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led zeppelin was on hiatus jimmy page

was interviewed and denied rumors about

them splitting up the richest band in

the world and nothing was happening

nobody knew for how long without a tour

or recording session to occupy that time

there were long days to be filled

waiting for something anything to happen

robert considered going back to school

and train as a teacher he applied for a

position at rudolf steiner education

system in sussex i thought there was

something far more honest and wholesome

about putting the ego away in the closet

both me and john lived very close to

each other we both came from the black

country

both got black country wives and black

country women and um so we had to go

back and do the big thing like be dad go

to the football you know do everything

that you would do

if you were a civil engineer or if you

were you know working in a coal mine um

but of course

i try and figure it out now um because i

was only 20 when it kicked off

i'm 32 when it stopped good god so

really i was growing as a man and as a

father and dealing with

crises that come through life anyway and

family and people's adjustment to who

you have become not just you other

people's perceptions absolutely yeah and

it's kind of interesting really because

you do end up as an island quite often

because of that because no matter how

much of a as i say in a black country a

mocker that you are people still want to

know well

of course i know the answers

and the answers is yes yes and yes

uh so

so it was a bit of a sort of um

it was like

skating on thin ice and i did grow up

very ragged through it on the business

side of things swan's song was starting

to break down

led zeppelin's business rule of keeping

ninety percent of the box office made a

many enemies including several mob

connected promoters who were kept away

from big loads of cash led zeppelin was

a multi-million business generating

enormous amount of revenue for an even

larger corporation very important people

were becoming impatient despite having

their own label all the distribution was

done through atlantic since 74. phil

carson a and are from atlantic at the

time a huge part of atlantic's money

came from them i'll admit it nobody

wanted to kill the golden goose

according to grant's biography bring it

on home an external shady character with

alleged mafia connections played a key

role in an attempt to remove him as

manager therefore accessing led

zeppelin's unhindered accumulation of

wealth grant's girlfriend at the time

cindy russell remembers meeting the

alleged mobster as soon as i met him i

heard the threats against peter's son i

never knew if he was full of [ __ ] but he

knew people i remember a story about him

hanging a guy out of a helicopter in

central america i'm sure he was scoping

out my own family back in chicago i was

followed peter grant didn't have a

father growing up and had always

protected his boys but grew weak a

painful divorce in 77 and the overall

tensions made him recluse being one of

the toughest managers in rock took a

toll on his mental and physical health

peter grant suffered a heart attack but

survived

grant bonham binden and cole pleaded

nolo contender for the jim mitsaukis

beating at oakland zeppelin avoided the

scrutiny from law enforcement binton was

given a 60-day suspended jail sentence

and a three hundred dollar fine while

the others were charged with two hundred

dollars each bill graham's security

staffer jim misawkis died from covert 19

complications on december 20th 2020

back in the black country plant walked

around with a shotgun and a bottle of

johnny walker trying to shoot the press

he didn't want to leave his family john

bonham's loyalty friendship and almost

daily visits were key in supporting his

friend through depression it was planned

to convince bonzo of joining the new

york birds in 1968.

ten years gone in 1978 saw bonham

persuading the singer into coming back

to led zeppelin several false starts

happened before robert was ready robert

kept saying he'd do it and then back

down bonzo was a tower of strength we

had a meeting at the royal garden hotel

and they started talking about swan song

artists bat company and maggie bell and

all that and i said what the [ __ ] are

you talking about you should worry about

your own careers grant suggested the

group should jam a clear wall castle a

famous retreat and recording space for

rock bands of the era including deep

purple black sabbath queen and white

snake there was no pressure to do

anything more than having fun plant

finally joined them in may for

rehearsals

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okay

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so

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sessions were resumed on september 1978

in london six weeks of rehearsals got

them a new set of songs and studio time

booked for november at polar studios

october third in between the zeppelin

agenda jones and bonham played as guest

musicians on paul mccartney's orchestra

theme from his back to the egg album the

song super group lineup included david

gilmour kenny jones gary brooker linda

mccartney and tony ashton to name a few

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the zeppelin trademark tune with

elements from past glories a tight but

loose approach that would have made for

a great live track mixed with a 50s

covers medley as an instrumental piece

is a hard rock swinging treat

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bonham's thunder-based drums locked in

with jones and jimmy's precise roofing

robert plant's phrasing choices make

this for an uneven experience if only

he'd taken more time to them darlene

would sit up there with their other

retro style pieces as much fun you can

tell the band was having at the end it

probably goes on for a bit too long with

planned the main offender running out of

lyrics some of it sounds like a revamped

version of the ocean's swing section

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this outtake was published on coda in

