was touring with their first album, Led Zeppelin, in March 1969. I don’t think much musical evolution had happened. I can’t say for sure. Of course, they had much more confidence the second time they came to Scandinavia.
There was much change later. I was not too keen on the experimental stuff. When Zeppelin was here in May 1971, it was, in my opinion, a strange show. They seemed self-absorbed, the lighting was strange. Not the Zeppelin I knew. The advanced songs on the Led Zeppelin II album came off rather poorly on stage. The use of the Theremin in 1971 wasn’t very good.
REDDON: That stuff was just a bit too far out for your liking, I guess?
ANGEL:
I just didn’t think it was what the Zeppelin I had seen before was all about musically. I remember Jimmy Page trying to recreate that sound from Whole Lotta Love. He was moving his hand back and forth in the path of the Theremin. He couldn't get it to work properly.
REDDON:
You have had so many professional accomplishments as a rock photographer…50,000 photographs later. Wow! How does The First Performance lithograph rank among your personal and professional accomplishments?
ANGEL:
The First Performance lithograph is near the top of my professional accomplishments. The pictures aren’t the greatest but the design worked out very well. It turns out to be a real piece of music history as well, so that makes it very special.
REDDON: I’ll say! You have such an intense personal and professional connection to that artistic work.
ANGEL:
Led Zeppelin was out of the ordinary. Again, the large number of photos I took of them in September 1968 at the Gladsaxe Teen Club shows this, because they were so different. I liked them very much and could tell as they performed that this wasn’t The Yardbirds of old I had already seen. As I told you, I was disappointed at first that it wasn’t the “real” Yardbirds I had seen before. But when The New Yardbirds began to play at the Teen Club, I loved them.
REDDON:
How do you feel about the body of other work you’ve compiled in the field of professional photography, with reference to rock photos, over your years as a rock photo journalist? What other artists have you photographed?
ANGEL:
I’ve photographed a great many of them. I am delighted that so many people around the world have great affections for the “old music”. Especially when it comes to the next generation. And the next generation! A family came to my 2006 exhibition in Stockholm. One of them was a young girl of fifteen years. I asked if her parents had dragged her along? “Oh no!” she said, “I love Led Zeppelin!”
And you know? Only yesterday I found out that my neighbour’s daughter, at age eighteen, is a huge Zeppelin fan. So there is every hope that the interest will last. I think it’s incredible. Her mother was barely born when Zeppelin started!
Through the eye of my camera lens, many other artists also stand out. Queen, The Who, David Bowie, to only name a few. But one of my personal favourite shots is hanging now in our house in the country. It’s a shot of Jimmy Page. And Jimmy likes it too - he wanted a big print. He saw it at the exhibition and it’s also been used for a number of magazine covers. It never ceases to amaze me that people all over the world have such an interest in what I did, when I was a schoolboy and later!
REDDON:
Well, that’s about it, Jørgen. I can’t thank you enough for enlightening me on what amounts to being the most important part of Led Zeppelin’s career…the very beginning! Thank you so much for providing this unprecedented, exhaustive account of The Yardbirds, The New Yardbirds and, ultimately, Led Zeppelin and how they all fit together in a huge piece of popular music history.
ANGEL:
You’re very welcome, Frank. It has been my pleasure and it’s brought back a great deal of good memories. I wish you the best of luck with your books. They sound fascinating and I look forward to seeing them in print.
GEORGE CHKIANTZ
RECALLS THE STUDIO WHERE LED ZEPPELIN WAS RECORDED
Led Zeppelin recorded its self-titled debut album Led Zeppelin at Olympic Studios in Barnes, England during September/October 1968. Mr. George Chkiantz was a highly sought-after and respected sound engineer and tape operator during that time. Although Mr. Chkiantz did not work on the Led Zeppelin LP, he did work on subsequent Led Zeppelin albums, including: Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III, the untitled fourth Led Zeppelin LP and Houses of the Holy, among other Led Zeppelin projects.
Mr. Chkiantz is an extremely knowledgeable sound engineer who graciously agreed to be interviewed in January 1998. He offers insightful recollections on several subjects relative to Led Zeppelin’s recording of the Led Zeppelin LP. He also offers his impressions and analysis regarding the subject of the bootleg CDs that have surfaced, documenting some of the material from the initial Led Zeppelin recording activities at Olympic Studios in 1968.
REDDON: Where was the Led Zeppelin album recorded at Olympic Studios?
CHKIANTZ:
Led Zeppelin recorded much of its first LP in Studio # 1. It was a 60’ x 40’ x 30’ room on the first floor that used to be a cinema. This room could very comfortably hold a 70-piece orchestra and a 30-piece choir. The studio interior was polished wood and hessian (dyed yellow wood). A window approximately 18’ long was located in the middle of the 40’ length of the wall. There was a vocal booth on one side of the 18’ window. The former projection room of the cinema was converted into a portion of the control room.
REDDON: How did you first become acquainted with Jimmy Page?
CHKIANTZ:
I knew Jimmy from his guitar session days at Olympic. What I remember about Jimmy is that he was a really nice bloke who was quite interesting. He would talk to a guy I worked with at length about infrared photography. Page was into that a lot and was always pleasant to chat with whenever our paths crossed. I’d help him carry his amp and gear into the studio and get him set up for his sessions on many occasions.
His reputation as an outstanding session man was well deserved. If you could get Page to play on one of your sessions, you were considered to be very fortunate because he was in demand. He was one of the top session musicians in England during this time period.
REDDON: Were you also familiar with John Paul Jones through his session work?
CHKIANTZ:
Yes. Zeppelin’s bass player, John Paul Jones, was even more sought after than Page. Jones was the best bass player in the business for session work and had musical arranging skills to top it all off. When I heard Page was forming a new group that included John Paul Jones, I thought such a merging of these musicians would hold great promise.
REDDON:
What type of recording equipment was used at Olympic Studios in 1968, to record Led Zeppelin’s first album?
CHKIANTZ:
The
