Barney Hoskyns - Trampled Under Foot

MY GRATITUDE to Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones for the interviews they have given me over the past decade.

My deepest thanks to the following musicians, engineers, roadies, groupies, security men, writers, relatives, employees, friends, enemies, partners-in-crime, and indirect acquaintances of Page, Plant, Jones, John Bonham and Peter Grant who spoke of their experiences with Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds and other bands:

Sam Aizer, Keith Altham, Mike Appleton, Jane Ayer, June Harris Barsalona, David Bates, Maggie Bell, Ed Bicknell, Rodney Bingenheimer, Robbie Blunt, Bill Bonham, Caroline Boucher, Loraine Alterman Boyle, Bebe Buell, Alan Callan, Jack Calmes, Julie Carlo, Phil Carlo, Gary Carnes, Roy Carr, Phil Carson, Clem Cattini, Chris Charlesworth, Peter Clifton, Marilyn Cole, Richard Cole, John Combe, Gyl Corrigan-Devlin, John Crutchley, David Dalton, Michael Des Barres, Pamela Des Barres, Marie Dixon, Chris Dreja, Mark Ellen, Bob Emmer, BP Fallon, Mick Farren, Kim Fowley, Mitchell Fox, Paul Francis, Tony Franklin, Tom Fry, Kevyn Gammond, Vanessa Gilbert, Danny Goldberg, Gloria Grant, Helen Grant, Jerry Greenberg, Geoff Grimes, Ross Halfin, Connie Hamzy, Roy Harper, Bill Harry, Andrew Hewkin, Dave Hill, Abe Hoch, Glenn Hughes, Elizabeth Iannaci, Tony Iommi, Anni Ivil, Andy Johns, Glyn Johns, Shelley Kaye, Nick Kent, Desiree Kirke, Simon Kirke, Eddie Kramer, Harvey Kubernik, Benji LeFevre, Dave Lewis, Harvey Lisberg, Paul Lockey, Mark London, Unity MacLean, Mikeal Maglieri, Tony Mandich, Terry Manning, Danny Markus, Lori Mattix, Mario Medious, Martin Meissonnier, John Mendelssohn, Laurence Myers, the late Howard Mylett, Ron Nevison, Dave Northover, Jeff Ocheltree, John Ogden, Dave Pegg, Mac Poole, Aubrey Powell, Guy Pratt, Perry Press, Barry Jay Reiss, Jake Riviera, the late Willie Robertson, Steven Rosen, Cynthia Sach, Janine Safer Whitney, Edward St Aubyn, Ellen Sander, Rat Scabies, Harry Shapiro, Dennis Sheehan, Jim Simpson, Digby Smith, Henry Smith, Steve Smith, Barnaby Snow, Mat Snow, Denny Somach, Martin Stone, Big Jim Sullivan, Brad Tolinski, Jaan Uhelszki, Jon Wealleans, Chris Welch, Morgana Welch, Jack White, Richard Williams, Roy Williams, Sally Williams and Joe Jammer Wright. I also drew on past interviews with Nicky Chinn, Iggy Pop and the late Jerry Wexler.

I should also like to thank the following writers for generously granting permission to include quotes from their interviews and other published works:

In particular, Stuart Grundy, Dave Lewis, Steven Rosen, Mat Snow, John Tobler and Chris Welch, but also: Loraine Alterman Boyle, Keith Altham, Johnny Black, David Cavanagh, Chris Charlesworth, Robert Christgau, Alan Clayson, the Ken Colyer Foundation, Cameron Crowe, Stephen Dalton, Anthony DeCurtis, Adrian Deevoy, Alan DiPerna, Harry Doherty, Chuck Eddy, Marianne Faithfull, Pete Frame, Danny Goldberg, Patrick Goldstein, Fred Goodman, Paul Gorman, Jim Green, Robert Greenfield, Nick Hasted, Paul Henderson, Paolo Hewitt, Tom Hibbert, Mick Houghton, Rob Hughes, Jonh Ingham, James Jackson, Allan Jones, Nick Kent, Harvey Kubernik, Larry LeBlanc, Gavin Martin, John McDermott, Rick McGrath, Charles Shaar Murray, Andrew Loog Oldham, Paul Rambali, Randy Patterson, John Pidgeon, Eric Pooley, David Ritz, Chris Salewicz, Paul Sexton, Dave Schulps, Bud Scoppa, Sylvie Simmons, Phil Sutcliffe, Dave Thompson, Adrian Thrills, Steve Turner, Kieron Tyler, Jaan Uhelszki, Ed Vulliamy, Mick Wall, Michael Watts, Steven P. Wheeler, David Williams, Mark Williams, Richard Williams and Nigel Williamson. Thanks in addition to Mark Ellen, Jim Henke and Augusta Palmer for granting permission on behalf of other writers.

