led zeppelin the 1975 world tour album

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• December 3, 2010

LZ-’75: The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 American Tour: by Stephen Davis

• By Brian Robbins

Stephen Davis’ LZ-’75: The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 American Tour is that same kind of tale. Sure, the young Davis was invited by Zep’s Swan Song label to join the band on the road for a portion of their swing through the States, but he was still held at arm’s length from getting too close to the band. His attempts to bumble his way into some face-to-face time provide an air of intrigue as the tour rolls across the U.S. The concerts played by Led Zeppelin from January through March of that year are well documented, but LZ-’75 will still have you rooting for the band to pull out of their ill-health-riddled slump and for Davis to get his story.

Forget about the well-worn tales of excess and decadence from long ago; LZ-’75 reads like a disheveled pulp thriller (with occasional bits of hobbits, dope, and a suspected-but-not-verified ominous cameo by Squeaky Fromme thrown in). You find yourself rooting for Robert Plant’s voice to return full-glory. Who will reign supreme: drummer John “Bonzo” Bonham’s alcohol-tortured digestive system or his rumpled white jumpsuit? Will John Paul Jones’ ventures into the lounge lizard world on the keys alienate him completely from the rest of the band? Find out how William Burroughs holds the key to a potential one-on-one with Jimmy Page. And how a thermos of chai led to a summit among author Davis, Plant, and photographer Peter Simon one morning. And who was the mysterious prairie princess, anyway?

Rather than an “I was there and you weren’t” account of hanging out with ’70s rock gods, LZ-’75 manages to make all concerned seem rather mortal in their own way. The impetus for Davis to write the book after all these years was the recent discovery of a box of long-lost treasures from the tour. Call it a time capsule if you will; a happy accident seems more apropos.

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LED ZEPPELIN THE 1975 WORLD TOUR

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40 Years Ago: Led Zeppelin Kick Off Their 1975 North American Tour

By January 1975, Led Zeppelin had firmly established themselves as the biggest rock band on the planet. Though they hadn’t garnered as much critical acclaim as their contemporaries in the Rolling Stones , their commercial success could not be denied. With the release of their sprawling double-LP ‘ Physical Graffiti ’ just around the corner, the time was ripe for Zeppelin to take things up a notch with a truly massive tour of North America.

In something of a break from the past, the group was determined this time around to turn their concerts into a grand spectacle. Whereas before the music demanded all of the attention, Zeppelin commissioned an elaborate light show replete with lasers to add a stunning visual component. In an even more jarring turn, they'd also invited a cadre of national media reporters to follow their movements and lob a few questions their way in the down hours, the goal being to rehabilitate their image as debauched marauding barbarians.

The 38-date tour formally kicked off on Jan. 18 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, MN. Things didn’t exactly get off to the best start. Just before the leaving for the States, Jimmy Page  broke his left ring finger when it got caught in a train door, leaving him without the use of the crucial digit. The first show, while much shorter than many anticipated, was well-received, but shortly thereafter disaster struck when Robert Plant came down with a savage flu. As soon as the singer began to shake off the effects of his illness, John Bonham was hit with a stomach problem.

The band soldiered on and managed to get through that first month or so of the tour, albeit with a string of less-than-stellar performances to their name. By the time March came around however, things clicked in. Plant and Bonham were healthy once again, and Page was finally able to utilize the full force of his left hand. Many consider the band’s collection of shows on the West Coast of this tour, especially up north in Vancouver and Seattle, to be amongst the best they ever played.

They wrapped up the North American leg on March 27 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, at which time Plant wistfully discussed the tumultuous two-and-a-half months to Cameron Crowe in Rolling Stone . “Looking back on it, this tour’s been a flash," he said. “Really fast. Very poetic, too. Lots of battles and conquests, backdropped by the din of the hordes. Aside from that fact that it’s been our most successful tour on every level. I just found myself having a great time all the way through.”

Afterwards, the band had their entire tour set-up shipped to London for an iconic five-night stand at Earl’s Court. Once those gigs had finished, the plan was to head back to America for a second leg. Unfortunately, Plant was seriously injured in a car accident on the Greek island of Rhodes which put to bed any thoughts of more touring. It would be another two years in fact until the band took the stage together for a full show.

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• Led Zeppelin Live

The cancelled World Tour August 1975

By joeboy October 16, 2016 in Led Zeppelin Live

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On August 4, 1975,   Robert Plant   rode in the passenger seat with his wife Maureen at the wheel when the car veered off the road and slammed into a tree. Plant shattered his right leg in addition to breaking his right elbow and ankle, while everyone else also suffered serious injuries. Doctors told him he’d have six months before he could walk without aid, according to   LZ-’75: The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 North American Tour .

Jimmy Page said in an interview with the U.K. music magazine   Sounds:   “There’s a lot of urgency about it…There’s a lot of attack to the music.”

Plant told   Rolling Stone   in 1976 he continued to work through his injury because he didn’t have much of a choice:

“My only alternative was to turn around and stand against the storm with my teeth gritted and fists clenches and make an album. All the energy that had been smoldering inside us getting ready for a lot of gigs came out in the writing and later in the studio. What we have is an album that is so Zeppelin. It sounds like the hammer of the gods.”

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SteveAJones

Robert said he celebrated New Year's Day in Paris by taking his first step since the auto accident in August 1975.

10 hours ago, joeboy said: Plant told   Rolling Stone   in 1976 he continued to work through his injury because he didn’t have much of a choice: “My only alternative was to turn around and stand against the storm with my teeth gritted and fists clenches and make an album. All the energy that had been smoldering inside us getting ready for a lot of gigs came out in the writing and later in the studio. What we have is an album that is so Zeppelin. It sounds like the hammer of the gods.”

I may or may not be correct in this statement, but I believe this was said with an interview with Lisa Robinson.  I know she wrote for Creem magazine (and also Hit Parader).  I don't know if she ever wrote pieces for "Rolling Stone" magazine. 

