Zeppelin Mysteries Hosted by Steve A. Jones

[SteveAJones]

8 hours ago, gibsonfan159 said:

Suspicious uncredited chauffeur in the Who's "Tommy". 

Not only looks like Bonzo, but very possible considering he also made a guest appearance (with Keith Moon) in the film "Son Of Dracula" in 1974.

Anyone know more details on this?

Although it would be interesting to learn who it is, it's not John Bonham. For one thing, the nose does not match. For another, his involvement in Son Of Dracula came about through his friendship with Harry Nilsson as opposed to anything having to do with members of The Who. Finally, it's extremely unlikely he would have appeared in such a high profile film and it not having at least been discussed by anyone if not covered in the press. For example, even Jimmy's relatively obscure, uncredited or pseudonym credited recordings in the 1970s were discussed in due course. 

 

[SteveAJones]

How We Met: Robert Plant and David Bates

 

• SABINE DURRANT
• Sunday 25 April 1993    

 

David Bates, 40, was a roadie and worked as a DJ before becoming head of A&R at Phonogram Records in 1985. He signed up Tears for Fears and Wet Wet Wet, and last year persuaded Robert Plant to join the label. Robert Plant, 44, once studied chartered accountancy, made his first single at 19, and was the lead singer of Led Zeppelin from 1968 until 1980. Since then he has quashed rumours about Led Zeppelin reforming and pursued a solo career; his new album, 'Fate of Nations', is out in May. Plant lives in London and Worcestershire. He is divorced and has three children.

DAVID BATES: I know a lot of famous people. It's just what I do - meet famous people. And there're very few who make me nervous. Meeting Dylan was very nerve-racking. Meeting my first-ever Beatle when I was very young was nerve-racking. And so was meeting Robert Plant last year.

It wasn't the first time we'd met. In 1969 I left home under dark clouds to become a beatnik. I knew Lee Jackson who was the bass player with the Nice and he said this band called the New Yardbirds, aka Led Zeppelin, needed someone to hump gear from the Bath Festival to London. I said hello to Robert then in the car park. He was just about to jump into his red Escort. Mr Page was jumping into a green Bentley with his manager. I had to get into the Ford transit van. 

The next time I talked to him was backstage at the Royal Albert Hall's 'Pop Proms' later that week, but he was far too busy chatting up young ladies in red crushed velvet gowns to pay much attention. I suppose we might still have been friends, but they went off to America and made lots of money and became very famous. I ran out of money and went home with my tail between my legs.

I only worked for them for a week, but I remained a massive fan - they were always one of my all-time favourite bands. And then, years later, when I was head of A&R at Phonogram, Lara, my secretary, whose parents were Robert's best friends, said 'Robert wants to see you'. The next thing I knew he was in my office, eating some dodgy tuna sandwich and sending Lara out to get Tabasco.

The weird thing is that he was, and is, a hero. So it was a bit difficult when we had to do business. He made it quite clear in that meeting that, one: he'd never had an A&R man in his life; two: he'd never had a producer other than working with Jimmy Page; three: he'd never done a demo in his life; four: he doesn't make singles. And all those things go against the grain of being with me. But he's a softie really and once we got on to pop trivia, I'd earned his trust. When it comes to music and records he's just like a little kid. If I had a fiver for every time he said ' 'Black Cat Singing on the Roof Tonight', B-side of what song?' I'd be a rich man. I'd also be pretty rich if I had a quid every time we get him to do something he doesn't like and he says 'But we never did this in Zep.'

He has two moods. One is the Viking mode which is 6ft 2, hair all flowing, breaking down doors. The other mode is so charming and so seductive and so nice he could charm the knickers off anybody. Both modes I've come to know very well.

He's on the phone now all the time, about how things are going, how badly Wolves are doing, a record he's heard. Almost from the start I was going through a divorce and he was a support and someone to cheer me up when things were knocking me down. And he tells me his problems, and phew, wow, has he gone through some traumas. His life is more complicated, more interesting shall we say, than anyone else I know.

