Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page
Years active	1961–
Status	Active
Origin	London
Music genre(s)	Hard rock, Blues rock, Folk rock

Template:TOC-right James Patrick Page, OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, when he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.

Page has been described as "unquestionably one of the all-time most influential, important, and versatile guitarists and songwriters in rock history". In 2003, Mojo magazine ranked Page #7 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of The Yardbirds (1992) and as a member of Led Zeppelin (1995).

Life and career

Early years

Page was born in the west London suburb of Heston, which today forms part of the London Borough of Hounslow. His father was an industrial personnel manager and his mother was a doctor's secretary. In 1952 they moved to Miles Road, Epsom. Jimmy Page first picked up the guitar when he was 12 years old and although he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston upon Thames, was largely self-taught. Among his early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley. The Presley song "Baby Let's Play House" was an early favourite on one of his first electric guitars, a second hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso. Page's musical tastes included skiffle and acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Hubert Sumlin. At the age of 14, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon's All Your Own talent quest programme in a skiffle trio, a popular English music genre of the time. One performance was televised[3]. Page said in an interview with Guitar Player magazine, "There was a lot of busking in the early days, but as I say, I had to come to grips with it, and it was a good schooling."

Page would take a guitar to school each day and have it confiscated and handed back to him at 4.00 pm. He was interested in science and had an interview for a job as a Laboratory Assistant, but he chose to leave school to pursue music instead and after brief stints backing Beat poet Royston Ellis and singer Red E. Lewis, Page was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band The Crusaders. Page toured with Christian for approximately two years and later played on several of his records, including the November 1962 single, "The Road to Love".

During his stint with Christian, Page fell seriously ill with glandular fever and couldn't continue touring. While recovering, Page decided to put his musical career on the shelf and concentrate on his other love, painting. He enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey. As he explained in an interview in 1975:

“

[I was] travelling around all the time in a bus. I did that for two years after I left school, to the point where I was starting to get really good bread. But I was getting ill. So I went back to art college. And that was a total change in direction. That's why I say it's possible to do. As dedicated as I was to playing the guitar, I knew doing it that way was doing me in forever. Every two months I had glandular fever. So for the next 18 months I was living on ten dollars a week and getting my strength up. But I was still playing.

”

Session musician

While still a student, Page would often jam on stage at The Marquee Club with bands such as Cyril Davies' All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and with guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. He was spotted one night by John Gibb of The Silhouettes, who asked him to help record a number of singles for EMI Records, including "The Worrying Kind". It wasn't until an offer from Mike Leander of Decca Records that Page was to receive regular studio work. His first session for the label was the recording "Diamonds" by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in early 1963.

After brief stints with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Mike Hurst's group, and Mickey Finn and the Blue Men, Page committed himself to full-time session work. As a session guitarist he was known as 'Little Jim' so there was no confusion with Big Jim Sullivan. Page was the favoured session guitarist of producer Shel Talmy, and therefore he ended up first choice guitarist for doing session work on songs for The Who and The Kinks as a direct result of the Talmy connection.

Page's studio output in 1964 included Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By", The Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road", The Rolling Stones' "Heart of Stone" (released on Metamorphosis), Them's "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes the Night", Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" and "My Baby Left Me", Lulu's "Shout", and Brenda Lee's "Is It True". Under the auspices of producer Talmy, Page contributed to The Kinks' 1964 début album and he sat in on the sessions for The Who's first single "I Can't Explain" (Page also played lead guitar on the B-side "Bald Headed Woman".)

It is estimated that between 1963-1965, Page played on 60% of the releases which reached the UK Top 10 singles chart. In 1965, Page was hired by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R man for the newly-formed Immediate Records label, which also allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall, Nico, Chris Farlowe, Twice as Much and Eric Clapton. Page also formed a brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest, Jackie DeShannon. Page then recorded his first solo single in which he plays all instruments, with the exception of drums, called "She Just Satisfies" in 1965. The b-side was "Keep Moving". He worked as session musician on the Al Stewart album Love Chronicles in 1969, and played guitar on five tracks of Joe Cocker's début album, With a Little Help from My Friends.

