{"id":661291,"date":"2025-12-29T23:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T23:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/661291\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T23:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T23:55:12","slug":"the-only-gigs-john-paul-jones-said-led-zeppelin-refused-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/661291\/","title":{"rendered":"The only gigs John Paul Jones said Led Zeppelin refused to play"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Led<\/p>\n

Credits: Far Out \/ \u00a92025ParadisePicturesLtd<\/p>\n

Mon 29 December 2025 20:45, UK <\/p>\n

There were only two ways to experience Led Zeppelin<\/a>\u2019s powerhouse classic rock.<\/p>\n

First was live. A fiery burnishing of each member\u2019s musical alchemy, from Jimmy Page\u2019s effortless guitar virtuosity, John Bonham\u2019s thunderous drumming heft, John Paul Jones\u2019 exotic polymath instrumentalism, and frontman Robert Plant\u2019s bare-chested gyrating bellow, cemented the classic rock template still enduring in the popular impression of exactly what the 1970s rock archetype looks like. Along with The Who and The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin stood as the world\u2019s premier live act during their pomp.<\/p>\n

The other flip to their essentiality was the LP. Landing at the tail end of the 1960s counterculture<\/a>, the album as an art form had been truly realised, the apex of any artist\u2019s creative expression in the era when singles had long lost their cache. Such a climate was perfect for Led Zeppelin. Crafting transportive experiences with each record, the band\u2019s classic album run sat in the rock canon with a mystical aura, packed with weighty escapism and traversal beckoning on each side of vinyl.<\/p>\n

With so much mystique resting on their live prowess and vinyl offerings, naturally, much of the music industry\u2019s other avenues were reluctantly met by Led Zeppelin. Too mammoth in aura to be confined to TV studios, and conceptually looking far beyond the Hot 100, the quartet always kept their appearances off the stage sparing, rightly deeming their brand too gargantuan an outfit to be stuffed into much of the day\u2019s music programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided we didn\u2019t have to do all of those pop shows if we didn\u2019t do singles,\u201d Jones told Classic Rock. \u201cSome places in the early days you had to\u2026We were never really part of the pop scene, though. We were thinking about other things. We had just started out and were in the same boat as everyone else \u2013 we hadn\u2019t become successful yet \u2013 but doing pop shows on TV just wasn\u2019t us; it was never what Led Zeppelin was supposed to be about. Our thing was always playing live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singles were released reluctantly by the band; many of their biggest hits were promo-only for FM radio benefit, including their immortal \u2018Stairway to Heaven\u2019. Lauded numbers like \u2018Kashmir\u2019 or \u2018When the Levee Breaks\u2019 stand taller amid their holy records, just not finding a suitable home outside of the respective apartment blocks on Physical Graffiti or the weathered thatcher from 1971\u2019s untitled LP effort.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the TV shows. While Led Zeppelin could no doubt have pulled off a decent slot for The Old Grey Whistle Test, the BBC\u2019s flagship muso show still feels too staid and stilted to fully translate their power. And what of Beeb\u2019s Top of the Pops<\/a>? Despite nicking their \u2018Whole Lotta Love\u2019 for its theme\u2014played by budget imitators CCS\u2014primitive solarisation effects and stiff superimposition may well have held a nostalgic charm, but miming to a studio track was a million miles removed from what made the Zeppelin behemoth so special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the era, perhaps, as much as anything,\u201d Jones concluded. \u201cWhat we were doing was regarded as underground music. The kind of celebrity that doing pop TV and having lots of hit singles brings was simply not a part of what we did or who we were as a band.\u201d<\/p>\n

He furthered, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong in paying the rent. But I know, personally, that I just didn\u2019t want to do that. That wasn\u2019t the way I wanted to make my way in my own musical life. If I was going to join a band it was to do music that I wanted to do \u2013 and not compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n

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Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credits: Far Out \/ \u00a92025ParadisePicturesLtd Mon 29 December 2025 20:45, UK There were only two ways to experience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,9689,21945,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-661291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-john-paul-jones","10":"tag-led-zeppelin","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115805560875089145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}