'It Might Get Loud' makes U.S. premiere at Sundance Film Festival

Was anybody there at the first U.S. showing of "It Might Get Loud," the guitar documentary starring Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge? Like to comment?

I do know that in the film, Jimmy Page performs the following songs alone in the movie: "Embryo No. 1," "Ramble On," "The Battle of Evermore," "Whole Lotta Love" and "Embryo No. 2."

Don't recognize the first and last of these titles? That's because they're new original music by Page. Director Davis Guggenheim (shown at right, with Page) says, "Jimmy played us previews of two new tracks he was writing -- both of which actually ended up in the movie."

Page himself mentioned his new musical pieces when he was interviewed last March by David Cavanagh. "They're the sort of vehicles and frameworks that could be applied [or] used in various situations," Page said, as quoted in the May 2008 issue of Uncut magazine. "I might have one thing that could be just as easily recorded with an ethnic drum orchestra as with a rock 'n' roll band. Do you see what I mean? Or you could play it acoustic. It's the application of it. But I'm ready. I'm ready, now, to present the stuff that I've got."

Also in the movie, Page, Edge and White jam on the following songs at an arranged "summit": U2's "I Will Follow," White's "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," the Band's "The Weight" and Led Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying."

The movie interpolates recordings of Led Zeppelin playing "How Many More Times," "When the Levee Breaks," "The Battle of Evermore," "Over the Hills and Far Away," "Whole Lotta Love," "White Summer," "Going to California," "The Rain Song," "Stairway to Heaven" and "Ten Years Gone."

So, there are tons of Zeppelin moments in this movie, probably none greater than the scene in which Page turns tour guide at Headley Grange and recounts what it was like to record Zep's fourth album there, and how they mic'ed up John Bonham's drums. That's one story I've read a number of times, but to hear Page tell it in his own words while seeing him there has to be on a totally different level. I can't wait to see this film.

It will be distributed this summer, but first it will be shown four more times at Sundance. Hopefully, somebody who has seen the movie will chime in here with a review!

VH1 to air Foo Fighters show with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones

From http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=1106047:

"The Foo Fighters' Live At Wembley Stadium DVD, which included the band's team up with half of Led Zeppelin, will air on VH1 this Saturday, January 17 at 10 p.m. ET."

Wow, they'll have to do some editing! I have the DVD, and Dave Grohl says quite a few things that VH1 won't air!

But good show in all. Well worth watching the whole thing and waiting for the good stuff toward the end. And by that, I of course mean Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones surprising the London audience by showing up and running through two Zeppelin numbers with half of the band.

The Foos sure had a lot of good, catchy songs of five minutes or less. The first half of the show is all that sort of stuff. Then, they air some of their longer numbers, and in the middle of it all are band introductions including a very laudable triangle solo.

It's a good watch, so set those DVRs now, or better yet -- get your own copy of it on DVD or Blu-Ray today!

Robert Plant gears up for second wave of activity with Alison Krauss

A song by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss is to be the sixth of 20 tracks on the new CD compilation of this year's Grammy nominees to be released Jan. 27. It is the first time in the 15-year series of Grammy Nominees discs that any member of Led Zeppelin is featured.

Plant and Krauss, who are up for five Grammy awards next month, have contributed their Record of the Year-nominated track, "Please Read the Letter," to the CD. Its release on the Rhino label is to benefit the Recording Academy's two charities, the MusiCares Foundation and the Grammy Foundation.

"Please Read the Letter" was written by Plant with Jimmy Page and their two bandmates in the late 1990s, and they released it on the Page-Plant album Walking into Clarksdale in 1998. Plant's second attempt at it, released nine years later on the 2007 album Raising Sand with Krauss, lowers the tempo and replaces the sound of Page's electric guitar with the bluegrass star's fiddle.

Plant and Krauss are reportedly slated to perform during the televised Grammy awards ceremony to be held Feb. 8 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. As the winners are announced, they will learn whether or not Raising Sand has earned the status of Album of the Year -- and whether or not they have repeated last year's victory in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.

By then, the two will supposedly have begun on their second album together. They are said to be gearing up for recording sessions taking place next week at a Nashville studio. (Update: This was confirmed in a Jan. 13 report at CJDCcountry.com that is no longer available but whose contents are archived at the Plant fan site Manic Nirvana.)

