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Page and Plant
Page and Plant
	; Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, 1998.
Background information
Origin	London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Hard rock, Folk rock, Symphonic rock
Years active	1994–1998
Labels	Atlantic Records (US); Fontana Records; Mercury Records
Associated acts	Led Zeppelin, Coverdale and Page, Strange Sensation
Members
	Jimmy Page; Robert Plant; Charlie Jones; Michael Lee; Ed Shearmur

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin, recorded and toured in the mid-1990s under the title Page and Plant. The pair re-united in 1994 and, after recording a highly successful first album, they embarked on a world tour. They then recorded a second album before disbanding shortly after.

[edit] History

The initial plans for a reunion were made in 1993, with talk between the two of collaborating emerging from casual small talk and then an invitation to perform on MTV Unplugged. Music producer Bill Curbishley, who had been managing Plant since the 1980s and who assumed management of Page in 1994, was integral in the reuniting of Page and Plant. Despite failed attempts by others to reunite the pair, Curbishley was able to persuade the previously reluctant Plant into working with Page again.^[1] In an interview he gave in 2004, Page recounted the background:

I was going to play in Japan with David [Coverdale], the only time we played live, and I had a call from Robert's management to pop in and see Robert in Boston on the way to LA to rehearse. Robert said, "I've been approached by MTV to do an Unplugged and I'd really like to do it with you, so I said OK. It gave us a chance to revisit some numbers and use that same picture with a very, very different frame.^[2]

Plant's recollection of the reunion was as follows:

By that time I didn't feel like I was even a rock singer anymore ... Then I was approached by MTV to do an Unplugged session. But I knew that I couldn't be seen to be holding the flag for the Zeppelin legacy on TV. Then mysteriously Jimmy turned up at a gig I was playing in Boston and it was like those difficult last days of Led Zep had vanished. We had this understanding again without doing or saying anything. We talked about the MTV thing and decided to see where we could take it.^[3]

Led Zeppelin's main songwriters reformed on April 17, 1994 as a part of the Alexis Korner Memorial Concert at Buxton, England. On August 25 and August 26, they taped performances in London, Wales, and Morocco with Egyptian and Moroccan orchestration of several Led Zeppelin tunes along with four new songs. The performances aired on October 12, and were so successful commercially and artistically that the two coordinated a tour which kicked off in February 1995. The Unplugged performance was released as an album in November 1994 as No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded.

Their tour took them across the world with a lineup including Charlie Jones playing bass and percussion, Michael Lee on drums, Porl Thompson performing guitar and banjo, Najma Akhtar providing backup vocals, Jim Sutherland on mandolin and bodhrán, Nigel Eaton hurdy gurdy, and Ed Shearmur playing Hammond organ with orchestral arrangements. Page:

It was heroic to take something like that around the world, because it was using two orchestras: one Western, one Arab orchestra, with a hurdy-gurdy. It was great going around the world to turn people on to sounds they hadn't heard. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but it was worth it.^[2]

Afterwards, the two artists entered the studio with engineer Steve Albini to record Walking into Clarksdale, an album of entirely new material. This album was not as commercially successful as Unledded had been, and the Page/Plant reunion slowly dissolved, with both members going on to perform with other side projects. As Page explained:

There could have been a follow-up [to Walking into Clarksdale]. I certainly had about a dozen numbers written for a third album. Robert heard them and said that some of them were really good, but he just wanted to go in another direction. That's fair enough.^[4]

In an interview he gave to Uncut magazine in 2005 Plant recounted:

We had some good songs [on Walking into Clarksdale], but I wasn't sure about the production. I felt kind of marooned. We were still surrounded by the protective shield of who we were, and it meant we were playing big arenas around the world. And I realised once again there had to be another way... I knew I had to get back to playing clubs and remember what pulse was all about. To say goodbye to those large arenas that I played with Jimmy was a very purposeful move.^[3]

They reunited once more in July 2001 for the Montreux Jazz Festival.

[edit] Main staff

Jimmy Page – acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, record producer
Robert Plant – vocals, producer
Nigel Eaton – hurdy gurdy
Charlie Jones – bass guitar, percussion
Michael Lee – drums and percussion
Ed Shearmur – orchestral arrangements, organ
Jim Sutherland – mandolin, bodhran
Porl Thompson – banjo, guitar

[edit] Discography

Albums

Year	Name
1994	No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded
1997	The Inner Flame: Rainer Ptacek Tribute (collaboration)
1998	Walking into Clarksdale

Singles

Year	Name
1994	"The Battle of Evermore" (promo)
1994	"Four Sticks" (promo)
1994	"Gallows Pole"
1994	"Kashmir" (promo)
1995	"Thank You" (promo)
1995	"Wonderful One"
1998	"Most High"
1998	"Shining in the Light"
1998	"Sons of Freedom" (promo)

Videos

Year	Name
2004	No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded

[edit] See also

Coverdale & Page

[edit] References

^ Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
^ ^a ^b Charles Shaar Murray, “The Guv’nors'”, Mojo, August 2004, p. 75.
^ ^a ^b Nigel Williamson, "Good Times...Bad Times", Uncut, May 2005, p. 64.
^ “I first met Jimmy on Tolworth Broadway, holding a bag of exotic fish...”, Uncut, January 2009, p. 48.

[lewispallett-0] Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.

[CSMurray-1] Charles Shaar Murray, “The Guv’nors'”, Mojo, August 2004, p. 75.

[williamson-2] Nigel Williamson, "Good Times...Bad Times", Uncut, May 2005, p. 64.

[Uncut09-3] “I first met Jimmy on Tolworth Broadway, holding a bag of exotic fish...”, Uncut, January 2009, p. 48.

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Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Main staff

[edit] Discography

[edit] See also

[edit] References