Jimmy Page expected with guitarist co-stars at film premiere, afterparty in Toronto

Jimmy Page is used to glitz and glam, but two big red-carpet affairs in one week?

The Led Zeppelin guitarist, who just turned up in London on Tuesday to receive a GQ award recognizing his band's Outstanding Achievement, is said to be partaking in festivities tomorrow night in Toronto as the new feature-length documentary starring him opens in a limited festival run.

The buzz is building about "It Might Get Loud," and adulation has already surfaced in Canada's National Post newspaper. Critic Bob Thompson predicts the 97-minute documentary "will get a documentary Oscar nod for Davis Guggenheim's history of the rock guitar as told and played by three generations of rock 'n' jagermeisters."

The film is scheduled for three public screenings during the Toronto International Film Festival, including its world premiere tomorrow at 9:15 p.m. at the Ryerson Theatre. The three guitarists featured in the film -- Page, The Edge from U2, and Jack White of both the White Stripes and the Raconteurs -- have all been mentioned as attending.

Their plans are also said to include an afterparty, the National Post reports. "Jimmy Page, Jack White and U2's The Edge are all expected at the south-of-Bloor party that's planned following the Friday night airing here of Davis Guggenheim's electrically-charged guitar doc It Might Get Loud," it says.

This would make the premiere and afterparty some of the hottest tickets in town, rivaling only perhaps those of star-studded Coen Brothers' latest big-screen submission.

After the premiere of "It Might Get Loud," the film is to move to the AMC 6 for its two other arranged screenings: on Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. and on Sept. 13 at 12 noon.

Currently, no distribution has been arranged for the film beyond these three showings associated with the festival. LedZeppelinNews.com will report on any changes to this as they are announced.

Writer Thom Powers, in the film festival's official Web page about the documentary, says Guggenheim provides viewers with "intimate access to the creative process" of each guitarist, individually, before they meet for the first time to trade stories and influences -- and, of course, to jam.

Pictures speak louder than words

A lot can be said for nonverbal communication, which happens to be the subject I studied in college two semesters in a row. So much is being made of the posture and facial expressions of the Led Zeppelin members who turned out to pick up their GQ award in London last night. Both the mainstream press and Zep fans in multiple online forums are taking stabs at interpreting what can be gleaned from examining a few photographs of the event.

The Sun uses a visual analysis of Robert Plant at the event to weigh in on any future collaboration among all three 60-somethings: "Hopes of a full-on LED ZEPPELIN reunion took a knock on the night. Bassist JOHN PAUL JONES and guitarist JIMMY PAGE both said they were keen to reform the band. But ROBERT PLANT, who had a long chat with Gavin & Stacey stars ROB BRYDON and RUTH JONES, looked unimpressed."

On both the official discussion group at LedZeppelin.com and on For Badgeholders Only, fans today have been taking the phrase "Every picture tells a story" quite seriously. One user of both forums pointed to the photo shown above (from left, John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant) and said that "the body language doesn't look real cozy." Pressed for further explanation in FBO, the user continued, "Look how Jimmy is posed facing slightly toward the middle of the pic as one would tend to do. Robert is clearly leaning away from Jimmy and has placed his foot and shoulder firmly in front of Jimmy as if trying to be dominant." Some agreed with such naysaying analyses, while others commenting were less skeptical.

Any comments from the LedZeppelinNews.com peanut gallery?

Led Zeppelin awarded in person; Page, Plant and Jones accept GQ's top honor in London

All three original surviving members of Led Zeppelin made a surprise appearance in London Tuesday when the bandmates shared a podium to receive GQ's Men of the Year award for 2008.

"The U.K.'s most celebrated awards ceremony," held at London's Royal Opera House, marked the first public appearance together by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones since they performed a one-off concert last December, also in London, with Jason Bonham filling in for his late father on drums. That exclusive performance, which reunited the group's surviving members for their first full show since 1980, is the reason the Led Zeppelin members earned GQ's Outstanding Achievement award.

Page and Jones were on hand in June when another magazine, Mojo, honored Led Zeppelin with an award as voted on by readers to recognize the live show. Plant, however, was touring the United States when his Led Zeppelin bandmates picked up the Mojo award in person.

It is also Plant who was absent earlier this year while Page, Jones and Bonham were jamming on new material in England.

Surely, much could be made of Plant's photo op with Page and Jones at the GQ Men of the Year award ceremony in London on Sept. 2. For now, all that can be discerned from this rare appearance by all three original surviving members of Led Zeppelin is that they are, for now, willing to look back and appreciate their long and storied past.

