![]() ![]() I’ve always maintained that Zeppelin was the space between us. John Paul Jones: “We never listened to the same music. I still had plenty of Yardbirds riffs left over.” For material, we obviously went right down to our blues roots. It was cut very shortly after the band was formed. Jimmy Page: “The first album came together really quick. It peaked at No.6 in the UK and No.10 in the US. Led Zeppelin I was released on 12 January 12 1969. They had recorded their debut album the previous September, and the buzz around them was growing in Britain and America thanks to some sledgehammer live shows. Led Zeppelin were already way ahead of the curve compared to other bands. Tony Iommi (Earth/Black Sabbath): “It was very difficult doing what we did, because it was all soul clubs and blues clubs.” I put an ad in a music shop in Birmingham and Tony and Bill turned up. I was in a group called the Rare Breed with Geezer Butler. He was in a band called Mythology with Bill Ward, the drummer. Ozzy Osbourne (Earth/Black Sabbath): “I went to the same school as the guitarist, Tony Iommi. They were a blues band, but they were looking for a new direction and, even then, Ozzy was absolutely mesmerising on stage.” They came along most weeks and we chatted about their band, which was called Earth, and I ended up managing them. Jim Simpson (Earth/Black Sabbath manager): “I had started a blues night, Henry’s Blues House, in Birmingham in September 1968, which Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne joined as members. He came back to the hotel afterwards for a jam, which people did a lot in those days, and told us he’d just been offered a gig with the New Yardbirds, on a good wage.” Their simplicity and energy blew me away.”Īndy Fraser: “Robert Plant came to see us play in Birmingham. Mick Box: “I saw Free in their very early days, at a pub in Wood Green. We would tour with The Who, Small Faces, Family, anybody, and we were still confident in each other.” So we weren’t afraid to go up against anyone. In London, members of Black Cat Bones and Wilde Flowers joined forces as Free, while in Birmingham a little-known blues band called Earth started to toughen up their sound.Īndy Fraser (Free): “The first night we got together to audition each other, we knew we had it. As 1968 progressed, a groundswell of bands at the lower end of rock’s food chain began to turn up their amps. Page and Beck weren’t the only ones standing on the edge of a revolution. He suggested I get in touch with Robert Plant, who was then in a band called Obbs-Tweedle.”( ) I’d originally thought of getting Terry Reid in as lead singer and second guitarist, but he had just signed with Mickie Most as a solo artist in a quirk of fate. ![]() Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin): “I wanted the group to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music with heavy choruses – a combination that hadn’t been explored before. And then Hendrix opened up a whole range of new possibilities.” Cream took the musicality of the thing and made that a speciality. When The Who started making their presence felt, rock ’n’ roll went to a different level. Ian Paice (Deep Purple): “It started in the mid-1960s with Cream, Hendrix and The Who. But by 1968 all three found their creative juices becoming increasingly sapped by the demands of endless touring, especially in America. As far back as 1967, the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Cream and The Who had turned rock upside down, redrawing the boundaries of what could be done within music. By the time the dust had settled, nothing would be the same again. It was a very British revolution, starting in pubs and clubs across the land before going on to conquer the stadiums of the world. During those days and weeks in between, the foundations of hard rock and heavy metal were laid by such visionaries as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Free, Humble Pie and more. The revolution began on 12 January 1969 when Led Zeppelin released their first album, and reached its crescendo on 22 October that year when they released the follow-up, Led Zeppelin II.
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