After Robert's "injury", the whole band convened in Los Angeles to begin writing new songs for the next album.  When that did not seem to work out to well (every member out doing their "own" thing), the band re-convened in Malibu, Califorinia.  From Malibu, Led Zeppelin flew to Munich, Germany to record what would become Presence , in the basement of the Arabella Hotel. 

"Achilles Last Stand" was first rehearsed in Malibu with Robert Plant still in a wheelchair and Benji pushing Robert from here to there. 

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sam_webmaster

Official press release... I should dig up a scan of it:

-------------------------------------------------

Plant Car Accident, Tour Postponed (Press Release)

Swan Song Inc. Official Press Release: AUGUST 8, 1975

LED ZEPPELIN AUGUST-SEPTEMBER TOUR POSTPONED FOLLOWING AUTO ACCIDENT OF LEAD SINGER ROBERT PLANT AND HIS FAMILY ON GREEK ISLAND.

The August-September tour of English supergroup, Led Zeppelin, has been postponed following an auto accident on the small Greek island of Rhodos in which Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant and members of his family were injured.

The accident took place on Monday afternoon, August 4th. Due to the nature and extent of the injuries sustained by Plant and his family, and the inadequate medical facilities in Rhodos, a member of the London staff of Swan Song, Led Zeppelin's record company, flew to Rhodos in a chartered jet equipped with stretchers, blood plasma, and two doctors from Harley St., England's finest medical center.

Plant and his family are currently under intensive care in a London hospital. Earlier today, physicians there diagnosed his injuries as multiple fractures of ankle, bones supporting the foot, and elbow. Following this diagnosis, it was announced by Led Zeppelin manager, Peter Grant, and Zeppelin attorney, Steve Weiss, that the August-September American tour was postponed, as was the October tour that had been scheduled for the Far East. Additionally, there is the possibility that the scheduled November tour of Europe and December tour of Japan may also have to be postponed.

Within the next couple of weeks, doctors expect to have a better idea of when Plant will be recovered and able to perform again.

Plant's wife, Maureen, also in the car, suffered a lengthy period of concussions, and has broken her leg in several places. She has four fractures of the pelvis and facial lacerations. Plant's son, Karac, 4, suffered a fractured leg and multiple cuts and bruises. His daughter, Carmen 7, has a broken wrist, cuts and bruises.

The band was due to begin rehearsals for their forthcoming U.S. tour, in Paris on August 14. 110,000 tickets to two shows at the Oakland Stadium were completely sold out at $10 apiece. Among the other concerts which were postponed were those in Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl, Kansas City, Louisville, New Orleans, Tempe, Arizona, Denver, and Atlanta. 

Danny Goldberg, Vice-President of Swan Song in the U.S.A., said that any fans or well wishers who wish to write to Plant or his family can write care of Swan Song, 484 Kings Road, London S.W.10 OLF, England.

Led Zeppelin has been called the biggest group in rock and roll. They hold the record for the largest attendance ever drawn by a single act: 56,800 who paid to see them at Tampa Stadium in Florida on May 5, 1973, toppling a seven year old Beatles record. Their six albums have sold in excess of 15 million copies world-wide, and their most recent tour of America last winter broke records all over the country. Besides Plant, the group consists of Jimmy Page, Lead guitar, John Paul Jones, bass and keyboards, and John Bonham, drummer. Their manager is Peter Grant who is also president of Swan Song.

http://www.ledzeppelin.com/event/august-8-1975

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I had a ticket to the Rose Bowl show and was very much looking forward to it

Here's my take.......

Jimmy was rehearsing new versions of the old songs and was finally going to show the world the peak of his creativity starting August 23rd 1975.    He practiced all summer after Earl's Court like a man possessed pushing himself beyond normal human limits.  When word came about Robert's accident it was like a rug was pulled out from under him.  He couldn't understand how at the pinnacle of success life could deliver a death blow.  It was a downward spiral from then on and only his work on Presence and the Song Remains the Same kept him from totally losing it. 

On 10/17/2016 at 3:06 PM, kingzoso said: I may or may not be correct in this statement, but I believe this was said with an interview with Lisa Robinson.  I know she wrote for Creem magazine (and also Hit Parader).  I don't know if she ever wrote pieces for "Rolling Stone" magazine.  After Robert's "injury", the whole band convened in Los Angeles to begin writing new songs for the next album.  When that did not seem to work out to well (every member out doing their "own" thing), the band re-convened in Malibu, Califorinia.  From Malibu, Led Zeppelin flew to Munich, Germany to record what would become Presence , in the basement of the Arabella Hotel.  "Achilles Last Stand" was first rehearsed in Malibu with Robert Plant still in a wheelchair and Benji pushing Robert from here to there. 

Jimmy & Robert got to Malibu first (in August) and rented homes in Malibu Colony. They were joined in September by Bonham and Jones for three weeks of on and off rehearsal sessions for the new album at Studio Instrument Rental (SIR) in Hollywood. I believe I have heard that Robert found the commute from Malibu to be taking too long so he started staying at a hotel on the Sunset Strip. 

8 hours ago, joeboy said: Here's my take....... Jimmy was rehearsing new versions of the old songs and was finally going to show the world the peak of his creativity starting August 23rd 1975.    He practiced all summer after Earl's Court like a man possessed pushing himself beyond normal human limits.  When word came about Robert's accident it was like a rug was pulled out from under him.  He couldn't understand how at the pinnacle of success life could deliver a death blow.  It was a downward spiral from then on and only his work on Presence and the Song Remains the Same kept him from totally losing it. 

The reality is he and Robert traveled thru Morocco in June before joining the others in tax exile at Claude Nobs' home in Montreux. The day before the accident Jimmy had flown to Sicily to view a farmhouse once owned by Aleister Crowley. It is for this reason that Scarlet was with the Plant's the day of the accident.

