Media abuzz over John Paul Jones band, not O2 offer to Led Zeppelin: Michael Jackson's 50 London gigs split between Zep, ABBA

Numerous media outlets have rolled with the semi-confirmed report on the musical project involving John Paul Jones with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme in the past couple of days since Antiquiet broke the story. The as-yet unnamed supergroup has been the talk of Rolling Stone, The Guardian and an infinite number of music blogs with great interest in each of the three.

Yet there has so far been no such mass regurgitation of a report yesterday that AEG Live has offered Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Jason Bonham, the would-be members of Led Zeppelin, half of the 50 concert dates at the O2 arena that had been booked for the recently departed Michael Jackson. Shows there were to begin July 13.

Perhaps the lack of coverage has to do with the current American holiday, or maybe the media are responsibly holding off until they can confirm the report, considering it was issued by the British tabloid, The Sun.

Interestingly, The Sun is the same outlet that, late last year, correctly aired the first reports of Jones and Page rehearsing Led Zeppelin songs with singer-guitarist Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge.

But this time, the report in The Sun does not come from a source close to the members of Led Zeppelin, rather from a source at AEG Live. It outlines an offer made, not one necessarily being considered, and the point of view comes from AEG Live, which the article says would "face multi-million pound losses if they cannot fill the slots."

The other half of Jackson's concert dates was offered to Swedish pop group ABBA, according to the report in The Sun. It quotes a source at AEG who tells The Sun, "Only Michael Jackson could sell out 50 nights at such a big arena, but Led Zeppelin and Abba combined might just rival him. There is huge money on the table."

This wording could translate to a mistake in making the offer an attractive one for the members of Led Zeppelin, who are hardly ever ones to make a decision about resurrecting that band name lightly. Even despite a close relationship between that band and ABBA, it is hardly acceptable for Led Zeppelin to equate itself with ABBA or any other act. The AEG Live source may have hurt the cause in obtaining Led Zeppelin by implying the group is half as good as Jackson and exactly as good as ABBA.

Another report has surfaced, quoting ABBA's Benny Andersson as denying having been approached by AEG Live. "No one has ever asked us," Andersson reportedly said. "And if they asked us they would have had 'no' as an answer." So, there you have it: ABBA may turn down an offer, although his opinion is admittedly one of four that all matter. If ABBA backs out of the equation, it could leave Led Zeppelin as the sole act to pick up the slack.

A series of 50 gigs is not something Led Zeppelin would quickly, or even slowly, agree to complete. It's reportedly been a sticking point of Plant's that any reunion activity is limited to a single gig here and there, and always for the right cause. In the case of the band's 2007 concert at the O2 arena, its first public performance in 19 years, the cause was a tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun benefiting a scholarship foundation established in his memory. It seems highly unlikely that a cause like keeping some promoter out of debt would be a top priority for the would-be members of Led Zeppelin.

For the group to accept this invitation would be highly unexpected. Instead, maybe the invitation ought to be extended to Jones, Grohl and Homme, if they're eager enough to get out there and play.

Jason Bonham joins Slash in Norway for all-star set including Led Zeppelin songs

As part of Jason Bonham's busy season, the drummer earned an assist June 30 by playing a 90-minute set at Norway's Quart Festival as part of Slash's backing band. They played four songs each with Ozzy Osbourne and Fergie on vocals, although the best singer may have been Franky Perez, who opened the set with "Immigrant Song" and also sang "Whole Lotta Love" as an encore. Scott Rowley, writing for Classic Rock magazine, expressed high praise for Fergie in her rendition of "Black Dog." Photographer Ross Halfin added, "Jason Bonham played drums and I must say he was right on it, he nailed every song."

Photo credit: Ross Halfin

Josh Homme's wife confirms his album with John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl

John Paul Jones has indeed been in a Los Angeles recording studio, working with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme, wife of the Queens of the Stone Age has confirmed in an interview, Antiquiet reports.

Brody Dalle, who is the singer and guitarist for Spinnerette, confirmed the latest rumors about her husband's upcoming project with Grohl and Homme, as reported less than two weeks ago.

In her interview, as reported by Johnny Firecloud, Dalle says, "I'm not at liberty to talk about it… but I think [the project] is pretty f---ing amazing. Just beats and sounds like you've never heard before."

Still no official confirmation, but this pretty much firms it up! Hope to hear their new music really soon!

