Peter Grant: The Man Who Led Zeppelin

by Chris Welch

  After The Beatles’ world-shattering 1964 US tour, British acts could now reasonably expect to conquer the American market, given a fair wind and a hit record. Such aspirations would have seemed like a pipe dream a decade earlier, when American product ruled the airwaves. The album market was also beginning to develop, and more serious – and talented – blues and rock bands were increasingly infiltrating the pop charts. Hippie favourites Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd were at the forefront of a social and musical revolution. Peter Grant was an Elvis Presley fan from way back, but he could relate to the kind of stuff young British bands were playing. He could certainly see their potential. The Animals had been a big hit in America, but hadn’t personally made much money. Despite their cheesy image, the New Vaudeville Band had demonstrated to him the power of US radio play. Somehow there had to be a way of putting together a great looking band that played cutting edge rock and who could reap their just rewards.

  The Yardbirds, he reasoned, might be the key to the puzzle. In view of their importance to Peter Grant’s greatest enterprise, it is relevant to recap their exploits. First assembling in 1963, the original Yardbirds were dedicated to interpreting the blues riffs of their heroes, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. Hailing from the leafy suburb of Richmond in Surrey, these polite, good-looking young kids pioneered the R&B revival in Britain, alongside the somewhat less well-mannered Rolling Stones and Pretty Things. Over the next four years the group was blessed with some extraordinarily talented lead guitarists, arguably the best of their generation. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page all started their careers with The Yardbirds.

  They were originally managed by the mercurial Giorgio Gomelsky, who in 1963 employed them to replace The Rolling Stones at Richmond’s Crawdaddy Club. At this time the line-up included Keith Relf (vocals), Eric Clapton (guitar), Chris Dreja (guitar), Paul Samwell-Smith (bass) and Jim McCarty (drums). Boosted by ‘Slowhand’ Clapton’s ‘rave up’ solos, the band quickly won a fanatical following. However Clapton was a blues purist and he grew increasingly unhappy with their deliberately commercial singles, particularly ‘For Your Love’, a Graham Gouldman song replete with harpsichord and bongo backing, and a choral chant that sounded as if it had been recorded by a congregation of monks.

  In March 1965, as the record shot up the chart, Eric decided to quit, only to resurface in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and then Cream. Chris Dreja, the band’s rhythm guitarist still feels that The Yardbirds weren’t entirely to blame for Clapton’s shock departure. “It was ‘Got To Hurry’, the B-side of ‘For Your Love’ that got Eric the job with John Mayall. I often wonder what thoughts went through Eric’s head when he left the group and ‘For Your Love’ did so well!”

  Meanwhile the band had gigs to play and needed a new guitarist. First they approached Jimmy Page. Recalls Jim McCarty: “He’d seen us a few times and he knew our manager Giorgio Gomelsky, but he was too well established doing sessions to want to go out on the road.” Jimmy recommended they try out his friend Jeff Beck, then leading his own band The Tridents. Chris Dreja recalls that when Jeff first joined the band he was regarded as a bit of an enigma. “We didn’t know much about his background but although he wasn’t very ‘verbal’ he used to talk through his guitar. It was the oddest thing. You’d be sitting in the van going to some dreadful place and Jeff would remain pretty quiet. Then he’d get his guitar out and he really came alive. Although it’s hard for people to believe now, Eric wasn’t a guitar virtuoso at that point. He was still learning licks and sometimes he wouldn’t play lead guitar, he’d go and stand behind his amp.”

  Once Jeff Beck was established in The Yardbirds he clearly wanted to put his own stamp on the music. Says Chris: “He worked from emotions and although he was pretty good with us, if something got up his nose he just blew up, stormed out, walked off and smashed his guitar. He had a control problem!”

  Beck developed his unique sound on The Yardbirds’ albums and singles like ‘Heart Full Of Soul’, ‘Evil Hearted You’ and ‘Shapes Of Things’ during 1966. Says Chris: “Jeff was probably the best thing that happened to the band because during his era the music was outstanding. He’s such a lovely guy and such a talented, original guitarist.”

