I remember it almost like it was yesterday, although in reality it was over 45 years ago. We crossed the Tyne Bridge in a friend’s Ford Capri, the status symbol car of choice for those who couldn’t afford the really prestigious cars and headed south down the old A1 through Yorkshire and the East Midlands, until eventually arriving at Stevenage New Town to get supplies. The date was Friday 3, August 1979 and this was my first big festival, the Woodstock for rock fans of my age, although by then punk had already been and gone and Gary Numan had been number one earlier that summer. Musical trends moved quickly back in the day…
Knebworth Festival
Stevenage town centre was awash with young people like ourselves all heading for the same destination; Knebworth House, or to be more exact a huge field outside the actual house. Sleeping outside the car on a reasonably warm August night, we were woken about 2 a.m. by the news that people were already getting into the festival site. So, like over 100 000 others, we made our way and saw the damaged fences. We all had tickets anyway, £7.50, bought at Virgin Records in Eldon Square a couple of months previously and we were certainly by no means the only Geordies there that day, as we would discover later that evening.
And the band we were all there to see? Led Zeppelin, of course, making their first British live appearance in over 4 years. They were somehow a legend, more than a rock band, even if the NME now berated them as dinosaurs. Even after all this time I still have vivid memories of the gig, hearing In the evening for the first time, Kashmir, Whole Lotta Love and of course, Stairway. But perhaps the best memory was when singer Robert Plant spoke in between songs, after the House of the Holy number No Quarter and said that he had been, “handed one or two bits of paper, from this place and that place and the other place…from Newcastle…from the City Hall, Newcastle probably”. You can hear our cheers to this day on Youtube.
Little were we to know that the second Knebworth concert the following Saturday, where the main support was from Ronnie Wood’s and Keith Richards’ New Barbarians, would sadly be the last time that the original Led Zeppelin performed in this country. So, in some respects I can say that I was in there at the end. But what of the beginning and the early days, when I had never heard of Led Zeppelin, but was still familiar with the tune for every week? I already knew a fair bit, but watching the film Becoming Led Zeppelin enabled me to learn more.
Formative days
The film started appropriately with Good Times, Bad Times, the opening track on their first album. The film is full of interesting nuggets from their formative years and early days as a band.
Setting the scene, guitarist Jimmy Page talked of the feeling of hope after the Second world war, while America was said to be singer Robert Plant’s dream.
We saw a film of skiffle king Lonnie Donegan and heard how he had given young British musicians the confidence to think that they too could play rock and roll.
Page got started after a fellow pupil at his school brought a guitar to school and Jimmy said to him that he had one at home as well. Soon we saw an old film clip of Page playing guitar at the age of 14 on television. He talked of his supportive mother.
Bassist and keyboard player John Paul Jones talked of his family background in music and how they were in Vaudeville, entertaining the troops.
Up in the West Midlands, Plant talked of having a sheltered upbringing,,, until Little Richard burst into his life with a force and energy that changed his life forever. Fellow West Midlander drummer John Bonham meanwhile was given his first drums at the age of 10 in 1958 or 1959.
We were reminded that music was not as ubiquitous and easy to access 65 years ago as it is now and this was emphasised with the importance of hearing Johnny Kidd and the Pirates singing Shakin ‘All Over on jukeboxes.
Meanwhile John Paul Jones needed money for a bass guitar, having set his heart on becoming a bassist and became a church organist at the age of 14 in 1960, due to the encouragement of a cool priest. Being paid £25, this enabled him to buy his first bass guitar and the experience also helped him understand improvising.
Being the oldest, it was natural that Jimmy Page got started in professional music first, through Carter Lewis and the Southerners and then on to studio work where he was the youngest player by about 7 years and so knew the new influences on music better than the old pros.
Plant described how hearing the Blues musician Sonny boy Williamson influenced him entering his entire musical bloodstream. It was really interesting to hear how John Bonham had become influenced by the heavy drum sound in the soul music of James Brown.
Soon Bonham was playing with Plant. Both were just 16 years old. At the same time, John Paul Jones was becoming a session musician and perhaps even more importantly, arranger, while Page had become the most sought after session musician in London, playing on countless records from early classics by The Kinks and The Who to Shirley Bassey’s rendition of Goldfinger from the James Bond film of the same name. Page talked of the ruthless efficiency in the session musician’s world and that if you made a mistake you were out.
Page and Jones ended up working with producer Mickie Most, while a still teen-aged Robert Plant was singing in a band called Hobbstweedle.
By 1966, Jimmy Page had become disillusioned with the session world and found a way of getting away from what was described as lift muzak by joining old friend Jeff Beck on bass guitar in the Yardbirds. later transferring to twin lead guitar with Beck and then leads guitar on his own when Beck left the band.
The Yardbirds slowly ground to a halt in 1968, stifled by the demand to play poppy singles and Page started to form a new band wanting to play music for the new FM radio in the States, where a whole side of an album might be played in one listen.
A new band is born
With a supportive Peter Grant, helping him. Page’s first choice for singer was Terry Reid, but having just signed a solo deal, Reid turned him down, although did suggest that he go up to the Midlands to hear the singer in a band called Hobbstweedle. Jimmy Page was suitably impressed by the power of Plant’s vocals and soon Plant and Page met up, On the film Plant said that there was ‘something in the air’ and for a drummer suggested that Page go and see – go and see Tim Rose…and his drummer John Bonham.
John Paul Jones arrived after his wife Maureen had encouraged him to answer an ad in the melody maker and soon a nascent Led Zeppelin, still known as the Yardbirds were at their first rehearsal in London. Jones said that at the first session, ‘the room exploded’ as they played the old standard ‘Train kept a Rollin’… Plant commented that this had been ‘What I had been waiting for’.
The Yardbirds still had a contract for a tour in Scandinavia to fulfil, so they were able to get started away from the pressure of London. Sadly, the film does not mention that their first gig in Britain, still under the Yardbirds name, was in Newcastle’s very own Mayfair in October 1968. But we know, don’t we…
From then, we see how Led Zeppelin developed into the legend that I remember from 10 years later and it reminded me how great the first album is. There were many fascinating pieces of film of the band in action, some I had seen and some I hadn’t.
It was interesting to hear that they had paid for the first album themselves and so had a measure of control over their output that was rare for the timer. Page was then able to insist that there would be no singles after seeing how going down that route had destroyed the Yardbirds.
From then on, we see how Led Zeppelin became arguably the biggest band on the planet by the early 1970’s, with Plant talking of how it happened so quickly and that on 20th July 1969, he had found himself singing in a large tent in America and going outside and looking up at the moon and reflecting that there was a man walking on it…
A number of things were omitted from the film and there was no mention of manager Peter Grant turning down the opportunity for the band to play at the legendary Woodstock festival in August 1969, as they would have just been another band on the bill.
Reflecting
Going to Knebworth and seeing Led Zeppelin in 1979, was a somewhat overwhelming experience for a young lad like me. The crowd of over 100 000 and possibly as high as 200 000 remains the largest crowd I have ever been part of for an entertainment event. This film was not as overwhelming, but was very enjoyable all the same. The events moved quickly and there was no drag in the film, while the balance of interviews with the band and the clips of them performing seemed to be about right.
Most of all, I was reminded of the sheer energy behind the band that had encouraged me to travel 250 miles to see them all those years ago…
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