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Knebby

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  • 5 months later...

" A letter from Peter Grant to Kim Fowley

the future manager of Led Zeppelin was then office manger for Mickey Most. Mickey

produced Kim Fowley on the Bo Didley classic "who do you love." Kim had to get to the studio

on The Tube. "

petergrantletter.jpg

Source:

http://www.kimfowley.net/victories/losttreasuresvinylclassics.htm

..doesn't look it has been posted before...

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" A letter from Peter Grant to Kim Fowley

the future manager of Led Zeppelin was then office manger for Mickey Most. Mickey

produced Kim Fowley on the Bo Didley classic "who do you love." Kim had to get to the studio

on The Tube. "

petergrantletter.jpg

..."there will be somebody outside the building to show you where the studio is." hysterical.gif Sounds ominous to me.

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  • 1 year later...

John "Magnet" Ward was an old friend of Robert's from the midlands. He worked at Jennings farm for a while and then started going out on the road with the band.

Magnetonstarship.jpg

Onboard the Starship with Jimmy and Robert

A notorious prankster and joker, the hugely popular Magnet was apparently named for his ability to attract women. He went on to work with Deep Purple, and was immortalised in their song "Highball Shooter" on the "Stormbringer " album in the lines

" A Magnet brought you to me, told me your name was Jo, He said you liked my music and you really dug the show."

He was tour manager for Whitesnake for some of their earlier tours, the last one being the 1981 "Come And Get It" tour.

magnetarse.jpg

Robert brought him in to tour manage alongside Rex King on his first solo tours of the US, UK, Far East and Australia. After this he left the music business, and settled down with his wife and kids. He remains good friends with Robert and his family.

Magnet.jpg

Keeping Robert in his place.

(There are other pics of him floating around but I can't put my hands on them all today so I'll come back with them.)

Somebody sent me a message on Saturday night saying they believed Magnet had died in a fall down a lift shaft in Jakarta (when Deep Purple played there)in the 70s. I managed to lose their message so am replying to let them know that it wasn't Magnet but Patsy Collins, Tommy Bolin's bodyguard, who suffered the fatal accident in Jakarta. Hope you see this, cheers.

Edited by Knebby
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Hi Knebby, a "trainspotterish" sort of question... but...do you know if it was John Magnet who went to a club with Jimmy and Robert after one of their 1973 MSG shows? My friend and I still say it was John M. (and no other Zep guys) who was there with Jimmy and Robert but someone else insists it was John Bonham... Thanks.

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Hi Knebby, a "trainspotterish" sort of question... but...do you know if it was John Magnet who went to a club with Jimmy and Robert after one of their 1973 MSG shows? My friend and I still say it was John M. (and no other Zep guys) who was there with Jimmy and Robert but someone else insists it was John Bonham... Thanks.

All I can provide is it would have had to have been after the first (Fri) or second (Sat) show. Ahmet Ertegun hosted a party at the Carlyle Hotel immediately following the third MSG concert (Sunday), presenting gifts and gold record awards for 'Houses of the Holy'.

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Hi Knebby, a "trainspotterish" sort of question... but...do you know if it was John Magnet who went to a club with Jimmy and Robert after one of their 1973 MSG shows? My friend and I still say it was John M. (and no other Zep guys) who was there with Jimmy and Robert but someone else insists it was John Bonham... Thanks.

Hi MSG - I admit to having no idea! Is there a specific thing about the event that would trigger a memory if I was to ask him - feel free to message me if you don't want to freely discuss xx
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All I can provide is it would have had to have been after the first (Fri) or second (Sat) show. Ahmet Ertegun hosted a party at the Carlyle Hotel immediately following the third MSG concert (Sunday), presenting gifts and gold record awards for 'Houses of the Holy'.

ny73_hoth_award.jpg

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Hi MSG - I admit to having no idea! Is there a specific thing about the event that would trigger a memory if I was to ask him - feel free to message me if you don't want to freely discuss xx

Hi Knebby, thanks for your response. I'll message you with a couple of details. He may not remember the night as important or significant, though...but for my friends and me it was a memorable event. xo

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Man, somehow I missed this thread...not once, but TWICE...first on the old electric-magic board, and then again on this board.