During Zeppelin I saw them hundreds of times and it cost me a fortune. I said to him recently: the first time I saw you it cost six and eightpence at Sheffield University; the second time it cost 12 and sixpence at Bath and the last time I saw you was at Knebworth and it was a multitude of pounds. And now I have Robert Plant sitting in my office singing his head off for absolutely free.

ROBERT PLANT: In the whole of Led Zep's lifespan, we seldom saw anybody from the record company. We didn't allow anybody in the sessions. We were kings. We said, 'This is what we do and if you don't like it we'll go somewhere else'. We made our own music - and we weren't going to do anything else. But now I've met Batesy Boy that's all changed. Now I'm a blithering oaf hanging on to the coatsleeves of commerciality.

He says he used to be my roadie. But I meet people everywhere - usually in Camden on a Sunday - who tell me that. Mad Scotsmen come up to me with curdle coming from their mouths and say they were with us on the 1972 tour of Iceland (great tour that incidentally). And maybe they're telling the truth: I met so many people I lost the fingerprints on my right hand for ages.

The first time I really met Batesy was just over a year ago. I was desperately trying to think of a way to wipe out the entire staff of my former record company when I started hearing mumblings from the region del Bates, with terms like 'why doesn't he play to his strengths' and so on. All these supplications were coming over with the frenzy of a spaceman who'd been up there for at least a year too long, but at least the man, for a record company guy, had got a little bit of focus. When I asked everybody else what I should do they'd point at the lines in my face and shout 'Get the tuck'.

We met at his office, a clinical affair overlooking the Thames, and my first thought was that he was taller than he ought to be - guys with so much of a reputation and so much bluster you usually expect to be small and diminutive, but this guy was tall, skinny and was using somebody else's eyeballs at the time because I think he'd worn his last pair out. He was full of enthusiasm - he has this unfathomable energy and when you think he only really eats Italian breaded sticks I don't know how he does it. He said 'You're doing it all wrong. Stop trying to be the Jesus and Mary Chain and get back to your roots and be Robert Plant.' Well I took this as an immediate insult - I wanted to be the Cocteau Twins for one thing - but I was interested to hear what he would suggest. I had the idea then that most record company stoolies thought that because I was a singer who made the majority of my reputation in a period of bare-chested cock rock that I might be expected to follow the same path a lot of those guys go down, carrying a dead horse around with you as a kind of haunting effigy of the past. But for the first time in this human volcano I found someone who understood that I didn't want to be a husky coquette, that I like to change, swing styles, to entertain myself. He's one of those charismatic men behind the scenes who contribute to entertainment. You used to get a lot more of them in America in the 1950s. He made me a tape of this great music and he got me - at least on taste terms. Not that I let him know that at the time: if you smile at these people they take it for being a contractual agreement.

I think we're linked, me and Bates, by some kind of umbilical strain of obsessive musical 'wunderlust'. We've both got really vivid record collections, and can hoot about the most obscure pieces of music; we're like some sort of little society of knowalls. Most of the time, we just rant at each other - on the telephone or face to face with about three inches to separate our noses.

There are some Batesisms you have to watch out for. He's always indisputably correct. I spend a lot of my time nursing him into finding out he's wrong, he has to be told he's wrong in the most seductive and devious manner. I think his eating habits could be improved too - his use of cutlery is questionable and he won't eat the hot stuff; he says he has a weak stomach. He also claims, pretentiously, to know a good wine from a bad one. I thought a wine was only something you heard from a woman on a Sunday night as you were leaving for the train.

There have been people I've warmed to over the years but, as the situation I'm in is so fleeting and transient, I've always known it's going to be over kind of real quick. It's quite a blessing finding a new friend at such a time in my life.

Edited September 20, 2019 by SteveAJones

[anniemouse]

Very funny and poignant. Thank you for posting.

[Mook]

Steve, have you seen the new MOJO Zeppelin 'latter days' special?