I am especially indebted to Dave Lewis, Richard Cole, Phil Carlo and the late Howard Mylett for their considerable kindness and help with this book.

Among those I interviewed, the following provided me with additional assistance along the way:

Jane Ayer, Loraine Alterman Boyle, Ross Halfin, Unity MacLean, Don Snowden, Martin Stone, Chris Welch and Roy Williams.

My thanks to the following for granting permission to use photographs and other items from their personal collections:

Loraine Alterman Boyle, Phil Carlo, Gary Carnes, Peter Clifton, Richard Cole, John Crutchley, Chris Huston, Anni Ivil, Eddie Kramer, Tom Locke, Dave Pegg, David Williams. Thanks to Getty Images, Corbis and Rex Features, and to Jeff Schwartz for sourcing the Chuck Boyd images.

The following also helped greatly in my research for Trampled Under Foot, and I thank them too:

David Anderle, Ralph Baker, Lynden Barber, David Bickers, Hugo Brackenbury, Tracy Carns, Barbara Charone, Philip Dodd, Elio Espaa, Andy Farquarson, Jan Favi, Jeff Gold, Carl Gottlieb, Nigel Grainge, George Groom-White, Nick de Grunwald, Noddy Holder, Jas Kaur, Tony Keys, Debbie Kruger, John Lewis, Dora Loewenstein, Gary Lucas, Rob Mady, Pete Makowski, Bob Mehr, Regine Moylett, Peter Noble, Joseph Pereira, Joel Peresman, Nicola Powell, Mark Pringle, Paul Rambali, Ira Robbins, Gilly Roswell, Len Sachs, Kevin Saunders, Jon Savage, Phil Sutcliffe, Rupert Wace, Alan Warner, Brian Wells, Peter Wilson, Paul Yamada.

My thanks for sterling transcription services: Kat Johnson, Fred Hoskyns, Jake Hoskyns, George Slater.

My deep gratitude to Lee Brackstone, Angus Cargill and Dave Watkins at Faber for their unwavering belief in this book, and to Tom Miller, Jorge Amaral and Richard DeLorenzo at Wiley & Sons. Thanks also to Paula Turner at Palindrome and Alison Worthington for the index. Thank you to my agents Jonny Geller and Sarah Lazin, and others at Curtis Brown and Sarah Lazin Books whove gone out of their way to help.

Finally, for their love and unflagging support throughout the research and writing: my sons Jake, Fred and Nat and stepsons George and Fred and, of course, my adorable and gorgeous wife Natalie.

What did Led Zeppelin prove? That great music is always the best excuse for bad behaviour

KIM FOWLEY

Muddy Waters EP, Pye Records, 1962

BEFORE THERE was Led Zeppelin there was a plethora of pre-Zeppelin bands, only one of which could be said in any meaningful sense to have made it. That was the Yardbirds, a blues boot camp for three legendary axe men who came out of the so-dubbed Surrey Delta south-west of London: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, the latter pair overlapping in the line-up for a few electrifying months between 1966 and 1967.

Page (born in Heston, Middlesex, on 9 January 1944) had served an earlier apprenticeship in the rock n rolling Redcaps, and in Neil Christian and the Crusaders. Then this slight, shy only child from sedate Epsom wearied of the road and set himself up as the most in-demand guitarist on the London session scene. He played on hundreds of early Sixties singles hits and misses alike by the Kinks, Lulu, Them and Val Doonican (not forgetting the Primitives, the First Gear, the Lancastrians and Les Fleurs de Lys) before sussing out that the twilight life of a guitar-toting gunslinger-for-hire was sapping his soul.

Coming to a similar conclusion was fellow gunslinger John Paul Jones (born in Sidcup, Kent, on 3 January 1946), whod gone by the rather less sexy name of John Baldwin before Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham affixed the new monicker to him. If Page was the hottest six-string player in town, Jones was the lad you hired when you required a fat, Staxy bass line to underpin your pop productions. It didnt hurt that the guy was a virtuoso keyboard player and deft string arranger into the bargain. Between 1963 and 1966, Jones and Page frequently played together on sessions at Decca, Regent Sound and Olympic studios.