Led Zeppelin makes top 10 Billboard debut

Mothership, Led Zeppelin's two-disc best-of set released Nov. 13, debuted at No. 7 in the Billboard 200 chart.

The same Dec. 1 chart listing also ranks Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" at No. 14 Billboard's among hot ringtones. The 1971 track also peaked at No. 30 among hot digital songs.

The new album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss is hanging on to Billboard's top 25 in its fourth week since release. Now at No. 25, Raising Sand was an unexpected hit right away, peaking at No. 2 in its first week.

Next week's chart listings are expected to contain Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same soundtrack. The double-disc release was reissued on Nov. 20 along with a new 2-DVD adaptation of the band's 1976 movie of the same name.

Zep members promote bluegrass projects

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss recorded an appearance on the nationally syndicated public radio program "World Cafe." The singers recalled their meeting and detailed their favorite moments from their collaborative album, Raising Sand, in a segment with host and interviewer David Dye that aired Nov. 22. The appearance is archived online here.

Uncle Earl is scheduled to appear on the show Jan. 15 as part of a U.S. tour so far scheduled for the East Coast and Midwest. Their second album, released March 2007, was produced by John Paul Jones. He plays various instruments on four of the album tracks including in their latest video, and he has appeared onstage with Uncle Earl several times.

The group last week completed a tour of the United Kingdom. Jones attended both the first and last shows with his wife, Mo (Maureen), according to Uncle Earl's official newsletter:

Of all the 2 million people trying to get LED ZEPPELIN tickets right now, the really smart ones came out to see Uncle Earl on the first and last days of our tour. ;-) John Paul Jones & his wife Mo made it out to London & Bristol, which made us feel pretty special.

The same week as the Uncle Earl video featuring Jones makes its debut online, the bluegrass project engulfing Robert Plant is premiering on the Country Music Television network. The Bluegrass Blog reported that the video for "Gone, Gone, Gone" with Plant and Alison Krauss "is set to enter CMT in a medium-heavy rotation, with better than 20 airings weekly."

The Plant-Krauss video, which can be seen online here (and below), is slated to be included in the country channel's countdown program beginning Thursday, Nov. 29, according to a few blogs including Miranda Lambert's.



Clips of a prototype of the "Gone, Gone, Gone" video aired during the duo's "Today" show appearance on Oct. 24 and other televised interviews at the time. The video now online includes previously unaired scenes and represents a vast improvement over the prototype, containing some playful glances exchanged between the two singers.

"I've met my match with the American roots musicians I'm working with at the moment," Plant told the Observer in London, for a piece published Sunday, Nov. 11.

"My love for discovering new things is ceaseless, but I have missed white American roots music entirely," Plant continued. "I thought it was just guys in the hills singing black people's songs, and I was so wrong. This is a mountain song about a woman who goes off the rails, and he tells a tale, and he's got a way of singing that goes deep; you can hear the experience in his voice."

Plant even alluded to the related work of his fellow Led Zeppelin member. "I've been seeing more of John Paul Jones recently, who has been in Nashville, and I've been working with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett, so the doors have been flung wide open," he said.

In an interview alongside Krauss for the December 2007 issue of Mojo magazine, Plant expounded on his earliest and more recent impressions of Nashville.

John Paul Jones cameos in Uncle Earl music video

John Paul Jones makes a cameo appearance in a new video by old-time string band Uncle Earl. The video, shown below, is for the song "Streak O' Lean, Streak O' Fat," a track from the album Jones produced.



Jones, who made his acting debut in Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same in 1976, stars with confidence in the role of the piano player. It is a part for which he is well suited because he actually did supply piano to the track, released on the album Waterloo, Tennessee, in March.

"The one thing I can say about John Paul is that he might be the one other guy who is in love with the Uncle g'Earls as much as I am," video director Tom Krueger tells LedZeppelinNews.com. "The reason he's smiling so much in the video is cause they were all right over my shoulder dancing just for him."

Jones is also credited with some back-up hollering on the track, which features the lead vocals of Uncle Earl's Abigail Washburn. The lyrics, which she supplied along with Jon Campbell, are sung in Chinese and describe eating braised fatty meat, excessively drinking liquor, and dancing.

Washburn explains the story behind the song's recording in the album's liner notes. "Before we knew what was happening, the g'Earls were sitting in a circle in the recording studio, busting down on the tune with JPJ on piano, and I was yelling lines out in Chinese," she writes.

