Rare, early Led Zeppelin concert ad moot on band

Frank Reddon, in his latest posting at Enzepplopedia.com, discusses the precedent a newspaper ad for an early Led Zeppelin show sets for promoting the group.

The band's fourth concert after setting foot in North America for the first time took place Dec. 29, 1968, at the Portland Civic Auditorium in Oregon. It is the fourth of five West Coast dates for which the unknown Led Zeppelin opened for the more popular Vanilla Fudge.

Reddon points out that the two groups had just become labelmates, although Led Zeppelin's signing was to the Atlantic Records label itself, rather than the Atco subsidiary like the Vanilla Fudge. The other difference is that Led Zeppelin didn't have an album out yet.

Atlantic had already been creating a buzz with press releases about the group, relying not only on the familiar name Jimmy Page had made for himself in America as the guitarist for the Yardbirds; press releases divided their attention equally to all four members of the band.

However, as Reddon points out, a newspaper ad for the Portland concert makes absolutely no mention of a Led Zeppelin album soon to be released. "Notice ... the advertisement heavily promotes the Vanilla Fudge albums," Reddon writes. "There's not a peep about Led Zeppelin's upcoming album. Thus started Led Zeppelin's practice of letting its music do the talking, right from the beginning. Ads like these provide a wealth of information into the early touring history of Led Zeppelin, at the group's very beginnings."

The newspaper ad, which appeared in an edition of The Oregonian, is regarded as the sole evidence identifying the name of the Vanilla Fudge's opening act in Portland. The ad misspells the band's name and also identifies its familiar guitarist: "Special Guests LED ZEPPILEN (sic) Featuring Jimmy Page." On the other hand, flyers and tickets for the show named only the headlining act.

Coincidentally, Led Zeppelin's Portland show stands distinct from the four other initial North American gigs because it is the only one yet to be commented on by a visitor to Led Zeppelin's official Web site. Reddon's upcoming book, Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin -- Break & Enter, is set to fill the void. Released this coming September on the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's first concert date, the book is to include Reddon's thorough 2000 interview of a person who attended the Portland show.

Tenth report from fans in London

Howard Mylett is the author of several books on Led Zeppelin and its members including Led Zeppelin: In the Light, shown at right, which he cowrote. He's been publishing books about the band since 1976, if I'm not mistaken, which has given him plenty of time to make his thoughts known about the band. But when the opportunity came for him to attend the reunion concert on Dec. 10 at London's O2 arena, he couldn't pass up the chance to spit out another several thousand words on the group.

As if it's no surprise, Mylett writes like an author would. There's no off position. In just this brief excerpt of his extensive concert review appearing in full at Enzepplopedia, his descriptions of each band member really provides the reader with a feel for who was showcased onstage.

Scanning right to left onstage, the silver-haired Jimmy Page was resplendent in a 3/4-length black 3-piece mohair suit and black shades, looking just as cool as ever! He played blistering, razor-sharp chops and riffs with a sound that was totally of his own unique making - never afraid to smile with recognition when his fellow members hit the perfect spot he was aiming to fill.

Robert Plant, now bearded but still looking like the ringletted time traveller we all know through some of his remarkable and inventive lyrics, had his black shirt tucked in. His dark trousers were looser-fitted than in the 70s, but he is still gifted with the greatest and most emotive vocal range of any rock singer.

Behind him was the natural heir to the drum throne of Led Zeppelin - the late John Bonham's son Jason. His knowledge of Zeppelin bootlegs carried him through six months of rehearsals and had slotted him into place, they say, from their first rehearsal. He only improved more as the concert beckoned. What an emotional night it must have been for him! All the other group members made regular eye contact with him as if to spur him on to bigger and better sounds. And it worked! His father must have been looking down and smiling. The Bonhams were a very proud family.

To the left of the stage, with keyboards and bass at the ready, stood the enigmatic Zeppelin bass man, John Paul Jones - often the underestimated anchor man of the group. Nearly all sixteen of the tracks performed that evening benefitted from the punchiest bass-laden sound I've ever heard. I'd seen Led Zeppelin live in concert seven times from 1971 to 1980, and the drumming complemented this bass really well. The Zeppelin engine room had stoked up for full steam ahead!

Mylett's full review of the show unearths the entire concert experience in a very palpable and moving way, and it's available exclusively at Enzepplopedia.

