“Absolutely huge”: The shows Jimmy Page was terrified to play
Live performance is what all musicians tend to strive for, particularly in the sphere of rock and roll. The rebellious, energetic nature of rock simply works better when shared in a live environment, and concerts allow artists to expand and experiment on their sound without the restrictions of studio time or tape length. With Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page became a titan of live performance, having played some of the biggest rock and roll concerts of all time, but the prospect of playing live never became less daunting for the guitarist.
Even before he formed Led Zeppelin in 1968, the hard rock progenitor already boasted an extensive career in live performance. At the age of only 13, the young Page appeared on the BBC programme All Your Own, performing a skiffle song on his acoustic guitar. The following decade would see him become one of Britain’s most prominent session guitarists, performing alongside everybody from Petula Clark to The Who. By the time he joined blues rock heroes The Yardbirds during the late 1960s, he was already a veteran of live performance.
His clear skill for performing live became abundantly clear during the heyday of Led Zeppelin, during which the band performed some of the largest rock concerts to date. Their five-date run at Earls Court in 1975 arguably paved the way for the current landscape of arena tours, and the band sold out Knebworth long before Liam Gallagher was out of primary school.
Nevertheless, Led Zeppelin’s extensive history in live performance did not make Page fearless when it came to performing. The period following Zeppelin’s disbandment in 1980 was particularly difficult for the guitarist, as the group he had spent the past 12 years performing alongside was suddenly no more. To make matters worse, Page was thrown immediately into the deep end as a solo performer, scheduled for the high-profile ARMS Charity Concerts in 1983.
Devised by former Small Faces bassist Ronnie Lane, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, the ARMS concerts helped to raise money and awareness for the charity Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis. Initially, the benefit was limited to one concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September 1983, but the gig proved so successful that multiple American dates were soon added.
Featuring a star-studded cast of musicians, including Jimmy Page alongside fellow Yardbirds guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, among many others, the American shows marked a huge step up from the Albert Hall. As Page recalled, “The Albert Hall, where they had the initial concerts, was like an old friend. But when we went to America… We played in the Reunion Center in Dallas. I thought: ‘That’s gonna be good’, because we’d played it with Led Zeppelin. But when I went on there for the soundcheck it was absolutely huge, vast, and I got pretty nervous about it!”
Despite his nerves about the show, he was determined to put on a good show in support of his friend, Ronnie Lane. “I volunteered straight away when Stu asked me to do it for Ronnie Lane, because everybody who met Ronnie Lane loved him. It was leave your egos outside, so everybody just came together to do everything they could for this thing at the Royal Albert Hall.”
“I realised that everyone involved had solo careers. I didn’t,” the guitarist recalled. “I only had a career via The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, and I’d just done the Death Wish soundtrack, so I just did stuff from that.” This improvised set went down a storm with audiences, and Page’s appearance became a definitive highlight of the ARMS tour. What’s more, the shows seemed to boost Page’s confidence in a post-Zeppelin era. “It’s a bit odd, but it was really great to be out there and playing again.” he shared.
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