"Although the reference may seem obscure to some, hongshao rou happens to be known as Mao Zedon's favorite dish from his home province of Hunan," continues Washburn. "Really it's composed of a small streak o' lean meat with a big hunk of fat, and it freaks out the foreigners when it lands on the dinner table."

In the video, Jones gets into his piano playing with his right foot propped up on the piano bench. A downward shot reveals that the Led Zeppelin member was wearing open-toed shoes.

"Oh, and he doesn't normally wear those kind of sandals," said Krueger, "but since we were in a Chinese restaurant we thought it went better and he just sighed and slipped 'em on."

Reunion tour still longshot for Led Zeppelin

There's a lot to consider when estimating the chances of Led Zeppelin extending its reunion beyond a single concert date.

MTV.com's report yesterday of an in-concert announcement that the Cult would be opening for Led Zeppelin in 2008 has to be taken with the same grain-of-salt approach that has been afforded every rumor of a summer tour for many of the past 25 years.

Several news organizations have been repeating the story of Ian Astbury's pronouncement, including Billboard, which dug up a remark Jimmy Page made to the magazine in 2003:

"I think really we'd need to see how we got on in every respect. ... I mean, it's all very well. I know everyone would love to see us play together, but the reality of it is, if you start doing that, you commit to a period of time. And you've got to make sure that the music is jelling, and the personalities are jelling. But you know, who knows? Everything is possible! ...

"Let's be positive and say that maybe it could be. ... It certainly wouldn't be because anyone had gone ahead and booked dates for us. No, no, no, no, no. That wouldn't be the case at all. It would be because we felt like we'd like to do it."

Essentially, Jimmy said as recently as four years ago that you never know, it could happen under the right circumstances.

Those circumstances are pretty much in the here and now. Not completely, however. I can identify at least eight potential roadblocks that have to be overcome. This makes it still somewhat of a longshot.

1. This Dec. 10 show has to come off without a hitch. [corrected a typo from before]
2. The guys have to remain energetic and devoted.
3. The guys have to stay healthy.
4. The guys have to identify with a genuine reason to do more collaboration. This isn't a simple one!! "Do it for the fans" isn't good enough, and the only money they're concerned about is the money they can raise for charity. That might be a good angle.
5. Plant has to be able to expand continually, be it with Alison Krauss for the time being or the Strange Sensation for the long run. Here's a BBC 4 news report that shows the balancing act he is currently doing.
   
6. The other guys have to respect Plant's freedom.
7. The other guys have to realize that they are also free to complete their own side projects (Jason with Foreigner, Jonesy with solo album, Jimmy with the world wide open).
8. They have to give 100 percent when they're in Led Zeppelin, and if that takes up three months out of a year, then they are free to do whatever else the other nine.

Anything else???

I mean, there's no given that Led Zeppelin will tour in 2008 with the Cult or with anybody else or at all. Sure, they may have venues booked already, but there's no real penalty for pulling out of a show or tour to which you haven't committed.

I think Page's quote from 2003 stands as totally relevant today. It just goes to show you, though, that when you plug it in, it takes a lot more than just personalities jelling and music jelling. It takes understanding and cooperation and sacrifices. These guys just have to be up for the challenge.

And if committing yourself to be in the most powerful rock 'n' roll band of all time isn't a challenge, then I don't know what is.

Led Zeppelin covers all bases with revamped official Web site

Almost as long as the Web has existed, fans of Led Zeppelin have created their own Web sites and forums dedicated to the band. In absence of an authoritative site with the stamp of approval from the band, the story has been told and retold on the Internet by concert goers and those from the next generation of fandom.

For the first time ever, today marked the launch of an official Web site that does many of the things fan sites have attempted in the past. Its user-friendly layout, stylized after the In Through the Out Door album artwork, boasts of a complete, detailed timeline of the band's historical live performances along with photographs, tour and concert memorabilia, and other information corresponding to those shows.

Concert set lists are printed wherever known, with single sentences inserted to denote remarkable happenings at the shows -- such as for June 23, 1977: "Keith Moon joining the group onstage during Moby Dick and the encores." (The fact is also evident by a shot of the Who drummer sharing a microphone at center stage with Robert Plant.)

Other dates have entire newspaper clippings to herald the concerts, such as a review of the show two nights earlier, and a Denver newspaper's review of the band's North American debut concert on Dec. 26, 1968.