Although Page recorded with many notable musicians, many of these early tracks are only available through bootlegged copies, several of which were released by the Led Zeppelin fan club in the late 1970s. The records released by the fan club include many otherwise unreleased live Led Zeppelin recordings. One of the rarest of these is the early jam session featuring Jimmy Page playing with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, featuring a blues cover of "Little Queen of Spades".

Page has stated that his time as a session player served as extremely good schooling for his development as a musician:

“

My session work was invaluable. At one point I was playing at least three sessions a day, six days a week! And I rarely ever knew in advance what I was going to be playing. But I learned things even on my worst sessions -- and believe me, I played on some horrendous things. I finally called it quits after I started getting calls to do Muzak. I decided I couldn't live that life anymore; it was getting too silly. I guess it was destiny that a week after I quit doing sessions Paul Samwell-Smith left The Yardbirds, and I was able to take his place. But being a session musician was good fun in the beginning -- the studio discipline was great. They'd just count the song off, and you couldn't make any mistakes.

”

The Yardbirds

In late 1964 Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but he declined the offer out of loyalty to his friend. In February 1965 Clapton quit the Yardbirds, and Page was formally offered Clapton's spot, but because he was unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician, and because he was still worried about his health under touring conditions, he suggested his friend, Jeff Beck, fill the position. On 16 May 1966, drummer Keith Moon, bass player John Paul Jones, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Jeff Beck and Page recorded "Beck's Bolero" in London's IBC Studios. The experience gave Page an idea to form a new supergroup featuring Beck, along with The Who's John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums. However, the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems prevented the project from getting off the ground. During this time Entwistle suggested the name "Lead Zeppelin" for the first time, after Moon commented that the proceedings would take to the air like a lead balloon.

Within weeks, Page was again offered a spot in the Yardbirds and at first played bass guitar with the group after the departure of Paul Samwell-Smith, before finally switching to twin lead guitar with Beck when Chris Dreja moved to bass. The musical potential of the line-up however was scuttled by Jeff Beck's personal problems caused by constant touring and a lack of commercial success, although they released one single, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago". (While Page and Jeff Beck played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton never played in the original group all at the same time. The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983.)

After Beck's departure, the Yardbirds remained a quartet. They recorded one album with Page on lead guitar, Little Games. The album received indifferent reviews and was not a commercial success, peaking at only number 80 on the Billboard Music Charts. Though their studio sound was fairly commercial at the time, the band's live performances were in total contrast with this, becoming heavier and more experimental. These concerts featured musical aspects that Page would later perfect with Led Zeppelin, most notably performances of "Dazed and Confused".

Despite the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty in 1968, Page wished to continue the group with a new line-up to fulfill unfinished tour dates in Scandinavia. He recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, and was contacted by John Paul Jones who asked to join, to which Page agreed. During the Led Zeppelin Scandinavian Tour 1968 the new group appeared briefly as "The New Yardbirds", but soon recalled the old joke by Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Page stuck with that name to use for his new band. Peter Grant changed it to "Led Zeppelin," to avoid a mispronunciation of "Leed Zeppelin."

Led Zeppelin

Page has explained that he had a very specific idea in mind as to what he wanted Led Zeppelin to be, right from the very beginning:

“

I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin. In addition to those ideas, I wanted to add acoustic textures. Ultimately, I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses -- a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music.

”

Influence

Page's past experiences both in the studio and with the Yardbirds were very influential in contributing to the success of Led Zeppelin in the 1970s. As a record producer, composer, and guitarist he helped make Led Zeppelin a prototype for many future rock bands, and was one of the major driving forces behind the rock sound of that era, influencing a host of other guitarists. For example, his sped up, guitar solo from the song "Heartbreaker" has been credited by Eddie Van Halen as the inspiration for his two-hand tapping technique after he saw Led Zeppelin perform in 1971. Page's solo in the famous epic "Stairway to Heaven" has been voted by readers of various guitar magazines, including Guitar World and Total Guitar, as the greatest guitar solo of all time, and he was named 'Guitarist of the Year' five years straight during the 1970s by Creem magazine.

