Not just Bath's 35th anniversary; go out and see a concert!

Lemon Squeezings today celebrates the 35th anniversary of a special occasion that is more than just a concert. As documented by Dave Lewis in a soon-to-be-released updated version of his book "The Concert Files," Led Zeppelin played well over 450 shows in a 12-year span. While I wasn't even a year old at the time the band broke up, I believe it's easy to recognize some of the concerts that to this day stick out in the minds of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, and might have stuck out in the mind of the late John Bonham.

The second year in a row that the group appeared at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music occurred on this day in 1970 and is covered at great length in this edition. This festival-headlining appearance goes down in Led Zeppelin history as a momentous early event in the group's career. My interview with John Paul Jones in 2001 revealed his previously untold side of a story in which he was directly involved: being accompanied by a motorcycle gang to arrive for the group's strategically timed set with seconds to spare.

Stories from the road make up a good part of what Led Zeppelin History is all about. And it's continuing. Two live concerts I attended last week were accompanied by great music and an outpouring of emotion among fans and the well-received artist, who was in this case none other than Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation. The group played two sold-out shows at the Tower Theater in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, Pa., last Tuesday and Wednesday. Responding to live renditions of "When the Levee Breaks," "That's the Way" and new track "The Enchanter," the unbridled Philly-area audience cheered and applauded feverishly, prompting Plant to comment on the second night that from his 36 years of playing gigs, he could tell there was something special happening.

Currently touring the United States in support of its album Mighty ReArranger and radio staple "Shine It All Around," the band plays a sold-out show tomorrow, June 29, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Then, they head off to play Chastain Park in Atlanta on June 30, followed by a July 4 holiday gig in Portsmouth, Va. The Strange Sensation's first Canadian date since its initial outing in 2001 will take place this July 5 at the Molson Amphitheatre. They will reach 10 more U.S. cities between July 7 and July 24. Dates in Europe will start July 29 at the WOMAD Festival in Reading, England, and continue into August. A full-fledged eight-city tour of Canada will keep the band busy in the middle of September, before they return to the United States for six West Coast shows and six more in Texas, Mississippi and Florida.

Writing today about my firsthand live concert experiences June 21-22 also gives me the opportunity to mention a Led Zeppelin tribute band I saw perform earlier this month. The four-member, all-female group Lez Zeppelin, which was featured in the pages of this month's Spin magazine, hammered out a two-and-a-half-hour homage June 16 in Falls Church, Va. They display a swagger undeniably akin to their rock-god counterparts while delivering faithful renditions of crunchy numbers from Led Zeppelin's first five albums. Seated atop stools for an acoustic set, three members of the band sang harmonies that accentuated the serene sounds of their mandolin and acoustic guitar. This sizzling quartet of Brooke Gengras (lead vocals), Steph Payne (guitars and theremin), Lisa Brigantino (bass, keyboards and mandolin) and Wendy Kidd (drums) will be set to repeat the performance with a show tomorrow, June 29, at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan. They will also help to celebrate Plant's 57th birthday with a big bash to be held Aug. 20 at the B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, also in New York.

A classic-rock cover band I joined in April 2004 is scheduled to headline a five-band bill at a venue called the Grog and Tankard in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, July 9. I will be playing keyboards for the group, which is called World Peace Party. Among many other collective favorites, we have been working up a pleasing version of "Kashmir." If you happen to be in the area that night, come by and see our two-hour set. We'll go on at about 11:30 p.m.

Overall, what I'm trying to say is that live concerts are often filled with magic. Obviously, if you signed up to be on this mailing list, you must have some affinity for Led Zeppelin's music as I do. For my money, there is no better way to celebrate this with other fans than going to see a relevant concert to flirt with fame and to hear these songs performed to your liking. As I mentioned, Robert Plant is touring the United States now. To find Plant's concert dates, as well as reviews and photos of shows from his current tour, try his official Web site or the Tour Watch page at Tight But Loose. Led Zeppelin tribute bands pop up all the time. Here in the northern hemisphere, the summer concert season is already in full swing.

