Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page revealed how ‘troubles’ in Kosovo led to a ‘hasty’ fundraiser show being put together to raise money in a new Instagram post. The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started in late February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with air support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) from 24 March 1999, and ground support from the Albanian army.
“On this day in 1999, I performed at the Unicef Kosovo Appeal in London.
When the troubles in Kosovo finally subsided there was a hasty fundraiser put together at the banqueting halls in Whitehall. I’d been asked to play this event and I played it with my group at the time: Michael Lee on drums and Guy Pratt on bass. I played an instrumental version of ‘Dazed and Confused’ and I was told people got the idea of the movements being like a classical piece. It must have been quite spirited as apparently it registered on the highly sophisticated sensor equipment at the Ministry of Defence! 📡🎸⚡️”
Page also recently posted:
During 1965, I had been introducing my recently acquired Danelectro guitar onto various studio dates. This [first] photograph is from a session that appeared to combine all the guitarists from the session register for a project organised by arranger Mike Leander. The guitars would play the orchestral parts of a popular classical piece. It may have been from Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ – it was a joyous cacophony!
Also on this day, in 2014 it was announced that I will be presented with a Silver Clef award in July. A big thank you to Nordoff Robbins and everyone involved.
Here’s a description and details of the Danelectro below from The @metmuseum current guitar exhibition ‘Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll’ which is open now in New York City until 1st October 2019.
“Page bought this guitar from London’s Selmer shop in 1963 for his session recording work and first played it live in 1967 with the Yardbirds on his instrumental piece “White Summer.” He used it in “Celtic tuning,” the alternate tuning with strings tuned to DADGAD, with Led Zeppelin on “When The Levee Breaks,” “In My Time of Dying,” “Kashmir,” and “Black Mountain Side.”
“Semi-hollow body; tempered Masonite top and back, poplar neck, core, and sides, rosewood fingerboard; 25 in. scale; black finish; two single-coil pickups, three-way selector switch, two concentric volume and tone controls; bridge replaced with Leo Quan Badass Bridge.”
Photo 2: Dick Barnatt, 1975
Photo 3: Jan Persson, 1970
Photo 4: Scarlet Page, 2008
Photo 5 & 6: Jonathan Bayer, 2019
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