  Despite the band’s successful second wind with Jeff Beck at the helm, the endless touring, particularly in America, began to take its toll. Their blond-haired lead singer Keith Relf began to drink heavily, which badly affected his performances on stage. Dreja: “As Keith was very fragile, both health wise and mentally, the drink started to get on top of him. There were pressures on him that we didn’t know about, but it was hard for him to compete with the lead guitarist and front a band. So he started to get seriously out of order at times.”

  On one occasion, The Yardbirds were booked to play at the Cambridge May Ball, where the drinks were plentiful and the upper crust set were more interested in partying than listening to music. Keith Relf got completely out of his head and began abusing the audience during their set. Jimmy Page had gone along to see the gig and found the whole thing most amusing. But bass player Paul Samwell-Smith was extremely embarrassed.

  Chris recalled the scene: “They do treat you very well in terms of food and drink and you do go on very late at night. Keith had a real skinful and by the time we got to play the set all he could do was blow raspberries. He’d forgotten where he was and what he was doing. He literally had to be tied to the mike stand, and of course it was in front of the Establishment crowd which really got up Paul’s nose, to be let down in this way. This was the last straw for Paul. He announced he didn’t want to continue. Ironically Jimmy Page was at the gig and he loved it. He thought this is great – this is rock’n’roll!”

  The next day Keith rang everybody to apologise and to reveal that he had broken two fingers in his right hand trying out karate chops. He had been ‘wound up’ by Allan Clarke of The Hollies and tried to break some plastic trays with his bare hands. The next time the band saw him he had his hand in a sling. Sometimes Keith got so drunk at gigs the band used to pack him in the back of the van with all the gear. They’d dump him outside his house with his harmonicas and bottle of whiskey.

  Chris: “There were demons going on in his head one can work out now. The band was becoming more guitar oriented and he was never a great singer. He was a brilliant harmonica player, but PA systems weren’t as sophisticated as they are now. So things got to him. The thing was Jimmy was there and when Paul pulled out Jimmy was so keen to play in the band he came in on bass. He decided he wanted a bit of life on the road.”

  Jimmy Page played his first date with The Yardbirds at The Marquee after just a couple of hour’s rehearsal and stayed with the band for two years. Page’s first Yardbirds tour came in September 1966, supporting Ike & Tina Turner and The Rolling Stones. Next came the States, by which time Jimmy had stopped playing bass and started playing lead guitar alongside Jeff Beck. They were pals – but on stage they could be deadly rivals.

  Recalls Chris: “They were very different personalities – Jeff and Jimmy. There was this slightly out of control egomaniac and this guy who had spent years doing sessions for Burt Bacharach. Jimmy was so professional and very fresh, as he hadn’t been on the road. He was a very astute guy too and knew the business. We were just naïve really. Jimmy knew exactly where he was going. Very disciplined, very controlled.

  “Jimmy was a doctor’s son from Epsom and had a very similar background to us. But he had a certain shrewdness that most people in rock’n’ roll didn’t have. He was also a very adaptable guitar player. As a businessman he had quite a tough edge to him because he’d spent a lot of time around producers and had probably picked up all the vibes.”

  Indeed, by the time he became a Yardbird Jimmy Page was among the most experienced pop musicians in Britain – even though he was largely unknown outside the music industry itself. Born James Patrick Page on January 9, 1944 at Heston, Middlesex, he grew up in Epsom, the home of the Derby in genteel, Tory-voting Surrey, a
world away from the swamp-infested American south where the blues took root. Like John Paul Jones, he sang in a choir and seemed precociously gifted as a musician. He took up guitar from the age of 13, had a few lessons but was essentially self-taught, and remembers having his guitar confiscated at school when he tried practising during classes. He was turned on to rock’n’roll in 1959 when he heard Elvis Presley’s hit ‘Baby, Let’s Play House’. Thereafter he devoted almost all of his spare time to perfecting Scotty Moore’s solos on Elvis’s early Sun recordings. After leaving school he joined Neil Christian & The Crusaders, who had seen him playing in a local dance hall, and by the age of 15 Jimmy’s reputation as a skilled Chuck Berry style R&B player was starting to spread, albeit within musicians’ circles only. Around this time he befriended Jeff Beck. “He looked like a shrimp who was as thin as a pipe cleaner,” said Beck. “He used to play fiery, fast stuff. The trouble was, no one was listening.”

