For those of you who know me, this post won’t come as much a surprise, but for those of you who don’t, well… let’s just say I have a mild fondness for the electric guitar and one of my all-time favorite guitar heroes would have to be Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

So on this January 9th, 2010, I would like to wish Jimmy a very happy and special 66th birthday celebration. Having recently appeared in the film, ‘It Might Get Loud‘ (which I blogged about earlier, just click the link to the left) it has rekindled the interest and desire to have a tour which includes Jimmy. It doesn’t matter which form or shape it takes. It could be with or without Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, but at least some live music from Jimmy to satisfy the fans, including myself.

Of course, I could think of no better way to celebrate, than by posting some of the magnificient photographs of Ross Halfin. Without further adieux, here are some of my favorite images Ross has taken.

Enjoy!

Jimmy Page in Oakland, 1977

Jimmy Page from the early 1980s with telecaster guitar

Jimmy Page in 2009 posing with Les Paul guitar for a magazine cover

Jimmy Page in Los Angeles, June 2009 for premiere of the movie 'It Might Get Loud'

Be sure to check out Ross Halfin’s web site for more spectacular imagery!

Chris J. Politzki
Studio 119 Degrees Web Design & Development Studio

John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin in action during the 1970's

Well, it looks as though the Led Zeppelin reunion tour won’t be taking place after all. As reported on the John Paul Jones web site on August 10th, 2009 he’s joined a new supergroup called, ‘Them Crooked Vultures‘.

The new group features Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, former Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl and no other than the legendary John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. According to the official Them Crooked Vultures web site, they are slated to hit the road in October already. October 1st, they’ll be in Austin, Texas at Stubb’s and then they’ll be at the Austin City Limits Festival on the 2nd. Those of you who are familiar with PBS television will probably be aware of this excellent musical showcase program and hopefully there will be a broadcast of the event and performance of the band sometime in the near future. Check more Them Crooked Vultures tour dates to see if they are coming to your town.

It looks as though the web site allows you to participate in a forum, purchase an official t-shirt, sign-up for a mailing list and also explore a Google Earth feature that I’m still trying to figure out. I installed the plug-in, but I just get zoomed into an unknown location in France I think and can’t navigate out of it?

Here’s an image of the guys hard at work:

Live performance image of Them Crooked Vultures

YouTube videos of Them Crooked Vultures

There seems to be a lot going on in this realm at the moment and I expect more to follow soon. The teaser video sounds great! Song is called, “Scumbag Blues”. No images of the guys in the band, all visuals of vultures walking around in a very graphical layout. Quite engaging!

I would strongly suggest subscribing to their channel on YouTube to keep up-to-date on what they are doing. Here’s the link to the official Them Crooked Vultures YouTube Channel. There’s some pretty cool in-studio material plus some live fan videos. Here’s a studio video:

And yet one more glimpse from a secret gig at the Brixton Academy on August 26th, 2009:

Pretty interesting sounds, but it probably puts the Led Zeppelin reunion tour rumors to rest, which is unfortunate.

Chris J. Politzki
Studio 119 Degrees Web Design & Development Studio

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge and the White Stripes’ Jack White together in a new film!

So call me dense or whatever you wanna call it, but this just slipped past me. I never even knew this was in the works, but once again, my following of the Ross Halfin web site uncovered this new film which is coming out soon. In Ross’ diary entry marked June 19th, he’s in Los Angeles with Jimmy for the premier!

The film is apparently about the history of the electric guitar as seen from the point of view of three significant musicians. The first being Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame, the second being the Edge from U2 and last, but not least, Jack White of the White Stripes. From the looks of the trailer, it looks like the film revolves around each individual guitarists personal style and approach to the guitar. From the looks of it, Headley Grange is visited by Jimmy and for those of you who are Zeppelin fans, you’ll of course know that the band recorded numerous time there and is especially noted as being responsible for the huge drum sound in ‘When the Levee Breaks’. Other notable bands also recorded or rehearsed at Headley Grange in East Hampshire, England. The song, ‘Black Dog’ by Led Zeppelin was named after a black Labrador Retriever which was found hanging around the during recording of their fourth album in the early 1970’s.

It looks like the film is scheduled for limited release in New York and Los Angeles on August 14th, 2009. There are some still shots viewable as a slide show at IMDB.com and here’s the trailer in HD below.

A recent magazine cover from the three guitarists in the film:

Jack White, Jimmy Page and the Edge

I will try to post more info here as it becomes available, until then, enjoy!

Chris J. Politzki
Studio 119 Degrees

So we’ve got a few days off here in America for Thanksgiving. I thought I’d write some on the old Blog that I’ve been neglecting. I think I’m going to keep another non-serious thread going here to lighten up the load on the work-related items.

So how shall I start? Hmmmm. You know, there’s a site I really enjoy checking out almost everyday when I log on. This is from a british photographer by the name of Ross Halfin and seeing as how he’s got some good writing on his site, I think I’ll start out talking about him.

Ross has a ‘Diary‘ section on his site which is really amusing and informative at the same time. His travel photography I really enjoy as a beak from all of the great rock and roll photography. He’s photographed nearly every great musical artist there is! You name it, The Who, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam and of course my favorite, Led Zeppelin… he’s photographed them all! Here’s an example of Jimmy Page at the recent Olympic Games in Beijing of 2008.

One of my favorite series of photographs from Ross contains this image here below of Jimmy at Shepperton Studios in 1993.

I really enjoy reading Ross’ writing in his Diary on his site. He writes about all kinds of things. Mostly commenting about others on his travels across the globe. His comments hold nothing back and he is oftentimes very critical of others, but that can be quite refreshing to hear what a person is really thinking rather than sugar-coating everything. Oftentimes, his comments are related to his travels.

A sample below:

My flight is full, absolutely rammed, only got a middle seat (okay, I’ll admit I’m flying business) but sitting inbetween an old man and a Chinese man who keeps knocking my arm trying to get more elbow room or whatever you call it. I wonder how long I’ll last without a row with him, – he’s now done it four times.

And yet another sample when he was currently in Kansas City when shooting a Metallica show:

Kansas. Yes, somewhere over the rainbow. The airport is about a hundred miles from downtown. Okay I’m exaggerating, but it was a long way. Around the arena are lots of Irish bars and places to eat meat, lots of meat. Most of the people walking around are the size of cows, it’s like herds of human cattle. Kazuyo says ‘It’s so boring here all they do is eat.’

I got out of a taxi at the venue. A large heifer comes over, ‘Hey are you Lars?’. Firstly, could you see Lars getting out of a cab in the street and saying at the stage door ‘Hello my good man. Is this The Kansas Sprint Arena and can I come in?’ I say no and he then looks at me as if he’s just seen the awakening of Christ and says ‘You really look like Lars are you sure?’ I’m sure and just to clear up any misconceptions, Lars looks like me – except I’m far more handsome…

Ross has some great photographs of some of the most famous and influential musicians ever, so check out his site and see how he allows us access into his perspective on a quite intriguing career as a photographer. Well worth return trips to the site to see what he’s up to, where he’s travelling to, and who he’s photographing or bumping into at hotels in Hollywood.

http://www.rosshalfin.com

Chris J. Politzki
Studio 119 Degrees