On 10/17/2016 at 7:06 PM, sam_webmaster said: Following this diagnosis, it was announced by Led Zeppelin manager, Peter Grant, and Zeppelin attorney, Steve Weiss, that the August-September American tour was postponed, as was the October tour that had been scheduled for the Far East. Additionally, there is the possibility that the scheduled November tour of Europe and December tour of Japan may also have to be postponed.

Far East tour in October...Japanese tour in December...I show nothing on this, perhaps it was tentative at the time.

European tour in November...the only confirmed date I'm aware of is Helsinki on 11/5.

• 1 year later...

Reading shit like this makes me so sad

36 minutes ago, paplbojo said: Reading shit like this makes me so sad

Look on the bright side...at least nobody was killed in the accident.

14 hours ago, Strider said: Look on the bright side...at least nobody was killed in the accident.

Great point

I think Satan was the source of the trouble.

He was jealous of something ... But no sympathy for him .

Recording and filming may have been planned for the end of Summer dates.

Some one did not want the absolute greatness of Led Zeppelin in 1975 to be documented for the world to see and have that standard of excellence to live under...

Ads/press for some of these cancelled 1975 shows:

Those Atlanta ads are very cool.

Not sure if you can find it, Sam, but there was a further postponement announcement in the L.A. Times for the Rose Bowl show, when the rescheduled January 24, 1976 date was rescheduled yet again. Maybe around March or so. Can't recall the exact date, but they definitely teased us one more time before definitively cancelling the tour.

10 hours ago, Strider said: Not sure if you can find it, Sam, but there was a further postponement announcement in the L.A. Times for the Rose Bowl show, when the rescheduled January 24, 1976 date was rescheduled yet again. Maybe around March or so. Can't recall the exact date, but they definitely teased us one more time before definitively cancelling the tour.

Yes, moved again to March 13.

Here's an interview with RP from late January '76 (published in Feb.) , just before heading back home (Feb. 4) :

William Austin

This cancelled tour has been a subject of my interest lately. I have fully realized just how different the band’s history would have been if the car accident had never happened.

Just last night I was reading about the era between the 1975 and 1977 tours in When Giants Walked The Earth . It really is a wonder the band didn’t break up in 1976. 

I guess all of the planned tour dates have never been confirmed. I haven’t been able to find a full list yet. And it appears not many tickets had been sold yet by the time the tour was cancelled. 

But based on the dates that are known, I think the tour would have looked something like this:

August 23/24 - Oakland

August 27 - Tempe

August 29 - Kansas City

August 31 - Atlanta

September 1 - Tampa

September 2 - Louisville 

September 4 - New Orleans

September 6 - Pasadena

September 8 - Denver

September 9 - Oklahoma City

Has anything actually been written about what Jimmy was planning with the set? Since there were no rehearsal, I’d guess that most of it is speculation. 

I think it would have been similar to the EC shows with a few switches. Some additional PG songs like Ten Years Gone, Night Flight or Wanton Song. 

Since I’ve Been Loving You probably would have been added back and Dazed discarded. The EC performances of the song were average. It seems every member of the band not named Jimmy were pretty tired of it. The 1975 renditions of HMMT were really good and could have gotten better over time if kept around. This would have been a fresh and welcome addition to the set. 

I think this could have been a great tour if only. 

On 11/14/2019 at 9:05 AM, William Austin said: But based on the dates that are known, I think the tour would have looked something like this: August 23/24 - Oakland  August 27 - Tempe August 29 - Kansas City August 31 - Atlanta September 1 - Tampa September 2 - Louisville  September 4 - New Orleans September 6 - Pasadena September 8 - Denver September 9 - Oklahoma City

A total of 33 dates were cancelled but many remain unconfirmed. Everything above has already been confirmed with additions/corrections below.

August 10-20   Roughly ten days of tour rehearsals planned to be held in France on August 10th onwards were cancelled.

September 9 was Norman, Oklahoma

Pittsburgh (date unconfirmed)

This accident was a real death blow:

1.  Robert done for 1 1/2 years.

2.  Jimmy plans gone up in smoke.

3.  World tour cancelled.  

4. In 1975 the band was at the top of the world.  By 1977 KISS had overtaken the band in popularity.  The shine had worn off.

5.  Sinking into drug and alcohol spiral by some members.

PeaceFrogYum

19 minutes ago, joeboy said: This accident was a real death blow:   4. In 1975 the band was at the top of the world.  By 1977 KISS had overtaken the band in popularity .  The shine had worn off.  

I don't think so. I was around back then and remember quite well. Yes, Kiss had become very popular, but if anyone was challenging LZ it was The Who as every poll I remember from that time had the Who & Zep neck & neck with The Who usually on top. Stones were still going strong but they were lagging by this point however would reclaim the top spot in 81' with Tattoo You and the massive stadium tour which followed.

Plus, by this time KISS live was a real hit or miss with much more miss than hit due to Peter Chris's antics (stopping in the middle of songs, not starting songs, not ending songs, etc.) all because he was pissed off at Gene & Paul. I understand being upset with those two jerk-off's but to take it out on the audience??? I saw them in 79' (KISS) in Chicago and they sucked. Man did they suck. Everyone in the place was less than thrilled. One guy next to me said he would have rather gone to the Village People show!

1 hour ago, joeboy said: This accident was a real death blow: 1.  Robert done for 1 1/2 years. 2.  Jimmy plans gone up in smoke. 3.  World tour cancelled.   4. In 1975 the band was at the top of the world.  By 1977 KISS had overtaken the band in popularity.  The shine had worn off. 5.  Sinking into drug and alcohol spiral by some members.

Lots of good points here, but you always need to consider that the '77 tour might not have been nearly as good as it was without that year and a half break. Robert's voice came back much more powerful, I can't imagine the increased damage it would've sustained in late '75. 