Effects

For the recording of most of Led Zeppelin material from Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin II onwards, Page used a Gibson Les Paul guitar with Marshall amplification. During the studio sessions for Led Zeppelin and later for recording the guitar solo in "Stairway to Heaven", he also used a Fender Telecaster. He usually recorded in studio with Vox, Fender, and Orange amplification. His use of the Sola Sound Tone Bender Professional MKII fuzzbox ("How Many More Times"), slide guitar ("You Shook Me", "Dancing Days", "In My Time of Dying", "What Is and What Should Never Be"), pedal steel guitar ("Your Time Is Gonna Come", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "Tangerine", "That's the Way" and for effect at the very end of "Over the Hills and Far Away"), and acoustic guitar ("Gallows Pole", "Ramble On") also demonstrated his versatility and creativity as a composer.

Page is famous for playing his guitar with a Cello bow, as on the songs "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times". This was a technique he developed during his session days that he obtained from the idea of playing the guitar with a bow from David McCallum, Sr. who was also a session musician. Page used his Fender Telecaster and later his Gibson Les Paul for his bow solos.

On a number of Led Zeppelin songs Page experimented with feedback devices and a theremin. He used a Wah-wah pedal but not always in the traditional way of rocking it back and forth as done by Jimi Hendrix and other contemporaries; instead, he put it fully forward in the treble position to get a sharper tone.

Music production techniques

Page is credited for the innovations in sound recording he brought to the studio during the years he was a member of Led Zeppelin. During the late 1960s, most British music producers placed microphones directly in front of amplifiers and drums, resulting in the sometimes "tinny" sound of the recordings of the era. Page commented to Guitar World magazine that he felt the drum sounds of the day in particular "sounded like cardboard boxes." Instead, Page was a fan of 1950s recording techniques; Sun Studios being a particular favourite. In the same Guitar World interview, Page remarked, "Recording used to be a science," and "[engineers] used to have a maxim: distance equals depth." Taking this maxim to heart, Page developed the idea of placing an additional microphone some distance from the amplifier (as much as twenty feet) and then recording the balance between the two. By adopting this technique, Page became one of the first British producers to record a band's "ambient sound" - the distance of a note's time-lag from one end of the room to the other.

For the recording of several Led Zeppelin tracks, such as "Whole Lotta Love" and "You Shook Me", Page additionally utilised "reverse echo" - a technique which he claims to have invented himself while with The Yardbirds (he had originally developed the method when recording the 1967 single "Ten Little Indians"). This production technique involved hearing the echo before the main sound instead of after it, achieved by turning the tape over and employing the echo on a spare track, then turning the tape back over again to get the echo preceding the signal.

Page has stated that, as producer, he deliberately changed the audio engineers on Led Zeppelin albums, from Glyn Johns for the first album, to Eddie Kramer for Led Zeppelin II, to Andy Johns for Led Zeppelin III and later albums. He explained that "I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."

In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1993, Page remarked on his work as a producer:

“

Many people think of me as just a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms... [A]s a producer I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent, and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape -- the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin.

”

Post-Led Zeppelin career

Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 following the accidental death of drummer John Bonham at Page's home, The Old Mill House at Clewer in Berkshire. Page made a successful return to the stage at a Jeff Beck show in March 1981 at the Hammersmith Odeon. In 1981, Page attempted to form a proposed supergroup with ex-Yes members to be called XYZ (ex-Yes Zeppelin), however despite some promising demo recordings it was abandoned within 3 months.