There's a picture in there of Bonham with Billy Connolly circa '77, it's definitely not from the televised 1980 interview. I can't for the life of me figure out where it's from but it really looks like an interview in a TV studio, Bonham is wearing a great looking brown leather jacket.

[SteveAJones]

42 minutes ago, Mook said:

Steve, have you seen the new MOJO Zeppelin 'latter days' special?

There's a picture in there of Bonham with Billy Connolly circa '77, it's definitely not from the televised 1980 interview. I can't for the life of me figure out where it's from but it really looks like an interview in a TV studio, Bonham is wearing a great looking brown leather jacket.

Have yet to see that issue but do not show any additional television interviews conducted with Connolly. He does wear a brown leather coat for a 1970 television interview but nothing to do with Connolly.

 Here's the Alright Now television program recorded at Tyne Tees Studio in Newcastle, England. March 4, 1980.

 Photo: Alright Now TV Show 1980 - Ted McKenna, Gerry McAvoy, Billy Connolly, Rory Gallagher & John Bonham

[Mook]

8 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

Have yet to see that issue but do not show any additional television interviews conducted with Connolly. He does wear a brown leather coat for a 1970 television interview but nothing to do with Connolly.

 Here's the Alright Now television program recorded at Tyne Tees Studio in Newcastle, England. March 4, 1980.

 Photo: Alright Now TV Show 1980 - Ted McKenna, Gerry McAvoy, Billy Connolly, Rory Gallagher & John Bonham

Thanks, Steve. I'll scan the picture in the next day or so for you to see. It's really thrown me.

[Mook]

My mistake, Bonham is wearing an ITTOD sweater so it is a warm up or pre-show photograph for the 1980 interview.

 

 

[SteveAJones]

^^^

No worries. It never hurts to discuss the great John Bonham.

[zeplz71]

2 hours ago, Mook said:

My mistake, Bonham is wearing an ITTOD sweater so it is a warm up or pre-show photograph for the 1980 interview.

 

 

Great photo. That's a new one. I wish they taped that pre-show chat instead of the short "interview".

[Mook]

1 hour ago, zeplz71 said:

Great photo. That's a new one. I wish they taped that pre-show chat instead of the short "interview".

Agreed.

I'm tempted to buy the magazine just for that photograph.

[SteveAJones]

8 hours ago, Mook said:

Agreed.

I'm tempted to buy the magazine just for that photograph.

If you don't, once I have a copy I'll digitally scan that photo and post it to the forum if someone else doesn't do so first.

[Mook]

2 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

If you don't, once I have a copy I'll digitally scan that photo and post it to the forum if someone else doesn't do so first.

That'd be great, thanks.

I'm kinda done buying Zeppelin literature, I've got books & magazines coming out my ears.

[SteveAJones]

Dear Peter...

[Xolo1974]

4 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

Dear Peter...

Wow! Pretty explosive stuff. Thanks for posting Steve 

[porgie66]

19 hours ago, Xolo1974 said:

Wow! Pretty explosive stuff. Thanks for posting Steve 

Pardon my ignorance, but what were the day to day operations of Swan Song at the time of this letter (1990), since they ceased to be an active label in 1983? Are they referring to its management of royalties, publishing, and reissues, etc? When they refer to his "removal" as director of Swan Song, when was that? 

Edited October 6, 2019 by porgie66

[zeplz71]

On 10/1/2019 at 5:22 PM, Mook said:

That'd be great, thanks.

I'm kinda done buying Zeppelin literature, I've got books & magazines coming out my ears.

