Читать книгу Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 - Break & Enter - Frank Reddon - Страница 17

Jimmy Page playing White Summer in early 1969.

Courtesy: Howard Mylett Collection, used with permission. Enzepplopedia Publishing, Inc

In August of 2007, my sister and I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the Ritzes, thanks to an introduction by Jørgen Angel. Jerry, Annie and their son, Oliver were in Canada visiting relatives. They very graciously made a side trip to Fort Erie to speak with us, en route to Niagara Falls. It was an evening Lou Anne and I will never forget! Jerry and Annie regaled us with their firsthand accounts of that first-ever gig of Led Zeppelin’s. Oliver proved to be a Rolling Stones fan, but still had some positive comments about the band for whom his father had managed its first-ever tour, of Scandinavia as The New Yardbirds in 1968/69.

REDDON:

Hi, Jerry. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Annie and Oliver. I’m forever grateful to Jørgen Angel for making it possible! To get things rolling, it would be great if you could give me an overview of how you got started in the music business, how your career unfolded and tell me about some of the bands whose tours you managed. Please take it away!

RITZ:

I’ve always loved music. I especially liked The Who and The Yardbirds. My mate, Jan Bonfils, and I went to London in the summer of ’65 to meet with Jane Relf (lead singer Keith Relf's sister) who worked for their first manager, Giorgio Gomelsky. Jane ran The Yardbirds Fan Club worldwide. As you know, they were at the forefront of the Limey Blues Boom of the mid-’60s, paving the way for later acts like Cream, The Who and Led Zeppelin. More importantly, three faces on classic rock’s Mt. Rushmore of Guitar Heroes – Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page – passed through The Yardbirds’ nest. So before I joined the music business professionally, while still in school, Jan and I ran The Yardbirds Official Fan Club of Scandinavia.

In 1965, I contacted The Who’s management and offered to do a programme for them. They said I could, so my friend and I did up the programme.

My parents were very frightened when I dropped out of business school at the age of 17 to go on the road with The Who. You know, sex and drugs and rock’n’roll! But I kept my distance from the performers in those early days. I had a professional relationship with all the bands. I still had a lot of fun but I never saw them as rock stars, just good mates. I wanted them to respect me and never to think of me as a fan. I think that’s why I didn’t collect anything or even have my picture taken with the bands!

I was born in 1948, so I was about the same age or even younger than many of these musicians. As a result, I took my job very seriously because I felt it was a great responsibility for me. As tour manager, some of the things I did included getting “the boys” out of bed, checking us out of the hotel (without too many extra bills for damages to pay!), making sure we arrived at the next venue on time (in all kinds of weather) and fulfilling the contracts with the local promoters and club owners so we were paid the full fees.

From 1966 to 1972, I worked for the Scandinavian tour organizer/agency Bendix Music as a booking agent, promotion and tour manager. Later Bendix became known as ICO (International Concert Organization). While I was there, I was Scandinavian tour manager for Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Small Faces, The Herd (with Peter Frampton), Manfred Mann, The Move, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (with Mick Taylor pre-Stones), ELO, The Pretty Things, The Spencer Davis Group (with Steve Winwood), Eric Burdon & The Animals, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Jeff Beck Group (with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood) and The Faces (again with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood pre-Stones) as well as many other British groups that toured the Scandinavian countries during those six years.

Since the mid-sixties, I worked in the entertainment business in almost every field, as a promoter, a record executive (head of international A&R with EMI/Capitol Denmark), record producer, music publisher, personal manager for some of the most popular local Danish artists, music director for a theatre/concert hall, TV producer, show and play producer and much, much more. Today I run my own agency/management company called KulturKontakt.dk and the record/publishing company TUBA Entertainment.

REDDON: Why did so many British acts tour Scandinavia?

RITZ: Denmark is fairly close to England About a day’s ferry ride.

REDDON:

What an incredible career you’ve had, Jerry! How and when did you meet Jørgen Angel?

RITZ:

I was the Scandinavian tour manager for Led Zeppelin in 1968-69. When I heard The Yardbirds were breaking up, I definitely introduced the group as The New Yardbirds on that first tour. There was some mention of the name “Led Zeppelin”, too. But it was just talk at the time and that name wasn’t used; I introduced them as The New Yardbirds for most of those gigs. I met Jørgen when he and my wife-to-be, Annie, were working as volunteers at the Gladsaxe Teen Club, where The New Yardbirds were booked for their first public performance. Annie and I have been married for 35 years now.

Teen Clubs had sprung up in Gladsaxe and Brøndby because high-rises in the area brought a growing population. People wanted somewhere safe for their youngsters to go and have fun, because there were lots of them!

