January 9th – Jimmy Page was born on this day in 1944.
There’s a lot in that statement. Certainly made an impression on many folk;
certainly did with me when I saw Led Zeppelin (LZ) at Birmingham Town Hall
Robert Plant, I think, we supported in Walsall pre LZ; can’t
remember the venue – it was a gig where the headline
band used the side stage platform and the support act – us – used the end stage
platform…the George Hotel was it…? 1967…or 8? I remember it because I also believe it was the
night our vocalist, Brian, pushed my kit over and off the drum riser (all part of our 'stage act') and the
band buggered off for interval intoxication leaving me unconscious under a mass
of kit and cymbals… I stand to be corrected if I've got the headline band
wrong…could have been Long John Baldry…or Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds…?
Buggered if I can remember – we did a lot of support work back then and I
tended to miss most of the important ingredients…I do believe it may have been the fault of the tablets I
was taking at the time. Anyway, I think it was Robert Plant, when he was with
‘Band of Joy’…but all that’s beside the fireplace, what is important is that Messer’s
Page,Clapton and Beck, probably the foremost guitarists in rock history, all belonged (at one point) to what I still consider to be
one of the best bands ever to come out of the 60’s period, from a song writing,
musicianship and band personnel perspective; The Yardbirds.
If you've not run through their
line-ups and back-catalogue then I urge you to do so; their album, ‘Roger the
Engineer’ I still play regularly. And when you do listen to their stuff, keep
two things uppermost in your mind. 1.) They were writing songs like ‘Shapes of
Things’ in the 1960’s (remember, Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ had only
gained kudos in ‘62’) and 2.) many of the major rock musicians revered nowadays cut their chops in this band.
‘Sonny Boy Williamson’ and the
Yardbirds Live at the Crawdaddy Club’ is a live album that can still cut it and
it was made in 1963 FFS! I’ll give you the line up on that one album for starters. Eric Clapton
– Guitar. Chris Dreja – Guitar. Jim McCarty – Drums. Paul Samwell-Smith – Bass
Guitar. Keith Relf – Vocals and Harp…and, of course, Sonny Boy Williamson II –
epic stuff…
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