left or maybe half of them. I knew it wasn’t the “real thing”. It wasn’t The Yardbirds (Dreja/Page/McCarty/Relf) I knew from before. That’s why I was disappointed before they even hit the stage. Because the sign said “The New Yardbirds”, I knew this wasn't going to be right.
REDDON:
All right. Thanks to you and tour manager, Jerry Ritz, the confusion that has always surrounded exactly what these four musicians – Bonham, Jones, Page and Plant – were actually called has finally been cleared up! I’m sure that many others who have been wondering what that scoop is will thank you, too!
From now on in this interview, I’ll refer to the band as The New Yardbirds. Before we talk about their performance on Saturday, September 7, 1968, I’d like to ask you if Page and his new band rehearsed at the Teen Club that Saturday afternoon?
ANGEL:
Yes! That afternoon, the Teen Club volunteers were putting out chairs, tables, some specially made marquees...all this stuff. It took some hours. And there was a knock at the door. It was Jimmy Page wanting to rehearse with his band. So, while the volunteers were setting up the place, they were treated to The New Yardbirds playing for that afternoon. They apparently rehearsed for hours. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there in the afternoon. It would have been great, as much for taking photos as anything else! But, regrettably, I wasn’t. I knew someone who was there and he told me about it. I tried to track him down for you to interview, but I had no luck.
REDDON:
Thanks for trying. That would have been something to learn about. You were there that night, though, when it counted the very most. With your trusty camera in hand!
ANGEL: Yes, I was.
REDDON:
You already mentioned the warm-up bands. Can you please remind me who shared the bill with The New Yardbirds at Gladsaxe Teen Club on Saturday, September 7, 1968?
ANGEL:
Olsens Damptog…that means “Olsen’s Steam Engine”. The photo I sent you is of the group’s guitarist, Erik Westphal Stephensen. He led the local band that was one of the supporting acts that night. Later, Erik became a television celebrity. The other band on the bill that night was called Fourways.
REDDON:
Before I ask you about the performance that night at the Teen Club, do you recall if there was a ticket or a programme made, that had either The Yardbirds or The New Yardbirds printed on it?
ANGEL:
Well, yes and no. No programmes as such. Just the Teen Club Nyt monthly magazine we’ve already discussed that told of the month’s coming attractions to the Teen Club. The tickets were generic for the Teen Club events; unfortunately, there was nothing printed on them about any group at all.
REDDON:
Okay, the collector in me had to ask that question! So what did you think once The New Yardbirds started to play that evening? As it turns out, it was the first-ever public performance of Jimmy Page’s new band that would become Led Zeppelin just a few short weeks afterward.
ANGEL:
The audience loved The New Yardbirds! They were blown away, like I was, once they started to play. Their stage presence was apparent from the very beginning. I can prove it, not only by the photos I took, but film was expensive for a schoolboy. Often I would shoot two or three bands on the same roll of film. I shot more than one roll of film with this special band, The New Yardbirds. It wasn’t like I said to myself, “This band is going to be big, so I’ll shoot more film of them.” Something captivated me. I shot more photos than I usually ever would.
REDDON:
How uncanny you felt that way. What’s special about The New Yardbirds is captured beautifully in your photos. Do you remember where you were when you took those photos of The New Yardbirds that night? Please tell me anything you would care to about taking those pictures.
ANGEL:
I had clearance as the Teen Club photographer to go just about anywhere I wanted when taking photos. From the audience, from the side of the stage, often even on the stage. So I did. I only had my mother’s holiday camera; it didn’t have a zoom lens. So I had to use the manual zoom, which meant going closer! To get some good shots of John Bonham, I had to walk right in front of John Paul Jones to get closer to Bonham.
All the restrictions, conditions and limitations that were placed on photographers later on were among the main reasons I became disenchanted with rock photography. It had changed so much from the night I took those shots we’re talking about now. Back then, it was no problem to just walk in front of the bass player to take photos of the drummer. That was a long time ago now. When I took those shots of John Bonham, I was right in the midst of them, which is hard to believe when I think of it today.
REDDON:
I know. Bonham is also using mallets when he’s playing in one of the photos. You don’t see that very often in photographs of him. The shots you took of Bonham are the best I’ve seen from the early days when he had that “sparkle drum kit”. All his percussion instruments are shown in those few photos.
You can also see the brand name “Selmer” on the electronics the band used on stage. It’s so interesting to see the exact percussion set-up, in the earliest part of Zeppelin’s career. Great going! Page is sitting down, playing his black and white Danelectro guitar. That’s in one of those Bonham shots too. How incredible to see those.
Did you speak to The New Yardbirds the first time they played the Teen Club, on September 7, 1968?
ANGEL:
Not that I recall. They were in a big hurry to leave for their second gig of the evening, at the Brøndby Pop-Club. Brøndby is another suburb of Copenhagen, a ten-mile drive from Gladsaxe.
On Sunday, September 8, 1968, The Yardbirds had another gig at Fjordvilla, in the town of Roskilde, twenty-five miles from Copenhagen. Here’s a funny story about another group, The Ladybirds. They were on the same bill as The Yardbirds at Fjordvilla and it’s amusing because both groups had “bird” in their names. The local concert promoter had had the obvious and very appropriate idea of also booking another “bird-band”. Fjordvilla had very popular go-go girls who danced topless. The Ladybirds also performed topless. A tough act for The New Yardbirds to follow!
REDDON:
That’s the only time I’ve ever heard of an act like that opening for The Yardbirds, The New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin or The Nobs [yet another “name change” on Danish soil, in March of 1969 from Led Zeppelin this time!] What you don’t learn doing research!
ANGEL:
Well, yes… and the promoter didn’t take details too seriously, either. As you can see in the local advertisement I sent you, they forgot the “s”, in both “Yardbirds” and The “Lady Birds”. It becomes rather funny with the passage of time, given how famous Led Zeppelin became. The entrance fee was one dollar and fifty for that performance with The Ladybirds, in the same gig.
REDDON:
How