The site also contains a forum for discussion among fans and, through a partnership with the online store Bravado, a venue for the purchase of officially licensed Led Zeppelin clothing, accessories, buttons, stickers ... and, of course, official video and audio releases.

Among the shirts available are black shirts with the Mothership design, an already recognizable icon one week after the release of the newly remastered two-CD sampler of the band's studio work.

The site's webmaster is Sam Rapallo, who has for a decade been behind the now-closing Electric Magic fan site and, for more than three years, the official site of John Paul Jones. The Led Zeppelin site calls for fans to contribute their concert memories or any corrections or updates they see fit.

Its debut coincides with the release of The Song Remains the Same both on a superior-audio DVD and as an expanded CD soundtrack. The new packages were released Nov. 19 in the United Kingdom and will be available Nov. 20 in the United States. The release concludes a month of anticipated sets from the band, which played its last note in 1980, less than three months before the death of drummer John Bonham.

The existence of a news section and, more to the point, a section marked "Reunion" makes for an interesting point. It suggests that if a more permanent reunion is to exist beyond a single concert held in London on Dec. 10, a section of the Web site is already dedicated to covering it.

A page exists for the reunion show next month at the O2 arena. Interestingly, the concert timeline ignores the previous reunions the band played.

Coincidentally, a new BBC interview filmed at Jimmy Page's house sees the guitarist explaining why he did not enjoy either the reunion concert at Philadelphia's Live Aid in 1985 or the Madison Square Garden performance in 1988 for Atlantic Records' 40th birthday celebration.

To mark the release of the new version of The Song Remains the Same, a promotional screening of the film was held in London, as covered by Tight But Loose fanzine author Dave Lewis on his diary connected with TBL/Web.

"It's not just a great time to be a Led Zeppelin fan right now," Lewis writes. "It's f***ing fantastic."

London's visual displays of Led Zeppelin spanned 5 nights

The Beatles may have performed live on a rooftop in London, but leave it to Led Zeppelin to surprise pedestrians with songs played on the side of a building.

Entertainment Technology Press reported today on a series of audio-video projections shown last week to build up to the release of Led Zeppelin's new compilation, Mothership.

At each of seven outdoor locations throughout the city over the span of five nights, the image of a clock and some audio effect signalled a five-minute countdown that earned the attention of those nearby.

"The audible countdown worked brilliantly by alerting people that something was about to happen, attracting sizeable crowds in all the locations," said Pod Bluman of Presentation Services Ltd.

Bluman was in charge of the effort to project the Mothership campaign at such locations as Trafalgar Square and the Science Museum.

After the countdown, a different 15-foot video was run at each location. Videos included classic live performances of "Black Dog," "Whole Lotta Love" and "Kashmir," each of which is available on a DVD packaged with the deluxe edition of Mothership, currently in stores.

A building-side projection of Robert Plant performing with Led Zeppelin is shown in the Entertainment Technology coverage.

Mothership prompts revisiting of Led Zeppelin studio catalog

The release of Led Zeppelin's Mothership compilation earlier this week gave the public a new opportunity to revisit the studio work of Led Zeppelin.

This is certainly happening in at least one new way, the world of online downloads. Led Zeppelin made its entire catalog available from online retailers this week. As a result, Gigwise reports that "Stairway to Heaven" stands to make the U.K. singles chart this weekend after downloads are tabulated.

While Mothership is certainly not the first compilation of Led Zeppelin's material, it is a sampler issued with purpose. In a radio special by Wildfire Media for Rhino Entertainment, Jimmy Page explains that he felt the box sets issued during the 1990s had become somewhat obsolete.

Led Zeppelin's 10-CD Complete Studio Recordings was released in 1993, and a two-disc set released at the same time complemented the 1990 self-titled box set that featured the first remastering of the band's catalog.

"The box set was [about] 15 years ago," Page said. Referring to the "Best Of" compilations released in 1999 and 2000, he continued, "Along the way, we had a piece of product that was going to be in two sections -- one called Early Days, and Latter Days. And then of course in true sort of marketing spirit, they were sort of shunted together as Early Days & Latter Days, two CDs, now. And personally, I felt that there was quite deterioration with the quality -- not the music, of course -- but with the quality of the packaging, I just thought that it felt worse and worse and worse. When you compared it to any of the other Led Zeppelin product, it just didn't have that stamp of authority about it, you know?

