TechDigits

Tech news
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Led Zeppelin were asked to do Abba-style avatar act, Jimmy Page says

Led Zeppelin were asked to do Abba-style avatar act, Jimmy Page says

Guitarist says band was approached well before talk of Abba shows but he and surviving bandmates couldn’t agree
Led Zeppelin were approached with the idea of doing an Abba-style avatar act, guitarist Jimmy Page has disclosed.

Well before there was talk of the Swedish pop group’s Voyage concert, the rock band was asked to do “that sort of thing”, Page told an audience at the Hay festival.

However, the musician and music producer said that he and his two surviving bandmates, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, couldn’t agree, so the project “didn’t really get moving”.

Page said he didn’t think a virtual tour would work for his former band the Yardbirds, but indicated that he thought it might for Led Zeppelin.

He also spoke positively about Elvis Presley’s hologram performance. “I bet that was good, but I didn’t see it”, the 78-year-old said.

The Abba show appears poised to be a critical and commercial smash for the band, highlighting the appetite of fans to still enjoy their musical heroes, even in computerised form. The show in London is to run seven times a week until December and the Guardian’s music critic Alexis Petridis described it as “genuinely jaw-dropping … any lingering sense that you’re not actually in the presence of Abba has dissolved.”

But Page admitted to having mixed opinions towards technology’s increasing involvement in music. Music videos, he said, “shut down” the wide variety of music styles that had been emerging, encouraging bands to assimilate to a model that worked well for videos.

However, he praised the way that computers allowed young people to create home studios to make music and “stick it on the internet.” He spoke of a “really exciting” band he had met in Brighton, who had found success in Vietnam. After a song they put on the internet got picked up and used in an advert in south-east Asia, this band gained popularity in that region, showing, Page said, that “it does work!”

While Page is clearly interested in the ways technology can be useful to bands, the “communion of musicians” that is achieved through live performance is essential, he said. Performing the same songs again and again was why he was a successful studio musician, he said, “because I can keep coming up with spontaneous style”.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TechDigits
0:00
0:00
Close
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The future of sports
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
UK Crypto and Stablecoin Regulations Become Law as Royal Assent is Granted
A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections
Alef Aeronautics Achieves Historic Milestone with Flight Certification for World's First Flying Car
Google Blocked Access to Canadian News in Response to New Legislation
French Politicians Advocate for Pan-European Regulation on Social Media Influencers
Melinda French Gates Advocates for Increased Female Representation in AI to Prevent Bias
Snapchat+ gains 4 million paying subscribers in its first year
Apple Makes History as the First Public Company Valued at $3 Trillion
Elon Musk Implements Twitter Limits to Tackle Data Scraping, but Faces Criticism for Technical Misunderstanding
EU and UK's Slow Electric Vehicle Adoption Raises Questions About the Transition to Green Mobility
Top Companies Express Concerns Over Europe's Proposed AI Law, Citing Competitiveness and Investment Risks
Meta Unveils Insights on AI Usage in Facebook and Instagram, Amid Growing Calls for Transparency
Crypto Scams Against Seniors Soar by 78% in 2022, Experts Urge Vigilance
The End of an Era: National Geographic Dismisses Last of Its Staff Writers
Shield Your Wallet: The Perils of Wireless Credit Card Theft
Harvard Scientist Who Studies Honesty Accused Of Data Fraud, Put On Leave
Putting an End to the Subscription Snare: The Battle Against Unwitting Commitments
The Legal Perils of AI: Lawyer Faces Sanctions for Relying on Fictional Cases Generated by Chatbot
ChatGPT’s "Grandma Exploit": Ingenious Hack Exposes Loophole in AI, Generates Free Software Codes
The Disney Downturn: A Near Billion-Dollar Box Office Blow for the House of Mouse
A Digital Showdown: Canada Challenges Tech Giants with The Online News Act, Meta Strikes Back
Distress in the Depths: Submersible and Passengers Missing in Titanic Wreckage Expedition
Mark Zuckerberg stealing another idea: Twitter
European Union's AI Regulations Risk Self-Sabotage, Cautions smart and brave Venture Capitalist Joe Lonsdale
Nvidia GPUs are so hard to get that rich venture capitalists are buying them for the startups they invest in
Chinese car exports surge
Reddit Blackout: Thousands of Communities Protest "Ludicrous" Pricing Changes
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
×