Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 - Break & Enter. Frank Reddon
forty years. I’m astounded at all of this! That was pretty good money for that time, wasn’t it - 7,000 kroner? Do you think it’s because they were billed as The Yardbirds and it was a signed contract? So the new version of the band that Jimmy Page brought over to Denmark in fulfillment of his tour obligation was for that amount because “a deal is a deal”, with reference to a contract, right?
ANGEL: Yes, that would make sense because The Yardbirds were big here.
REDDON:
Next, I’d like to find out about your lithograph, The First Performance. It’s a work of art on many levels and consists of a collage of photographs you took of The New Yardbirds’ first-ever public performance, on Saturday, September 7, 1968 at the Gladsaxe Teen Club. Where did you get the idea to create such an historical, artistic work?
ANGEL:
I think it may have been a meeting I had with Robert Plant that inspired me to do the lithograph. Another factor was a photo of Robert I had experimented with, years earlier. From those thoughts at different times, the idea and inspiration for The First Performance lithograph arose. I gave a lot of thought to how to present the photos. The subject of photos came up in a conversation I was having with Robert Plant and it went on from there I suppose…that was the “idea spark” for the lithograph. Those photos I took at the Teen Club on September 7, 1968 are not great photos. But they are great historical documents! I wanted to give people as much of this historical concert as possible.
Instead of just putting out one photo, I went with the “proof print” look on the lithograph. I think it conveys that historical sense of time and place. I believe my intention was for you to put on the first Led Zeppelin record, take a look at the lithograph and feel you’re almost there!
REDDON:
Well, I’ve done that and that’s just the way it is! An amazing experience to see those photos and hear the music they were touring with at the same time.
ANGEL:
Maybe The First Performance lithograph wasn’t such a good idea because you have to be a huge Zeppelin fan to have that hanging on your wall. It’s just a lot of pictures otherwise. I might have done better with just doing one photo or whatever. My intention was to give people the essence of that first performance. That’s also why I cropped the four faces of Robert Plant so much because his facial expressions were great!
REDDON:
Yes, Plant’s facial expressions certainly are excellent. You can almost hear his voice, just looking at the writhing, contorting facial expressions visually frozen in those photographs. You really captured the intensity of that performance, by all four musicians - individually and collectively. To me and many others I’m sure, The First Performance lithograph is one of the most important photographic endeavours in the history of popular music. Congratulations for being the one to do it.
I notice just looking at The First Performance lithograph, The New Yardbirds were visually striking. Plant, in particular, stands out. How did they compare visually to other bands you saw and took photos of? What criteria did you use to select the photos for your limited-edition lithos?
ANGEL:
Before I answer that, your question caused me to think of something we should mention in our discussion here. “The Golden God”… Do you know who I’m referring to?
REDDON: Robert Plant, right?
ANGEL:
Yes, that’s right. He was called the “Golden God” because I hear that, at some point, he was standing on a roof top, stretching his arms up and shouting, “I am the Golden God.” Have you heard the story?
REDDON:
It sounds familiar. It was in one of the books or magazines I've read and it happened in LA. But please elaborate.
ANGEL:
So yes, Plant, being the “Golden God”, served as the focal point initially with The New Yardbirds and later with Led Zeppelin. Eventually, Jimmy Page became more extroverted; he wasn’t at the start of the band. He was quite introverted in the beginning, playing away with his head down. So that gave them another dimension of visual interest with Page getting more “visual” in his movements on stage. But don’t forget Bonham. The way he went berserk behind the drums…I mean that was also a powerful visual thing and point of interest for watching Zeppelin perform. John Paul Jones stood there like a pillar of salt.
REDDON: Great description of John Paul Jones…probably the best I’ve ever heard!
ANGEL:
It’s true! Very similar to the way John Entwistle, The Who’s bass player, stood there as he played. From a visual perspective, that guy “parked” in the background provides an important contrast to the movements of singer and guitarist.
REDDON: Oh, I see. That’s an interesting observation that’s not very obvious.
ANGEL:
Now back to your question about The First Performance lithograph. What criteria did I use for creating it and did I use all the photos I took from that September 7, 1968 performance?
A visual arts professional named Flemming Brantbjerg worked with me on this lithograph project. He was excellent, always challenging me in a positive way so we could make the lithograph the best it could be. I wanted shots that would most accurately capture, as I said earlier, the intensity and essence of that “first ever” appearance of The New Yardbirds, from that September 7, 1968 performance. The lithograph sequence of Robert Plant demonstrates the tremendous visual impact he has on stage when performing. It was quite an involved process.
REDDON:
It was worth the effort, because I find that really intensifies things, right in the middle of The First Performance lithograph. It’s sensational the way those are interpolated into the grand scheme of the whole work.
ANGEL:
Without getting too involved, we had to place such images by working with them on the computer. It was a great deal of exacting work. It turned out well but was it was painstaking, as you may imagine. It all had to be done in phases, because it was so exacting. The collaboration between Flemming Brantbjerg and me was excellent on this project.
As I said a moment ago, in addition to speaking to Robert Plant about those Teen Club photos, the idea for creating The First Performance lithograph also came from an experimental 20 x 30” photo of him from that performance. I’d never done anything in such a large format before and I had to customize some of the apparatus in my darkroom to do it. It was an involved process because of the large size of the photographic paper I had to work with to do it.
The reason I mention this attempt at the large print of Plant is because I picked that 1968 photo of him from the Gladsaxe Teen Club performance I had taken. It was my first attempt to make such a big print of anybody. Plant and The New Yardbirds must have really made an impression for me to give that a try. Thinking of that again was what prompted me to do The First Performance lithograph.
REDDON:
Do you recall the day you came across The New Yardbirds photographs of the first performance that eventually became the First Performance of Led Zeppelin lithograph?
ANGEL:
I didn’t come across the negatives. I knew I had them! I just didn’t know it was their first show ever in public. I’d had people email me and tell me that “you photographed Led Zeppelin’s first performance ever!” You know, it wasn’t until around 2001 that I realized I had photos from the very first time The New Yardbirds had played before an audience.
From time to time, I would get an email saying so but I thought, “Ah, they probably played a couple of gigs in England first; why would they go to Denmark for the first gig?” It didn’t really seem logical. I