So I have to THANK YOU TWICE KNEBBY! :thanku:

Once for starting and contributing so magnificently to this thread. And twice for bumping this thread up today so that I could finally read it. :thumbsup::notworthy:

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  • 1 month later...

Bumping this thread because it deserves to be on the first page automatically...maybe Sam could think about pinning it along with Deb's thread. Lawd knows there aren't many finer and more integral women to this board than Deb and Knebby.

I just have to get down on my knees again in supplication to your effort Knebby in bringing forth all this vast treasure trove of knowledge, insider perspective and great photos. It's so nice to be able to place the names with a face.

I bow down to you...and if there's any special task I can perform for you while I'm down in this position, I'm at your service. ;)

Of course, it would be rude of me not to acknowledge the contributions of others: HotPlant, Steve, MSG, Sam, and PlanetPage...a salute of gratitude to all of you.

But as this thread is Knebby's baby; she doing the hard work of excavating it from the old site, it is she that gets to use me at her whim, should she ever desire.

Now that everybody's rolling their eyes, stop for a moment as I do have some entourage info to contribute.

Something flashed in my mind when reading Knebby's post about Magnet...I just wasn't sure what it was.

Well, I recently picked up another copy of Paul Kendall's seminal book "LED ZEPPELIN A Visual Documentary by Paul Kendall". Published in 1982, this was the first great overview of Led Zeppelin. Ritchie Yorke's bio was incomplete and had minimal black and white photos, and Howard Mylett's books were hard to find in the U.S.

Paul's book, on the other hand, was LOADED with great photos as well as having a chronological text, and was readily available in America.

Anyway, not having looked at the book in years(my other two copies are in storage), I thumbed thru my latest copy and there it was...the reason Magnet's name seemed so familiar. In the chapter dealing with 1975, there's an entry for January 29, Greensboro, North Carolina that mentions rioting between fans and the police. It quotes an account from Melody Maker, which I now quote for you:

"Melody Maker: Although the majority of the rioting fans had disappeared by the end of the show, the group were forced to make the quickest getaway within seconds after leaving the stage. Zeppelin manager Peter Grant took the wheel of one of the limousines - much to the surprise of the official driver - while the other was driven by Magnet, a British roadie employed by Deep Purple, who had come along to the concert as an old friend of the band.

Heading the procession was a police car which cleared the way for the two limousines, sirens blasting at speeds of up to 70mph in a heavily built-up area. The three cars drove over red lights and on the opposite side of the road in a scene that resembled a Steve McQueen movie car chase. The squealing tyres almost drowned out the police siren.

Grant, an expert driver, who had offered to buy both limousines from the car company, said afterwards 'I didn't care what happened so long as I got the boys out OK. That car I was driving was out of tune, otherwise I'd have driven faster still'."

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Strider - thanks for a great contribution and for following up that "back-of my-mind" feeling - :beer:

All of your other praise is kind but unwarranted, I began this thread but it isn't "mine", it belongs to the site, and all of the contributions are equally as valuable in my view - I'm particularly fond of the personal contributions from Hotplant :)

Anyway - have a great weekend :)

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  • 8 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

John "Magnet" Ward was an old friend of Robert's from the midlands. He worked at Jennings farm for a while and then started going out on the road with the band.

Magnetonstarship.jpg

Onboard the Starship with Jimmy and Robert

A notorious prankster and joker, the hugely popular Magnet was apparently named for his ability to attract women. He went on to work with Deep Purple, and was immortalised in their song "Highball Shooter" on the "Stormbringer " album in the lines

" A Magnet brought you to me, told me your name was Jo, He said you liked my music and you really dug the show."

He was tour manager for Whitesnake for some of their earlier tours, the last one being the 1981 "Come And Get It" tour.

magnetarse.jpg

Robert brought him in to tour manage alongside Rex King on his first solo tours of the US, UK, Far East and Australia. After this he left the music business, and settled down with his wife and kids. He remains good friends with Robert and his family.

Magnet.jpg

Keeping Robert in his place.

(There are other pics of him floating around but I can't put my hands on them all today so I'll come back with them.)

If anyone else who has photos with Magnet on them - for example, there were two or three more posted recently from on board the Starship - and could post them here it would be great, he'd really like to see them. Thanks. :)

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