On 11/14/2019 at 1:05 PM, William Austin said: This cancelled tour has been a subject of my interest lately. I have fully realized just how different the band’s history would have been if the car accident had never happened. Just last night I was reading about the era between the 1975 and 1977 tours in When Giants Walked The Earth . It really is a wonder the band didn’t break up in 1976.  I guess all of the planned tour dates have never been confirmed. I haven’t been able to find a full list yet. And it appears not many tickets had been sold yet by the time the tour was cancelled.  But based on the dates that are known, I think the tour would have looked something like this: August 23/24 - Oakland August 27 - Tempe August 29 - Kansas City August 31 - Atlanta September 1 - Tampa September 2 - Louisville  September 4 - New Orleans September 6 - Pasadena September 8 - Denver September 9 - Oklahoma City   Has anything actually been written about what Jimmy was planning with the set? Since there were no rehearsal, I’d guess that most of it is speculation.  I think it would have been similar to the EC shows with a few switches. Some additional PG songs like Ten Years Gone, Night Flight or Wanton Song.  Since I’ve Been Loving You probably would have been added back and Dazed discarded. The EC performances of the song were average. It seems every member of the band not named Jimmy were pretty tired of it. The 1975 renditions of HMMT were really good and could have gotten better over time if kept around. This would have been a fresh and welcome addition to the set.  I think this could have been a great tour if only. 

I think the setlist might've been something like this

1. Rock And Roll

2. Sick Again

3. Over The Hills And Far Away

4. In My Time Of Dying

5. Since I've Been Loving You

6. The Song Remains The Same

7. The Rain Song

8. The Wanton Song

10. No Quarter

11. Ten Years Gone

12. Trampled Under Foot

13. Moby Dick

14. Dazed And Confused (w/ Woodstock/San Francisco)

15. Stairway To Heaven

16. Whole Lotta Love

17. Black Dog

Going To California maybe could've been added for the Oakland/Pasadena shows. Then they would've probably performed Heartbreaker or Communication Breakdown on certain ocassions. Also, it's said that there were supposed to be 33 dates for the intenairy. I think they'd put in some dates for Toronto/Detroit area, maybe some more in the Ohio area, the South maybe. It would've been a really succesful tour in terms of financial gross and attendance.

For the Far East Tour, they inteniary would've been similar to the 1972 Australian shows.... Deep Purple had announced shows in Jakarta for December 1975, so LZ may have opted for shows in Singapore/Indonesia area. 

European Winter Tour - A date in Helsinki probably means dates in Scandinavia and probably Germany. They'd already performed in the Netherlands and Belgium as warm-up gigs for the tour, so they'd probably leave those cities til' last.

Japanese Tour - Probably just big cities like Tokyo and Osaka. 

I've heard that they were also planning on doing a British tour in 1976, along with shows in South America. The British Tour probably would've been in around January, and it wouldn't have been too big. Probably just concert halls in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Cardiff... maybe some other big cities. But I mean, they'd just played Earls Court so....

For South American shows though, not very many bands had come to the region. The Rolling Stones were supposed to perform in Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, but those were cancelled. If this did go as planned, there would've been many riots. So probably not the safest decision to perform in the region.

After they'd complete the tour, they would've worked on Presence and The Song Remains The Same. Screw that tree. 

On 11/15/2019 at 1:46 PM, SteveAJones said: A total of 33 dates were cancelled but many remain unconfirmed. Everything above has already been confirmed with additions/corrections below. August 10-20   Roughly ten days of tour rehearsals planned to be held in France on August 10th onwards were cancelled. September 9 was Norman, Oklahoma Pittsburgh (date unconfirmed)  

Not so sure about Pittsburgh.... They'd already performed 2 nights there at the Civic Arena. 

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Trouser Press, One of the All-Time Great Music Magazines, Finally Gets an Anthology: Book Review

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

• Trouser Press, One of the All-Time Great Music Magazines, Finally Gets an Anthology: Book Review 6 hours ago
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Despite and also because of its puzzling inside-joke name, Trouser Press was one of the greatest music magazines in history.

Launched in early 1974 by a group of Who fanatics/British-rock obsessives — and edited for its entire existence by Ira A. Robbins — the magazine was initially written on typewriters and mimeographed; the first copy cost a quarter. That first issue, which naturally featured the Who’s Pete Townshend on its cover, garnered its creators a humorous letter from Townshend himself (recapped in full in this book’s introduction). Trouser Press — the name comes from a song of the same title by the ‘60s British pop-comedy group the Bonzo Dog Band — was off and running.

Over the next decade, the magazine, which arose in a year when rock was dominated by the Eagles, progressive rock and arena rockers like the Who, Stones and Led Zeppelin, spoke to fans of the British rock that its creators were raised on, but also introduced them to virtually every important new act that arose in those years — and when punk and new wave burst out of the same New York City music scene that also spawned the magazine, Trouser Press was right there with it.

Many of the people who wrote those articles went on to become major music writers or already were (Lester Bangs, Kurt Loder, Nick Kent, David Fricke, Gloria Stavers, John Leland, Bill Flanagan, Holly Gleason) but were just as likely to become prominent musicians, managers, DJs or executives themselves (Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, the Dictators’ Scott Kempner, Tim Sommer, Danny Heaps, Carter Alan) — in other words, die-hard music geeks who just had to find ways to be involved with the music they loved. However, much of the magazine’s greatest work came from a core team that included OGs Dave Schulps, Scott Isler, Jim Green, Jon Young, Robbins and cofounder Karen Rose. In 10 years, the magazine produced 5,508 pages with 859 feature articles and 3,320 album reviews.

In those features are such timeless quotes as “I’ve always been optimistic about life — I’ve not always been optimistic about my role in it” (Townshend); “I don’t like walking the streets and seeing 30,000 imitations of me (John Lydon/Rotten); “I wasn’t an outcast, I cast myself out” (Ian Dury); and “It’s hard to sing a song that makes you puke — you can’t do both at the same time” (Grace Slick).

