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Gesendet: Samstag, 4. März 2000 18:59
An: zeppelin@zoso.net
Betreff: Jam Article - Page battles the bootleggers

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/mar3_page.html

Saturday, March 4, 2000

Page battles the bootleggers
By PAUL CANTIN -- Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz

Last year, the British Phonographic Industry released a survey affirming 
something guitarist Jimmy Page already knew -- that his band Led Zeppelin is 
the most bootlegged act of all time.

"Well, undoubtedly it is Led Zeppelin," Page told JAM! during a recent 
telephone interview from New York.

The record-industry report suggested there were 384 unauthorized concert and 
studio recordings of Led Zep in circulation, although by Page's own count, 
that number would be a conservative estimate.

Based on the number of illicit Zeppelin recordings Page himself has managed 
to amass, it's not much of an exaggeration to suggest that every note the 
group ever played in the studio and onstage has made it into the underground 
bootleg network -- either from purloined studio tapes or from recordings 
made with recorders secreted into concert venues.

"I went to Japan, when we did the (1992) four-CD box set, to promote it," 
Page says. "I came back with 250 (bootlegs) the first time.

"I went over there again doing press for 'Un-Led-ed' (his "Unplugged" 
collaboration with Led Zep singer Robert Plant), and I came back with 
another 250 to 500. They're all different. I wasn't just taking things off 
the shelves, I was taking the ones I wanted. That includes VHS copies (of 
live footage), as well.

"I have actually got thousands of bootlegs, plus things that have been sent 
to me by anti-piracy people, as well. I have got thousands of them with 
different covers and the rest of it ... six CDs from Japan for $1,200, 
that's obscene. They've got no overheads whatsoever. Then it is a total 
ripoff."

While Page says he has no problem with devoted fans exchanging home-made 
concert recordings, he has little sympathy for professional bootleggers, who 
he says have been brazen in their attempts to get at his unreleased work.

"I've had things stolen from my house for people to make money on and to 
basically take the piss out of you. Well, I'm afraid I don't have any 
sympathy for it, and I am not going to endorse it at all," he says.

"There are rehearsals of Led Zeppelin that were stolen from my house. To be 
honest with you, I could have done with those, at this point in time, 
because basically, they were my diaries, my musical diaries," he says.

"It was a musical rape, and I didn't enjoy it and I don't like it and I am 
not going to condone it.

"It's a bit different from someone taping at the back of the concert and 
having an exchange between other like-minded people and there's no money, 
just cassettes passing. But when people get on more ruthless footing, 
stealing from out of studios and you are having a hard time keeping things 
together, you've got another thing to worry about, which is the security of 
your tapes."

Page told JAM! he hasn't been able to convince Plant to reunite for live 
shows or new recording sessions, which means the Led Zeppelin catalogue has 
remained relatively unchanged since the group's dissolution in 1980, 
following the death of drummer John Bonham.

But Page recently compiled "Latter Days," the second volume of a two-CD 
Zeppelin "best-of," which he said is an earnest attempt to make sure younger 
fans just discovering the group's music gets to know what Led Zeppelin was 
all about.

"As far as this sampler goes, this is maybe for a younger generation to 
access Led Zeppelin, to the point where they might buy the albums and 
haven't heard them before. It is not a cynical marketing ploy ... Either you 
have it or don't have it, and I don't see why it shouldn't be out there," he 
said.

His own involvement in preparing the '92 Led Zeppelin four-CD box set (and 
the subsequent release of remastered versions of the entire Zep catalogue) 
came about because of his dissatisfaction with the initial CD pressings of 
the group's albums.

"They actually made some terrible mistakes. They found a tape with noise on 
it for "Houses Of The Holy." Side two actually had a noise on it, because 
the tape machine wasn't aligned properly. It was a copy tape. It was like a 
second-generation copy in their vaults. Rather than checking to see if they 
had the best quality, they just went ahead and did it, because they were 
being greedy and wanting to put it out and cash in," he said of the band's 
label, Atlantic.

"Because one isn't greedy and trying to cash in, I felt quite passionate 
about wanting to represent the Zeppelin catalogue within the CD format, with 
some dignity. Consequently, that is how the formatting of the four-CD set 
came together. I spent a lot of time on it."

It's a similar passion for music that prompted Page to join forces with the 
Black Crowes. They teamed up for a brief tour last year, and recently 
issued, via the music download site Musicmaker.com, a live album drawn from 
shows at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

"They are just totally committed to music, and for the right reasons," Page 
says of the Crowes.

He first caught up with the group when they were performing in England a 
couple of years ago. He was so impressed, he followed them to Paris for a 
gig and joined them for a jam session. Then, when he was asked to 
participate in a charity for Brazilian street children at London's Cafe De 
Paris, he asked the Black Crowes if they'd like to get together.

"It was fortunate at the time they were going to be in London playing with 
Aerosmith at Wembley stadium," Page says. They said they would love to do 
it. Our set was so short, but we had a great time".

A few months later, the group's manager contacted Page and proposed the 
brief joint tour, which led to the live album and has inspired further talk 
of a follow-up tour this summer and even the possibility of working in the 
studio together.

"They are really, really fine musicians," Page says.

"They had great versions of the Zeppelin stuff. For instance, 'Your Time Is 
Gonna Come,' we never played that live. It was so great to sit in on top of 
it.

"I was driving them more, you know, like on 'In My Time Of Dying.' But 'Your 
Time Is Gonna Come,' I was just sitting on it.

"It was great," he adds with a laugh.

"Like a clove of garlic on a silk pillow. Or a prickly pear."


Copyright © 2000, Canoe Limited Partnership. All rights reserved.






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