Many fans are quick to call this month Zeptember, and rightly so, as the coming weeks are to include several reminders of Led Zeppelin's magic. Namely:

• At Knebworth Field House, the site of the band's final U.K. concerts in 1979, a fan-initiated memorabilia exhibition celebrating Led Zeppelin closes today with a scheduled personal appearance by Zacron, the artist behind the group's third album.
• Page is slated to walk the red carpet of the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 5, for the world premiere of "It Might Get Loud," a movie joining him with fellow guitar superstars The Edge and Jack White.
• This Sunday, Sept. 7, marks the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's first live performance. Fans in Denmark who were present for that historic moment in 1968 will relive it 40 years to the day when a Led Zeppelin tribute band recreates the group's famous music.
• This month, author Frank Reddon of Enzepplopedia fame is to release the first book of a series recounting Led Zeppelin's early years in detail, as told by numerous voices including some previously untapped primary sources who witnessed the group's power firsthand.
• Led Zeppelin has been nominated for a Vodafone live music award in the category of best live return, again for the O2 Arena concert. Winners are to be announced at the third annual ceremony, to be held Sept. 18 in London.

Press plays 'whisper down the lane' with Jason Bonham interview

It is so funny to track stories like Jason Bonham's interview and see how his statements are taken further and further out of context as each new media outlet gets a hold of it.

• True: Jason said nothing about Robert Plant. Wrong interpretation: Jason said Robert wasn't involved in the rehearsals. Further wrong interpretation: Jason said Robert turned down offers to reunite Led Zeppelin.
• True: Jason said Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and he were jamming on new material for an unknown project. Wrong interpretation: Jason said the three were writing for a new Led Zeppelin album. Further wrong interpretation: Jason said the three were rehearsing for a Led Zeppelin world tour. Even further wrong interpretation: Jimmy Plant says he's rehearsing a new version of "Smoke on the Water" for a Deep Purple tour of China with Leona Lewis.

But seriously, folks, here's what the popular press said in the last few days ever since Jason Bonham broke the news of his jam sessions with Page and Jones:

• NME was altogether too eager to pounce on Bonham's words and insert some reference to an album -- I guess to push interest. NME's Aug. 26 story about Led Zeppelin bears the subheadline "A new album could be on the way." It quotes heavily from Bonham's radio interview but interjects its own words in brackets to support the imaginary storyline of a forthcoming Led Zeppelin album. Look at all the words in brackets in the following excerpt from the NME story:

"When I get there [in the studio] I never ask any questions. If I get a phone call to go and play, I enjoy every moment of it. Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. It's my life. It's what I've dreamed about doing.
"[The] possibility of doing something [like an album] is on the cards. I really felt it was on the cards from the moment we walked offstage at the O2 [Arena].
"Lots of politics [would need to] get ironed out [before an album could be made]."

• NME was not alone in making such assertions. BBC News reported on Aug. 26:
  

Drummer Bonham told a radio station in Detroit that the songs could be destined for a new Led Zeppelin album.
...
But lead singer Robert Plant has not been involved in any of the sessions, he added.

Really, Jason Bonham never mentioned Robert Plant's name, just as he never mentioned an album.

If you hear either mentioned by him when you listen to the actual radio interview, it's time to get your head examined.

Jimmy Page in film listed for first public screening on Sept. 5

The documentary "It Might Get Loud" -- which stars Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page alongside newer-generation guitarists The Edge and Jack White -- is now listed to premiere on Friday, Sept. 5, as part of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the movie is scheduled to have three public screenings at the festival. All four of the big names connected with the film -- its director and three guitar-toting co-stars -- are expected to attend, according to a press release.

Details newly gleaned from the festival's official Web page on the film reveal that the cameras roll as "Page visits the stone halls of Headley Grange where 'Stairway to Heaven' was composed." In separate segments, Edge and White also take viewers to locations connected to the musical creativity of their respective pasts, namely Dublin and Nashville.

A previously unseen shot, believed to be a still from the movie reel, shows the three performers jamming together. The movie has been said to capture footage of the first-ever meeting of this trio of guitarists.

Page said in an interview earlier this year that new music of his would appear in the documentary. Word is that the film contains original material from the U2 guitarist and the White Stripes/Raconteurs axeman as well, highlighting the creative processes and technical prowess of all three individually.

Showing times and locations during the festival may be obtained here.

Jimmy Page 'not famous enough to be recognized' in China?

Some Chinese newspapers have voiced their complaints over the closing Olympic festivities in Beijing, and Jimmy Page's name is caught up in it all.

Not that his name actually means anything to millions of people, apparently.

One of several quips printed by the state-owned media in the People's Republic of China is one that blasts the selection of Page to perform Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" at the Aug. 24 closing.

The Titan Sports Daily, China's top sports newspaper, said both singer Leona Lewis and Page "are absolutely not famous enough to be known or recognised by millions of the Chinese audiences."

I guess it is possible that in a remnant of Communism, even Led Zeppelin goes unheard of among many of the 1.3 billion citizens, of whom 111 million are users of a heavily censored Internet due to a restrictive government.

