Led Zeppelin’s fight for attention and how they fudged their backstory

This lavish, beautifully designed collection of late ‘60s news stories, reviews and press clippings sheds new light on the band’s roots and ascent from the days when the Kidderminster Shuttle would spell their name wrong and print their parents’ address. Richard Morton Jack, author and compiler of ‘Led Zeppelin: The Only Way To Fly’, looks back here at ….

… the fact that there was already a group called ‘Lead Zeppelin’ in 1967

… the way Page has fudged early details of his and the band’s career

… why 1968 was Last Chance Saloon for Plant, Jones and Bonham

… the second British Invasion and why America was so ready for them

… “the Hindenburg was only 30 years earlier. Imagine using the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster on a cover now!”

… their claim that critics always hated them in the face of massive evidence to the contrary

… Plant’s publicity stunts before he joined the band – Harold Macmillan, Legalise Pot, the Noise Abatement Society …

… the ‘60s Birmingham scene v the London scene

… their eternal grievance about the press sparked by the “Ground Zero” moment of Rolling Stone’s 1968 review

… the venues they played - the Toby Jug in Tolworth, Pirate World, an aqua theater, an ice rink in Vegas

… and the bands they shared bills with - Frosty Moses, Kimla Taz, the Ladybirds.

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