Led Zeppelin News

RollingStone.com recently conducted an interview with LED ZEPPELIN’s Jimmy Page as part of a series of articles called “Secrets Of The Guitar Heroes.” A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

RollingStone.com: How did your experiences as a studio guitarist in the Sixties — playing behind so many different singers — influence your writing and playing for ZEPPELIN?

Page: “I was very inspired by the [vocal] groups of the Fifties. I loved the way they worked, the perspective of the guitar within that sound. Blues was a pivotal thing on the first ZEPPELIN album. But I was playing acoustic guitar as well as electric in sessions, and I was into people like [American studio guitarist] James Burton. I wasn’t into jazz so much — I preferred things raw.”

RollingStone.com: For a short time, you and Jeff Beck both played lead guitar in THE YARDBIRDS. Did you ever consider having a second guitarist in LED ZEPPELIN?

Page: “In THE YARDBIRDS, when Jeff was there, we played the riffs in harmony. The approach was almost like a big band with brass — the power of that applied to guitars. In LED ZEPPELIN, I never considered having anything duplicated, because we were such a complete unit. We felt we could do anything in-house, certainly on the records. Once a song got on the road, those parts would change, especially where there were numerous guitar parts on the record. We used to do ‘Ten Years Gone’ [on ‘Physical Graffiti’], and that’s got lots of guitars. We did a pretty good version. It wasn’t until I played it with THE BLACK CROWES [in 1999] that I heard all of those parts live. That was a thrill.”

RollingStone.com: Young guitarists learn to play now by studying your riffs and solos. What is left for you to discover on the guitar?

Page: “There is a lot I can and should be doing. The main thing is quality. I’ve always had a high benchmark in everything I play. That won’t change. The important thing is to commit to playing. You have to put a lot in to get a lot out. The great thing about the guitar, when I was 12 years old, was that it was portable. It made the music accessible to me all the time. I could get together with my mates, and before you knew it you had the serious spirit of music there — even kids just playing a few chords. You can do it with computers and keypads now. But I’m interested in how you get that spirit on the guitar. Because that’s my instrument of choice.”

Read the entire interview at RollingStone.com.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=98071

Persistent rumours and frenzied Internet chat about the likelihood of one or more Led Zeppelin concerts in late August at Toronto’s Rogers Centre – formerly the SkyDome – are just that, says one of two rock promoters large enough to handle an event of such magnitude in this part of the world.

“They’re just rumours,” Debra Rathwell, senior VP at Anschutz Entertainment Group Live and head of the company’s New York office, told the Toronto Star.

“(Roots music star) Alison Krauss and (Led Zeppelin front man) Robert Plant are touring together till at least the end of July, and Plant has made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want to tour with Led Zeppelin.

“Of course, stranger things have happened, but I can tell you that my office is not involved in any Led Zeppelin concerts in Toronto or anywhere else,” Rathwell added.

Calls to the Toronto office of Live Nation, the other major rock promoter capable of pulling off a Zeppelin show, were not returned.

The rumours began early this week when a MuchMusic blogger reported an unnamed “reliable source” suggesting four SkyDome dates are about to be announced.

Several spots are indeed open on the Rogers Centre calendar in August, including sequential dates Aug. 11-14 and Aug. 25-31. However, nothing has been booked for that month other than Blue Jays baseball and Argos football games, a Rogers Centre spokesperson said yesterday.

“Led Zeppelin does not have a August concert date at the Rogers Centre.”

A search of the Internet concert listing service Pollstar reveals no Led Zeppelin dates, although Internet ticket broker TicketsNow is offering email alerts to customers on the basis of “rumours of a Led Zeppelin tour.”

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/429066

BBC News has posted a five-minute video interview with LED ZEPPELIN frontman Robert Plant and bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss about their acclaimed 2007 album “Raising Sand” and their current tour. Watch the clip at this location.

Plant and Krauss recently wrapped up a few U.S. shows and are currently in Europe. They’ll return this summer to kick off another U.S. leg and are being joined onstage by producer and musician T-Bone Burnett.

Plant and Krauss are among the more than 125 artists performing at the seventh annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, scheduled for September 26-28 at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas.

The pair won “Wide Open Country Video of the Year” at the Country Music Television Awards recently for the song “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)”.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=96541