 

[paul corkey]

Hello, just seen this post, my name is Paul corkey, I was the Drummer that night in kenmare co, Kerry with the wedding midnight cafe. We heard before hand that members of led zeppelin would be there, we all thought it was a big joke and when we all walked in and saw robert@jimmy standing there we couldn't believe it. I can't remember who introduced  us to Robert plant, he was standing with his pint of Guinness asked did we know any Elvis songs, a pure gentleman, he talked to us for a few minutes, we all shook his hand, we were all kind of dumb struck.He went back to the wedding reception and we started playing, Jimmy was talking to some people as was Mike Lee, we played for about 45 minutes I think before they were asked to come up and play, I remember giving Mike Lee my drum sticks,that night I was using drum triggers on a acoustic kit . I'm trying to remember a lot of what went on that night, they played mostly blues songs, the wedding was videoed but we heard later on it was accidentally scrubbed, not sure if that's true, a friend of ours who was with us that night had taken photos but I haven't seen him in years. The guys in the band that night were Sean mcord- singer_ Noel mcord- Bass_ Dave harrinton- guitar- Nick molone_ keyboard-Mike trant_ acoustic guitar. Myself Paul corkey Drums. As to what Robert plant said at there concert, (we now dubble up for weddings), that's what we heard. I could write a lot more about that amazing night. If anybody wants to hear more about that night, paulcorkey@hotmail.com

 

[SteveAJones]

On 10/16/2019 at 8:44 AM, paul corkey said:

Hello, just seen this post, my name is Paul corkey, I was the Drummer that night in kenmare co, Kerry with the wedding midnight cafe. We heard before hand that members of led zeppelin would be there, we all thought it was a big joke and when we all walked in and saw robert@jimmy standing there we couldn't believe it. I can't remember who introduced  us to Robert plant, he was standing with his pint of Guinness asked did we know any Elvis songs, a pure gentleman, he talked to us for a few minutes, we all shook his hand, we were all kind of dumb struck.He went back to the wedding reception and we started playing, Jimmy was talking to some people as was Mike Lee, we played for about 45 minutes I think before they were asked to come up and play, I remember giving Mike Lee my drum sticks,that night I was using drum triggers on a acoustic kit . I'm trying to remember a lot of what went on that night, they played mostly blues songs, the wedding was videoed but we heard later on it was accidentally scrubbed, not sure if that's true, a friend of ours who was with us that night had taken photos but I haven't seen him in years. The guys in the band that night were Sean mcord- singer_ Noel mcord- Bass_ Dave harrinton- guitar- Nick molone_ keyboard-Mike trant_ acoustic guitar. Myself Paul corkey Drums. As to what Robert plant said at there concert, (we now dubble up for weddings), that's what we heard. I could write a lot more about that amazing night. If anybody wants to hear more about that night, paulcorkey@hotmail.com

I did not see this post until now. Thank you very much for your contribution to this thread.

[anniemouse]

Yes I would love to read more about that meeting please.

[reids]

4 hours ago, anniemouse said:

Yes I would love to read more about that meeting please.

+1

Yes. Thanks for adding to this thread , Paul.

R😎

[z1inspector]

On 11/17/2015 at 9:32 PM, jabe said:

Curious if this riff influenced Jimmy.

https://youtu.be/gc-Nrbe1xaw

It won't let me see the video without signing in what's up with that?

[TheStairwayRemainsTheSame]

On 12/27/2007 at 7:02 PM, SteveAJones said:

 

Jimmy refers to the thieves as "those two bitches" because they were two women who were staying as guests in his home at the time. They helped themselves to several of the 1980 soundboard tapes which were subsequently released by bootleggers.

From the Alchemist himself

 

[June72]

15 minutes ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:

From the Alchemist himself

 

Fair enough.

[SteveAJones]

2 hours ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:

From the Alchemist himself

 

Oh, I see. To set the record straight, I believe Jimmy did call them "two bitches" (perhaps in a published interview once?) and that was misunderstood to mean two women. However, it was cleared up that it was in fact a woman (and her man) he entrusted to help at his home during The Firm era. He was touring quite a bit at that time and they betrayed him, helping themselves to soundboard recordings. After those recordings were released by bootleggers, Jimmy began referring to the woman as "the bootleg Queen".     

Edited November 19, 2019 by SteveAJones

[SteveAJones]

Tonight I realized that the Robert Plant Official You Tube Channel uploaded his original 1980s era promotional videos in low res 240p quality. Is there anything that can be done to have them re-uploaded in higher quality, ideally HD?