LED ZEPPELIN COMING (Page Interview)

[Cat]

THE SAN ANTONIO (TX) LIGHT

Sunday, August 2, 1970

LED ZEPPELIN COMING

Led, Zeppelin is all set for an appearance at the JAM Factory, 120 Villita.

Led Zeppelin began in a small, stuffy rehearsal hall mid London, late 1968. "Four of us got together in this two by two room and started playing. Then we knew-we started laughing at each other. Maybe it was from relief, or maybe from the knowledge that we could groove together. But that was it. That

was just how well it was going." Jimmy Page, master guitarist, former Yardbird, was watching his thoughts, his ambitions, his concealed desires as a musician, take shape in a new supergroup,

Led Zeppelin.

"The statement of our first two weeks together is our album. We cut it in 15 hours, and between us wrote 8 of the tracks. Our main problem was knowing what channel to take it along musically. Everyone in the group had such a high musical content we thought each of us would be into our own thing. But it all fell in together.

"We'll probably always be faced with the fact that individually each member could cut his own album going in his own direction and it would be great. But all those ideas in one outfit, well, that's pretty fantastic, too."

The formation of Led Zeppelin was no easy task. When it became generally known that Jimmy Page was putting a group together, he was inundated with calls from musicians all over the country. When the Yardbirds finally split up in the summer of 1968, Jimmy was ready to take bass player Chris Dreja with him into Led Zeppelin. Chns eventually backed out of the arrangement, choosing instead to go into management.

"When I joined the Yardbirds, my main reason was to give myself the opportunity of playing my own music. Before that my only interest was session work, I began to feel limited not being able to express myself. When I left, it was for almost exactly the same reasons. The group split because everyone began to feel the need to go in his own direction. The pity is, there would have still been great potential."

It was all down to Jimmy Page, alone, on a one man campaign to make himself heard. As a session guitarist he was and still is, one of the finest in England, contributing his work to tracks by such stars as the Stones, Donovan, and latterly, Joe Crocker, who took the Beatles' "With A Little Help From My

Friends" to such a smash.

"I was working on the Donovan album, "Hurdy Gurdy Man" with John Paul Jones who did some of the arrangements. He asked if I could use a bass guitarist in Led Zeppelin. John is an incredible arranger and musician. He didn't need me for a job, but he felt the need to express himself and figured we could do that together. Both myself and John felt that in order to give what we had to

offer we had to have a group. He wanted to be part of a group of musicians who could lay down some good thing.

"I can't put a tag to our music. Every one of us has been influenced by the blues, but it's one's interpretation of it and how you utilze it. I wish someone would invent an expression, but the closest I can get is contemporary blues.

"I want us to be raw and basic. That was the whole thing that made the Yardbirds happen. To go into your own thing is fine, but it has to have a form of experimentation that evolves from a basic sound that everyone knows and can relate to. Perhaps that's why the blues are so big. You can recognize the roots."

[SteveAJones]

Concerts West announced the cancellation of this gig on Wed, Aug 19th 1970 on account of "potential health hazards". They added Led Zeppelin would reschedule a San Antonio

date on their next tour, which they did (August 26, 1971 at the Municipal Auditorium).

Just a word about the venue -- the article says they'd perform at the JAM Factory but this

is clearly incorrect. The JAM Factory was one of many ticket outlets for the promoter, JAM Enterprises, but it would have been far too small to host this concert. Promotional flyers for the show reflect it was to be held at the Hemisphere Arena.

I've just submitted this article to the official timeline, where the concert cancellation news

items are already available.