Page appeared with the A.R.M.S. (Action Research for Multiple Sclerosis) charity series of concerts in 1983 which honoured Small Faces bass player Ronnie Lane, who suffered from the disease. A 1984 video of a London A.R.M.S. concert was released featuring two songs from Page's work on the Death Wish II soundtrack, featuring Steve Winwood on vocals, and an on stage jam of "Layla" reunited Page with Yardbirds guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. The Madison Square Garden show featured vocals by future The Firm vocalist Paul Rodgers. A number of tracks performed on this tour such as "Bird on a Wing" later evolved into "Midnight Moonlight" when The Firm was launched.

Page next linked up with Roy Harper for an album (Whatever Happened to Jugula?) and occasional concerts, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as the MacGregors, and Themselves. In 1984, Page recorded with former Zeppelin vocalist, Robert Plant as The Honeydrippers, and with John Paul Jones on the film soundtrack Scream for Help. He also teamed up with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company and Free fame to record two albums under the name The Firm. The first album was the self-titled The Firm, followed by Mean Business in 1986. Popular songs included the commercially successful "Radioactive", and "Closer", which employs a horn section to subtle effect. The cover version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" featured vocals by Paul Rodgers but was never released as a single. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. Various other projects soon followed such as session work for Graham Nash, Box of Frogs, the Rolling Stones (on their 1986 single "One Hit (to the Body)"), and Robert Plant, a solo album Outrider, a collaboration with David Coverdale in Coverdale-Page. In addition, he also collaborated with director Michael Winner to record the soundtrack for Death Wish II and subsequently Death Wish 3, released in 1982 and 1985 respectively. Several of these albums Page recorded and produced at his own recording studio, The Sol in Cookham, which he had purchased from Gus Dudgeon in the early 1980s.

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin re-formed in 1985 for the Live Aid concert with both Phil Collins and Tony Thompson filling drum duties. However, the band considered their performance to be not up to standard with Page going on stage with a de-tuned Les Paul due to a set of new strings not played in. They were one of the few Live Aid acts to refuse permission for their segment to be included in the 20th anniversary DVD release of the concert. In 1986, Page reunited temporarily with his Yardbirds bandmates to play on several tracks of the Box of Frogs album Strange Land. The band also re-formed for the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show on 14 May, 1988. Page, Plant and Jones, as well as John Bonham's son Jason Bonham closed the 12-hour show. The band have also played together at various private family functions.

In 1990, a Knebworth concert to aid the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre and the British School for Performing Arts and Technology saw Plant unexpectedly joined by Page to perform "Misty Mountain Hop", "Wearing and Tearing" and "Rock and Roll".

In 1994, Page reunited with Plant for the penultimate performance in MTV's Unplugged series. The 90-minute special, dubbed Unledded, premiered to the highest ratings in MTV's history. In October of the same year, the session was released as the CD No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded, and in 2004 as the DVD No Quarter Unledded. Following a highly successful mid-90s tour to support No Quarter, Page and Plant recorded 1998's Walking into Clarksdale.

Since 1990, Page has been heavily involved in remastering the entire Led Zeppelin back catalogue and is currently participating in various charity concerts and charity work, particularly the Action for Brazil's Children Trust (ABC Trust), founded by his wife Jimena Gomez-Paratcha in 1998. In the same year, Page played guitar for singer/producer Puff Daddy's song "Come with Me", which heavily samples Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and was included in the soundtrack of Godzilla. The two later performed the song on Saturday Night Live. A live album and tour with The Black Crowes follow in 1999.

In 2001 he made an appearance on stage with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards in Frankfurt, where they performed a version of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You".

In 2005, Page was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his Brazilian charity work at Task Brazil, made an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro later that year, and was awarded a Grammy award.

In November 2006, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The television broadcasting of the event consisted of an introduction to the band by various famous admirers, a presentation of an award to Jimmy Page and then a short speech by the guitarist. After this, rock group Wolfmother played a tribute to Led Zeppelin, playing the song "Communication Breakdown".