Upcoming Robert Plant tour to support album release

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Upcoming U.S. concert appearances by Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation are currently being confirmed. Plant will tour beginning around March in support of a new album, said to bear a title of either Another Tribe or Mighty ReArranger.

Further information on the tour and album will appear in this newsletter as it becomes available. Surely beating me to the punch in reporting it, however, will be Dave Linwood and Dave Lewis, who still cover the Page-Plant-Jones beat full-time at TBL/Web.

Led Zeppelin members all working on solo albums

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

As announced in October, Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation will have a new album out in the new year. The title of the record to be released in or around March 2005 will be Another Tribe, according to an interview for Mojo magazine summarized by Siarl Davies for Tight But Loose [Update: This working title was subsequently changed to Mighty ReArranger].

Plant's eighth solo effort since the breakup of Led Zeppelin has been described as "a mixture of Delta blues and North African stuff, with a nice fireside lute-driven ballad too." These are the influences Plant spoke of in liner notes he wrote in August 2003 for Sixty Six to Timbuktu, a career-spanning double album.

The singer from the British Midlands expounded on his admiration for a lifetime of influences, stating: "I heard the voices of the high Atlas and pre-Saharan Morocco, the sound from the last juke-joints of south-side Chicago and the buzz of after-hours backstreet Bombay, performances so beautiful, remote and contrasting that I was never to recover."

In that message, Plant also stated that more creative output was on the way. "With abundant new material developing rapidly and connections in Morocco and West Africa moving at a pace unimagined back in '71, the future is ahead - bright ahead," he wrote. For that, he credits his diverse and powerful band, currently made up of Justin Adams and Liam "Skin" Tyson on guitars, Clive Deamer on drums, John Baggott on keyboards, and Billy Fuller on bass. "The musicians make this thing work," said Plant.

Also as recently announced, Robert Plant is not the only ex-member of Led Zeppelin hoping to release a new album in the new year. Both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are said to be working on separate recording projects. A brief clip of a new Jones opus can be heard in the Flash intro to his Web site, www.johnpauljones.com, where a Nov. 7 posting updates his progress.

"I have now started to write and record for the new album," he said. "I'm sort of doing both things at the same time, a new approach that I am hoping will make for a more organic process." After detailing a mandolin festival he'd taken time out to attend and participate in, Jones concluded his message: "So, all of my instruments have been restrung, no small matter, and I am writing / playing / practising / listening / singing / recording / walking, anything and everything necessary to get the music flowing!"

Meanwhile, sources say Page's project will pit the guitarist alongside several guest musicians with a different guitar for every song.

So, my dear friends, if everything goes as planned, there will be three new albums from the ex-members of Led Zeppelin in 2005. [Update: Only Plant delivered a solo album in 2005.] Many years have passed since the days that group walked this earth, and their music has evolved with that time. It would be impossible for them at this stage to try to recreate their earlier moments. However, as Robert Plant would attest, it is great fun to look back at it.

Tribute to John Peel

These comments originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

John Peel, the disc jockey at the British Broadcasting Corporation who gave Led Zeppelin possibly its biggest break in the U.K. media, has died.

Principals of the music industry and fellow media moguls are currently paying tribute to Peel, who has been on the radio since the 1960s, most famously leading Top Gear, a BBC Radio 1 program that since 1967 has explored the far reaches of music's most experimental acts.

Jimmy Page had some unkind things to say about the BBC in 1969 because the government-controlled corporation running the airwaves left little room for any unconventional acts. "The BBC have effectively killed the progress of 'underground' music," Page said. But in the same breath, he did praise two particular DJs by name. "It's only John Peel and that other guy, Pete Drummond, who can play any of the good stuff," the guitarist commented.

