Zeppelin Mysteries Hosted by Steve A. Jones

[pagemccartney95]

That is the screen at Capitol Centre the night of the fourth gig (5/25/77). Some suggest the fact it is on indicates they were used, but that photo was taken prior to the start of

the concert during set-up. One attendee who was there said they were not. If they had

been we would have seen gig photos with cameras/cameramen near the stage such as

the Pontiac Silverdome shots.

Speaking of screens, here's an example of how they looked at Earls Court in May 1975:

Photo Credit: Steve Selwood

Wow, Steve! That's awesome! The Earl's Court concerts were awesome!

,

Jo

[SteveAJones]

Robert Plant

National Indoor Stadium in Canberra Australia

Sat, February 4, 1984 CANCELLED

More than one Led Zeppelin book and nearly every Robert Plant solo concert chronology on the net is now inaccurate as a cancellation notice published the week prior has been discovered. No specific reason given so I shall continue looking into it.

Full credit and many thanks to Greg in Sydney (ac124) for this contribution (as well as for liberating the 1972 Sydney Press Conference photos that have since been widely circulated and even appear on the Cosmic Energy 'Assemblage' dvd!).

Canberra Times January 28, 1984

Edited August 11, 2009 by SteveAJones

[dazedjeffy]

May 25th (5th of five nights)

Led Zeppelin, Peter Grant and Maureen Plant attended the after-show party…apparently it was held in a restaurant at or near Earls Court Arena...Robert arranged for English rock group Dr. Feelgood to perform.

Invite for the May 25th after party, anyone? I need to find the file of the transcription of this invite and/or a larger-sized image.

Edited August 11, 2009 by dazedjeffy

[SteveAJones]

Invite for the May 25th after party, anyone? I need to find the file of the transcription of this invite and/or a larger-sized image.

I don't believe my own eyes. Beyond rare! Outrageous!

[SteveAJones]

Jimmy Page (The Yardbirds)

1967 Australian Tour

January 21-28 1967

Greg in Sydney (ac124) discovered the following earlier today thru meticulous, painstaking research at the National Library of Australia upon private request and encouragement:

Adelaide Advertiser January 20, 1967

Sydney Morning Herald January 22, 1967

Sydney Morning Herald January 22, 1967

Sydney Morning Herald January 24, 1967

Adelaide Advertiser January 26, 1967

Outstanding!

[PlanetPage]

Well, I'm still looking into this. It's certainly plausible because they did have the night off and The Pretty Things were their label mates. Linda Lovelace did the stage introduction at Zep's Forum gig the next night. Have found nothing else to substantiate the Plant

stage announcement for The Pretty Things.

Tks for this and the Yarbirds Piece is amazing...and point noted re. Plant Announcement...(I was wondering from your earlier comment)

Linda Lovelace fact known already...

...this you can probably confirm ASAP, Catherine James of Dandelion author writes she saw Led Zeppelin shows at The Shrine in '71 (she probably meant The Forum)

and Just out of curiosity why has Zep never played The Shrine...

[SteveAJones]

...this you can probably confirm ASAP, Catherine James of Dandelion author writes she saw Led Zeppelin shows at The Shrine in '71 (she probably meant The Forum)

and Just out of curiosity why has Zep never played The Shrine...

Led Zeppelin played Shrine Auditorum twice in 1968 (5/31 & 6/1). It's seating capacity was 6,300 while The Forum held 18,000 for concerts. Every L.A. Zeppelin concert from

Sept 1970 onward was held at The Forum.

[SteveAJones]

Jimmy Page (The Yardbirds)

1967 Australian Tour

January 21-28 1967

Edit: 1/22/66 article and ad published in Sun-Herald, not Sydney Morning Herald.

[SteveAJones]

The Led Zeppelin Laws by Steven Rosen

When: 1977

Where: Chicago, Illinois

What: This is probably the most extraordinary experience I've ever had as a music writer. Read on:

I'm sitting aboard Caesar's Chariot, Led Zeppelin's customized Boeing 707 jet. Appropriately named after the conquering emperor who was ultimately doomed by an addiction to his own glory, this flying fortress now carries onboard an invading modern-day musical force. Zeppelin has just annihilated a sellout crowd of pagan revelers in St. Louis. We're returning to Chicago where the band has set up its base of operations, the city that will represent ground zero for the next several weeks. For the previous two tours, in 1973 and 1975, they have adopted a similar strategy of positioning itself in one location and then flying out to concerts from a central point. It is the refuge for only the high and mightiest of groups. And it is the brainchild of tour manager Richard Cole, Peter Grant's first lieutenant and longtime fixer.