Speaking of Enzepplopedia and concert reviews, the site's new third Enzepplozine installment (available to members only, but all you have to do to join and log in is type your e-mail address – big challenge!) features a late San Francisco jazz/blues critic's memories of the Fillmore West concert he attended on the first birthday Jimmy Page celebrated with Led Zeppelin. Philip Elwood recalls the show quite vividly in this never-seen-before interview conducted with Frank Reddon in 1998. It is one of several interviews that will appear in full this September upon publication of Volume 1 - Break & Enter, which will be the first installment of Reddon's 40th anniversary commemorative book series, Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin.

Interview opportunities abound for Led Zeppelin members

Welcome to December, the month of the Led Zeppelin reunion concert. The one-off performance by Jason Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant takes place little over a week from now.

The interviews from all four guys are coming fast and furiously! Following is a sampling of some of the latest.

An interview with Jason Bonham is cited both in Rythm magazine and in Rolling Stone. Read these pieces reprinted here: http://forums.ledzeppelin.com//index.php?showtopic=581 and http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17448308/the_return_of_led_zeppelin.

Robert Plant enlightens in this audio piece: http://tinyurl.com/25ytc4.

John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page discuss the reunion in this videotaped question-and-answer: http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/ledzeppelin/740/jimmy-pagejohn-paul-jones-the-2007-interview.

And while you're in the mood for interviews, here's a portion of one that took place years ago but never appeared in print anywhere until published recently on Enzepplopedia. Author Frank Reddon interviews original MTV veejay J.J. Jackson, who was an early supporter of Led Zeppelin. In discussing the 1969 debut album, J.J. shares some impressions of that LP many fans have likely missed.

Read this, and you'll probably want to go grab the album right away!

It's all part of the latest Enzepplozine available at www.Enzepplopedia.com. Free registration is required to access the contents; no password necessary, so this means no more than submitting your name and a valid e-mail address.

Led Zeppelin reunion rehearsal in June 2007 recalled initial meeting of 1968

More information is being revealed about the staged rehearsal of Led Zeppelin's surviving members four months ago in London.

John Paul Jones of the group has given his impressions of the meeting to Led Zeppelin biographer Ritchie Yorke, saying the June meeting reminded him of the first time he gathered in a room to play with the other musicians Jimmy Page had lined up for his new group in 1968.

The bassist and keyboardist is quoted in an interview published today by the Brisbane Times and found online here.

"That first rehearsal this month was just amazing," Jones told Yorke. "It took us back to that first meeting in '68. So we decided to go ahead and we will be putting in some serious rehearsal sessions right up until the show itself."

Previous one-off shows that reunited him with both Page and Robert Plant were marred by forgotten lyrics, discomfort with arrangements, extraneous musicians and inadequate preparation time.

This time, however, Jones said the band would be working the kinks out of its planned two-hour set ahead of time.

"The only trouble we had at the first rehearsal last week was remembering in some songs 'did it go this way, or was there another chorus?'" Jones said. "I don't want to be on stage at the [O2 arena] thinking like that. I want to be just so familiar with the material - so that we can give a proper performance rather than just remember how this or that song went."

The Nov. 26 reunion concert is to take place at a charity benefit honoring late Atlantic Records cofounder Ahmet Ertegün and raising money for a fund named for him, which provides scholarships to music students.

Earlier talks had taken place offering alternate venues.

"Initially I was invited to join in a memorial concert for Ahmet in New York performing with the likes of Ben E King last January," said Jones. "Then Robert [Plant] let it be known that he would rather do something for Ahmet in England. ...

"Originally we were going to play the Royal Albert Hall, along with another night with some other acts. Then the Royal Albert was deemed too small and it moved to the [O2 arena].

"At first, we would be playing 40 minutes, then it went to an hour. I was a bit reluctant along the way because I wasn't sure whether I wanted to part of getting that whole circus on the road again. But I was persuaded to try out a rehearsal to see if we really wanted to play together."

Ultimately, that rehearsal went over so well that the group agreed to play two hours' worth of material.

Page and Plant have also spoken to the media in recent days about the good vibrations they experienced in rehearsals, although Jones was the first to invoke publicly a reference to the group's initial meeting in August 1968.

Those earliest months of Led Zeppelin's existence are covered in a series of three books to be published over the next two years. These books, authored by Frank Reddon, consist of previously unpublished interviews with the primary sources present at some of the group's earliest concerts and recording dates.

Selected excerpts of these interviews are to be previewed on a new Web site being launched today, http://www.enzepplopedia.com/.

The first interview previewed at the site is with the student promoter for Led Zeppelin's concert at Gonzaga University on Dec. 30, 1968. It contains stories previously unknown to Led Zeppelin fans about the band's arrival at this early U.S. appearance, its onstage introduction, and a near fistfight.