In 2006, Page attended the induction of Led Zeppelin to the UK Music Hall of Fame. During an interview for the BBC for said event, he expressed plans to record new material in 2008, saying "It's an album that I really need to get out of my system... there's a good album in there and it's ready to come out" and "Also there will be some Zeppelin things on the horizon".

On June 20, 2008, Page was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Surrey. In July 2008, Page was invited to attend the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, to perform at the hand-over of the event to the impending 2012 London Olympic organisers on August 24, 2008.

Personal life

Page's daughter, Scarlet Lilith Eleida Page (born April 1971), is a photographer. Her mother, Charlotte Martin, was a French model and made a cameo appearance with Scarlet in the 1976 film The Song Remains the Same.

From 1986 to 1995 Page was married to Patricia Ecker, a model and waitress. They have a son, James Patrick Page III (born April 1988) who now lives in Florida. Jimmy Page is now married to Jimena Gomez-Paratcha. They have three children named Jana (born 1995), Zofia Jade (born June 1997), and Ashen Josan (born January 1999).

In 1972 Page bought, from Richard Harris, the home which architect William Burges designed for himself in London, The Tower House. "I had an interest going back to my teens in the pre-Raphaelite movement and the architecture of Burges," he said. "What a wonderful world to discover." The reputation of William Burges (1827-1881) rests on his extravagant designs and his contribution to the Gothic revival in architecture in the nineteenth century.

From the mid 1970s to 2004 Page owned 'The Mill House', Mill Lane, Windsor, UK - formerly the home of actor Michael Caine. Fellow Led Zeppelin band member John Bonham accidentally died at the house in 1980.

From the early 1970s to well into the 1980s, Jimmy Page owned Boleskine House. Sections of Page's fantasy sequence in the film The Song Remains the Same were filmed at night on the mountain side directly behind the building.

Accolades and tributes

• In 2001 he was voted London's greatest guitarist in Total Guitar magazine's poll of the greatest 12 British guitarists.

• Page's solo in "Stairway to Heaven" was voted the greatest guitar solo of all time in a Guitar World magazine readers' poll.

• Clive Winston, a character in the PS2 and Xbox 360 game Guitar Hero II, wears clothes resembling Page's "Dragon Suit" used in Led Zeppelin's late 75 into 77 concerts as well as playing guitar solos with a violin bow when Star Power is activated, and also has dragons as the design on his guitar neck, in a tribute to Page. In Guitar Hero II, an achievement in the Xbox 360 version of the game is titled the "Page and Plant Award", given to two players who can hit 100% of the notes in cooperative mode.

• Page is mentioned in the Wings' song "Rock Show" with the line: "What's that man movin' 'cross the stage? It looks a lot like the one used by Jimmy Page."

• Page is also mentioned in the Everclear song "A.M. Radio" with the line: "I remember 1977 / I started going to concerts and I saw the Led Zeppelin / I gotta guitar Christmas Day / I prayed that Jimmy Page would come to Santa Monica and teach me to play"

• Page is mentioned by surname in the Neil Young song "Downtown" from his album Mirror Ball: "...Led Zeppelin on stage / there's a mirrorball twirlin' / and a note from Page..."