Come on, China. Do you want to know who's really not famous? Try Cameron Crowe. There's "almost famous" for you! (Is this thing on? Please, people, cultural refrences! Keep up with me here.)

In another Chinese piece, columnist Hi Yang for the Daily First newspaper criticized the combination of Lewis and Page, writing that they "were so incompatible, considering the singer is from our time while Jimmy Page is from the 70s."

Admittedly, Page did look a bit weary from having been cryogenically frozen for 28 years and then carted off immediately from London to Beijing. (I'll be here all week, folks. Try the moo shoo veal.)

See the Chinese comments for yourself, as reprinted by the British media.

Jason Bonham, leaving Foreigner, confirms U.K. rehearsals with Page, Jones of Led Zeppelin

The son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham has confirmed he has been called to England upon occasion to rehearse new material with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

Jason Bonham, who filled his father's shoes onstage at Led Zeppelin's one-off reunion concert in London last December, says rehearsals have taken place with them in England "a couple of times" since that show. Bonham describes these most recent sessions with Jones and Page as "magical."

Notably absent from the newly-disclosed rehearsals by these Led Zeppelin members was singer Robert Plant, who has spent much of this year touring North America and Europe, including several shows in the United Kingdom, in support of last year's collaborative album with Alison Krauss.

Bonham has likewise been on tour this year, with the group Foreigner. He has spent several years drumming for the group, which he said was one of his favorites growing up in England. In a telephone interview broadcast live in Detroit last week, Bonham said his time with that band is shortly coming to an end.

The shift coincides with a flurry of activity from the otherwise relatively dormant Led Zeppelin camp. Page, who has not played onstage regularly since touring with the Black Crowes in 2000, bounced back from a minor injury to one of his fingers last year to make three very high-profile onstage appearances over the past nine months. Led Zeppelin has managed to keep its name in the news consistently over the past year, when a new career-spanning compilation called Mothership was released, as was a significant upgrade to the band's vintage concert film from 1976.

Over the weekend, Page appeared with guitar in hand at the Olympics' closing ceremonies in Beijing to perform Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" with singer Leona Lewis.

The guitarist's only other onstage moment so far this year came in June, when both he and Jones turned up at a Foo Fighters concert at London's Wembley Stadium to sit in on live renditions of "Ramble On" and "Rock and Roll" with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins, who traded off drums and vocals with one another.

Both of Page's live appearances in 2008 have been preceded by posts on the Led Zeppelin discussion group For Badgeholders Only by a New York-based fan calling himself Nech, who posts subtle hints to fellow Zeppelin fans of possible activity to come. When asked if he has an inside source, he insists he is fed information by a source he playfully describes with such terms as "my dentist's lesbian receptionist's boyfriend." Nech was able to tip off the group to the exact timing of the press conference announcing last year's reunion concert.

Bonham's spoken words about rehearsing in England with Page and Jones, which came in a radio interview on Friday, constitute the first public comment from any of the three musicians involved. This may also mark the first official confirmation of a statement Nech made online on Friday, April 11: "Jimmy, Jason and JPJ have been in a rehearsal studio in London last week...making new music."

Bonham's comments came early on Friday, Aug. 22, in the same radio interview during which he broke the news of his impending departure from Foreigner at the end of this month.

The younger Bonham now says ever since he left the stage of the O2 Arena in London having played for two hours with Led Zeppelin's Plant, Page and Jones, he began believing it was possible for the group to do something further. He has kept his obligations to Foreigner throughout 2008, touring in support of the band's latest compilation, No End in Sight: The Very Best of Foreigner.

The reason he is leaving Foreigner now, Bonham told radio hosts J.J. and Lynne on Detroit's WCSX 94.7 FM, is because he has been away from home for long and misses spending time his family. Bonham said that in case something happens with Led Zeppelin, he would have had time off from constant touring before that happens, whatever it is.

"I've been over a couple of times," Bonham said of his Zep-related rehearsals in England this year. "I've been working with Jimmy and John Paul and trying to do just do some new material and some writing. I don't know what it will be, but it will be something. ...

"I have to say this is something that I've always wanted to do. But asked to say as to what this project will be? At the moment, all I know is I've had the greatest pleasure to go and jam with the two guys and try to work out and try material, and so it's been fantastic from that aspect. When I get there, I never ask any questions. I just -- if I get a phone call to go and play, I enjoy every moment of it. Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. All my life, that's what I've dreamed of doing."

Bonham is full of hope with regard to a possible future making new music with Page and Jones, and he knows he is aware Led Zeppelin has many fans with similar hopes.

Foreigner has four remaining tour dates in the United States this month, and the band is scheduled for a short break before resuming the tour midway through September, assumedly with a new drummer. Their tour dates can be found here.

An MP3 of WCSX's interview with Bonham is available here.