Led Zeppelin News – Written By Hood Cleaners

“I’m looking forward to the gig,” Slash tweeted two days ago in response to a hood cleaner in Louisville, referring to his headlining set today, June 30, at the Quart Festival in Norway. “It[‘]s been almost a year since I played a whole show,” the former Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist noted, adding to his earlier comment, “Maybe it will help make up for the cancelled VR gig a while back.”

Slash tweeted on Friday when rehearsals were to begin, adding one day later, “We’ve got a great set for Norway, but we’re not playing any songs from my new cd.” He has been in the studio this month, putting the finishing touches on a solo disc that will reportedly see guest vocal appearances from Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath.

Both of those singers are to appear during the Slash and Friends set today. Slash has revealed the members of his Quart Festival band lineup: drummer Jason Bonham, bassist Chris Chaney from Jane’s Addiction, guitarist John 5 of Marilyn Manson’s band, singer-guitarist Franky Perez and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis. Guitarist Ron Wood, whose former bands include the Faces and the Rolling Stones, is also a confirmed guest.

As for what this lineup will be playing, Classic Rock magazine recently found him detailing a set of “mostly covers”:

“Anything from ‘Whole Lotta Love’ to ‘Use Me’ to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’ or ‘The Thrill Is Gone’ – depends on who’s singing.

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Two days before the first public screening of “It Might Get Loud” in Los Angeles, at least two of the film’s stars were in town. It is likely both Jimmy Page and Jack White will stick around long enough for the Friday evening screening of their film, taking in the flick yet another time before its widespread theatrical distribution in August.

Don’t expect a full reunion of the three guitarists starring in “It Might Get Loud.” Unlike at the world premiere in Toronto last year, when all three attended and participated in a public question-and-answer session, this time, The Edge is in Barcelona, where he is with the rest of U2 preparing for the 360 tours, which is set to open in less than two weeks.

Page’s frequent travelling companion, photographer Ross Halfin, details the events of the June 14 flight they shared into Los Angeles on his blog. Halfin then discusses the concert he and Page attended at the Roxy last night.

• The band was the Dead Weather, which consists of Alison Mosshart on vocals and Jack White on lead guitar and occasional vocals. An L.A. Times blog by Ann Powers mentions Page’s presence at the show, saying he “was the show’s most whispered-about attendee.” Luckily for Page, the blog says, his “It Might Get Loud” co-star didn’t fail to “invoke” (might she mean “evoke”?) Led Zeppelin during the hour-long set.
• The Dead Weather is scheduled as tonight’s musical guest on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” Their album, Horehound, is expected to drop July 14.

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“The next project that I’m trying to initiate,” Dave Grohl once said, “involves me on drums, Josh Homme on guitar, and John Paul Jones playing bass. That’s the next album. That wouldn’t suck.”

Right, it probably wouldn’t suck, but it would just take a while — years — to come to fruition from when he first said it.

If indeed it has! I’m getting ahead of myself. But it’s looking like, uh, it has.

Fronting the Foo Fighters only scrapes the surface as to who this guy is and what Grohl has been capable of. Once known only as the drummer throughout all of Nirvana’s major success, this guy has revealed himself to be a primo singer and guitarist, savvy songwriter and ambitious collaborator.

Grohl never did make a secret of his desire to take John Bonham’s place in a reunited Led Zeppelin, and when given the chance to work with — or even just hang with — anybody from that group, he has repeatedly taken it.

(Right, who wouldn’t? Maybe the emphasis is more on the fact that he has been given those chances more often than just about anybody else in recent memory. Some would say this guy deserves it.)

And now that the name Dave Grohl has been blurted out online as one of two people working with Jones on a project that would see them releasing an album and going on tour, it seems to be a perfectly logical conclusion — if not a convenient one.…

Unconfirmed rumors have it that a new legitimate, official release from Led Zeppelin is in the works. It would be the long-awaited video of Led Zeppelin’s reunion concert, staged on Dec. 10, 2007, at the O2 arena in London.

At that concert, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jason Bonham performed a two-hour stage show of Led Zeppelin material. There has been no official announcement of a DVD release, but rumors suggest such a release is forthcoming, with a possible shelf date much later this year.

Meanwhile, a new interview with producer Kevin Shirley about his past work on Led Zeppelin projects contains an overall discouraging view on the prospect of any future live releases of performances from the original Led Zeppelin era.

LedZeppelinNews.com contributor Wyatt Brake picks up the story with his own observations, originally posted to the discussion groups Royal Orleans and For Badgeholders Only:

There are several discouraging aspects to this interview.

1. The Zeppelin camp (at least as of 2002-2003) thought they had tons of live recordings to sift through in preparation for public release, and they (mistakenly) believed that these recordings were being adequately stored over the past 20+ years.
2. Kevin Shirley, who is now the Zepsters’ go-to guy when it comes to this stuff (’03 DVD/HTWWW/Unledded/TSRTS) has declared to the members that ‘there really isn’t that much there’ because the performances are unworthy of release. That’s obviously a judgment call from a guy they now trust, and the judgment seems unlikely to be reversed because there’s little desire – apparently even on Page’s part – to delve in and determine if they agree with that determination.

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Grammy-nominated recording engineer Dave Rideau sat recently with producer Kevin “The Caveman” Shirley at his aptly named studio, The Cave, located in Malibu, California.