1982

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january 21st 1979

the plant family celebrates the arrival

of their new family member logan romero

plant

electric light orchestras jeff lynn

turned down the offer to headline the

network festival promoter freddie

bannister tried to get zeppelin into the

festival twice before settling for the

allman and doobie brothers in 74 and the

stones in 76. peter grant knew robert

didn't want to tour but the event could

launch led zeppelin's live comeback we

were the biggest band in the world so we

better get out there and show them we

still are

a verbal agreement was reached for two

shows on august 4th and 11th the band's

fee was 1 million pounds the largest

ever paid for a single act at the time

tickets were put on sale in june

four weeks later banister tried

convincing grant to cancel the second

show due to low ticket sales peter shut

him off this is the biggest [ __ ] band

in the world and we can do two dates led

zeppelin rehearsed at bray film studios

near london and travel to net worth in

july for a site inspection publicity

photos and perform a sound check peter

grant tried to bolster the bill with

supporting acts dice straits were

approached to play and refused in the

words of the manager ed big now i said

the band wasn't ready i didn't like

playing without your sound and lights on

a bill where the audience has only come

to see led zeppelin peter was isolated

and he overestimated how many people his

band could draw they also hadn't

recognized how much tastes had changed

the band played two warm-up gigs in

copenhagen denmark on july 23rd and 24th

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so

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is

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to quote john paul jones in 1980 punk

woke us up the band delivers a

breathtaking performance of speed metal

punch a song too heavy for in through

the outdoor but nevertheless a reminder

that they could cut down the waffle and

rock hard preceding thrash metal by a

few years

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although vocals seem to be worn and torn

here it makes sense in the context of

the song's attitude it feels like a

middle finger to all new bands beware of

led zeppelin this would be released on

koda in 1982 and is a good preview of

what the next record could have been

jimmy and bonzo wanted to return to

their hard rock routes before he died

we'd already discussed

what the next album was going to be

like what the approach was going to be

like

after

because it had a very guitar well

presence was was all guitars there were

no keyboards on it whatsoever which gave

gave the ground to be able to do a

keyboard album because it'd been

keyboards on the rest of the albums not

on presents

but on the the album called in through

the outdoor that was great

uh the keyboards were really featured on

that because john paul jones had bought

this

amazing

synthesizer outfit called the dream

machine so i think that says it all

really

and

and he'd actually started to write some

full songs so that was really good

but we discussed um john and i had

discussed what

that we were going to go more back into

the guitar power as an extended note

it's worth mentioning one of jimmy's

hard rock riffs from 1978 that didn't

get developed into a song until 1993's

shake my tree

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okay

that's right

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we did a sound check for nebworth and

this remarkably big concert you were

about

and the stage was about 40 50 feet off

the ground some ridiculous hype

and uh three days before the gig

we went down there and jason came with

us and he played

with the band while

bonzo went out front to hear what it was

like i think i don't know what we did

but it was great and it was really funny

because i mean he really hit the drums

but at the same time the sound engineers

were like whacking the sander

and there was something like a hundred

thousand watt pa so something really

over the top

fortunately we needed it but anyway that

night we had complaints from seven miles

away because of the sand it was that

loud

and he helped to contribute to the

complaints it was great

then he went back to school

yeah he's a great little kid great

drummer he's

you know i hope he does well

do you think he'll be going on to that

professionally

well i don't know i mean he's at the age

now where he's like doing all sorts of

things

how does he know

15.

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keep your hands on the wheels

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i ask her over

did

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ladies and gentlemen

in

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uh

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nobody's far behind

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i've been crying

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trouble jones john bonham

james patrick page

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in your heart

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first show

august 4th

both the press and many in attendance

considered the performances to be a bit

rusty some parts were great some

musically inept and sometimes it moved

between the two in the space of a few

minutes the band sounded powerful and

nervous at the same time

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you

are you why

well all you people have come so far

it's been like a kind of blind date if

you like

not many

oh we're even loosening up and laughing

john paul jones admitted robert didn't

want to do it i could understand why but

we thought he'd really enjoy it if we

could just get him back out there in

recent years robert plant's take on the

event was blunt

worth was useless it was no good at all

it was no good because we weren't ready

to do it the whole thing was a

management decision it felt like i was

cheating myself because i wasn't as

relaxed as i could have been i was

racked with nerves it was a first

british gig in four years

problems began before the second net

worth date promoter freddie bannister

didn't have the money as they hadn't

sold enough tickets for the august 4th

date claiming only 104 000 attended he

hoped grant would reduce their fee

zeppelin's management reported 250 000

people were there and expected their

payment freddie got a visit from a man

wearing a suit and dark glasses joined

by a retired police officer they told

banister they had aerial shots taken by

nasa that showed a quarter of a million

attendance for the first show in reality

it wasn't nasa but one of zeppelin's

photographers who was put on a

helicopter on august 4th he took

pictures and was told later to send the

negatives with no further explanation

banster was never shown these

photographs nor any data from nasa

grant's people told him they were taking

over net worth including the box office

bannister's concert promotion company

was forced into liquidation it would be

his last net worth festival

second show august 11th opening acts

included the new barbarians featuring

the stones keith richards and ronnie

wood which didn't help in attendance

numbers with many reporting as low as 50

000 fans in attendance richards refused

to go on stage that afternoon peter

grant forced him by shaking his trailer

screaming yes you [ __ ] are grand

security entourage got all the festivals

money they could that day with bags of

cash everywhere being moved between

trailers and limousines bans fees

merchandising money car park tickets the

goal was to collect a million pounds

grant got it all fearing for his family

freddy bannister signed a statement

absolving the band of any wrongdoings

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uh

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so

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so

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hey

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uh

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um

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you

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so

you