"There'd been a sort of proposal on the cards for ages about putting one out, you know? A collection, we'll call it. You could also call it a sampler because it's an access route through to the albums, you know? The biggest question is how do you actually choose the numbers for, you know, a 'Best Of'? It's impossible, and that's the answer."

"It's really difficult," added John Paul Jones, to Page's agreement.

The topic of selecting the tracks to include came up again as Jones was interviewed Nov. 14 on BBC Radio 2 by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie. Describing the process in more detail, Jones said, "We had lists of everything, and it was extremely difficult actually." Asked what criteria were used to select songs, he replied, "Well, we wanted the song list to run chronologically, and we wanted something from every album. Really, it's more like a sampler than anything else. The whole idea was to introduce people to every album, and so the difficulty was not so much what to put on but what to leave off. ... We simply couldn't fit [other selections] on. It was just -- it would have been a 10-CD set."

The interviewer joked that fans might expect a second volume of Mothership containing another handful of tracks in a different mood. "Oh, don't say that yet," said Jones, laughing. In the answer to that particular suggestion, he sounded as if he was growing tired of all the interviews and publicity surrounding the new album releases and the upcoming reunion concert.

And well he might be exhausted. After all, he and the other members of Led Zeppelin have been hitting the media circuit rather hard. Life for Page, Jones and Robert Plant has been rife with photography sessions for magazine covers -- including the December 2007 issue of Mojo, whose cover features an image of all three members together, with Page in the middle. The lettering of the headline "Led Zeppelin: The Mother of All Comebacks" apes Mothership's red-and-black motif.

The cover also promises an exclusive from all three members "on the past, present and their future!" It is a hint toward that there may be a future beyond this concert. Rumblings of a 2008 concert tour abound, and the press began reporting talks of a Led Zeppelin appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in June. (The latest report says festival organizer Michael Eavis couldn't afford to hire the band – which would indicate a price had been given and turned down. But theoretically speaking, everything has a price.)

As for any official word, the band members insist nothing has been decided. It has been months since the last denial of a more permanent reunion.

Plant's most direct answer to the question was given Oct. 23 in an interview on the New York public radio station WNYC, during a sit-down accompanied by Alison Krauss to promote that day's release of their album Raising Sand. Once he was asked the near-inevitable question, Plant couldn't help but toy with host John Schaefer. The 59-year-old singer started coughing and self-mockingly exhibiting other typical signs of old age -- "Can I get a blanket please?" -- before he launched into an unprovoked interpretation of the opening of "Nobody but You," a 1962 B-side by a Baltimore-based R&B group called the Lafayettes.

If it seemed obscure and random, perhaps that's precisely the point Plant was trying to drive home. "I just want to have fun," he then said, once again speaking seriously. "And if it's fun, it's fun. This is fun; this is a big day today, one of the biggest days. And having fun in England is having fun, you know. I just hope we all have fun. Let's face it, so many people want to go to the thing. How 'bout -- how 'bout if it's fantastic? And how 'bout if it's, like -- it's been quiet for so long. ... [The] anticipation is incredibly overwhelming for me. I'm carrying it around like some kind of kryptonite, you know? And all I wanna do is have some fun."

Hmmm, sounds like a line he could have gotten from Sheryl Crow a year after Led Zeppelin's last box sets came out.

Page and Jones have more than once diverted attention away from the question of a more permanent reunion. "Basically, we are concentrating on this show," Jones said in an interview for Sun Media. "That's where all the energy is going. I mean, who knows, but one step at a time."

In a separate interview for the same news outlet, Page said the one-off reunion concert in London "is what we're working toward ... That's what we have on our horizon at this point. I know you want to hear other answers, but I'm afraid that's all I can give you."

Page and Jones were similarly evasive when recording alongside each other for the Mothership radio special. "What we need to do, just do the gig," said Page. "Listen, if we hadn't wanted to play, we wouldn't have got into that room for the first time [in June 2007]."

To this, Jones added a single word: "Right."

Those holding out hope for future Zeppelin activity may find a more encouraging quotation from Page when they open up the pages of the December issue of Mojo -- the one bearing images of all three members of Led Zeppelin on the cover with mention of "their future" and a "comeback."

Asked whether the band might perform again, Page tells the magazine, "It's a bit silly not to because there is such massive demand. It's a bit selfish to do just one show. If that's it, we probably shouldn't have taken the genie out of the bottle."