We're headed back to the Windy City's Ambassador East Hotel. I've been sequestered there for eleven days, a week-and-a-half of unchecked excess and dark rumblings. The former balances the latter. The plane, for instance, has been refitted to accommodate a bar, two bedrooms, a 30ft. couch, and a Hammond organ. Luxury comes at an uncomfortable price - $2500 per day leasing fees. Still, amidst this opulence, you can't help but notice how John Bonham lumbers about the cabin, a bottle of something in his hand, greeting everyone he encounters with barely-concealed contempt.

Bonzo walks by me and I don't dare make eye contact. This is one of the many commandments handed down: Do not look directly at John Bonham. Actually, it is a sub-command but must be obeyed religiously in any event. I'm still seat-buckled in, trying to make myself inconspicuous and ruminating over what I'd been through this past week or so. Only a couple days earlier was I finally granted my first audience with the guitarist. I had begun to think that might not ever happen. But my room phone rang one late morning and a voice informed me that Jimmy would see me now. As I was ushered into his spectacular suite, you never walked anywhere within the hotel compound without an escort, it was impossible not to notice the busted telephone, the hole in the wall, and a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels perched on his nightstand. Telltale signs of an angry young musician. He would upend that bottle at regular intervals during our conversation. His speech would become increasingly slurred and deliberate but this was more than a guitarist getting drunk in the early afternoon. This is 1977, Zeppelin's eleventh U.S. tour, and Page's drinking habits are by now, well documented. No, there's more, an underlying current of anger in every word slowly muttered. As if he's in a constant posture of self-defense or even, paranoia. In fact, he's ripped the telephone from the wall because he felt intruded upon and didn't want spying ears listening in.

And now here we are, cruising altitude, and I'm accompanied to the rear of the plane. Janine Safer, the band's publicist, is on point, a monster of a security guard follows her, then me, and another security soldier brings up the rear. Military precision, though, for all the world, this feels more than anything else like a dead man walking. And I'm about to understand why. I greet Jimmy (it's hard to tell whether he recognizes me from a few days ago or not), sit down, and begin talking. As I'm hunched over, trying to hear him above the din of the whirring white noise, from behind, a vise-like grip grabs my right shoulder. I'm thinking that was a fast 15 minutes when I'm physically lifted from the seat and violently spun around. Standing before me is one seriously pissed-off John Paul Jones. And that's when my world unravels.

"Rosen, you fucking cunt liar, I should fucking kill you."

In punctuation to his remarks, as if these shouted invectives coming from the mouth of the world's most important bass player and directed at me aren't enough to reduce me to some lifeless mass - he demanded the return of all the interview tapes I'd thus far conducted. I handed them over, watching my reputation and any hopes of a music career encased inside these little plastic cassette cases. At this moment, cassette coffins better described them.

The venom in his voice staggers me. I feel as if I'm having an out-of-body experience. But each time I shut my eyes and open them, I'm still there, and horrifically, so is Jones. I'm on an airplane traveling 600 miles an hour, hurtling towards a destination I know I don't want to reach. I keep waiting for some miracle, an engine falling off, or a wing icing up. And the only thing that grows colder is the look on his face and the blood running through his veins

What makes this all the more unnerving is that John Paul and I had spent some illuminating time together just two days after I'd arrived. No Jack, no mutilated furniture, only a soft-spoken bass player telling me about his life.

"The first time, we all met in this little room just to see if we could even stand each other. It was wall-to-wall amplifiers and terrible, all old. Jimmy said, 'Do you know a number called 'The Train Kept A-Rolling?' I told him, 'No,' and he said, 'It's easy, just G to A.' He counted it out and the room just exploded, and we said, 'Right, we're on, this is it, this is going to work!' And we just sort of built it up from there. (And now) I wouldn't be without Zeppelin for the world."

And I believed him; you couldn't help but believe him. Led Zeppelin was his life and his love and he was forever protecting it, as he told me, from those who would try to run it down. He was talking about critics, in the main, journalists who would tell him how much they admired the band and then turn around and write scathing reviews. And here, confronting me now, is all that passion turned poisonous. The bassist hurls curse after curse, and even motions in a gesture carrying with it physical implications. Though I've never been in a fight in my life, his veiled threats do not cause me much alarm. John Paul, I felt, was someone against whom I could probably hold my own. No, it is the standing mountains of muscled beef surrounding him, his security team, that give me pause. They shoot me looks that convey a pretty simple message: Make even the slightest motion towards this man before you, and what happens next will surely be one of the less pleasant moments you'll ever experience.

