When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin

When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin

by Mick Wall (Author)

Synopsis

Forty years since their formation in a grubby Chinatown basement comes the first truly definitive biography of the world's most legendary rock band - Led Zeppelin. They were 'the last great band of the sixties; the first great band of the seventies'; they rose, somewhat unpromisingly, from the ashes of the Yardbirds to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time. Mick Wall, respected rock writer and former confidant of both Page and Plant, unflinchingly tells the story of the band that wrote the rulebook for on-the-road excess - and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction and death. When Giants Walked the Earth reveals for the first time the true extent of band leader Jimmy Page's longstanding interest in the occult, and goes behind the scenes to expose the truth behind their much-hyped yet spectacularly contrived comeback at London's O2 arena last year, and how Jimmy Page plans to bring the band back permanently - if only his former protege, now part-time nemesis, Robert Plant will allow him to. And Wall also recounts, in a series of flashbacks, the life stories of the five individuals that made the dream of Led Zeppelin into an even more incredible and hard-to-swallow reality: Page, Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and their infamous manager, Peter Grant. Above all, a book that tells the full, shocking story of Led Zeppelin from the inside, written by someone who has known Jimmy Page for over twenty years, When Giants Walked the Earth is the culmination of several years research. It is based not just on the individual interviews with every member of the band that author Mick Wall has conducted over the years - as well as those who knew and worked with them - but on the insight that only thirty years working in the music business alongside its biggest artists can bring.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 496
Edition: Second Impression
Publisher: Orion
Published: 30 Oct 2008

ISBN 10: 0752875477
ISBN 13: 9780752875477
Book Overview: An estimated 20 million people rushed to register for tickets to see Led Zeppelin as soon as the band announced their reunion concert to take place in November 2007 (band broke up in 1980) Led Zeppelin IV has now sold over 40 million copies. The 2003 dvd became became the world's biggest-selling music dvd of all time. Led Zeppelin on the cover Q or Mojo usually ensures that year's biggest-selling issue. Whole new generations continually discover Led Zep. Today, fifteen-year-olds are almost as likely to own a Led Zeppelin cd as a Nirvana album.

Media Reviews
'So this is the big one: a fat, juicy biography of the biggest band ever...Mick Wall, the veteran rock journalist, lays it all bare in a book that can only be described as definitive.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'As well as being the most complete account yet of a great British rock band, When Giants Walked the Earth is, as its name implies, a document of a bygone age...Wall has done his subject proud.' SUNDAY TIMES 'It deftly strikes the balance between lofty authority and finding a way to get inside the heads of its subjects' GUARDIAN 'This fantastic account of Led Zeppelin's wild and decadent heyday is as detailed and definitive as music biographies get.' LONDON LITE 'The definitive account of rock legends Led Zeppelin' DAILY RECORD 'A fascinating and diligently reseached account of rock'n'roll excess.' YORKSHIRE EVENING POST 'The definitive book about Led Zeppelin... Mick Wall has done a fine job here and certainly knows his stuff.' BIRMINGHAM POST 'That Wall can add so much fresh details to the Led Zep story is in itself an extraordinary achievements. That he manages to humanise these planet-striding giants while doing so puts this book into the definitive category.' CLASSIC ROCK MAGAZINE 'We've read about the booze, drugs, devil worship and deviant sex... Mick Wall delves a loot deeper into the dark stuff' IRISH TIMES
Author Bio
Mick Wall was the founding editor of Classic Rock Magazine. He's the author of numerous music titles, including books on John Peel, Iron Maiden, Don Arden and Black Sabbath. He ghosted XS All Areas: the autobiography of Status Quo, and is a former dj on Capital Radio.