When I toured with Led Zeppelin that first time, I really liked their music and I tried to be professional by distancing myself from them a bit. I never took pictures. No one said I couldn’t but taking pictures seemed like something a fan would do. I always wanted to be as professional as possible with all the groups I worked with. In this case, I wanted the members of Led Zeppelin to respect me as their tour manager/promoter. So I didn’t take any photos and, while being friendly with them, I kept my distance so I could maintain a professional relationship with them.

I have very few photos taken “on the road”. One picture that I have kept, though, was taken on the second day of Led Zeppelin’s career as a touring band. The day before the picture was taken, we had done two shows. The first was at the Gladsaxe Teen Club in the Egegård School where Jørgen took his pictures and I met Annie. The second was later that evening at the Brøndby Pop-Club in the Noerregaardshallen.

Getting back to the day that the photo was taken – September 8, 1968. It was between an afternoon gig at Fjordvilla in Roskilde (where the supporting act was a topless all-girl band called The Ladybirds) and an evening performance in Rewentlowparken, Lolland. At the time, it was normal that the band plus their only roadie/driver and I were sitting in the front two rows of the van (no windows for the guys in the back!). Behind the second row of seats were all the equipment, PA-system, mikes, amplifiers, guitar cases, drum kit, etc. All in one Ford Transit van!

I think that Peter Grant was with us on the road for the first dates on that tour, which meant we needed a little more space! So we hired Ivan Riel (his brother, Alex, is a famous Danish jazz/rock drummer) and his American 1956 Ford Fairlane convertible for transportation that day. Ivan was a well known chauffeur/roadie for local bands at the time. Today he’s a retired airline pilot!

Since we had plenty of space, we invited some friends along on the road to the two gigs, which was very unusual at the time. I remember there was a good, relaxed atmosphere - very easy. Almost like “Let’s go and play some rock’n’roll and have a good time”.

In the picture [which appears in the hardcover version of this book but cannot here for legal reasons] from the left is my girlfriend at the time, Vibeke and I in white beside the black van. Behind these “young lovers”, you can see Bonzo in a purple t-shirt, Jimmy in front posing with the Danish girl. The picture was probably taken by one of the other band members with her Kodak camera. Behind the steering wheel is driver Ivan Riel talking to a guy who is more interested in his car than in this long-haired band! The stop took place at a gas station and cafeteria near the town of Tappernøje.

Notice that Jimmy is wearing his brand-new Danish wooden clogs that he had bought the day before in Copenhagen with my assistance! I remember Jimmy just loved the look of those clogs. So we stopped along the way on that tour and I helped him pick out a pair. He really thought they were quite something.

REDDON:

They’re probably the same ones he was wearing in photos I’ve seen from 1970. I guess there’s a little story or two behind everything!

You mentioned that you got Led Zeppelin a date in Göteborg, Sweden. If I understand correctly, this date at Göteborg wasn’t booked originally. Do you recall how you got them this extra date? Was it common practice for you, as the tour manager, to add dates for groups like Led Zeppelin if your touring schedule would allow it? I know groups did that here in North America; it happened for Led Zeppelin on the band’s First U.S. and Canadian Tour of 1968-69.

RITZ:

Led Zeppelin did play a date in Göteborg, at Liseberg Amusement Park. I remember that the people were walking by, not even looking or listening as Zeppelin played, trying very hard to impress them. But they weren’t interested in Led Zeppelin’s music at all! We all knew before they went on that it would be like this. They were very professional about it. They went on and played well anyway. It was comical - people were walking by with their kids, giving Led Zeppelin funny looks, because here were these guys with long hair playing away, very loudly. They just got strange looks from people passing by with their children. They didn’t get the music at all. Zeppelin joked with me that it was my fault for getting them that awful gig. But it was all in good fun.

REDDON:

When you first met Page and the rest of the group in Scandinavia in 1968, do you recall ever talking about the future Led Zeppelin album?

RITZ:

I think Led Zeppelin mentioned that they were going to record their first album. I can’t remember the specific considerations, as it was so long ago now. However, they did think about the fact they were going to record an album when they went back to England.

REDDON:

Do have any other memories to share about your days on tour with the fledgling Led Zeppelin?

RITZ:

Jimmy Page was so nice to the rest of the group. It was like there was no leader. I travelled with and managed many other acts. I saw lots of scrapping and bickering with these groups. But not with Led Zeppelin. They knew they were four equal parts, coming together to “go for the gold”. Page was so kind to everyone and they got along very well. I never saw any problems of big artist’s egos with Zeppelin.

When you look at it, The Jeff Beck Group’s music was close to filling the void at that time in the late 1960s. But they couldn’t keep it together. Then Led Zeppelin formed, and the time was right for their music to fill that void. It had also been right for The Jeff Beck Group but they had too many personnel problems they couldn’t sort out among themselves. They simply self-destructed.