It was in that city that their collaboration was born, under the tutelage and guidance of T Bone Burnett. Their producer is also said to be resuming that role in this month's sessions. Plant, when he gave the first official confirmation of an intended return to the studio with Krauss this month, said Burnett would be involved.

An early revelation of dates booked for the Plant-Krauss recording -- and of plans for possible summer tour dates -- came last month on the Internet discussion group Royal Orleans, when a user named "Zepp-4-Life" posted the following:

Just got home from dinner with the owner of Rounder records. For those that don't know , that's the Plant / Krauss label. So, the scoop is they are beginning recording sessions on January 12/13. The first sessions feature most of the same musicians from Raising Sand. T-Bone once again is the driving force and has apparently chosen most of the tracks. The songs being considered were sent to Rob and Allison only weeks ago. Rob and Allison will choose a song or two each for the production. Nashville is the meeting ground for the first studio sessions. Not sure which studio , but it was cool to hear how it all goes down. Rounder records basically pays for all costs on whatever they produce. My " friend " just sent the cheque last week for all expenses. Following the new CD , a small tour is planned. A 15 to 20 city tour is all they are expected to do. Summer dates are being negotiated. In addition , it is confirmed that Rob and Allison will perform at this year's Grammy's. That's all I can say for now. It's valid and real.

"Zepp-4-Life" added in a follow-up post post that the source of his information is Ken Irwin, cofounder of Rounder Records.

Tour dates in 2009 would negate a statement issued on Plant's official Web site in September that "Robert has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years."

All I'm going to say about that is, hmmmmm.

Also in Plant news:

• Buddy Miller, who played guitar and pedal steel on the Plant-Krauss tour last year, has a new album with his wife, Julie Miller, due March 3. Titled Written in Chalk, it is to include Plant guest-singing on the track "What You Gonna Do, Leroy," written by Mel Tillis and originally performed by Lefty Frizzell.
• Plant will likewise feature on the album Elsewhere by Scott Matthews, also to be released in March (Update -- It is now pushed back to May 18). Matthews, a self-proclaimed Led Zeppelin III enthusiast, wrote the song "12 Harps," which will include Plant on vocals. Matthews told the Galway Advertiser in Ireland last month, "I got to know [Plant] before recording the second album and I had a song in mind for him called '12 Harps.' It has leanings towards acoustic Led Zeppelin with mandolins."

Myles Kennedy announces his plans; fronting Jimmy Page's band not among them

Myles Kennedy has been working on solo material over the past month, he says in a new interview posted on his official Web site. The only other project on the Alter Bridge singer's slate, he says, is eventually developing a new album with his band.

Absent from his announced plans is any mention of the obvious. Both Kennedy and his interviewer manage to sidestep any mention of the rumors that he was under consideration for a new band featuring two of Led Zeppelin's original members -- Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones -- and Jason Bonham, the son of original Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

Kennedy says he has been crafting music that would not suit his band Alter Bridge because it "isn't aggressive" enough for that outlet. His solo work, he says, is more of the "singer/songwriter" vein, and he's been spending a lot of time on it since Alter Bridge completed its tour in December.

"I basically got home from the European tour and then the next day I was in the studio," Kennedy says in the interview. He indicates he has been working on this new material alone, an approach he says is "a great way of challenging myself to learn to trust by instincts," although he "still had rather have a band."

Sources last year indicated that Kennedy had been rehearsing with Page, Jones and Bonham last year and was prepared to sing on a tour and album with them. Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider revealed in October he'd heard Kennedy would be tapped for activity in 2009 as long as a Led Zeppelin tour with Robert Plant wouldn't trump their plans.

Further, a confidential source in November told LedZeppelinNews.com that Page and Jones got a close-up look at Kennedy's band in action when they attended an Alter Bridge concert in London that was to be filmed for a DVD. Kennedy implies in his interview that the band postponed filming until toward the end of the tour because the London show was too early in on the tour for all of the band to be "firing on all cylinders." If that's the case, then perhaps Page and Jones were underwhelmed with Kennedy and just didn't have the patience.