At that point, it's hard to determine whether it's more the fear or embarrassment that has rendered me speechless and immobile. But, no, it's the fear, definitely the fear. As I fall in and out of moments of lucidity, I'm trying to figure out why I've been singled out for Jonesy's personal attentions. Then I see, there in his right hand, the cause of my dilemma. It is a copy of Rock Guitarists Vol. I (ironically Vol. II would feature my Page story on the cover), a compilation of Guitar Player stories collected over the past several years. That magazine is the reason I'm here; to do a cover piece on Page and a major feature on Jones. My very own cause celebre, the very thing that has brought me here, is going to bury me.

He has rolled it up into a tube shape and smacks it repeatedly into his open left palm. I had written the Jeff Beck story gracing the cover and had brought copies for he and Jimmy. Peace offerings. They both knew Jeff, of course, and I thought the gesture would present me as a writer with a bit of street cred. And in that terrible second, it hits me, no not magazine as bludgeon but the realization: I have sent Jonesy off the deep end because I've betrayed his trust. I have mutated into one of them, one of the conniving and lying journalists he had been ranting about. Repeatedly during our interview, I told him how honored I was to be on the road with him and how much respect I had for the band. I know he believed what I said because it was the truth and I meant every word of it. And now he'd read these words I'd written four years earlier and what was he to believe?

This is what he read:

"A contemporary of Beck, Jimmy Page has failed to recreate the magic he performed as guitarist for The Yardbirds. Led Zeppelin started off as nothing more than a grandiose reproduction of Beck's past work.." and so on.

It was stupid and ridiculous and I'm ashamed to this day for writing that. I wrote my way into this - how would I write my way out?

I had been warned. On the very day I arrived, the rules were outlined for me. And now, only eleven days later, I had already broken the 5th commandment.

Chalk it up to inexperience, and maybe no little bit of stupidity. At this point, I've only been freelancing for about 3 ½ years, plying my trade in various local and regional papers. I made my bones and cracked the inner sanctum of magazines like Creem and Circus. And then in December 1973, Guitar Player, after rejecting multiple submissions, accepted a Q&A on Jeff Beck and used it for that month's cover. This is the story, the first one I'd ever written for GP, that would make Jones go for the jugular. It was my breakthrough as a fledgling scribe.

And here, now, all that hard work had culminated with the opportunity of a lifetime. After nearly a year's worth of phone calls to the Swan Song offices in New York (Zeppelin's private record label), I was finally being greenlighted ; I'd be allowed to travel with the band on their private plane and stay with them in the same hotel. After all this, getting this close, I was going to leave empty handed. Or maybe with a broken finger. Tales were rife about Zeppelin's enforcers doing bodily harm to bootleggers and overzealous fans.

I wasn't really worried about a fractured phalange, but I had broken one of the Led Zeppelin Laws and I was now suffering the consequences. On the day I arrived, a black limo had been sent to the airport to retrieve me. Janine Safer, band publicist, introduced herself and welcomed me. After a glass of champagne and settled snugly into the plush leather backseat, I listen to her as she personally instructs me on the Five Rules of Engagement:

Rule 1. Never talk to anyone in the band unless they first talk to you.

Rule 1A. Do not make any sort of eye contact with John Bonham. This is for your own safety.

Rule 2. Do not talk to Peter Grant or Richard Cole, for any reason.

Rule 3. Keep your cassette player turned off at all times unless conducting an interview.

Rule 4. Never ask questions about anything other than music.

Rule 5. Most importantly, understand this, the band will read what is written about them. The band does not like the press nor do they trust them.

This is the one that would prove my undoing.

Not much to get lost in translation here. Seemed simple enough. The long stretch Cadillac wends its way through the streets of downtown Chicago. I have a second glass of champagne, a third?, and I hand Janine two copies of a special issue of Guitar Player magazine. I've brought them along because I thought they might curry favor with the band. I do hesitate for the briefest of moments but I'm not quite sure why (multiple glasses of Dom had erased the memory of what was written on those pages). She tells me she'll personally deliver them to John Paul and Jimmy.

Janine was as good as her word. Because here it is, that cursed little magazine, in Jones' hand. She had also given a copy to Jimmy, who was sitting right there during this fracas, but I didn't know if he had read it. And even if he did read it, I didn't know if he cared.

The flight is interminable. After an excruciating 45 minutes, we return to the Ambassador East, I pack my bags, and prepare for an early-morning flight back to West Hollywood. Menacing scowls from bouncers told me I was now an unwanted entity and I made as hasty a retreat as possible. Janine came to my hotel room door and encouraged me to go and talk to John Paul, to try and explain my side of the story. She had witnessed the entire flying episode and realized my predicament.

