Led Zeppelin News

A man has admitted bootlegging charges after hearing evidence from Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

Robert Langley, 57, from Buckingham, originally denied three trademark and two copyright infringements after being caught at a record fair in Glasgow.

The seizure of CDs and DVDs two years ago included £11,500 of counterfeit Led Zeppelin material.

The band’s guitarist last week told Glasgow Sheriff Court he would never sanction the sale of his material.

Page, 63, had told the trial how he had been asked up to Glasgow by British Phonographic Industry officials following the raid at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in May 2005.

The millionaire musician had already become aware of massive sales of pirate Led Zeppelin material across the world.

The haul taken from Langley included a £220 box set of a Led Zeppelin tour in Japan and a £40 set of a warm-up session in Denmark.

More prosecution witnesses were expected to take the stand in a trial that was set to last up to three weeks.

But, Langley - who previously walked free from three similar trials in England - changed his plea to guilty following Page’s evidence.

As well as the Led Zeppelin discs, Langley also admitted having £1,790 of Rolling Stones material and £885 worth of music by The Beatles.

Langley, of Embleton Way, Buckingham, will be sentenced next month.

He also faces further another hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Veteran rockers Led Zeppelin, who have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, are to enter the modern age and offer an album of specially selected tracks to download on the internet.

Mothership, a collection including ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Dazed and Confused’, will be available on Apple’s iTunes and is the band’s first venture into selling on the internet. Only the Beatles’ back catalogue, along with Radiohead, remain substantial iTunes refusniks.

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones have chosen the tracks themselves. Mothership will be available online on 12 November.

Led Zeppelin fans will have a lot to celebrate this fall thanks to the release of three new titles in multiple configurations. First up on Nov. 13 via Atlantic/Rhino is a two-disc, 24-track best-of, “Mothership.” A deluxe reissue of the soundtrack to the 1976 concert film “The Song Remains the Same” with previously unreleased material and a new DVD edition of that movie will arrive Nov. 20 via Atlantic/Rhino and Warner Home Video, respectively.

“Mothership,” tracks for which were chosen by surviving members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, represents all eight of the band’s studio albums. In addition to a two-disc set, the album will also be available in both “deluxe” and “collector’s” editions with a DVD featuring varied live content from the previously released “Led Zeppelin DVD.” A 4-LP vinyl package will also be sold.

As for the “The Song Remains the Same” soundtrack, it now sports six songs not included on the original album: “Black Dog,” “Over the Hills and Far Away,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” “The Ocean” and “Heartbreaker.” The album and film were recorded during a July 1973 stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“The Song Remains the Same” DVD includes all 14 songs from the original concert for the first time plus previously unreleased performances of “Over the Hills and Far Away,” “Celebration Day,” “The Ocean” and “Misty Mountain Hop.” Rounding out the bonus items are a 1976 BBC interview with Plant and band manager Peter Grant and contemporary footage from the robbery at New York’s Drake Hotel during the MSG run.

Beyond a standard DVD, the film will be sold in both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, as well as a limited collector’s edition that includes the soundtrack, a T-shirt with the original album art and reproductions of memorabilia from the era.

All the catalog activity gives further heft to rumors Plant, Page and Jones will reunite to perform at a proposed Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert this fall in London. Although no details have been announced, the group is also said to be mulling offers to tour under the Led Zeppelin name in 2008 with the late John Bonham’s son Jason filling in on drums.

Press Release

Rock legend Jimmy Page has been giving evidence in an alleged bootleg music case at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Robert Langley, from Buckinghamshire, has denied 12 charges of trying to sell bootleg material in the city in 2005.

Former Led Zeppelin lead guitarist Page, 63, was shown hundreds of CDs and DVDs containing the band’s material.

The star told the ongoing court case that the discs had never been authorised for manufacture, distribution or sale.

Mr Langley has been accused of trying to sell the material at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow.

Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6917449.stm

In an interview in the Indianapolis Star, Allison Krauss gave more hints on the project her and Robert Plant have completed. ‘On the topic of collaboration, Krauss will join forces with former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant after the conclusion of this summer’s Union Station tour, which promotes the group’s compilation album “A Hundred Miles or More” Reluctant to share many details about the Plant project, Krauss says that T-Bone Burnett (winner of three Grammys for 2000’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack) produced an album that’s scheduled for a September release. She and Plant then will play a string of concerts, supported by a band that includes avant-garde guitarist Marc Ribot.’

Thanks to TBLWeb for the info

Rock legend Jimmy Page is to appear in a Scottish court as the star witness in a bootlegging trial.

The 63-year-old former Led Zeppelin guitarist has been cited to give evidence at Glasgow Sheriff Court this week.

He has confirmed he will appear in the case against a businessman accused of trying to sell more than 2400 pirate DVDs and CDs at a fair in the city’s SECC in 2005.

Robert Langley, from Buckinghamshire, denies all 12 charges.

If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

Page was cited by the prosecution as the alleged stash is said to have included many previously unreleased Led Zeppelin performances, featuring hits such as Whole Lotta Love and Stairway To Heaven.

These allegedly include a concert at Knebworth in 1979, a year before they split following the death of drummer John Bonham.

Page was the main songwriter for Led Zeppelin, who formed in 1968 and went on to become the second biggest selling band of all time, behind The Beatles.

For the past 17 years, he has been heavily involved in remastering their entire back catalogue.

In 2005, Page was awarded an OBE for his services to charity.

Last month, it was claimed Led Zeppelin are to reunite for a comeback tour which could net an estimated £300million.

John Paul Jones is to appear as special guest to Robyn Hitchcock at a free Folk Festival in Italy on July 30th 2007. The Folk and Blues Festival is being held at Modigliana, a small village in Romagna, near to the Adriatic Sea. For further info go to the festival website at eventiesagre.it

http://www.eventiesagre.it/Eventi_Musicali/8822_Strade+Blu.html

Thanks to Alessandro Borri and TBLWeb for the info

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Contradicting a published report, Jeff Beck’s manager tells Billboard.com the guitarist has no plans to tour with Jimmy Page, Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty as the Yardbirds this fall.

Beck’s manager says “there is no truth to any rumors” regarding Beck’s role in the potential reunion. The artist finishes a European tour tonight (July 20) and will play Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival in Chicago in August, but has no further touring on his schedule for the rest of the year at this time.

Page and Beck played together in the Yardbirds briefly in 1966; the band split up two years later, but Dreja and McCarty have toured under the name for the past two decades. That incarnation of the outfit, which also includes several much younger musicians, has U.S. tour dates booked through late August.

The Yardbirds’ original lead singer, Keith Relf, was electrocuted to death in 1976. The core group has only played once since disbanding, at the 1992 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

According to an industry insider, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck are going to tour as The Yardbirds this fall alongside founding bassist Chris Dreja and drummer Jim McCarty. The tour is said to kick off this October. It’s unclear who will be the reformed Yardbirds’ lead singer (original vocalist Keith Relf died of electrocution in 1976). Eric Clapton, the Yardbirds’ founding guitarist, has no plans to participate, according to the source.

Page and Beck’s tenure in the Yardbirds overlapped by only a few months in 1966, but they have remained close friends since. The British blues legends disbanded in July of 1968, although Dreja and McCarty have been touring steadily under the Yardbirds name since the 1990s, and are currently on the road through August. The band reunited for one night in 1992 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

An interesting piece has been posted on the Washington Post website centre on the possible tourist hopes of the locals in Kashmir. Sandwich between India and Pakistan, the region is seen has seen it’s fair share of violence, there have been two wars fought over Kashmir, along with daily skirmishes between the half-million Indian security troops and the Pakistani-backed militants, along with home-grown separatists who want Kashmir to be its own country. Once billed as Heaven On Earth the region relies on the future peace that always seems to be just around the corner.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071702168.html

Thanks to TBLWeb.com