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Zeppelin Mysteries Hosted by Steve A. Jones


SteveAJones

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Having had the Black Beauty stolen while on tour may have discouraged him from risking more than absolutely necessary.

Yeah,I also thought he probably didn't want to take more guitars on tour because he was afraid of them getting stolen like his Black Beauty.

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Hey, Steve. I have another question for you that I may or may not really know the answer to.

On page 329 of Robert Godwin's book, the Press Reports, it mentions a report from the NME on December 20, 1975 that: (this is the quote from the book)

"John Bonham apparently needed 13 stitches after an altercation at the Rainbow in Hollywood, he has been banned from several other Hollywood night spots..."

Do you know what happened to Bonzo and

(1). How and why did he require 13 stitches.

(2). Who or where did he get his stitches administered (at a hospital or by Larry Badgely at the Riot House?)

(3). If this report is accurate and true, at what other establishments was Bonzo blacklisted from?

Any and all information on this would be greatly appreciated by Myself and many others.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Edited by kingzoso
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Hey, Steve. I have another question for you that I may or may not really know the answer to.

On page 329 of Robert Godwin's book, the Press Reports, it mentions a report from the NME on December 20, 1975 that: (this is the quote from the book)

"John Bonham apparently needed 13 stitches after an altercation at the Rainbow in Hollywood, he has been banned from several other Hollywood night spots..."

Do you know what happened to Bonzo and

(1). How and why did he require 13 stitches.

(2). Who or where did he get his stitches administered (at a hospital or by Larry Badgely at the Riot House?)

(3). If this report is accurate and true, at what other establishments was Bonzo blacklisted from?

Any and all information on this would be greatly appreciated by Myself and many others.

Thanks in advance for any info.

The accuracy of the report John Bonham required stitches seems questionable. If an incident did occur it must have happened while he was in Los Angeles for three weeks of on and off album sessions with Page, Plant and Jones in September/October 1975. I don't have anything on file pertaining to it, and so far as I know he was never banned from the Rainbow or any other prominent Sunset Strip locale.

As far as John Bonham being blacklisted elsewhere, we can assume the curators of the Galerie Birch in Copenhagen would not have welcomed him back after having artwork vandalized there during a press reception on March 1, 1973. The Oakland Coliseum incident on July 23, 1977 was not resolved in court until February 16, 1978, during which time any return to California may have resulted in his arrest.

Edited by SteveAJones
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SAJ : Could you expand on the vandalism at the Galerie Birch please? What did the band do? Was it actually members of the band who were "vandals" or the people around them, i.e., road crew.

Thanks

Jimmy's photographer friend Jorgen Angel has provided the following eyewitness account:

"I met them at a press reception that took place in an art gallery called Galerie Birch in Copenhagen," Jorgen recalls. "The reason for the location is that it was understood that the band, or at least Jimmy Page, was very interested in art, so they held the press reception in this gallery. It was an exhibition of modern art and the exhibition hadn't opened yet.”

"The atmosphere was sort of mixed. It was OK at the beginning. . .but it was around the time when people were talking about Jimmy Page's interest in Black Magick and that sort of thing, so the reporters were asking him questions about this and that didn't help the atmosphere. "There was an attractive dark-haired woman hanging out and John Paul Jones was trying to charm her. In almost every photo I took he's right next to her looking at her with these half-drunk, goofy eyes. I really think he was, as we say in Danish, 'baking on her.' I recently found out that she was the sister-in-law of the owner of the Gallery."

"We were there for quite some time and as the afternoon wore on the mood didn't get any better, partly because of these questions, and I think maybe they got a little drunk. What I recall is that one of the guys - I can't remember if it was John Bonham or John Paul Jones (most likely Bonham since Jones was preoccupied by charming the lady), had on some knitted gloves. It was the end of the winter in Denmark it was pretty cold. And the paintings on the wall in this exhibition were so new, so fresh, the paint wasn't dry yet. So what he did was smear out some of the paint on the canvas and actually change the paintings.”

"This created a very tense atmosphere because these paintings were very expensive. And even though you couldn't see if he had smeared anything, because they were modern abstract images, people started talking about lawsuits and damages and all this. For some reason the band thought that I had taken a photo of the actual incident when paint was being smeared, and that this photo could be used as evidence. So they wouldn't let me leave.”

"At the same time, the two reporters who had asked all these questions about Black Magick and everything had been physically thrown out. The gallery was like, five or ten steps up, and though I didn't see this myself, I was told that they were thrown down the stairs, just to get them out. So there was a very tense atmosphere.”