As a music fan who essentially grew up on Trouser Press, it’s hard to overstate what a welcome presence it was. Its writers asked intelligent and informed music questions at a time when that was not the norm, and wrote with attitude and humor but not condescension — where some of the above publications might have made you feel embarrassed for still being a Led Zeppelin fan, Trouser Press featured an expansive three-part 1977 interview with Jimmy Page that covered his entire career (and featured the guitarist raving enthusiastically about then-new punk rock). The fact that one of the world’s biggest rock stars devoted so much time to it shows not only the respect the magazine commanded but also how engaged he was with the conversation.

Today, when an artist’s entire recorded output can be accessed in seconds, it’s hard to convey just how difficult it was to find out about new music in that pre-MTV era. The only options were cool record stores and nightclubs, college radio and magazines like these, which could be as challenging to find as some of the records they wrote about. TP was not only a cool friend who was “into” the same music you were, it knew a lot more about that music than you did. (Disclosure: This writer did not contribute to the magazine but did write entries for the later “Trouser Press Record Guide” books.)

While many felt that the magazine’s moment had truly arrived with the early ’80s advent of the MTV juggernaut and the preponderance of new wave acts featured on it, instead Robbins felt the channel had rendered Trouser Press redundant — why would people read about these artists when they could see them on TV 24-7? — and shut it down. Arguably, he was ahead of his time on that take as well — music journalism has been confronting that existential question on a much larger scale since the advent of the internet.

But although the places to write about music are becoming fewer and farther between, there’s more music being created and released today than ever before — and arguably more need for curators, for people who love the music so much that they just have to find ways to get involved with it. A half century later, that love still jumps off the pages of Trouser Press.

“Zip It Up” is available from Trouser Press Books and other outlets .

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‘One time, we achieved levitation’: Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman on magic, mysticism and mourning

In his first interview since the death of the influential band’s guitarist, Geordie Walker, the singer talks about their friendship, transhumanism and his fears that rogue AI will destroy the world

T here are many crazy stories about Jaz Coleman. There was the time he went missing and resurfaced living a nomadic existence in Western Sahara. He has claimed to have seen a UFO – actually seven orange orbs, one bearing the image of a stick man – in central London. Once, he was so annoyed by a Melody Maker review that he stormed into the magazine’s offices and dumped rotting liver and maggots over the reception desk. Today, though, video-calling from Argentina, he is reflective and emotional.

“I’m still in terrible shock,” says the 64-year-old from behind dark sunglasses in the South American daylight. “It’s been an incredibly difficult time for everybody around Killing Joke.” He is talking about the death of Kevin Walker, better known as Geordie. The hugely influential guitarist and band co-founder died in Prague in November , also aged 64, after a stroke.

Playing a semi-acoustic Gibson ES-295 – an instrument once used by Elvis Presley’s guitarist Scotty Moore – but downtuned a tone, with heavier strings and a delay effect, Walker gave the band’s post-punk-industrial-dance hybrid a beautiful intensity which Coleman once compared to “fire in heaven”. His mesmerising guitar-playing propelled numerous albums into the UK Top 20 and gave them a bona fide hit single with 1985’s Love Like Blood . Their admirers range from a younger industrial generation to Metallica and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. “Geordie was a national treasure,” says Coleman in his first interview since Walker’s death.

But he reveals that concerns about Walker’s health had mounted for some time. “A year ago, a doctor taking care of him said to me, ‘When it comes, it will come really fast. So I want you to brace yourself.’ Of course I didn’t take it to heart, because I thought Geordie was indestructible.”

This month Coleman embarks on a spoken word/Q&A tour, which he knows will now be overshadowed by his bandmate’s death. But there is one question he is not ready to answer: “I’m asking people not to ask about the future of Killing Joke, because I’m still in mourning.”

Walker had been Coleman’s “constant companion, at every single gig and recording” since 1978. Coleman and drummer Big Paul Ferguson had initially tried to complete the lineup by summoning bandmates in a black magic ritual, but the flat they held it in subsequently burned down. So they recruited Walker and bassist Martin Glover (AKA Youth, later a prolific record producer ) by the more conventional means of an advert in weekly music paper Melody Maker. “Geordie rang up and said ‘I’ve never been in a band before,’” says Coleman, allowing himself a tiny smile. “‘I’ve only ever played in my mum’s bedroom, but I’m the best guitarist ever.’”

The Cheltenham-born, classically trained Anglo-Asian singer and synth player, and the County Durham-born guitarist who was a Siouxsie and the Banshees fan, rarely agreed on music. But both were well-read and bonded over politics, philosophy and spirituality. “I’d had a considerable occult library since I was seven,” Coleman explains. “Geordie was a master Kabbalist” – a believer in esoteric Jewish mysticism. “We shared an interest in all that side of things.”

Thus, Walker accompanied Coleman on one of his most celebrated adventures. In 1982, Coleman turned up in Iceland, telling reporters he was fleeing the apocalypse, although his subsequent explanations have varied from studying ley lines to setting up a marijuana-running operation. “There’s an element of truth in all of them,” he grins, “but I went to Iceland because I wanted to find a part of me that was missing.”

As he tells it now, during a gig in Reading they’d had the “collective experience of playing in a magnetic field which meant everything slowed down around us”. Keen to further explore such geomagnetic energy, they went to Iceland to conduct ritual experiments in volcanic power centres. “Many crazy things happened,” the singer says. “One person working with us was struck by lightning twice and survived, and one time, from what I could see, we achieved levitation.”

Magically or otherwise, Coleman found his missing part in Iceland, and decided to start a parallel career as a composer (he says he now sells more classical albums than Killing Joke albums). And in more recent years Coleman and Walker had socialised less, after the former gave up drinking.

“Killing Joke has always been like a dysfunctional family,” he explains. “We all love each other deeply, and we’re periodically evil to each other. I had three vicious fights with Geordie. The last time we did so much damage to each other that we both ended up needing stitches. He was making the tea afterwards and went, ‘Do you think we’re drinking too much?’”

Shortly afterwards, in January 2006, Coleman made a vow to stop. “I have a 100% success rate with my system,” he says. “Because the solemn vow is that if you fall off the wagon, you invoke death.”

