horrid, brickwalled original 2007 mastering of that collection.

Ironically, the tracks on both versions were mastered by John Davis, but thankfully  he had very different marching orders the second time.

I listened to MS in 2007 at B&N at one of their listening stations. I thought the mastering was nothing special, so I passed on it.

[tmtomh]

Just now, The Rover said:

I listened to MS in 2007 at B&N at one of their listening stations. I thought the mastering was nothing special, so I passed on it.

The original 2007 mastering of Mothership is indeed nothing special - in fact, it's atrocious, probably the worst-mastered Zeppelin ever.

The 2015 reissue of it, though, uses the mastering from the 2014/15 studio reissues, and that is very good mastering overall. No need to get it if you already have the studio albums of course, but it's good that the one in-print best-of compilation has the best available mastering.

[Walter]

5 minutes ago, tmtomh said:

The bird image appears a couple of times on the Zep III front cover, but at a different angle and by itself.

The only place where the bird appears in that position/angle, pecking at that ball or whatever it is, is on the Zep III inner gatefold, lefthand side. The ball is resting atop a spire on a castle with a "Private" sign in front of it.

Presumably the announcement will be something from Zep III, perhaps a Record Store Day reissue of a single containing a couple of tracks from Zep III, or maybe (I am totally speculating here) the unreleased but widely bootlegged "Feel So Bad medley" that comes from the same Zep III session as Hats Off to (Roy) Harper and Trouble in Mind/Key to the Highway.

Of course, the total dream scenario would be the announcement of a Zep III-era new live release, which would point to the legendary Bath Festival show. But I think that's highly unlikely because Bath happened a few months before the release of Zep III, and because if they're releasing Bath it obviously would be for the 50th anniversary, and the press releases thus far have strongly implied that the 50th anniversary celebration releases won't happen until September.

Doesn't really matter, though - in about 12 hours we'll know what it is.

Since boot companies many times mirror upcoming releases - maybe there will be a live version of immigrant song released for record day on vinyl.... 

[The Rover]

7 minutes ago, tmtomh said:

The original 2007 mastering of Mothership is indeed nothing special - in fact, it's atrocious, probably the worst-mastered Zeppelin ever.

The 2015 reissue of it, though, uses the mastering from the 2014/15 studio reissues, and that is very good mastering overall. No need to get it if you already have the studio albums of course, but it's good that the one in-print best-of compilation has the best available mastering.

Yes