"When I approached the exit to get out the bodyguards stood in front of me and said I couldn't go. They wanted me to hand over the film, which I didn't want to do because these were pictures I was going to sell. So they were intimidating me and blocking the exit so I couldn't leave. I managed to get a hold of the promoter and told him that apparently they thought I had taken a photo of this incident, which I hadn't, but nevertheless I wouldn't turn over my photos unless I got something in return.

We reached an agreement whereby on the following evening I would show up at the concert and I would hand them over the film in return for some exclusive photos backstage. I don't know why but for some reason the band accepted this. It was silly because they couldn't tell whether the film they would be given the next day was the genuine stuff, and of course it wasn't.”

"What I did was remove the roll of film I'd taken from the camera, put in a roll of blank film, took 36 shots of nothing and went to the backstage in order to roll back the film so they could see it come out of the camera. I didn't get the backstage shots and they didn't get the film. Maybe they figured out that it was too late and that I would have done this anyway, I don't know.

But it was a less pleasant experience than my previous ones with Led Zeppelin. Obviously the Danish press was partly to blame for it, but it was also obvious at the time the band entered the gallery they couldn't care about us or anything. At that time you could say it was a disappointing meeting with them.”

"I've tried to do some investigation about that press reception and how it all turned out. Old Mr. Birch is dead now but I tracked down his daughter, who was only fifteen at the time, and she said that her father never filed a complaint or a suit, he never did lawsuits. So we can safely assume that there was not a lawsuit, though there is no way to tell whether or not the band ever paid for damaging the paintings."

-- Jorgen Angel (as told to Hugh Jones for a retrospective feature in Proximity Fanzine, Spring/Summer 2000 issue)

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Thanks so much SAJ. A very interesting story. I guess we'll never know what prompted Bonzo to do what he did to the paintings. Maybe he had had a few drinks...or more than a few to cause his total disregard for the paintings.

Edited by pottedplant
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Steve, do you know any details about the filming of TSRTS in 1975? I'm fairly sure I've read in When Giants Walked the Earth or Cole's autobiography that several 1975 dates were planned to be filmed but it didn't happen because of Plant's accident. So two questions:

1. What dates were planend to be filmed?

2. Zep played 53 shows in 1975. Why didn't the band film any of these? Were they waiting for the later part of the year or what?

Edited by Geezer
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Steve, do you know any details about the filming of TSRTS in 1975? I'm fairly sure I've read in When Giants Walked the Earth or Cole's autobiography that several 1975 dates were planned to be filmed but it didn't happen because of Plant's accident. So two questions:

1. What dates were planend to be filmed?

2. Zep played 53 shows in 1975. Why didn't the band film any of these? Were they waiting for the later part of the year or what?

What do you mean by TSRTS in 1975? Like a another show was intended to be released instead of the 1973 one?

Edited by magerogue
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Yeah. The Song Remains the Same was intended to include 1975 footage too.

I looked into the tour archives and there were 9 shows that were canceled because of Plant. So my guess is that some of these shows were intended to be filmed, but I still don't get this - why didn't they shoot one of their earlier 1975 shows?

Edited by Geezer
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SAJ,

The claim many not be that peculiar. Do you remember in Hoskyns' book where Jimmy is quoted talking about his parents' divorce? Well, Darren may be the offspring of whoever Mr and Mrs Page subsequently married (not sure if Mrs Page remarried, but it looks like Mr Page did). It certainly looks like Jimmy has a half-sister called Karen Page Errington. If you go to Scarlet Page's Photography page on Facebook (Go to Photos, then 2012, 2nd photo from the left), there is a photograph where Ms Page Errington comments on one of Scarlet's photos. If you then look at KPE's own Facebook page, she is displaying a photograph of her late father - it's the same man whom we believe to be Jimmy's father on the basis of photos taken backstage at Knebworth. Indeed, she is currently displaying a photo of Jimmy. It does not appear to be some fantasy claim on Ms Page Errington's part, because you will notice that various friends offer her condolences and talk about her father. Also, her comment of 6 July bears out that they are half-brother and sister.

While the claim is certainly peculiar (perhaps he meant second cousin...twice removed) Jimmy's handwriting and signature appear to be authentic.

Edited by kenog
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Yeah. The Song Remains the Same was intended to include 1975 footage too.