Coleman still has the empty tequila bottle which Walker drained during his final Killing Joke performance, at the Royal Albert Hall last May. He has filled it with flowers. “He would not stop drinking two bottles a day. He’d start two hours before a gig and as soon as he went to the loo, I’d half empty the bottle and refill it with water.” Coleman sighs, softly. “We’d been doing that for 20 years. I’ve got a vendetta against alcohol because ultimately it cut short the life of my friend.”

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After Walker’s death, Coleman had to get out of Prague, where they’d both been living – he also has a farm in New Zealand, and is now drawn to the “creativity and chaos” in Argentina. However, he is disturbed that almost 60% of the population live in poverty and warns that the UK is headed the same way, blaming “the succession of governments culminating in the current prime minister, whose wealth in contrast to what people are suffering really is obscene. In the US, too, 80% of citizens are two paycheques away from homelessness.”

Warning of impending global chaos or disaster has been Coleman’s stock in trade ever since the likes of 1979 debut single Turn to Red or 1980 classic Wardance. But if anything, his vision of the future is now even more dystopian. “The economic bubble is about to burst in ways we’ve never seen in our lifetimes,” he insists, predicting famine, warfare and a widening gulf between an elite and a growing underclass. The tensions between nations is another favourite subject. Having lived near the Ukraine border and worked with orchestras in Russia, he felt war brewing.

“People in Russia were always keen to talk to me about how as a nation they feel encircled,” he says. “But another reason I left Europe is because of the push towards conflicts and the lack of diplomacy everywhere. Like a lot of people, sometimes I simply cannot bear to watch the news. We spend more money on weapons of mass destruction than we do our health systems. We’re 90 seconds away from midnight on the Doomsday Clock, but people don’t seem bothered.”

He fears that we could tumble into nuclear conflict by accident, “because complex defence systems are being run by artificial intelligence and when one AI system misreads another it leads to catastrophic decisions”. He is not the first musician to voice fears about AI, but warns: “It’s the first step to transhumanism, so some people will be able to download an IQ of 600-plus and access life extension programmes, but most of us won’t. So there’ll be two types of humans in the future that will look visibly different to each other.” This seems wild, sci-fi stuff, but he points out that 1982’s Empire Song predicted the Falklands war – it was released two weeks before Argentina invaded – and that his songs contain “prophesies; warnings for humanity”.

Walker’s final recordings with the band appear on the 2022 EP Lord of Chaos, which came after a particularly difficult two years, including a “near-death experience” for Coleman amid a diabetic coma in Mexico in 2021. Life in Killing Joke is certainly never dull, but he says that in one of their final conversations, the guitarist had told him that he didn’t want to continue with the original lineup. “I tried to reason with him,” Coleman says. “Then he died.”

Walker was the second Killing Joke musician to die prematurely. Paul Raven, who replaced Youth for several years before all four founder members reunited in 2008, died aged 46 in 2007 . “But I believe in reincarnation and the ancestral spirit,” says Coleman, “which is to say that Raven and Geordie are together. There are times that I can hear them, so when it comes to the future of the group, their will will be taken into consideration.”

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November 13, 1975

Press Release:

LED ZEPPELIN TO RECORD NEW ALBUM IN MUNICH THIS NOVEMBER - NO TOUR PLANS UNTIL PLANT'S ANKLE FULLY HEALS

November 13, 1975 - Led Zeppelin are recording a new album this month in Munich, Germany at Musicland Studios. The album is expected to be released sometime in the early part of 1976. The group has been rehearsing material for the new album over the summer at Studio Instrument Rentals in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, it has been announced that while Robert Plant's ankle has healed substantially since its multiple fracture in a car crash on August 6th, he still is unable to perform and no Led Zeppelin tour in the world is currently scheduled.  The cast on Plant's right ankle has been removed, but he still cannot put any weight on it. Another medical report on Plant's ankle is expected in February - but under no circumstances would any Zeppelin tour be scheduled before the summer, and no plans or arrangements of any kind will be made until Plant's ankle is fully healed. Plant's left elbow, which also fractured at the time of the accident, is almost completely healed now and he was seen throughout the summer at various concerts in L.A. and was universally considered to be in good spirits.

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The Black Crowes Rediscovered Their Southern Harmony on ‘Happiness Bastards’ Reunion Album: ‘We Have a Psychic Thing’

How Chris and Rich Robinson buried the hatchet and got back into the groove for their first album in 15 years.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

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Nobody knows you like your brother. But, oh brother, when siblings scrap — you better believe that the bruises are deeper, the damage longer-lasting and the chance of saying something truly hurtful much, much higher.

Black Crowes Prepping First New Album in 15 Years, ‘Happiness Bastards’

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“In the Victorian age, we would be considered eccentrics,” says Chris about the hard-to-pin-down story of how the Southern blooze brothers went from wowing crowds to a stony, years-long total communication breakdown that seems hard to fathom. “I’m not sure what you would call that today, but we decided on [this reunion] through an intermediary — someone in the middle who could handle the situation with kid gloves.”

“A band is a family dynamic and on top of that we have an [actual] family dynamic… the two heads of this band are family and everyone has to deal with that, no matter how toxic,” explains Rich — who, in keeping with the sibling’s preference spoke to Billboard on a separate call from his brother; they also keep their own dressing rooms on the road. “That creates its own dynamic in the band and it all became incredibly toxic and we split up for a long time and in those years of doing what we do it allowed Chris and I to really get outside of this thing.”

Another brief reunion run in 2012-2013, a hard, seemingly final break came in 2015 over what Rich described at the time was his brother’s demand for a bigger share of the income pie. Rich says the split was preceded by the Robinsons falling into the “same traps” in the midst of what had become an “incredibly toxic” atmosphere. That break turned into a hell-freezes-over situation, during which both brothers swear they never once spoke for nearly a decade — until reuniting around the 30th anniversary of Shake Your Money Maker , after a chance encounter in, of all places, an airport Hilton in Cincinnati.