  Heavy touring, late nights and comfortless berths took their toll on Jimmy, who was just out of school, and he suffered a bout of glandular fever. So, after two years gigging with The Crusaders, Jimmy quit and went to Art College for 18 months, although he often took time out to jam with his friend Jeff Beck. As the R&B boom took off he visited all the clubs and sat in with bands, and in late 1962 was invited to play on his first session by producer Mike Leander. Intriguingly, the session yielded ‘Diamonds’ the number one hit by Jet Harris & Tony Meehan. Sensing that this was where his future lay, Jimmy studied music more closely and embarked on a career as one of London’s most in-demand young session guitarists. He played on hundreds of records over the next few years, working with everyone from Burt Bacharach to Johnny Dankworth. He also played on records by The Who, The Kinks and Them. Jimmy even released his own solo single called ‘She Just Satisfies’ in 1965. That same year he did some work for Immediate Records’ boss Andrew Oldham and produced some blues tracks with Eric Clapton. By 1966 he was ready to quit the studios and go back on the road. The Yardbirds seemed like the ideal setting.

  By this time manager Giorgio Gomelsky had dropped out of the picture, to be succeeded by Simon Napier-Bell, who had formerly managed Marc Bolan and John’s Children. Says Chris Dreja: “We never made any money with Giorgio. He admitted that he was very loose with money. We didn’t really make a lot more with Simon Napier-Bell. Now Jimmy Page knew this guy Peter Grant from way back, having done lots of sessions for Mickie Most. Apparently Jimmy had gone up to Grant saying we were a world famous band, we’d done all these tours, had all these hits and he was only getting twenty quid a week. So Peter started to go on the road with us and partially manage us. Simon Napier-Bell spoke to Grant and said: ‘Well, the boys are all right but there is one troublemaker,’ meaning Jimmy Page.”

  Jimmy himself laughed when he heard this description. “Too right!” he said, emphasising the way the band toured endlessly for little financial reward.

  Chris Dreja: “Simon Napier-Bell did get us one publishing advance, which was the first real money we had ever seen. He had film connections and through that we appeared in the film Blow Up which probably was good for us.”

  In the movie Jeff Beck smashed up his guitar, Pete Townshend style, while the band played ‘Train Kept A Rollin’ ‘ renamed for the movie as ‘Stroll On’. It was one of the best moments in the ambitious 1966 cult film, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring David Hemmings, but despite this coup The Yardbirds were still not satisfied with their management. Napier-Bell admits there were difficulties after he took over from Giorgio Gomelsky: “I was finding them very troublesome, especially recording them. Mickie Most then suggested that he should record them, which I thought was outrageous. On the other hand, he’d had success with The Animals and had some credibility. I didn’t think he was right for The Yardbirds, but they didn’t seem to mind. I think they’d probably had enough of me. So I agreed that he should record them. I think he’d had it in mind for quite a long time. I went to see him at his office in Oxford Street, next to the Academy Cinema and above the original Marquee club. Peter Grant sat at his big desk, right opposite Mickie. They both knew Jimmy Page very well because Mickie had used Jimmy on all the Herman’s Hermits sessions.”

  Napier-Bell says he found Jimmy quite difficult to handle and confirms they didn’t hit it off. “I think Jimmy thought I was an inexperienced young manager and that he knew more than I did. He was probably right! In fact I never even had a management contract with Jimmy Page. I said that he could join the group, but I would just manage them.”

  Simon could see the internal pressures that were gradually tearing The Yardbirds apart. “The problem was when Jimmy played lead, Jeff was no longer the star solo hero and neither enjoyed the situation very much. When they played the same lines in stereo, Jimmy was just playing Jeff’s line and both felt unfulfilled. They began to fall out and halfway through a tour of America it collapsed badly. Jeff went off in a bad mood and Jimmy and The Yardbirds just finished the tour without him. Peter Grant always amused me because he had such a dry sense of humour. I told him that The Yardbirds were a bloody nuisance and he said, ‘Oh, I could deal with them, I’d just hang them out the first floor window.’ I’d laugh because it was exactly what he might do!