I looked into the tour archives and there were 9 shows that were canceled because of Plant. So my guess is that some of these shows were intended to be filmed, but I still don't get this - why didn't they shoot one of their earlier 1975 shows?

If they were intended to be filmed, I would think it would be separate from TSRTS as that was a different tour and year. Never heard this from anyone here before. Unless it was some sort of career spanning concert video (like the 2003 dvd years later), I wouldn't think they'd include the two tours together. Wouldn't make sense. Just wonder sometimes where you come up with this stuff Geezer. Perhaps, you just made it up to generate talk here?

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I have. You should as well. Recording additional concerts in 1975 and adding them to a concert film that had already been filmed with live performances at MSG with additional filming at a recreated stage set at Shepperton Studios, along with fantasy sequences are two entirely different events. It never says '75 tour performances were gonna be included on TSRTS. Doesn't even imply it.

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"To generate talk"?

Okay, let me dig up the quote. The liner notes of the 2007 edition of TSRTS:

"There were even discussions of additional concert filming in 1975".

Peter Grant called TSRTS "the most expensive home movie ever made". I think we can all agree the band ultimately found themselves in over their heads on the project. The concert filming in '73 had astonishing gaps so fantasy sequences were devised in part to disguise them. The sequences were filmed in Autumn 1974 before full attention turned to the '75 tour. On one hand the fact they did the sequences shows they had not abandoned the project altogether, but on the other hand the fact they shelved the project shows it wasn't a priority. Robert's accident didn't preclude the filming of additional shows so much as it gave a dormant project renewed interest. The Earls Court shows were professionally filmed but not with TSRTS in mind. If further filming had transpired in '75 it may have replaced TSRTS concert footage as they would not have had to use that '73 era footage.

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SAJ,

The claim many not be that peculiar. Do you remember in Hoskyns' book where Jimmy is quoted talking about his parents' divorce? Well, Darren may be the offspring of whoever Mr and Mrs Page subsequently married (not sure if Mrs Page remarried, but it looks like Mr Page did). It certainly looks like Jimmy has a half-sister called Karen Page Errington. If you go to Scarlet Page's Photography page on Facebook (Go to Photos, then 2012, 2nd photo from the left), there is a photograph where Ms Page Errington comments on one of Scarlet's photos. If you then look at KPE's own Facebook page, she is displaying a photograph of her late father - it's the same man whom we believe to be Jimmy's father on the basis of photos taken backstage at Knebworth. Indeed, she is currently displaying a photo of Jimmy. It does not appear to be some fantasy claim on Ms Page Errington's part, because you will notice that various friends offer her condolences and talk about her father. Also, her comment of 6 July bears out that they are half-brother and sister.

I do not have the Hoskyn's book. Can you post the quote in question?

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Peter Grant called TSRTS "the most expensive home movie ever made". I think we can all agree the band ultimately found themselves in over their heads on the project. The concert filming in '73 had astonishing gaps so fantasy sequences were devised in part to disguise them. The sequences were filmed in Autumn 1974 before full attention turned to the '75 tour. On one hand the fact they did the sequences shows they had not abandoned the project altogether, but on the other hand the fact they shelved the project shows it wasn't a priority. Robert's accident didn't preclude the filming of additional shows so much as it gave a dormant project renewed interest. The Earls Court shows were professionally filmed but not with TSRTS in mind. If further filming had transpired in '75 it may have replaced TSRTS concert footage as they would not have had to use that '73 era footage.

So the fantasy sequences were used to disguise the gaps?

Why didn't they just shoot another concert? I can't believe this entire Shepperton stuff and fantasy sequences cost less than filming of another concert would cost.

Edited by Geezer
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So the fantasy sequences were used to disguise the gaps?

Why didn't they just shoot another concert? I can't believe this entire Shepperton stuff and fantasy sequences cost less than filming of another concert would cost.

The fantasy sequences were used in part to disguise the gaps, the Shepperton reenactments more so. Both were attempts to salvage the project. They didn't just shoot another concert because it was the last three nights of the '73 tour that were filmed. It would be nearly 18 months before they performed a full length concert again.

Edited by SteveAJones
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But that's some shitty logic. They could've played 2-3 concerts in 1974 at a filming-friendly venue (something that MSG is not. Not in 1973 at least) just for the sake of filming.

But I'm afraid these questions cannot be answered because there are too many peculiarities involved. Thanks for the replying, Steve.

Edited by Geezer
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