Slash ready for festival gig in Norway with Jason Bonham, guests

"I'm looking forward to the gig," Slash tweeted two days ago, referring to his headlining set today, June 30, at the Quart Festival in Norway. "It[']s been almost a year since I played a whole show," the former Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist noted, adding to his earlier comment, "Maybe it will help make up for the cancelled VR gig a while back."

Slash tweeted on Friday when rehearsals were to begin, adding one day later, "We've got a great set for Norway, but we're not playing any songs from my new cd." He has been in the studio this month, putting the finishing touches on a solo disc that will reportedly see guest vocal appearances from Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath.

Both of those singers are to appear during the Slash and Friends set today. Slash has revealed the members of his Quart Festival band lineup: drummer Jason Bonham, bassist Chris Chaney from Jane's Addiction, guitarist John 5 of Marilyn Manson's band, singer-guitarist Franky Perez and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis. Guitarist Ron Wood, whose former bands include the Faces and the Rolling Stones, is also a confirmed guest.

As for what this lineup will be playing, Classic Rock magazine recently found him detailing a set of "mostly covers":

"Anything from 'Whole Lotta Love' to 'Use Me' to Fleetwood Mac’s 'Oh Well' or 'The Thrill Is Gone' – depends on who’s singing. I did 'Sweet Child o’ Mine' with Fergie – she’s got a great f---ing rock ’n’ roll voice, that girl. It’s a casual thing but at the same time now that you're talking about it it'll sound more serious than it is …"

Slash mentioned "Whole Lotta Love." Here's a version he played live last December with Chester Bennington on vocals.



A Saturday press release from the Quart Festival also provides further clues as to a possible set list. It repeats the claim of "Sweet Child o' Mine," so that one's probably in the bag. It adds "Crazy Train," which logic tells us would have Osbourne on vocals. Also hinted for an appearance during the set is "Black Dog."

As for Bonham, today's gig with Slash comes in the midst of some onstage activity reuniting him with his first professional band, Airrace. Their first reunion show took place June 19 in Milton Keynes, England, with further appearances set for July 4 and 5.

As list of John Paul Jones collaborators builds, talk of Led Zeppelin reunion likely uninteresting

It was early last month that John Paul Jones was in Madrid, Spain, helping Takehisa Kosugi and the members of Sonic Youth create soundscapes backing up a dance troupe. It all started with a few performances in Brooklyn this April, preceded late last year by some getting-to-know-you rehearsal sessions.

Sonic Youth's drummer, Steve Shelley, has just spoken with the Detroit Free Press about his experience with the "Nearly Ninety" production, which celebrated choreographer Merce Cunningham's 90th birthday. In this interview, Shelley clarifies the extent to which their music was rehearsed versus improvised night in and night out:

That was a lot of fun; that was weird. We went and played music at this dance performance at B.A.M. [the Brooklyn Academy of Music]. We had written scores of music to play of various lengths -- a six-minute piece, a ten-minute piece -- and every night we performed, they would throw down the score in a different manner. Our music would be played in a different order each night, and so it didn't really go with the dancing in a traditional sense but in a more abstract sense.

We were also performing with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Takehisa Kosugi, a longtime Merce Cunningham compatriot. We were sitting on this weird metal sculpture they had built for the show that looked like a spaceship or building scaffolding, and it was just a very odd but very fun event to be at.

Just before this whole undertaking went to performance mode is when Jones made a solitary offhand comment about having been "working on some other music, which is more rock based, with a couple of other people." Not willing to let the cat out of the bag, he has since kept his "secret" under wraps.

One account that appeared this weekend suggests Jones has been rehearsing with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age.

Meanwhile, the blogosphere has been abuzz with a guessing game concentrating on a separately reported Homme recording project. The one person claiming to be in the know is Ipecac Records co-owner Greg Werckman; he tells Rock-a-Rolla magazine that his label's other co-owner -- former Faith No More singer Mike Patton -- has been approached about joining Homme on the project Werckman says is "top secret."

Werckman says his colleague isn't the only person Homme is trying to recruit now either. "He's trying to get a lot of people involved in it, too," Werckman says. Homme would be looking at an uphill battle if he has the Faith No More singer in mind. Werckman says Homme is "trying to convince Mike [Patton] to go out to the desert but Mike hates the desert."