And so it was fitting that when Led Zeppelin first agreed to appear on BBC radio, the maiden voyage to Maida Vale Studios in London was for John Peel's Top Gear. The trip to the studio came on March 3, 1969, just two months after the release of the group's debut album. Recall that Led Zeppelin insisted on not releasing singles in the United Kingdom. While a single of "Good Times Bad Times" backed with "Communication Breakdown" was released in the United States, Led Zeppelin performed neither of these songs on its initial BBC session. Instead, the group chose the six-and-a-half-minute opus "Dazed and Confused," complete with an instrumental break during which Page attacked and ground his guitar with a violin bow, plus takes of the blues songs "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby." During the latter, Robert Plant sang a verse from Muddy Waters' tune, "19 Years Old." Peel aired the exclusive in-studio takes of these songs 20 days later on "Top Gear," and the tracks now grace the beginning of Led Zeppelin's 2-CD set, BBC Sessions, released in 1997.

After a tour of North America in the spring of 1969, Led Zeppelin returned to England in June and included on its itinerary another stop in London for John Peel's Top Gear, among other programs. The June 24 recording session for Top Gear resulted in versions of "What Is and What Should Never Be," "Communication Breakdown," "Whole Lotta Love" and Led Zeppelin's only performance of "Travelling Riverside Blues," which was rooted in the music of Robert Johnson, who was king of the delta blues. These versions, which aired only five days later, are also available on BBC Sessions.

After an absence of two years from BBC appearances, Led Zeppelin returned on another program of John Peel's, BBC Rock Hour. The group was completing a "Return to the Clubs" tour throughout the United Kingdom, restoring Zeppelin to some of the smaller venues it had played on earlier outings as well as other pubs and clubs. The final date of this tour (originally scheduled for March 25, 1971, but rescheduled for one week later because Plant had been experiencing voice problems) was April 1, 1971, at the Paris Theater in London. Peel hosted the evening's event, recording it for the episode of BBC Rock Hour airing three days later. This, too, is available today on the BBC Sessions album.

Of Led Zeppelin's performances for the BBC, nobody was there for more of them than John Peel. He appreciated the fine nuances that made great music just off-course, compared to your everyday pop sensations who fit the mold. During his career, Peel gave voice to more than a generation of burgeoning musical acts that otherwise may have slipped into obscurity without a nod of appreciation. Peel had an ear for these artists, and he made many of them what they are.

John Paul Jones working on projects including next solo album

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

This summer, I had the pleasure of once again meeting John Paul Jones. He was on tour with Mutual Admiration Society, as had been announced at his official Web site, www.johnpauljones.com. I met up with Jones for the last two shows of the tour and was happy to spend some time with him backstage. He remembered me clearly from our four-hour interview in 2001, and when somebody backstage mentioned my name, he asked for security to let me in!

The concerts I saw were sensational. For me, the highlight was not that the band played two familiar songs from Jones' past; it was the top-notch playing of all six musicians at each show, along with the obvious camaraderie they all have for each other. There truly is no better name for the group than Mutual Admiration Society.

Jones raved about the tour when he returned to England. "The whole experience has been immensely enjoyable and I have found myself inspired by the great musicianship (and energy!) of my fellow bandmates," he wrote on his Web site Aug. 25. "It is a pleasure to work with people who are not only extremely talented but who have a great enthusiasm for any and every kind of music, and they can play it!"

The six-member touring group was a conglomeration of all three members of the modern bluegrass band Nickel Creek, fronted by Toad the Wet Sprocket's Glen Campbell, plus Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, who played on all of Jones' solo albums and tours since 1999. In my opinion, the star of the band turned out to be Nickel Creek's mandolin player, Chris Thile, who told the audience that he wants to take lessons from John Paul Jones on how to rock. But Jones countered that he, himself, needs to take lessons from Chris Thile on playing mandolin.

Jones' Web posting also thanks all the fans who turned up to support Mutual Admiration Society. He wrote: "It was so nice to be appreciated by Zep, Toad, and NC fans, rock and bluegrass fans alike. Diversity and the crossing of borders has for me always been one of the most interesting aspects of making music, (something those that know me may have already guessed!) but we need a ready, willing and open-minded audience to complete the experience, thank you for being just that."