That assumption jibes with the statement on Wednesday, by Page manager Peter Mensch, that Page, Jones and Bonham "tried out a few singers, but no one worked out."

Some fans will undoubtedly see this week as the official passing of the Gary Cherone era in Led Zeppelin's history. They breathe a sigh of relief today.

Even more sadly, since today is Page's 65th birthday -- the age currently viewed in countries including United States as the retirement age -- is the completion of that quote from Page's manager on any possibility of Page, Jones and Bonham continuing to work together in any capacity:

"That was it. The whole thing is completely over now. There are absolutely no plans for them to continue. Zero. Frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about it."

Source of dismal assessment of Led Zeppelin reunion status offers murky clarification

So, more on those two seemingly conflicting quotes from Jimmy Page's manager that showed up on the Internet yesterday.

MusicRadar now offers an explanation pointing out that the BBC article providing the earlier quote from Mensch is actually dated Jan. 7, 2008 -- a year ago.

And therefore, MusicRadar surmises, the interview we were all reading yesterday must have been a year old and carry only information that has become obsolete through a year's passage of time.

So, MusicRadar argues, the correct explanation is that Mensch now says the possibility of future collaboration among Led Zeppelin's members is off the table. That's what he told them on the phone yesterday, so they consider the chance of this collaboration non-existent now, although it could have been at the time of Mensch's earlier interview for the BBC, whenever it was truly conducted.

But that argument doesn't exactly hold water with me, and here's why.

MusicRadar is right that the BBC article is dated Jan. 7, 2008, not Jan. 7, 2009. Good catch.

However, explain why the Peter Mensch interview clips were used in the most recent "Music Week" podcast on the BBC site. I downloaded and played it yesterday where this new podcast was displayed ever so obviously. It wasn't hidden in some year-old archive where I had to dig it up. It was right there.

If the BBC interview were really a year old, in theory, somebody would have recognized it. I would like to think I would have remembered coming across it only 12 months ago. I would like to think somebody at the BBC would have intercepted it before it were released for a second time.

There's no way the BBC would have purposely hoarded the interview for a full year before using it! What would the purpose of that be?

OK, now let's consider the content of the interview. BBC interviewer Matt Everitt refers to rumors that Steven Tyler was jamming with Page and Jones -- rumors that didn't exist before late October 2008. Peter Mensch also discusses the auditioning of singers, which wouldn't have happened by this time a year ago.

The BBC interview was probably conducted in November, or late October at the absolute earliest, circumstances mentioned in the interview suggest.

So I would think the 2008 inscription on the article's dateline was the result of a typographical error. As of yet, this has not been corrected. (Update: It was a typographical error, and it eventually was corrected. It now reads 2009.)

But as to why Peter Mensch would deny to MusicRadar having given an interview to the BBC, I don't know.

Maybe he gave the interview a month or more ago and didn't know what interview MusicRadar was referring to when it came up in yesterday's brief phone conversation.

We do have further reason to believe, however, that when MusicRadar's Joe Bosso called Peter Mensch yesterday for comment on the BBC article, the interviewer asked (pitifully) about a "Led Zeppelin" tour. Look, even MusicRadar admits the conversation went something like this:

JB: "Hey Pete, nice interview with the BBC, who's replacing Robert Plant, then?"
PM: "What interview? I haven't spoke to those guys for like four months or something."
JB: "So Led Zeppelin are not going to tour and record?"
PM: "No chance."

So, I guess that's what Peter Mensch was saying wasn't going to happen: a Led Zeppelin tour. Feh. Like we really needed clarification on that point.

But is it possible Mensch also means, by extension, there's no chance of any project involving collaboration between Page and Jones?

Because if that's what he means, then, well, that sucks!

As far as the comment that Mensch has no clue what Page will be up to in the event that this band with Jones and Bonham has already fallen through, that's saddest of all.

Somebody on the discussion group For Badgeholders Only has suggested that this signals the end of Jimmy Page's career once and for all. What a sad assessment if this is true.

Jimmy Page's manager claims singer auditions failed, 'no plans' for tour

OK, so the only thing that stands in the way of a new album and tour with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham is identifying a singer. Right?