The report on Jones, Grohl and Homme collaborating didn't say anything about the desert. In fact, it said they'd been making their music in a good, old-fashioned recording studio in Los Angeles.

L.A., meanwhile is the main stomping grounds for Sara Watkins, who recently completed a headlining tour in support of her debut solo album, which Jones produced. While in New York back in April around the time of his debut performances with Sonic Youth, Jones sat in with Watkins on a late night TV appearance.

Now, Watkins is focused on yet another recording project. Most of the same musicians who contributed to her solo album have returned for the first album under the name Works Progress Administration. From Toad the Wet Sprocket, Glen Phillips usually handles lead vocals. The lineup is actually a lot like the group Mutual Admiration Society that Jones toured with in 2004, except for mandolin player Chris Thile, who's been playing with the Punch Brothers since Nickel Creek split. But it does include drummer Pete Thomas, who played with Jones on two albums but whose major accolade was backing up Elvis Costello in the Attractions. Also, on keyboards, is Benmont Tench, an alumnus of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.



As is typical for Watkins projects, the sometimes-fourpiece/sometimes-eightpiece Works Progress Administration has already played a few dates on the road, including last weekend at the Telluride Bluegrass festival in the mountains of Colorado. Ralph Jaccodine, band manager, says Jones didn't have anything to do with the album "but we do have an all star cast."

There's a pretty good chance that if Los Angeles is Jones's hangout anytime in the near future, he would sneak his way onto the stage with Watkins and her brother Sean once again. For instance, the siblings will be in the Little Room at Largo at the Coronet this Sunday night, June 28, and the Watkins Family Hour returns on Wednesday, July 8.

Between those gigs, Works Progress Administration is booked at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, Ill., on July 4. The band hits the road for a little longer beginning Aug. 16 at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

On a final note, it would be funny if Jones gets to work with Mike Patton of Faith No More. Grohl may have had his mind set on drumming for Jones for years, but it was Faith No More's other Mike -- Mike Bordin -- whose name was mentioned as the other half of a prospective rhythm section with Jones way back in 1991. Bordin was Robert Plant's suggestion in 1991 for a drummer if Led Zeppelin had reunited at that time.

Quoted in the press back then about a possible Led Zeppelin reunion, Jones said, "It wouldn't be a bad thing to do. I'm not at all opposed to it. ... I think Jimmy feels the same as I do about it." And yes, 1991 was ages ago. For the highly productive Jones, a healthily growing list of collaborations probably stands in the way of resuming any pointless talks about a Led Zeppelin reunion.

Bob Lefsetz thrilled with Jimmy Page's rendition of 'Ramble On' in new movie

The movie "It Might Get Loud" features Jimmy Page performing five songs alone.

Two are "Embryo No. 1" and "Embryo No. 2," which are pieces of new music perhaps destined for a "big project" Page says he has "had in mind for some time."

The three others are "The Battle of Evermore," "Whole Lotta Love" and "Ramble On."

The way he played "Ramble On" onscreen prompted Bob Lefsetz to revive his writing in "The Lefsetz Letter" for the first time in 10 days. He viewed the film at its L.A. premiere on Friday, a few seats from Page himself.

Just as I was getting comfortable in my seat, just as I'd settled into WATCHING this movie, Jimmy strapped on a sunburst Les Paul and started to play...

A tingle just shot through my body thinking about it.

You know how Jimmy holds his guitar so low, down by his pubic area, like it's a sexual being, not a musical instrument? He's not just playing, he's romancing the entire instrument, the neck is bobbing and weaving, the body of the Gibson is throbbing, and with his nimble fingers, Jimmy Page is playing RAMBLE ON!

The track has not been overdubbed after the fact, the original master has not been stripped in, this is the guy who wrote and played it standing there and WHIPPING IT OFF! And in classic "Led Zeppelin II" fashion, he's not playing to the last row, there's that subtlety that separated the band from its imitators, they could be quiet as well as heavy.

And speaking of quiet, when Jimmy sat on a stool in the garden of Headley Grange and played "The Battle Of Evermore", I got goosebumps.

But "Ramble On" was the peak. Better than Jimmy playing the riff from "Whole Lotta Love" on the soundstage. There was a lyricism, a whole story was unfolding in his playing.

I played "Led Zeppelin II" for a week straight. After buying it the day of release. I thought I never needed to hear it again. But years later, when the focus was no longer on it, it turned out to be one of those mementos of youth that was just as vital today as it was back then. Somehow, music can do that. People age, but not tunes. Not the best ones.

