Led Zeppelin's first reunion with Jason Bonham remembered

A special edition of "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History" went out today, the first in a while. In it, I wrote about the show that happened 21 years today, honoring Atlantic Records on the occasion of its 40th birthday. More to the point, it was the second time Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones played together in a concert setting since the death of John Bonham -- and it also happened to be their first concert outing with Jason Bonham on drums. So, I included a clip of an interview conducted earlier this year with Mark Stein of the Vanilla Fudge. Here's the video of that interview related to the Atlantic Records concert, never seen or heard before today.



Portions of the same interview have been aired earlier this year on "Get the Led Out XL," to which I gladly contribute. The radio show started up in January on the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's debut album being released. We've been doing a "this day in Led Zeppelin history" type of thing on daily installments of the show since then, and today's edition includes a never-heard-before audio interview with Chris Squire, Yes bassist, comparing Jason Bonham's performances at the Led Zeppelin reunion shows in 1988 and 2007. (He's much more keen on the most recent show.)

There are a lot of good interviews we've been putting on that show lately. We just aired a full hour episode with Led Zeppelin publicist Danny Goldberg. Earlier this month, I arranged for author Dave Lewis to interview Zep's old tour manager, Richard Cole. I just got the audio back on that one yesterday, so stay tuned for that. Check with your local radio station to see if they already "Get the Led Out" with Carol Miller.

Led Zeppelin members were fans of Vanilla Fudge, singer/keyboardist Mark Stein recalls

To say that the members of Led Zeppelin were inspired by the blues is accurate, but the statement is not by any stretch of the imagination, an all-encompassing observation of the band's vast array of influences.

That's why I didn't know exactly what to make of this article when I ran across it online earlier today, especially given where I was just coming from.

I spent this afternoon in the company of Vanilla Fudge keyboardist and singer Mark Stein. He was gracious enough to talk for over two hours about the formation of his band and his various meetings with Led Zeppelin members over the years. It was in some of those initial encounters that he learned Jimmy Page and John Bonham were fans of Vanilla Fudge's music.

The psychedelic and electric soul that group was producing in the United States had caught the ears of the Yardbirds, of which Page was a member when Stein first ran into him at an airport. A year later, when Zeppelin was playing its first shows in the United States in support of the Fudge, Stein heard the same from Bonham, this young drummer from England who'd been spinning their records.

He has a great story about a chance run-in with John Paul Jones around 1975, and I won't spoil it by leaking it here. You'll be hearing it on "Get the Led Out" sometime next month, the syndicated radio program hosted by Carol Miller. If your local classic rock radio station isn't carrying this weekly, hour-long show that debuted just this month in honor of the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's first album release, tell them to get with the program!

John Paul Jones on touring with Led Zeppelin (interview part 4 of 22)

This is the fourth part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: Were you ever ... dissatisfied with any [Led Zeppelin] performances?

JPJ: Yeah, there’s a time or two that you could have done better or something breaks down, "Why did that break down there?" There was never a band that had … I guess some bands had some, like, "post mortems" and they’re all sitting down and going, "Well, you know, that note, that lead-in to that…" It was just get on, do it, get off, and just have fun. You know? It was a very enjoyable band to actually make music in. And that was our sole purpose, pretty much. It was just like, do the best job, be very professional about it, and just have fun.

SPS: What’s the most memorable, like one experience or most humorous?

JPJ: Boston Tea Party, where we played four and a quarter hours on an hour-and-a-half act. We really had material for an hour and a half, but we played it twice I think, and then it was just like any Beatles songs anybody knew more than four bars of, or Everly Brothers songs we played, Elvis Presley songs we played. And at the end Peter called all of us out and I think he lifted all four of us off the ground. [Laughing] Some really neat experiences, and they’re all shows. ... Whisky-A-Go-Go we played when everyone was sick. Traveling to the States, we got the flu.

SPS: And you played those shows [Jan. 2-5, 1969] with Alice Cooper.

JPJ: Did we?

SPS: Yeah.

JPJ: All right!

SPS: He was just on the radio a few months back, and he said something to the effect of, "Yeah, I was on the bill with Led Zeppelin." "Well, who was the opening act?" He said, "Well, basically we got there and just said, ‘You be it tonight, I’ll be it tomorrow night.’"

JPJ: Quite likely, that’s how it was done. … I think later [and earlier, December 1968] we opened for the Vanilla Fudge for a while. That was great.

On to part five: John Paul Jones on the Bath Festival 1970.