  “I never felt intimidated by him but he was very wobbly. He was a big lump of jelly. You didn’t look at him and think ‘What a tough guy’, you thought ‘What a big guy’. On the other hand, when it comes to being a wrestler, being big counts for a lot. You wouldn’t want him to roll on you. But he was always fun and he said, ‘Oh I’d deal with Jimmy, no problem.’ So I said, ‘Well why don’t you manage the buggers?’ He said, ‘All right,’ and I said I’d manage Jeff Beck, because I liked him a lot. The Yardbirds were all nice people really, but they weren’t getting on very well and I wasn’t into conflicts. I didn’t really understand that’s what groups are all about. I thought they were all supposed to be nice! So he took on The Yardbirds and occasionally I’d meet up with him for a chat and find out how they were doing.”

  Recalled Peter Grant: “I had known Jimmy Page for some while when I took on The Yardbirds. He’d done loads of session work over the years and had become involved with the band only just before I was approached to take over their management. What happened was that Simon Napier-Bell wanted to offload the band, because he was keen to become a film producer. So I took them, along with Jeff Beck.”

  Whenever Simon spoke to Peter, his successor took pains to explain his philosophy for managing a group and plotting their career strategy, a key tenet of which was not issuing singles. Clearly the failure of all recent Yardbirds’ singles had shown that releasing them might no longer be the best option for an underground rock band. “He did that at a very early stage,” says Simon. “The funny thing was – with Mickie Most – chart success with singles was all-important. Yet Peter thought that if you put a single out you were competing to get into the chart and if you don’t get into the chart, you are then a failure. If you don’t put a single out – you can’t be a failure!

  “Maybe working with Mickie had made him think about this, because charts ruled Mickie Most’s life, or perhaps Jimmy Page had given him the idea. Either way, he and Jimmy worked very well together. Peter always thanked me for giving him Jimmy Page and earning him £200 million! He spent a lot of time travelling with Jimmy and The Yardbirds. In fact he spent his whole time with them and in effect they became the prototype Led Zeppelin. It was funny how well Jimmy and Peter got on because Jimmy was a very softly spoken, gentle guy and Peter was from a very different background and education.”

  Simon didn’t think The Yardbirds saw Peter as their father figure. “They weren’t looking for fathers, they just recognised what talents he had and he did well for them. It was a relationship that suited everyone very well. Meanwhile, I took over Jeff Beck and in those days I used to think that simple talent won out. He was and is the greatest blues guitarist ever, I think. Eric Clapton almost wrecked himself trying to play the blues, whi
le Jeff just drank a cup of tea and played better anyway!”

  With The Yardbirds behind him, Jeff Beck put together his own group with Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass guitar, Nicky Hopkins on piano and Mickey Waller on drums. On paper it was a dream ticket, but in reality it was riddled with tensions. “What I hadn’t allowed for was that Jeff didn’t really rehearse his first group properly,” says Napier-Bell. “He formed the group with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood and I thought they couldn’t go wrong. They opened up for The Small Faces on tour at the Astoria in Finsbury Park and it all went wrong. Rod came on stage with his flies undone and the curtain fell on top of the guitarist and then somebody from The Small Faces pulled the plugs out, so the power went off. It was a dismal concert and I couldn’t snap my fingers and come up with a solution. The real problem was they hadn’t rehearsed. The trouble was, I was the same age as them and felt too intimidated by them to tell them what to do. I couldn’t say, ‘You lazy cunts!’ like Peter Grant would have done. I just sidled out of the whole management thing for a few years and came back again in the Eighties with Wham! and found I could do it this time.”

  Despite his association with Grant, Napier-Bell didn’t take any cues from his style of management. “I didn’t really take any tips from Peter. All managers are completely individual and there was nothing that Peter did which would have worked for me. I admired Andrew Oldham and Kit Lambert enormously, but I couldn’t have managed artists in the same way. I wouldn’t say that Peter wasn’t a tiny bit villainous. He just wasn’t villainous with me!”