One of the other things about Led Zeppelin that has always impressed me? When John Bonham passed away, the way the group disbanded. I can’t think of anybody else who would have done that but Zeppelin did. What a thing to do! They were four equal parts as I said from the beginning in 1968. One part was no longer part of Zeppelin, so the other three parts followed. No replacement. What a great tribute to do that!

I didn’t save any Led Zeppelin itineraries or anything like that. I had many such itineraries, contracts, all that type of thing. But we had no idea we were in on history being made. I was just going along, doing my job without thinking about saving those things. Who would have thought forty years later there would be such interest in these items?

We are having a celebration at the Gladsaxe Teen Club site. It’s the Egegård School in Gladsaxe, where it all began for The New Yardbirds. We have so many good memories from there! We have booked the school for a big party on Sunday, September 7, 2008 to celebrate Led Zeppelin’s 40th Anniversary date of their first-ever performance. It’s special for me because I was their tour manager for that very first tour. I found them all to be very nice guys who were always very professional. They knew what it took to “go for the gold”!

Jerry and Annie Ritz got to see the first-ever public performance of Led Zeppelin and also the last one (to date) of the band’s reunited members.

Courtesy: Jerry Ritz, used with permission. Enzepplopedia Publishing, Inc.

Frank Reddon here. In the fall of 2007, Jerry Ritz contacted me to share some very exciting news. He and his wife, Annie, had won tickets to see Led Zeppelin reunite at London’s O₂ Arena! Talk about bringing things full circle! They were there at Led Zeppelin’s first-ever performance and, almost forty years later, they would be attending what might be the group’s last-ever performance. (Let’s hope that’s not the case…)

Because of the important role Jerry had played in Led Zeppelin’s career, he was the subject of many interviews in the Danish and English press in the days leading up to the O₂ concert. He graciously consented to share his impressions of the concert with me for this book.

On December 11, 2007 – the day after Jerry and Annie Ritz attended Led Zeppelin’s reunion gig at London’s O₂ Arena – Kurt Baagø from Danish Radio Broadcasting conducted a telephone interview with Jerry. This piece is reprinted with the permission of Kurt Baagø and Jerry Ritz; translated from Danish into English by Karen-Annette Madsen of www.teenclubs.dk and edited slightly to fit this book’s style and format by L. A. Reddon, with many thanks to all concerned.

BAAGØ:

Good Times, Bad Times - the first track Led Zeppelin ever recorded, or at least the first track on their first album – was also the song that the reunited Led Zeppelin played to open with at the O₂ Arena in London yesterday evening.

We have Jerry Ritz on the line, who was there last night at the O₂ Arena. Jerry, are you telling me that there were probably only five people there at the O₂ Arena last night who were also there at Led Zeppelin’s very first gig ever? That was in Gladsaxe…how many years ago? In 1968! Of course, there are the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin plus you, Jerry Ritz and your wife, Annie. Only the five of you had also been there at the very first concert! Tell me. How was it?

RITZ:

Yes! It has been 39 years and 94 days since that Danish debut in 1968. It was a tremendous experience! It was very symbolic that they started out with Good Time, Bad Times because it has the following lyrics: “In the days of my youth, I was told to be a man. Now I reached the age… etc., etc.” It was really amazing to start exactly with that song and with those words. Until the time Led Zeppelin appeared on stage, there had been some opening acts with Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings and there was this quote by Ahmet Ertegün: “It’s a great life, this life of music”. That more or less became the theme for the entire evening. [Description of background for the Ertegün tribute omitted here]

BAAGØ: It was quite a long concert, was it not?

RITZ:

One might have feared that, being a charity/aid event, it could have turned into a “birthday cake show” where each band would deliver three songs and that would be it. [Description of Bill Wyman and guests omitted here]. However, there was a long forty-minute break between the opening acts and the time when Led Zeppelin came on stage at precisely 9:02 pm GMT.

They opened with Good Times, Bad Times, followed by Ramble On and Black Dog. After that, we had the first spoken words from the scene when Robert Plant cried out, “Good evening!” But he and the band had already made their presence felt with the three first songs and had welcomed the thousands in the O₂ Arena in their own way.

BAAGØ: How did they play?

RITZ:

That’s exactly what was so great! Normally when “old” bands get together after many years, what you will see is that they will try to increase the tempo to cover up for the lack of muscle and lack of energy. What was so fine and so majestic was that Led Zeppelin kept exactly the same pace that we know from the records. There were no sped-up versions.

BAAGØ:

I imagine they played a lot of the songs that people were longing to hear, but were there any surprises?

RITZ:

Well, they did play a lot of those songs you might expect to hear but, in between, they played some of the more rare songs. It was not only their “greatest hits”, but all the great hits were there. But what I think was the best, was that they stayed loyal to the way in which they had performed the songs before.