The back-and-forth, hot-and-cold yo-yoing became a trying signature of the Marietta, GA-bred duo who bonded early over their love of classic blues and Muscle Shoals soul, British folk and Southern rock . Rich was just 17 when he wrote “She Talks to Angels” and a year older when the group recorded their 1990 debut album, Shake Your Moneymaker . The division of labor — Chris writes the lyrics and sings, Rich writes and composes the music — worked like a charm, as the band released five more albums throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, scoring such MTV and rock radio hits as “Angels,” “Jealous Again,” “Remedy,” “Thorn in My Pride” and an iconic cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.”

“It wasn’t like I got on the phone and said, ‘Let’s do this, I love you, I want to talk about where I feel I failed us,'” Chris says of the rapprochement. The hard-won harmony came after what the vocalist dubbed years of “greed and avarice” around the band and his own self-described stubbornness and “egotism” mucking up the works. “We’re a bit too Southern for that [I love you stuff], with English stiff-upper-lip bulls–t going on.”

While Chris says he couldn’t articulate precisely what he missed about working with his brother at the time of their break-up because of calcified, long-running “real or imagined” resentments he harbored, what he knew was that music was, and has always been, “the glowing heart” of his soul. And so, he knew he had to get over the roadblocks they’d each set up to kickstart his rock ‘n roll heart again. “We were happy and excited and there was definitely some trepidation about what it would be like,” Chris admits, saying that anxiety stemmed in part from the realization that they had dug such a cavernous hole in their professional and personal lives.

“The things that I missed and made me feel low was, ‘Oh Richard has some medical operation,’ and the human part of being a brother thinking how that must have been scary — and I wasn’t there for you,” Chris says, adding that, yes, it was “very weird” that they hadn’t met each other’s kids: Rich has seven and Chris has two.

That’s why after that hotel bump-in Rich says they agreed to clear the decks, take responsibility for the triggers that set them off and not let “some external force come back in and f–k around with us… start from scratch, bring in new people and put our relationship first.”

The fire this time is evident from the opening Happiness salvo, “Bedside Manners,” in which the brothers sound shot out of a cannon on a track Rich says came together in a lighting flash five minutes, much as “She Talks to Angels” did three decades before. “This one f–king plopped out and it was so great, Chris and I were both right there with it,” he says of the song that rumbles with his galloping guitar topped by his brother’s go-ahead-and-read-into-it-what-you-will, snarling lyrics about “what you’re doing to me/ Stab a knife in my back and then you want a please/ With friends like these who needs enemies.”

Chris says the homage to decadent rock and roll living and trashed hotel rooms also has a message about dealing with other people’s judgement, as well as an undercurrent of the Robinsons’ determination to retain an “element of defiance in a world dictated by compliance… we can deal with that and we’ve survived that,” the singer says.

You can also hear the Robinson’s unique alchemy reignited in the patented ache in Chris’ voice on the churning “Cross Your Fingers” and the Exile on Main Street -like acoustic ballad “Wilted Rose,” which features backing vocals from country singer Lainey Wilson, a frequent collaborator of the album’s producer, Jay Joyce.

It is also easy to put on your therapist cap to deconstruct the seemingly olive-branch-extending, heartbreak lines in Beatlesque album-closing acoustic ballad “Kindred Friend.” On that touching track Chris croons, “Kindred friend, where have you been?/ I guess it’s been a while/ Through thick and thin/ And many times again/ Always make me smile.” Rich loves that the sentiment in the song is “cool but not obvious — it could be that or something else,” while Chris agrees it could work “on a number of levels,” chronicling his relationship with Rich, a dear old friend he’s fallen out with, a former lover or even the band’s audience.

“The mystery is that as different as we are he believes equally in that pure heart of things,” Chris says lovingly of his younger brother. The singer pointed to the moment that proved that to him: a 2019 audition for new band members that marked the first time the brothers had performed together in years. “It was just so powerful,” he recalls. “I can’t take one of the most unique guitar players in rock ‘n roll history out of how important that is, and he feels the same way about my talent and what I do.”

Chris Robinson chalks it up to a “psychic” connection, but a brotherly one as well — and says the new album’s rich tapestry and heartfelt emotion is also a result of the emotional depth each man developed to deal with one another during their time apart. “What we do is special and that’s what we have to nurture,” he says. “It has given us so much.”

Check out the Black Crowes’ first music video in 16 years below.

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Eric Carmen, Raspberries Frontman and ‘All by Myself’ Singer, Dies at 74

He sang on the power-pop pioneers’ 1972 breakout hit, “Go All the Way,” before launching a successful solo career as a soft-rock crooner.

By Ron DePasquale and Alex Williams

Eric Carmen, whose plaintive vocals soared above the crunching guitars of the 1970s power-pop pioneers the Raspberries on hits like “Go All the Way,” and whose soft-rock crooning later as a solo artist propelled anthems like “All by Myself” and “Hungry Eyes,” has died. He was 74.

His death was announced on his website by his wife, Amy Carmen. She did not give a cause or specify where he died, saying only that he died “in his sleep, over the weekend.”

The Raspberries formed in Cleveland in 1970. With the preternaturally melodic Mr. Carmen churning out hits and serving as frontman, the band represented a throwback of sorts, in terms of both sound and image.

Emerging at a time when FM radio playlists tilted toward the thundering blues-rock of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple; the orchestral pomp of progressive rock bands like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and the glittery glam rock of T. Rex and David Bowie, the Raspberries recalled the intricate songcraft and lush melodies of the mid-’60s pop masters.

“I had spent my youth with my head between two stereo speakers listening to the Byrds and the Beatles and later on the Beach Boys,” Mr. Carmen said in a 1991 interview published on his personal website.

Even more retro was the band’s look: They initially wore matching suits — a concept that had seemingly gone out of fashion with Herman’s Hermits, although in their case the suits looked more like harbingers of John Travolta’s discowear from “Saturday Night Fever.”

