Throwback Monday - The First (non playing) Led Zeppelin Reunion – Golden Lion Fulham December 15th, 1981. 33 years gone… . 33 years ago tonight, I was lucky enough to be in the company of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Peter Grant and various other guests at a special charity night at the Golden Lion Pub in Fulham London..it was their first public reunion since they announced they could not continue as they were. Here’s the story of how this all unfolded. Back in the early months of 1981, Lynn Sizemore who was PR to the Golden Lion Roadies Charity For Children Association, the charity formed from the Fulham pub often acquainted by the Zep / Swan Song entourage, approached me to publicise in the next issue of TBL, a children’s charity raffle being held in December – I was only too willing to help and we began planning how this would all work. The raffle was duly featured in TBL issue 6 which came out in the late summer of 1981. I had a few meetings with Lynn during this period including one memorable occasion at the Golden Lion pub in Fulham. Robert’s sound man Benji Lefevre ( who I saw a few weeks back at Robert’s Roundhouse show) was in attendance and I was introduced to John Bindon the notorious London character who had been with the Zep entourage on the 1977 tour and involved in the infamous Oakland fracas. Robert and John Paul Jones had already promised to attend and give prizes out on the night set for December 15th so it was always going to be a special evening. Even more so after the call I made to Swan Song the week before the event. Sian at Swan Song informed me that Jimmy was also due to attend. It duly turned into something of a grand Swan Song reunion in true Zep style. On the night itself, Peter Grant arrived with Jimmy around 8.30. A combat attired Robert and smartly dressed JPJ were already in tow. Various roadies and Swan Song employees were there as was John Bindon again. Cozy Powell was also in attendance .Tom Locke and I spent a memorable night in the pub as Jimmy, Robert and JPJ mingled by the bar and duly got up on stage to present the prizes of Jimmy’s Yamaha acoustic guitar (wonder where that is now?) and a set of personally signed albums. The main winner was an American guy while runner up was, Steve Simmons a TBL subscriber from Bristol. The pic shows Steve on stage receiving his prize. During a conversation with Jimmy he informed me he was making excellent progress the Death Wish 2 soundtrack. As a Christmas present, I gave Robert a copy of a large format History Of The Blues book (wonder if still adorns his book shelf?) to which he acknowledged with the classic “Eye Thank yew” catchphrase so prevalent on the Over Europe tour. I took the opportunity to tell Peter and Atlantic’s Phil Carson of my plans to write a major reference work on the band’s music though it would be another eight years on in the Marquee (at a Jason Bonham gig) when I was able to tell the pair of them that the book (Led Zeppelin A Celebration) was soon to be a reality. It may have been a strictly non playing role, but this unexpected Led Zeppelin reunion was full of warmth and good cheer. Underlying all that though was the definite feeling that they now all had separate plans – Jimmy with the soundtrack, Robert with the in progress recording of his debut album and Jonesy who wryly informed someone at the bar that he was now on permanent school run duty for his daughter’s back in Devon. It would be another eleven years before all three appeared in public together in the UK again to attend the 1992 Q Awards to collect the outstanding achievement award, and another 26 years before they played together on that night of nights in December 2007. Fast forward to August 29th 2013 and the Colston Hall Bristol. As we were making our way into the arena for Robert’s Sensational Space Shifters show on August 29th 2013 amazingly enough I bumped into Steve Simmons for the first time since that night at the Golden Lion back in 1981. Steve was carrying a photo book of the pics he took back then – we had a good old chinwag about how he had been the runner up in the competition and the signed albums he was presented with on that night all of 33 years ago. See pic from that night. Dave Lewis, December 15th 2014.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 20:56:45 +0000
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