In the interview for Solid State Logic, Shirley opens up about his career and his recording methods, including working on Led Zeppelin’s digital-era releases and discs from current supergroup Black Country Communion.

The resulting 39-minute interview has been published in three parts on YouTube.…

The movie “It Might Get Loud” features Jimmy Page performing five songs alone.

Two are “Embryo No. 1” and “Embryo No. 2,” which are pieces of new music perhaps destined for a “big project” Page says he has “had in mind for some time.”

The three others are “The Battle of Evermore,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Ramble On.”

The way he played “Ramble On” onscreen prompted Bob Lefsetz to revive his writing in “The Lefsetz Letter” for the first time in 10 days. He viewed the film at its L.A. premiere on Friday, a few seats from Page himself.

Just as I was getting comfortable in my seat, just as I’d settled into WATCHING this movie, Jimmy strapped on a sunburst Les Paul and started to play…

A tingle just shot through my body thinking about it.

You know how Jimmy holds his guitar so low, down by his pubic area, like it’s a sexual being, not a musical instrument? He’s not just playing, he’s romancing the entire instrument, the neck is bobbing and weaving, the body of the Gibson is throbbing, and with his nimble fingers, Jimmy Page is playing RAMBLE ON!

The track has not been overdubbed after the fact, the original master has not been stripped in, this is the guy who wrote and played it standing there and WHIPPING IT OFF! And in classic “Led Zeppelin II” fashion, he’s not playing to the last row, there’s that subtlety that separated the band from its imitators, they could be quiet as well as heavy.

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In a moment of clarity the other day, Jimmy Page discussed the similarities, and differences, between guitars and women. As Lina Lecaro reports for the LA Weekly blog West Coast Sound, Page said:

“I’ve said that it’s shaped like a woman, you know. You can touch it and caress it. The thing I haven’t said, that I’ll tell you now is: it doesn’t ask you for alimony!”

Aside from this witty moment, West Coast Sound also relates good news for Jimmy Page fans who’ve been hoping to hear new music from the guy. (That is, more new music than just the “Embryo” pieces contained in the guitar documentary “It Might Get Loud” opening this August.)

Page hinted, “I’ve got a big project I’m working on.” Of course, the guitarist was mum on the details, just like his Led Zeppelin counterpart John Paul Jones, who hasn’t offered any further details in the past two months on his “secret” project now believed to be an album recorded with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme.

An announcement regarding Jones’s project is anticipated soon, especially considering the fact that back in April he said he’d hoped “to be everywhere this summer” with the people whose names he failed to mention.

As for Page’s “big project,” he says, “I’ve got some new music. There’s sort of little tastes and shades of it in the documentary. Bits. It’s just a question of actually doing it now.…

Reuters and the New Musical Express are reporting on a press conference with Jimmy Page and Jack White that took place this morning in Los Angeles. Both are in town for the city’s film festival and tonight’s premiere of “It Might Get Loud” there.

Both stories carried a humorous quip from White on whether he might consider playing again with Page, such as on the solo album White is rumored to be embarking on. “I think Jimmy needs to practice a little more,” he commented. Yeah, he was joking.

The Reuters coverage carries more interesting remarks from both guitarists on the way music is presented to today’s youth. For instance, neither thinks video games are very useful for musical practice.

White said, “That’s like the only outlet now, that you have to put [your music] in a video game to get it in front of [kids]. That’s a little sad.”

Reuters carried a long, candid remark from Page about amateur musicians setting out to imitate their heroes:

“If you start with the first track on the first (self-titled Led Zeppelin) album, ‘Good Times Bad Times,’ and you think of the drum part that John Bonham did there, how many drummers in the world can actually play that? Let alone Dad on a Christmas morning? There might be a lot of alcohol to be consumed over Christmas, he still ain’t gonna get it.”

Interestingly, as the NME story tells us, Page pointed out that both he and White, and also their third co-star, The Edge, are all self-taught guitarists.…

A gong used in the 1970s by John Bonham failed to sell at auction yesterday, a spokesperson at the Los Angeles auction house of Bonhams and Butterfields confirmed today to LedZeppelinNews.com.

The gong’s estimated value of between $80,000 and $120,000 may have been too high, commented Margaret Barrett, an entertainment memorabilia specialist with Bonhams and Butterfields.

Barrett said the auction house would hang onto the historic percussion instrument for a short time to attract a buyer at a reduced price. If unsold after some time, she said it would return to Bonham’s family.

The gong was consigned jointly by Deborah Bonham, John’s sister, and their mother, Joan Bonham.…

ZepFest 2011’s Twitter page says a travel package is coming soon for attendees of the Memorial Day weekend event to be held in Washington, D.C.

That’s good to know since it’s already mid-March, almost St. Patty’s Day, and we should be booking hotel and flights shortly, wouldn’t one think?

“ZepFest travel package coming soon.” Sound like a tune you were humming last Halloween? Here’s why that is.

Update: New tweet from ZepFest tonight reads:

Well, since you are watching this so close: VERY poor form – come May 27th we will see how ‘shaky’ this is – have to adjust the invite list.

The remark appears to be a reaction to a Lemon Squeezings reader who posted on Facebook:

“I think this zepfest is really shaky.”

Also posted later on tonight by ZepFest:

“‘Shaky’ – oh yeah it will be & it will also be rattlin’ & rollin’ with: ✫Grammy Winners ✶Grammy Nominees ✬Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Members”

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