Equipment

Electric guitars

• 1959 Fender Telecaster (given to Page by Jeff Beck and repainted with a psychedelic Dragon on it by Page. Played with the Yardbirds, on Led Zeppelin, the early tours (68-69)
• 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard (No. 1)
• 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard (No. 2) Given to him by Joe Walsh
• 1959 Danelectro 3021 AKA 59-DC (tuned to DADGAD tuning and used live for "White Summer", "Black Mountain Side", "Kashmir" and "Midnight Moonlight" with The Firm.)
• Another Danelectro 59-DC, tuned to open G or A tuning for slide and used live for "In My Time Of Dying".
• 1967 Vox Twelve string guitar
• 1960 Black Gibson Les Paul Custom(with Bigsby Tremolo) - stolen in 1970
• Rickenbacker 12 String
• 1971 Gibson EDS-1275 (used for playing "Stairway to Heaven" (live), "The Rain Song", "The Song Remains the Same" and on some occasions, "Tangerine" live)
• 1973 Gibson Les Paul Standard (seen in "The Song Remains The Same" during the theremin/solo section of "Whole Lotta Love". This guitar was later fitted with a Parsons-White B-string bender and used on the Outrider tour.)
• 1964 Lake Placid Blue Fender Stratocaster (Used during recording sessions for In Through the Out Door and 1979 at Knebworth, especially for In the Evening)
• 1966 Cream Fender Telecaster (Used on Physical Graffiti)
• 1960's Rosewood Fender Telecaster All rosewood body featuring a Parsons and White B-string bender. Seen primarily during the 1980s The Firm and Outrider era. Also used at Knebworth in 1979, notably on "Ten Years Gone" and "Hot Dog".
• 1965 Fender Electric XII (12-String)
• 1977 Gibson RD Artist (used at Knebworth in 1979, on "Misty Mountain Hop")
• Gibson SG (Very seldom used, 80s tour)
• Another Gibson doubleneck guitar was given to him after he agreed to allow the company to reproduce his original EDS-1275. The guitar was picked by Page out of numerous others after he struck one chord. Page declared "This is it, this is the one!" The guitar was marked (beforehand) #1.
• 2007 Gibson Black Beauty custom (remake of his original stolen in 1970, has modifications concerning pickup configurations which include a 6-way pickup selector, and coil-tap on the bridge pickup)
• Les Paul Goldtop w/ Transperformance tuning device Used on Atlantic 40th reunion, Coverdale/Page recordings, and Page/Plant tours
• Mid 80s Black Kramer guitar with a trem Used for Outrider
• Paul Reed Smith (used on the Outrider tour, notably on "City Sirens" and "Wasting My Time")

Acoustic guitars

• Gibson J-200
• C.F. Martin & Company D-28
• Gibson Everly Brothers
• Giannini 12-String
• Harmony Sovereign
• Washburn Guitars 12 String
• Ovation 1994 Double Neck

Other instruments

• Gibson Mandolin
• Gibson Harp Guitar
• Roland GR-700 Guitar Synthesizer
• Fender 10-String 800 Pedal steel guitar
• Cello Bow
• Theremin
• Banjo

Collection

Jimmy Page is reputed to own in excess of 1500 different guitars. Page revealed this rough estimate to BBC Radio 2 presenter Stuart Maconie in June 2005.

Due to the fact the guitar was too heavy for him, one of Jimmy Page's Les Paul Custom "Black Beauty" is now owned by Dan Hawkins of The Darkness. It is not the same Black Beauty that was stolen from him in 1970.

Signature models

Gibson released Jimmy Page Signature Les Paul which was discontinued in 1999, then released another version in 2004, which has also been discontinued. The 2004 version included 25 guitars signed by Page, 150 aged by a former Gibson employee (an acknowledged aging 'master'), and 840 'unlimited' production guitars. The Jimmy Page Signature EDS-1275 has been produced by Gibson. Recently, Gibson reproduced Page's 1960 Les Paul Black Beauty, the one stolen from him in 1970, with modern modifications. This guitar will be sold in 2008 with a run of 25, again signed by Page, plus an additional 500 unsigned guitars.

Legal action

In July 2007 Page gave testimony and observed evidence on behalf of Led Zeppelin at a court case in Glasgow against an alleged bootlegger. Robert Langley was charged with, and denied, 12 counts of producing and selling products without copyright permission. Page was shown hundreds of CDs and DVDs, ranging from his solo material to his time in Led Zeppelin and The Yardbirds, which Langley was allegedly selling in Scotland during 2005. Many contain footage and audio from Page's personal collection, stolen from his home in the early 1980s.

The goods were found on sale as far away as New York, where shop-owners thought they were official. Page later said "If you have something like this that appears legitimate then it is just not right". Page concluded his day in court by greeting waiting fans and signing autographs.