Jimmy Page: with compliments

Between 1971 and 1980, Jimmy Page lived at Plumpton Place in East Sussex, described by journalist Howard Mylett in 1972 as having 'over 50 acres, two tied cottages, beautiful lakes and a moat.'  He added that 'Page’s taste in art and decoration is not of the Ideal Home, glossy-magazine type; he has retained the original character of the house. The only conversion is a small recording studio upstairs. The stables house goats, chickens, artwork, a Range Rover, one of the legendary Cord American cars and a motorbike. He has expressed a wish to obtain some swans for the lake.’

Page was of course frequently away on tour in the 70s, but spent much of Led Zeppelin’s 1976-77 hiatus there, and was even known to jam in the village pub, the Half Moon. He painstakingly installed a home studio at Plumpton, and carried out the mixing for In Through The Out Door there. He moved out in 1980 after a local photographer named Philip Hale (aged 26) died of vomit inhalation during a party on October 24th 1979. The house was on the market for a while before changing hands again in 1985.

Had the guitarist corresponded with you during his tenure there, chances are it would have involved one of these:

Amazingly, the particulars of the house as viewed by Page can be seen here.

Jimmy Page: the summer '68 interviews

Jimmy Page relaxing in his lovely home

Jimmy Page joined The Yardbirds in June 1966, initially playing bass to Jeff Beck's lead guitar. It quickly became obvious that this was a waste, so rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja switched to bass, in order for Beck and Page to share lead guitar duties. After releasing the fine Happenings Ten Years Time Ago / Psycho Daisies 45 in October (a chart flop), undertaking a short UK tour supporting the Stones and appearing in Michel Antonioni's Blow Up, the group set off for a gruelling and unglamorous American tour as part of Dick Clark's so-called 'Caravan Of Stars'. Touring was fast losing its appeal for Beck, who started missing shows, and quit in late October. In his short-lived Beat Instrumental column of January 1967, however, he was clear about the fact that Page was the one thing about The Yardbirds he still liked.

His former bandmates decided to remain a quartet, and gigged hard throughout 1967. Peter Grant took over their management from Simon Napier-Bell in the new year,and another flop 45 soon appeared - Little Games / Puzzles. 

They may have been a spent force as far as the top 40 was concerned, but they were still a popular live attraction, and Grant quickly set up further tours (of France, Japan and the US). The Little Games LP appeared in the US in July, but not in the UK. It was another poor seller, but pointed the way towards Led Zeppelin with the folky White Summer, and guitar-bowing Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor and Glimpses. 

Further 45s bombed but the US live circuit remained lucrative, and they continued to tour relentlessly. Cracks were appearing, however, with Page embracing experimentation, Keith Relf and Jim McCarty heading in a folkier direction, and Dreja wanting to leave the business altogether. After a low-selling final 45 in March 1968, Goodnight Sweet Josephine / Think About It (whose UK issue was cancelled), the band ran out of juice in June 1968. 

Page tried hard to keep them together, but when the split became inevitable, he immediately set about forming a new band, both to fulfil existing live bookings and to continue innovating musically. This article is taken from Go, America's best (and only) 1960s music weekly, which was distributed via local radio stations. Published on June 21st 1968, it finds Page happily planning his next band, and excited at the prospect of using Mellotron as a lead instrument in it:

Relf and McCarty formed the short-lived Together, while Page and Dreja agreed to fulfil some outstanding dates in Scandinavia that autumn. Go magazine in the US reported the following on August 2nd:

A month or so later, Page gave another interview to Hit Parader (which was, confusingly, dated three months in arrears, so the December issue was actually on newsstands in September). In it he both analyses The Yardbirds' split, and explains the progress he has made towards forming a new band. It's also worth nothing that the magazine uses the phrase 'New Yardbirds' in its headline: that is the  name under which Led Zeppelin supposedly performed in September and October 1968, but no hard evidence of them having done so has ever surfaced. Did the rumours start here?



There are several interesting things about the piece, not least of all how single-minded Page's vision for Led Zeppelin was from the start. He also mentions his boathouse in Pangbourne (where he famously had Robert Plant to stay shortly after the interview was given), and is intriguingly cynical about the process of making pop records, indicating his intention to synthesize existing ideas. Finally, and fittingly, he announces his main ambition: "To bring the guitar into a new level."