My leg is bouncing, my body is twisting. I'm surveying the theatre, I see no concomitant movement. How can this BE? Has our nation been castrated to such a point that viewers need to take their cues from television? Can they only be infected, jump up and down when they're in front of the stage at an overpriced gig? This performance of "Ramble On" was the essence of the experience. It was the zenith of rock and roll. Jimmy said how the critics didn't get it. And he was right. But the public did. Led Zeppelin was instantly successful.

Lefsetz also mentions another scene in the movie with Page:

Like I said, they shot a bunch of footage at Headley Grange, where the fourth album was cut. Jimmy hasn't been there in a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time. He's overwhelmed at first. Then he starts telling stories. About the mobile truck outside (and a picture is flashed...that truck was HUGE!) They ran cables up the stairways, out the windows, it was key to be in an environment unsullied by everyday life.

And John Bonham ordered a new set of drums. And his tech set up this kit in the entry hall, with its multiple story ceiling, so Bonzo could check it out. And once Bonham started to play, they decided to record RIGHT THERE!

Then Jimmy claps his hands. As he's standing in this entry hall. And you hear that unmistakable echo, the sound of late night seventies parties, of lying on your bedroom floor in the dark, listening to "When The Levee Breaks".

It was ASTOUNDING! It sounded JUST LIKE THE RECORD!

Lefsetz also writes about his meeting Page at the afterparty:

We ended up having a conversation about being best man at failed weddings. Had to give Jimmy credit, he knew how to play this game, he knew how to be warm and personable. And how do you not love a man who lets his hair go gray, who owns his age?

From there, he closes with his thoughts on Jimmy Page's long and storied life, plus the place Led Zeppelin has earned in rock history and our culture:

It's been a long strange trip. From discovering a left behind guitar in a new abode to playing sessions to being in the biggest band of its era, the second biggest band of all time.

Yes, the Beatles were bigger. But they were different. They were the darlings, the sunny boys who could be endorsed by the media, cheeky and lovable. Zeppelin were different. There was an inherent darkness. You hear it in the music. They're looking for satisfaction, but still living along the way. And life is hard. It's dark and creepy with a bit of exuberance sprinkled in. Like Led Zeppelin's music. Zep's music wasn't one note, it was like life, it covered the spectrum of emotions. And for this reason, we cannot forget it.

When you see Jimmy Page play these tunes up close and personal in this movie you'll be flabbergasted. It's not like a concert, where you can hear but not really see. When you see Jimmy's fleet fingers fly across the fretboard, when you see his right hand pick out the notes, you experience the true spirit of rock and roll, in all its power and glory. These moments are not only worth the price of admission, they're what we live for!

Six minutes of segments from the film are included (with French overdubbing) here:

Jimmy Page mum on details of his 'big project ... that I've had in mind for a while'

In a moment of clarity the other day, Jimmy Page discussed the similarities, and differences, between guitars and women. As Lina Lecaro reports for the LA Weekly blog West Coast Sound, Page said:

"I've said that it's shaped like a woman, you know. You can touch it and caress it. The thing I haven't said, that I'll tell you now is: it doesn't ask you for alimony!"

Aside from this witty moment, West Coast Sound also relates good news for Jimmy Page fans who've been hoping to hear new music from the guy. (That is, more new music than just the "Embryo" pieces contained in the guitar documentary "It Might Get Loud" opening this August.)

Page hinted, "I've got a big project I'm working on." Of course, the guitarist was mum on the details, just like his Led Zeppelin counterpart John Paul Jones, who hasn't offered any further details in the past two months on his "secret" project now believed to be an album recorded with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme.

An announcement regarding Jones's project is anticipated soon, especially considering the fact that back in April he said he'd hoped "to be everywhere this summer" with the people whose names he failed to mention.

As for Page's "big project," he says, "I've got some new music. There's sort of little tastes and shades of it in the documentary. Bits. It's just a question of actually doing it now. Actually getting a project that I've had in mind for a while. I've just got to go and do it. Don't want to tell anyone about it. But, yes, I've got a big project I'm working on."

There's no word on the timetable for this musical project of Page's as of yet. Update: He told a WalesOnline reporter on Friday, "I'm taking a little bit of time off and then getting back into work thoroughly around December time and into the New Year."