I went down to his hotel suite, knocked, and as the door swung open, my head went blank, my tongue shriveled and I stood there, once again, like an idiot. As a failsafe, I had written him a letter. I handed it to him; he grabbed it without reading it, and shocked me by returning my tapes. He told me he thought I was a lowlife piece of garbage and the worst writer he'd ever read, but that I did have a responsibility to the magazine.

I did leave Chicago early the next morning and returned to California. I wrote the story and the cover appeared in GP's July 1977 issue. It was an extraordinarily well-received piece and though I wish it could have been more extensive (damn you, Rule #5), I was quite pleased with it. Page was on the cover and John Paul was the main feature.

One evening, about a month after the Zeppelin blowup, I was at the Starwood club in West Hollywood. I'm sitting there with my brother, Mick, watching Detective, the band Swan Song was signing to its label. Mick tells me John Paul Jones is in the corner and he's walking this way. I'd told him about the encounter and I know he's just goofing with me. I turn around and once again, Jonesy confronts me. I don't know whether to go into a boxer's crouch or scurry down the stairs. He extends his hand in a sincere gesture of forgiveness. He had read my apology letter and in light of that, understood what I'd said in the Jeff Beck story. That writer was simply trying to make a name for himself by camouflaging opinion as fact. Sensationalism. National Enquirer-styled journalism. John Paul Jones had read the Guitar Player story and loved it. John Paul Jones read my words and he loved them.

I hugged him, he hugged me back, and sat down at our table for a drink. I grinned like an idiot for the rest of the night.

Edited August 13, 2009 by SteveAJones

[badgeholder]

Love those tales from the Starship! "Do not look John Bonham in the eye!" Haha. You know, I saw Detective at the Starwood. Never thought to look around the VIP area, I'm sure I missed seeing JPJ and others.

[SteveAJones]

Love those tales from the Starship! "Do not look John Bonham in the eye!" Haha. You know, I saw Detective at the Starwood. Never thought to look around the VIP area, I'm sure I missed seeing JPJ and others.

Catch them if you can...

[SteveAJones]

Here I Go Again, Wasting My Time

Let me explain. David Coverdale and Jimmy Page did not begin working together until 1991, but they were both on the Geffen Records label as far back as Nov '87. I made

some inquiries and found Marty Callner had directed both these promotional videos:

Whitesnake: Here I Go Again (1987)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKTiwCez6Zs

Jimmy Page: Wasting My Time (1988)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVRwhL5-xpA

It appears the same video production stage was used for both, though they were filmed

about a year apart. I am trying to confirm the actual location and date of filming. I know Jimmy reviewed the final edits of his promotional video in New York on 6/21/88, the day before he was on the nationally-syndicated radio program 'Rockline'. Photographs taken

during the filming of the video were used for the tour program and promotional materials.

Video Director Marty Callner

Edited August 15, 2009 by SteveAJones

[Otto Masson]

Catch them if you can...

That's not the Starship, Steve.

[SteveAJones]

That's not the Starship, Steve.

I didn't say it was, Otto.

Most of my Starship photos have already been posted to this thread so I chose a new

one of Ceasar's Chariot.

[Otto Masson]

I didn't say it was, Otto.

Most of my Starship photos have already been posted to this thread so I chose a new

one of Ceasar's Chariot.

Just joking, Steve. The post you replied to there mentioned the Starship specifically, that's all. I know you know - hell, everybody knows you know!

[SteveAJones]

The Yardbirds

1967 Australian Tour

January 21-27 1967

Additional press coverage shared here courtesy of "Greg (ac124) from Canberra":

Melbourne Herald January 27, 1967

Edited August 15, 2009 by SteveAJones

[And You Know How It Is?]

Hi Steve,

Nearing the 30th anniversary of the release of In Through the Out Door, one mystery I'm wondering about is the Stockholm recorded song that was labeled "Hook". Has that mystery ever been solved as to what exactly that song is? We know that besides the finished album, the other tracks recorded at ABBA's studio were Ozone Baby, Darlene and Wearing and Tearing (all of which appeared on Coda).

Besides "Hook", could there have been other tracks recorded, that haven't seen the light of day yet?

[SteveAJones]

Hi Steve,

Nearing the 30th anniversary of the release of In Through the Out Door, one mystery I'm wondering about is the Stockholm recorded song that was labeled "Hook". Has that mystery ever been solved as to what exactly that song is? We know that besides the finished album, the other tracks recorded at ABBA's studio were Ozone Baby, Darlene and Wearing and Tearing (all of which appeared on Coda).

Besides "Hook", could there have been other tracks recorded, that haven't seen the light of day yet?