Jones then said something really juicy (and The Lemon likes juicy): "I hope now to spend the next few months writing and recording for my next solo album and attempt to turn all this inspiration into hard currency whilst the fingers are hot and the brain is buzzing."

Since 1999, Jones has released two self-produced, full-length solo albums, setting the tone of his performing career as a multi- instrumentalist dabbling in hard blues-based rock, down-home folk, and everything in between. The first of these albums, Zooma, was all instrumental, but Jones sang on four songs of his 2001 follow-up, The Thunderthief. There is no official word yet as to the direction Jones' new album will take.

Robert Plant and Strange Sensation preparing new album

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Robert Plant is said to be involved with his Strange Sensation backing band on a new album. It would be the follow-up to Plant's studio album Dreamland, released in June 2002. This June, the Web site of Strange Sensation member Justin Adams, www.justinadams.co.uk, hinted that the band had begun working on Plant's next album and that it could possibly be released in spring 2005.

On Dreamland, the singer covered seven songs that had haunted and inspired him for years. "I wanted to put myself and the musicianship of the people around me into these tunes and breathe some new life out of them," Plant said upon the album's release. The following August, he submitted eloquent words for liner notes in his career- spanning two-CD retrospective album, Sixty Six to Timbuktu. Expounding on his admiration for a lifetime of influences, he wrote: "I heard the voices of the high Atlas and pre-Saharan Morocco, the sound from the last juke-joints of south-side Chicago and the buzz of after-hours backstreet Bombay, performances so beautiful, remote and contrasting that I was never to recover."

Dreamland also included two new band compositions (the U.K. version also included a third), each of which is credited to Robert Plant and band. He has alluded to other songs having been written two years ago but not included on Dreamland. He also speaks proudly and extensively about the way Strange Sensation writes fresh material. "The musicians make this thing work," he said. His diverse and powerful band is currently made up of Justin Adams and Liam "Skin" Tyson on guitars, Clive Deamer on drums, John Baggott on keyboards, and Billy Fuller on bass.

In a message penned in August 2003 and included in the liner notes of Sixty Six to Timbuktu, Plant states bluntly that more creative output is on the way: "With abundant new material developing rapidly and connections in Morocco and West Africa moving at a pace unimagined back in '71, the future is ahead - bright ahead."

Reports: Jimmy Page to release Santana-style album

This news originally appeared at the Web site for the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

There is chatter that Jimmy Page currently has a new solo album in the works. This would be his first since the 1988 release of Outrider, which contained several original rock instrumentals, one new collaboration with Robert Plant, and the single "Wasting My Time."

The U.K. newspaper The Independent reported Aug. 27, 2004, that Page "is currently planning an album with guest musicians, along the lines of the recent Santana albums."

A blurb in a recent edition of Rolling Stone magazine provides further insight, stating that "each track would feature him playing a different, rare guitar" and that one ax rumored to have been owned by Chuck Berry has been provided by singer-songwriter Dan Hicks.

More details on Page's new project will be provided as they become available.

Since touring in 1988 for Outrider, Page teamed up with Whitesnake singer David Coverdale to write and record an album of new material, Coverdale/Page. This led to his highly successful 1994-1998 reunion with Robert Plant, including the Unledded album and video (finally being released on DVD this month), multiple large-scale tours, and 1998's Walking into Clarksdale, Page and Plant's first collaborative album of all-new material since Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door in 1979. In 1999 and 2000, Page toured extensively with the Black Crowes, releasing Live at the Greek, a two-CD live set of their concert material.

While a back injury has hindered Page's concert appearances since 2000, the guitarist has continued to make in-person appearances and work on various Led Zeppelin projects. These included the production of the Led Zeppelin live sets How the West Was Won and DVD, released simultaneously in May 2003.