A collection of three original cassette recordings, which total 3 hours and 19 minutes, consisting of interviews between Peter Grant, former manager of Led Zeppelin, and Ray Coleman, former editor of Melody Maker, are heading to auction via TracksAuctions.com.
The interviews were conducted in November 1988 at Peter Grant’s home in Sussex. They were carried out for a book that Peter was intending to publish in conjunction with Ray but the project never reached fruition, the interviews have remained unpublished to this day. They gave a fascinating insight into Peter Grant’s introduction into the music business: from his employment as a door man at the 2is Coffee Club in London, to his acting career in various films in the late 1950s and then on to working for Don Arden (“…who owes me 1800 quid to this day!”) and finally through to his time with the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin.
As may be expected, the most interesting parts of the interviews relate to Led Zeppelin and the group’s beginnings. Some of Peter’s comments on the topics covered are listed below.
On the beginning of Led Zeppelin: “I remember Jimmy comes up to the office to see me about something…we were in Oxford Street by the Saville Theatre where Eppy used to hold those Sunday night concerts... I said to Jimmy, ‘What are you going to do? Are you going to go back to sessions…?’ He said ‘I’d like to form a completely new band’… At that time I’d been fortunate enough to see what was happening in America as far as what was called Underground…Jimmy was very heavy into getting a blues type band together…I said to him ‘What about a producer? They didn’t hit it off with Micky (Most) at all, wasn’t his sort of thing…’Who do you fancy as a producer?’ Jimmy said ‘Well I wouldn’t mind having a go at it myself. If you can get me a deal. I’d like to be the producer and do the first album. If I make a mess of it, you can think about getting a producer’."
On Led Zeppelin’s first album and his search for a record deal for the group: “We did the album in a very short space of time, could have been 10 days…Anyway, we made the album and Jimmy and I went over with a couple of acetates of it and we played it to (Jerry) Wexler, he tried not to look too excited but he was completely, obviously, blown away… Atlantic was the label to be on…Warner Brothers….? Mo begged me to let them have it, I thought no, I’m really committed.”
On Led Zeppelin’s first gig at the Fillmore East: “Iron Butterfly were the biggest heavy metal group in America. They were giants. I was sure in my mind that Led Zeppelin could slaughter Iron Butterfly…they went on and just slaughtered it. They did five encores!...5 encores!”
On Led Zeppelin as an album band: “It was never going to be a singles band…We never put out a single here…F*** the BBC. I’m not getting involved in that machinery. No single, no TV or anything. We’re not gonna do it…It was albums only. Never going to be a TV band, we knew right from the start…couldn’t capture it.”
For further details, and to place your bid, head to TracksAuctions.com.
(Thanks: Led Zeppelin News)