Hello, I show it was reworked into 'All My Love'. Theoretically, there could have been other tracks recorded that remain unreleased, and certainly there were some thru the

years, but for this particular album that is very unlikely as this album was done quickly.

They ran thru medleys and worked on 'Carouselambra' at the Clearwell Castle rehearsals in May '78 but didn't reconvene to begin writing until 10/13/78 in London. Then they left

for Stockholm on 11/6/78 for a series of Monday thru Friday sessions at Polar Studios

and were done by the end of the month. Time was of the essence.

[PlanetPage]

Led Zeppelin played Shrine Auditorum twice in 1968 (5/31 & 6/1). It's seating capacity was 6,300 while The Forum held 18,000 for concerts. Every L.A. Zeppelin concert from

Sept 1970 onward was held at The Forum.

...SAJ, This is my understanding.....Yardbirds With Jimmy Page Tour Dates

http://itinerary.led-zeppelin.us/yardbirds/index.html

May 25, 1968 - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA

May 31, 1968 - Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA

June 1, 1968 - Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA

June 5, 1968 - Montgomery, Alabama (end of tour)

July 7, 1968 - Luton Technical College, Beds. (Final performance by the band. They then split up.)

..Catherine James was with Page from the days of Yardbirds..(confusion arose, probably, as she was with Jimmy in Yardbirds + Zep)

Edited August 19, 2009 by PlanetPage

[SteveAJones]

...SAJ, This is my understanding.....Yardbirds With Jimmy Page Tour Dates

http://itinerary.led...irds/index.html

May 25, 1968 - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA

May 31, 1968 - Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA

June 1, 1968 - Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA

June 5, 1968 - Montgomery, Alabama (end of tour)

July 7, 1968 - Luton Technical College, Beds. (Final performance by the band. They then split up.)

..Catherine James was with Page from the days of Yardbirds..(confusion arose, probably, as she was with Jimmy in Yardbirds + Zep)

Yes, you are correct about the Shrine Auditorium dates; I see I had typed "Led Zeppelin" when I meant "Jimmy Page".

The Yardbirds in Luton 7/7/68 has appeared on lists/in books time and again but I have seen no evidence to support it.

[bonzo_the_moby_dick]

Perhaps there is some confusion. Bray Studios was often used for film productions

(Hammer produced several horror films there for example) but so far as I know the

Led Zeppelin rehearsals were not filmed.

Hi to everyone!, first post here, i found something interesting if you go to this web site /www.thestudiotour.com/bray/music.shtml and the click on "ref" on the line Led-Zeppelin july 79 it will direct you to page 56 of the tight but loose files, celebration 2, pre Knebworth: the Bray rehearsals, it's

said that there is some footage of the rehearsals and a scene which Bonzo demonstrated the art of folding a t-shirt. wonder if someone have seen that ! thanks

[SteveAJones]

Hi to everyone!, first post here, i found something interesting if you go to this web site /www.thestudiotour.com/bray/music.shtml and the click on "ref" on the line Led-Zeppelin july 79 it will direct you to page 56 of the tight but loose files, celebration 2, pre Knebworth: the Bray rehearsals, it's

said that there is some footage of the rehearsals and a scene which Bonzo demonstrated the art of folding a t-shirt. wonder if someone have seen that ! thanks

The author of that book, Dave Lewis, had an opportunity to see unreleased Led Zeppelin footage many years ago - things like pro-shot Earls Court and Knebworth - at the Swan Song office in the Kings Road as I recall. I

don't think it was the clip of John Bonham in studio which was available on this site before it become official.

I have about 50 photos from their European tour rehearsals at the New Victoria Theatre in May 1980. I might

have posted some of them to the Photo Forum in the past.

[SteveAJones]

KFMB Channel 8 San Diego

Led Zeppelin Ticket Sales News Report

January 31, 1977

This vintage video link courtesy of Terry Stephenson:

http://www.cbs8.com/global/category.asp ... start=true

Note: Concert announced 1/25/77. Tickets on sale 1/31/77. Concert originally scheduled for 3/8/77.

Postponed 2/24/77 (Robert Plant tonsilitis). Concert held at San Diego Sports Arena 6/19/77.

[SuperDave]

That was pretty cool Steve. Thanks for this. Shows what fans had to go through to get tix pre-internet and Stubhub.

[PlanetPage]

KFMB Channel 8 San Diego

Led Zeppelin Ticket Sales News Report

January 31, 1977

This vintage video link courtesy of Terry Stephenson:

....Thanks......it was never easy, I remember,lots of kids going across the border to get tickets to see their fav. bands......I wondered how they did it...

Perhaps there are additional videos from different Television Stations that may show up over time...