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Zeppelin Mysteries Hosted by Steve A. Jones


SteveAJones

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A professional-grade recording was aired on a radio special in 1984.

I was the recording engineer that recorded this concert at really short notice, and I still have the original tapes dubbed off the reel masters by myself as reel were wiped as per MU agreements. Its from The Palais, Nottingham 5th June 1984.....the 1st one, and JP is heard on most of the 90 mins concert.

It would have been aired on the Chas Chamber Show a few days later, which i produced

I have been trying to get this officially out via Alexis Korners Estate, but they are not interested......as would be nice to get it out for his 40th on Jan 1st 2014.

So lookng to find other avenues or sell out right to any interested party, thanks john

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I was the recording engineer that recorded this concert at really short notice, and I still have the original tapes dubbed off the reel masters by myself as reel were wiped as per MU agreements. Its from The Palais, Nottingham 5th June 1984.....the 1st one, and JP is heard on most of the 90 mins concert. It would have been aired on the Chas Chamber Show a few days later, which i produced

I have been trying to get this officially out via Alexis Korners Estate, but they are not interested......as would be nice to get it out for his 40th on Jan 1st 2014. So lookng to find other avenues or sell out right to any interested party, thanks john

Thank you for posting, John. Sorry to hear the Alexis Korner Estate is apparently disinterested in an official release. I will make inquiries elsewhere and get back to you.

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Steve,

Thanks to the Fritz Rau thread, I have a question regarding Zep's very first German appearance: March 27,1969. A mimed TV show appearance on the Beat Club, where they lip synced to two Zep 1 album cuts. Two days earlier, they were in Staines, UK filming (which we now have on the Zep DVD). Then on the 28th, back to London for the Marquee gig. So, curious why they would fly over to Germany just to do the TV show, and not fit in any live gigs? Seems strange. They could have played a date in Germany on the 26th, or even a gig after their filmed performance on the 27th. It would be just less than a year later when Zep did their first actual live gigs in Germany.

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Steve,

Thanks to the Fritz Rau thread, I have a question regarding Zep's very first German appearance: March 27,1969. A mimed TV show appearance on the Beat Club, where they lip synced to two Zep 1 album cuts. Two days earlier, they were in Staines, UK filming (which we now have on the Zep DVD). Then on the 28th, back to London for the Marquee gig. So, curious why they would fly over to Germany just to do the TV show, and not fit in any live gigs? Seems strange. They could have played a date in Germany on the 26th, or even a gig after their filmed performance on the 27th. It would be just less than a year later when Zep did their first actual live gigs in Germany.

I'm traveling at the moment and don't have my notes with me so just for now I'll respond off the top of my head: the Beat Club appearance was among promotional duties aimed at introducing the new group to the German market. Peter Grant may have felt it simply made better business sense to approach the German market with cautious optimism; as you said ultimately it was less than a year when the band did perform their first live gigs in Germany.

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Steve, I just came across this ad. Have you ever heard of a planned June 15th, 1969 show in Colorado Springs? Or could this have been wishful thinking on the part of the club?

The paper didn't publish in June so there's no follow up info.

ColoradoSpringsCollege_TheTiger_May16_19

Source: The Colorado College Tiger student newspaper (Colorado Springs).

Edited by thozil
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Steve, I just came across this ad. Have you ever heard of a planned June 15th, 1969 show in Colorado Springs? Or could this have been wishful thinking on the part of the club?

The paper didn't publish in June so there's no follow up info.

ColoradoSpringsCollege_TheTiger_May16_19

Source: The Colorado College Tiger student newspaper (Colorado Springs).

Very interesting find. I'm not sure what to make of it, as it seems to me the June '69 UK tour would have already been confirmed at the time this advert for a June 15th gig was published. The fact they had misspelled the band's name as late as May 1969 suggests the C.U. Students were in over their head.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It would appear that John Paul reverted back to calling himself John Baldwin for a time after the demise of Zeppelin. I take this to be due to the fact John was frustrated at the lack of respect for his scoring and arranging abilities, as he became irritated at the assumption of other musicians that he was a "heavy metal bass player" only. The combination of removing the Zeppelin "moniker" and citing his old session days perhaps alleviated this issue.

Would this be correct Steve?