To Mr. Carmen, the relatively square look was a cheeky way to stand out in the landscape of 1970s rock. “Almost every band had hair down to their waist and beards and ripped jeans and they looked like a bunch of hippies, and I wanted to get as far away from that as I could,” he said in a 2017 interview with The Observer.

It all worked. The band burst onto the rock scene in 1972 with its debut album, titled simply “Raspberries,” which included a raspberry-scented scratch-and-sniff sticker, a hint of the sugary pop hooks contained within.

The album’s biggest hit, “Go All the Way,” contained lyrics about an implicitly young couple moving haltingly toward intercourse, which Mr. Carmen considered riskily suggestive for the pop charts of the time. “Either it’ll get banned because it’s dirty, then maybe people will buy the album to check it out,” he recalled thinking, “or if it ever gets on the radio, I think it’ll just be a hit based on the title alone.”

The song was a hit, all right, climbing to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1972. It became “the definitive power pop song of all time,” as Dave Swanson wrote on the site Ultimate Classic Rock in a 2017 appraisal. Power pop, pioneered by the early Who and others, was an emerging style that grafted bright 1960s-era vocal harmonies onto the driving guitar riffs of the ’70s.

“‘Go All the Way’ was a perfect melding of Beach Boys, Beatles and Small Faces, all delivered with a Who-like attack,” Mr. Swanson wrote. “Right here is where power pop was born.”

One of Mr. Carmen’s idols apparently approved of the band: John Lennon was photographed around that time wearing a Raspberries shirt. The band’s influence would only grow over the years, with acts as diverse as Cheap Trick, Kiss and Nirvana citing the Raspberries as an influence.

The Raspberries’ second album, “Fresh,” also released in 1972, would be their highest-charting, reaching No. 36. It featured two Top 40 hits, “I Wanna Be With You” and “Let’s Pretend.”

The Raspberries broke up in 1975, but Mr. Carmen’s time on the charts was far from over.

Eric Howard Carmen was born on Aug. 11, 1949, in Cleveland to a family of Jewish immigrants from Russia and grew up in Lyndhurst, an eastern suburb of the city. Showing a keen interest in music early on, he was studying violin with his aunt Muriel Carmen, a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, by age 6. By 11 he was playing piano and writing his own songs.

His musical destiny changed forever with the arrival of Beatlemania when he was in his midteens. “After seeing the Beatles film ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’” he later said, “I dropped everything and immediately decided I wanted to do that!”

Within months, Mr. Carmen had taught himself to bang out chords on a guitar, and he spent the next few years bouncing from band to band. While a student at John Carroll University in suburban Cleveland, he joined a popular local band called Cyrus Erie, which included the future Raspberries guitarist Wally Bryson and opened for major acts like Who and the Byrds.

Mr. Carmen and Mr. Bryson eventually joined forces with the guitarist and bassist Dave Smalley and the drummer Jim Bonfanti, veterans of another prominent local band, the Choir, to form the Raspberries.

When that band’s run finally ended, Mr. Carmen went solo with the intent of showing off his full range as a songwriter and performer.

“Unshackled from having to write for three specific guys and myself, my brain just kind of opened up,” he told The Observer. “Also, I didn’t want to make a record that sounded just like the Raspberries, because I thought, Jesus, everybody will go, ‘Oh, here he goes again, he’s just repeating what he already did.’”

He clearly accomplished that with “All by Myself,” a lush if lachrymose ballad from his first solo album, released in 1975, that was, as he put it, “certainly as far away from ‘Go All the Way’ as you could get.” The song soared to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and was eventually hailed as a soft-rock classic.

The follow-up single, “ Never Gonna Fall in Love Again, ” with its nods to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, made it to No. 11.

In the 1980s, two of his biggest hits came from soundtracks. For “Footloose” (1984), he wrote (with Dean Pitchford) “Almost Paradise,” which was recorded by Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart; for “Dirty Dancing (1987), he sang “Hungry Eyes” (written by John DeNicola and Franke Previte), which became an MTV staple . Another of his songs, “Make Me Lose Control,” was a No. 3 single in 1988.

Mr. Carmen’s songs would be covered by artists as varied as Shaun Cassidy ( “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll” ), Celine Dion ( “All by Myself” ) and Mr. Travolta ( “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” ). In 1989, he began touring with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band.

The Raspberries reunited in 2004. A show from that tour was featured on a 28-song live album, “Raspberries Pop Art Live ,” released in 2017. The album’s liner notes were written by the filmmaker and former rock journalist Cameron Crowe, who showcased “Go All the Way” in his 2000 movie, “Almost Famous.”

Complete information about Mr. Carmen’s survivors was not immediately available.

Late in his career, Mr. Carmen was sanguine about the impact of the Raspberries.

“Rock critics got it and 16-year-old girls got it, but you know, the 18-year-old guy who liked Megadeth was never going to like the same record his sister did,” he said in the 2017 interview, before recounting the first time he met Bruce Springsteen.

“I walked in his dressing room before a show and he was writing out the set list, and we both looked at each other for a couple of minutes — I was very uncomfortable being on the fan end, so I felt a little stupid. But Bruce looked at me and he goes, ‘You know, while I was writing ‘The River,’ all I listened to was Woody Guthrie and the Raspberries’ greatest hits.’”

An earlier version of this obituary referred incorrectly to the song “Go All the Way.” It was not written from the point of view of a young woman.

An earlier version of this obituary referred incorrectly at one point to the song “All by Myself.” As noted elsewhere, it was released in 1975; it is not a “1980s anthem.”

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this obituary misstated who wrote the song “Hungry Eyes,” which was a hit for Mr. Carmen in 1987. It was written by John DeNicola and Franke Previte, not by Mr. Carmen. The earlier version also misstated the name of the Raspberries’ debut album. It was “Raspberries,” not “The Raspberries.”

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Alex Williams is a reporter in the Obituaries department. More about Alex Williams