That's what one would be led to believe after being exposed to the words of Page's manager, QPrime's Peter Mensch, who just said as much when he spoke with BBC Radio, as reported today.

But now Mensch is quoted, also today, by another news site saying something a little different. According to Joe Bosso's report on MusicRadar, the manager has told that site:

"They tried out a few singers, but no one worked out. That was it. The whole thing is completely over now. There are absolutely no plans for them to continue. Zero. Frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about it."

Confused? Parse these words from Mensch carefully:

"Led Zeppelin are over! If you didn't see them in 2007, you missed them. It's done. I can't be any clearer than that."

Right. We already knew that, considering past disclosures to that effect from Page himself and an unnamed QPrime representative speaking on his behalf. This is almost exactly what Page told reporters last September:

"Playing at the 02, that was our reunion and it was one day and it was at the 02 in London. ... And basically that was it because if you're going to do a reunion, you need four members. John Paul Jones, myself and Jason would sort jam afterwards but it was nothing as monumental as people are speculating."

It almost sounds like MusicRadar's reporter was asking Mensch about a Led Zeppelin reunion, rather than a new collaboration between a singer and the established trio of Page, Jones and Bonham. It was precisely this line of questioning that went out of fashion last year after it became clear Robert Plant wanted no part of a Led Zeppelin reunion.

But it's interesting to see Mensch commenting on the fruits of the rehearsals, particularly that of the "few singers" they "tried out," "no one worked out."

While it has been reported that Page, Jones and Bonham were auditioning or rehearsing or jamming with singers Myles Kennedy and Steven Tyler last year, there have been no previous comments on how fruitful any singer rehearsals or auditions were.

And so, if you believe MusicRadar's quote from Mensch, then that's it: The project is called off. It won't happen.

The MusicRadar report concludes with one final quote from Mensch on the topic. It asks him what Page's plans are for the new year, and the manager replies:

"F--- if I know. I'm waiting to hear."

We all are, Jimmy. In fact, we have been for a while.

The guitarist turns 65 this Friday, Jan. 9. Jones just celebrated his 63rd birthday last Saturday, Jan. 3.

Jimmy Page still undecided on new singer for group with John Paul Jones, Jason Bonham

No particular singer has yet been confirmed as teaming up with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham for an album and tour, Page's manager disclosed to BBC Radio's "6 Music."

In an interview, Peter Mensch of QPrime told Matt Everitt that all his client, Page, needs to complete his planned group with Jones and Bonham is a singer who would "fit their bill" for the musicians to "make a record and go on tour."

Once Mensch mentioned that he manages Page, Everitt asked about the possibility of collaboration among the pair of original Led Zeppelin members with Bonham and a new singer. (Everitt worded the question very laudably, without resorting to asking about a Led Zeppelin reunion, which was the reason interviewers last year failed to get any useful information about the project!)

To the question, Mensch replied:

"Listen. They did the show with Robert Plant. They had a really goodtime rehearsing -- the three of them, before Robert showed up -- and they decided if they could find a singer that they thought was, you know, fit their bill, they would make a record and go on tour.

"And I support that because -- why not? That's his job. It's like my job. I'm gonna manage acts until either every one of my acts tells me I'm too old to manage them or I die on a tour bus. This is what I do! You know.

"John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page enjoy playing with each other. You know, Jason Bonham's a really good drummer. So, we just have to find a singer."

Everitt asked if last year's rumor of Steven Tyler sitting in to rehearse was true, and Mensch answered:

"I can't comment on any rumors right now. And we're not soliciting people, so don't call me!"

A report by XFM summarizing Mensch's comments incorrectly calls him Led Zeppelin's manager. In truth, Mensch manages Page only, while Jones and Bonham retain their own individual managers.

When Page collaborated with Robert Plant in the 1990s, Page switched his management over to Trinifold, which Plant was using at the time and still does today.

Plant says he is not interested in reuniting Led Zeppelin at least for some time.

This interview provides the most current official insight on the possibility of a future collaboration among Led Zeppelin members since November, when Rolling Stone reported a quote from a QPrime representative who said of the forming lineup:

"Whatever this is, it is not Led Zeppelin. Not without the involvement of Robert Plant."