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It would appear that John Paul reverted back to calling himself John Baldwin for a time after the demise of Zeppelin. I take this to be due to the fact John was frustrated at the lack of respect for his scoring and arranging

abilities, as he became irritated at the assumption of other musicians that he was a "heavy metal bass player" only. The combination of removing the Zeppelin "moniker" and citing his old session days perhaps alleviated this issue.

Would this be correct Steve?

"It would appear..." infers you've perhaps seen something that suggests this to be true. If so, what? If I recall correctly, this is false.

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I can only remember reading in several publications that he began using John Baldwin. Of course I've been reading about Zeppelin for 30 years so my memory could be poor. I do know the info did not cite an interview or direct quote from Jonesy, so it very well could be false.

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Steve, do you know exactly when did Jimmy start to use the echoplex unit? Some say 1973, others say that eh used them on 1973 but didn't use it in 1975, but returned in 1977 and was used utill the end of Led Zepp. Just wanted to pin it down.

Also, were are Jimmy's suits, the white dragon suit from 1977, the dragon suit and the space suit, at the moment?

I heard they were no longer in Jimmy's posession.

Edited by magerogue
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Steve, do you know exactly when did Jimmy start to use the echoplex unit? Some say 1973, others say that he used them on 1973 but didn't use it in 1975, but returned in 1977 and was used untll the end of Led Zepp. Just wanted to pin it down. Also, where are Jimmy's suits, the white dragon suit from 1977, the dragon suit and the space suit, at the moment? I heard they were no longer in Jimmy's posession.

I see the Echoplex question may have been answered correctly already (1970). I'll try to look into it a bit further.

With regard to his stage attire he has loaned the black dragon suit to exhibitions from time to time but always gets it back, and so far as I know he still has the white dragon suit. In fact, he did allow Tony Simerman and his team of designers at Knucklebonz USA to study it back in 2007 when they were producing The Jimmy Page Rock Iconz limited edition figurine. I'm not 100% sure about the space suit, but he did say he still has the life mask they made of his face for his fantasy sequence in TSRTS so it stands to reason he has also kept the space suit.

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The Echoplex EP2 can be seen at the RAH gig, he started using an EP2 in the June 1972.

So I guess it wasn't true that they said Jimmy's tone changed alot in 1973 because of the echoplex pre amp.

Did he start using something like an effects pedal in 1973 that wasn't being used earlier on stage by him?

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I see the Echoplex question may have been answered correctly already (1970). I'll try to look into it a bit further.

With regard to his stage attire he has loaned the black dragon suit to exhibitions from time to time but always gets it back, and so far as I know he still has the white dragon suit. In fact, he did allow Tony Simerman and his team of designers at Knucklebonz USA to study it back in 2007 when they were producing The Jimmy Page Rock Iconz limited edition figurine. I'm not 100% sure about the space suit, but he did say he still has the life mask they made of his face for his fantasy sequence in TSRTS so it stands to reason he has also kept the space suit.

I thought he donated one of his suits to the RnR Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. Guess I was wrong. Thanks so much for your help Steve.

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I thought he donated one of his suits to the RnR Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. Guess I was wrong. Thanks so much for your help Steve.

At a Page/Plant press confrence, he said when he when he had donated one of his outfits to Victoria and Albert museaum, it wound up in Cleaveland where he saw it and they had cut it to make it fit on the maniquin not making him too happy. :D The first time he actually approved it was in the recent Swinging London exhibit in Japan where he knew the people running it. Several of his clothes were in it. The pink Swan Song launch suit, his leather jacket from Supershow and a couple of Yardbirds era ones to name some of it. Edited by aen27
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At a Page/Plant press confrence, he said when he when he had donated one of his outfits to Victoria and Albert museaum, it wound up in Cleaveland where he saw it and they had cut it to make it fit on the maniquin not making him too happy. :D The first time he actually approved it was in the recent Swinging London exhibit in Japan where he knew the people running it. Several of his clothes were in it. The pink Swan Song launch suit, his leather jacket from Supershow and a couple of Yardbirds era ones to name some of it.

Don't quote me because I'm going from memory at the moment but as I recall the black dragon suit was loaned to an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum and it was there that he saw the mannequins had been cut to fit the display cases, so he was disappointed to find it was not being displayed properly. Later it was loaned (not donated) to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. I know it was there when I visited in July '98 the day prior to the Page/Plant concert at Gund Arena (Jimmy also visited that day, arriving thru the back entrance at 5:30 pm and staying until closing at 6 pm). It has long since been returned to him.