In contrast to back in the 1970s when they all were in their colourful costumes, they did stay true to their age. They were more or less dressed in black. Jimmy Page started out with sunglasses on, wore a long black jacket and had his very white hair. The jacket disappeared after the first three songs, then the vest and he ended the concert in a white shirt and black trousers. The big screen in the back of the stage was, of course, very revealing of their age. You could see all the wrinkles on the old gentlemen, but the energy was exactly the same. They would not be able to deny that Jimmy Page is now 63, Robert Plant is 59, etc. – and they did not try to hide this fact.

BAAGØ:

Could you see? Did they seem to be happy to be together again? There are so many rumours of a possible tour. Did they look like they would only be together again for one time or…?

RITZ:

As the evening progressed and as the giant screen followed every expression on their faces, you could ascertain that they were smiling a lot. Jimmy Page, in particular, seemed to be enjoying himself. John Paul Jones seemed to be concentrating more in the beginning but, as the show went on, they seemed able to relax and smile a lot at each other. There seemed to be a very good rapport between the three “old” Led Zeppelin members and Jason Bonham. They would often gather around the drum set. You should remember that, as a four man band they did not take up more space in the O₂ Arena than they did at the Egegård School in Gladsaxe. But they maintained very close contact among the four of them and often they would end up very close to the drum set.

BAAGØ:

Did you notice any other similarities between London in 2007 and Egegård School in Gladsaxe in 1968?

RITZ:

Yes! Actually, you may say that such a small band – only three instruments and one vocalist – has this tremendously big sound. That was as noticeable back then as it is now. It is incredible that only three instruments can create this big sound. It is, of course to a large extent based on the guitar playing of Jimmy Page. If someone were in doubt beforehand – now it is 27 years since they played a full concert together although they have played a few smaller gigs together since then, i.e., at the Live Aid benefit which was no big advertisement for them – they now proved that they are still up there in the lead.

BAAGØ: So you think they were as good yesterday as they were in Gladsaxe in 1968?

RITZ:

Absolutely. They were better! But it is also an entirely different set-up. Yesterday evening, twelve fresh, in tune guitars were handed to Jimmy Page after each song. This was definitely not the case in Gladsaxe. At that time, he would even have to carry his own amplifiers to the scene and unpack all the gear. Back then there were no extra services. So when I sat in the O₂ Arena and I was thinking back some forty years, there was of course a lot of difference between these world celebrities and their performance at Gladsaxe Teen Club. But at the core, there is no difference. The music is the same. They are the same three people with a drummer who can well compete with his father.

BAAGØ:

Did you have a backstage pass? Could you go backstage and make a small agreement to have Led Zeppelin come back to the Egegård School in Gladsaxe in September 2008 to celebrate their 40^th anniversary with a new concert?

RITZ:

No – unfortunately I did not. But rumours did actually spread that I had been present at their first- ever performance. We met a lot of people and there was a fantastic, warm ambiance. Everybody felt that they were part of a kind of club because they were among the lucky few to get the chance to buy a ticket for the event. I was even interviewed twice for foreign television stations to compare this event with when it all started back at the Egegård School in Gladsaxe.

BAAGØ: How did the concert end?

RITZ:

Well, they actually continued to play for more than two hours. And it was fantastic that they did not try to get away with only a few numbers. They ended the concert with Kashmir when they had been playing for one hour and 52 minutes. After that, there was five minutes of standing ovations. People were just completely crazy. Then they came back and performed Whole Lotta Love with an interlude that left room for improvising between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. It was on the spot without rehearsals, so it was “alive”. As I said before, it was evident that they were seeking to recreate their style from before the break, but there was also this “nerve” that made it all so alive.

With Whole Lotta Love exactly two hours had passed and it was then 11.02 pm GMT. They left the scene again, only to come back and perform a fantastic version of Rock and Roll.

To sum it all up, it was a tremendous experience to be there. What made it special was also the fact that there were people of all ages – young people who were not born when Led Zeppelin played their first concert and young people who were not even born when they went their separate ways in 1980 when John Bonham died. It was such a mixed group of people and not only the old and grey who met to remember their youth again. It was not a nostalgic event as such. But everybody seemed to have their special moments and memories with Led Zeppelin. Memories that were exchanged also at our hotel bar after the concert was over.

But their music is definitely still alive. There was a very special moment after the last encore when the young Bonham went down onto his knees and, with his hands over his head, bowed low before his father’s three old colleagues. He need not have been so humble, though. His performance on the drums was well worthy of his father and kept the “new” Led Zeppelin act well together.

BAAGØ:

Well thank you, Jerry. Your report has been so good, I almost feel I attended the concert myself!

RITZ: You should have been there! It did completely live up to all our expectations.