On this day in 1980 John Bonham was found dead at Jimmy Page’s house.

Led Zep were practicing and preparing for another tour of the USA and JB had relaxed for the previous day. The relaxation took the form of 40 shots of vodka, inb 4 hours. Not surprisingly he lost conciousness. The drummer then inhaled his own vomit and aphyxiated. His death was the end of the band until nearly 40 years later (2007) when Bonham’s son, Jason, sat at the drum kit for a special concert in London’s O2 Arena in aid of Ahmet Ertegun educational fund.

The support for the gig wasn’t tooo shabby; Bill Wyman, 71, the former Rolling Stones member, and his group the Rhythm Kings warmed up, along with Paul Rodgers, Foreigner, Maggie Bell and 20-year-old Scottish singer Paolo Nutini, the last act signed by Ertegun to Atlantic Records, the record label he started in 1947.

Bonham had a well deserved reputation as a wild man and a hard core party person. He was, also, undeniably, one of the best rock drummers ever to pick up the sticks. Time and again he is voted the best rock drummer ever by the readers of various music magazines. Bonham is also lorded by loads of drummers from Dave Grohl, to Tommy Lee and beyond. Nice to know we fans get right once in a while.

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On this day in 1968 led Zeppelin played their first gig, probably.  There is some confusion due to the short time that the band called themselves ‘The New Yardbirds’.  Also, some internet sources quote the 15th October 1968 as being the first Zepp gig, but that appears to be an error.  Jimmy himself presented a plaque to the University of Surrey to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the first gig – on 25th October.

Having completed a short Scandinavian tour as the New Yardbirds the band played a gig at The Marquee in London on 18th October and at Liverpool University on the 19th.

On the 25th the Jimmy’s  band, now called Led Zeppelin made their live debut at Surrey University.  The admission was an amazing 37.5p. Details of the set list are a bit shakey but given previous gigs it is likely that the set list included some Yardbird favourites such as Train Kept a Rollin’, Dazed and Confused, White Summer and likely For Your Love.  New Led Zepp tunes were also played and would probably included Communication Breakdown, I Can’t Quit You Baby, You Shook Me, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, and How Many More Times.

dazed and confused from 1969 before they became the world devouring mega band that ruled the world………..

By the way, this is a rare recording of the Yardbirds (with Jimmy) playing the ’same’ song. I know which has my vote….

And finally, Zepp just a few months after the first clip. What a band! That voice, Jimmy doing his stuff perfectly complimented by that bass and drums. Perfect!

The first magnificent album.

And the ‘difficult’ second album….

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