Insofar as the first "exhibition" of the suits, it could well be during this 1989 program for the BBC called Arena. I believe it was thru Bruce Dickinson that Jimmy agreed to make them available as he and Bruce had crossed paths in the 80s while engaged in charitable work.They are presented in the clip below at the 1:07 mark:

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Don't quote me because I'm going from memory at the moment but as I recall the black dragon suit was loaned to an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum and it was there that he saw the mannequins had been cut to fit the display cases, so he was disappointed to find it was not being displayed properly. Later it was loaned (not donated) to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. I know it was there when I visited in July '98 the day prior to the Page/Plant concert at Gund Arena (Jimmy also visited that day, arriving thru the back entrance at 5:30 pm and staying until closing at 6 pm). It has long since been returned to him.

Insofar as the first "exhibition" of the suits, it could well be during this 1989 program for the BBC called Arena. I believe it was thru Bruce Dickinson that Jimmy agreed to make them available as he and Bruce had crossed paths in the 80s while engaged in charitable work.They are presented in the clip below at the 1:07 mark:

Thanks so much for this, Steve. I had never seen this before. The time that Jimmy was talking about was I think the Austrilian press conference for Unledded around 1995. While he didn't specify which suit it was , he did make it sound like the Victoria and Albert measum sent it to Cleaveland and they cut it. The Japan one seems to first time he has been pleased with an exhibit of his clothes.

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The time that Jimmy was talking about was I think the Austrilian press conference for Unledded around 1995. While he didn't specify which suit it was , he did make it sound like the Victoria and Albert measum sent it to Cleaveland and they cut it. The Japan one seems to first time he has been pleased with an exhibit of his clothes.

Interesting; I shall have to review that tape again. I had posted strictly from memory and when doing so I am wrong more often than not.

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It's strange to see Bruce Dickinson just grab and toss aside the trousers from the Black Dragon suit. You probably couldn't pry them from the hands of 99.9% of the population of this board once they had their mitts on them. Not to mention the trying on, smelling, Iphone shots, attempts at theivery, etc...

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Steve: I have a question about Michael Lee. I know he played with Page/Plant on most of their tours. Do you know why he died homeless?

I read that Jimmy went to his funeral. Knowing how generous the boys can be, I was wondering why Michael died homeless with serious medical problems.

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Steve: I have a question about Michael Lee. I know he played with Page/Plant on most of their tours. Do you know why he died homeless?

I read that Jimmy went to his funeral. Knowing how generous the boys can be, I was wondering why Michael died homeless with serious medical problems.

Michael Lee died on November 24, 2008 in his flat (apartment) in his hometown of Darlington. Jimmy did attend his funeral service held on December 3, 2008 at Darlington Crematorium (as pictured below). Robert was unable to attend but did send flowers with this written message:

"What a waste. Too soon. I'm so sorry, I always enjoyed your enthusiasm and ideas. Robert P"

Page_at_Dartington.jpg

It was later reported that Michael had suffered an epileptic seizure. Daniel Stanton of Coallier Entertainment said:

"The results of post mortem was a seizure, apparently the worst one he could have had.

"Michael passed away at his flat (home) in Darlington. He was found at his home by his friend and police on the floor beside his bed.

"Michael was out the night before [he died]. He said he wasn't feeling well and went home to rest it off. When he didn't answer his phone the next morning, a friend had the police enter his home.

"Michael will sadly be missed.

"I have received endless calls from fans, friends and family members surrounding Michael's death.

"The guys in Thin Lizzy are crushed, I have spoken to people in the Robert Plant camp who have also expressed the same. Spike from the London Quireboys has been dedicating their shows each night to Michael. Dave Ling from Classic Rock magazine is said to be doing a feature on Michael Lee in an upcoming issue.

"We will all miss Michael. His boyish smile, his humor, his love and his talent, [but] most of all, we will miss his friendship.

"Michael died way too young. He shares his death with Freddie Mercury of Queen and drummer Eric Carr of Kiss, who also passed away on the same date.

"We love you, Michael. You are forever in our hearts and your music forever in our souls."

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