NYC premiere part 2.

[tytlane@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Nech)]

Wow, 24 hours ago I was reeling and rockin to the restored archival footage of 
the greatest 
band ever on a big screen with nice crisp loud theater dts dound. Amazing , 
simply amazing.

I'll try to keep it short here but it's hard. I can probably transcribe each 
and every 
conversation to the t but that'll be in my own diary. For you I'll keep it 
simple. 

If you don't like the cover art...hit delete now ok? If you don't wanna pay 
more that $16.99 
hit delete ok? If you wanna hate me..well you probably already did. just don't 
hit me. 
I bruise easily.

I didn't mention it yesterday but here's a rundown of the songs that were in 
the 2 hr 
condensed premiere:
RAH: WGG,ICQY,D&C,WS(partial),WIAWSNB,MD(partial),WLL,CB,IS
OZ '72 IS splodge edit. Oh this was mind numbing for the audience. I think 
everyone was 
surprised to see COLOR footage!
MSG: BD,MMH,The Ocean- highlight for me!
EC: GTC,IMTOD,STH
Knebworth: R&R, NBFB,Kashmir,WLL
total: 1hr 58 min.

As the lights came up and people started arising from their seats I think 
everyone had the 
same feeling...We had all just been witness of something special here. The 
re-birth of the 
Gods. Atlantic execs hugging, fans wiping tears, Kevin Shirley being 
congratulated by me for 
such a fine job done on the sound engineering but where were the lads????? It 
made sense now 
that our showing had been delayed. While we were in the VIP screening, the 
other theaters had 
started earlier and upon being let out, they were now having their "party" and 
meet and greet 
in the Lobby. So all the radio contest winners, Q-crew and such were gathered 
in an enclosed 
area outside the upper theaters and *we* weren't granted access. Too bad , I so 
wanted to 
snatch one of those inflateable promo blimps. HAving a pass to a "private 
party" in pocket 
though I dare not complain. There was a loud voice behind me saying "This MUST 
be the man I'm 
looking for!" It was Tangerineman ( Mike Gilson ) !!! Ha HA, you made it bud! 
Unfortunately he 
just missed the opening speeches but was there for the rest. First comment was 
how the sound 
was just so much better here as compared to the viewing he attended the other 
night. 
I immediately told him about Kevin Shirley pouncing out of his seat every time 
something sounded 
a bit off. Mike's wife couldn't make it. Mike then introduced us to his buddy 
and other FBO'er 
Pascal B. ( I'm not even gonna try to spell your name dude! ) Pascal's one good 
looking guy gals! 
His French accent was so heavy my wife kept on referring to him as Jacques 
throughout the night! 

We all discovered that we're "in" so strode off towards 38th St. Had to stop by 
car and pick 
up jacket for wife so caught up with Cindy, Dave, Jeremy and Kat at the "Lobby" 
 As we approached 
the location we were beginning to wonder if this was the right place, cause let 
me tell you 38th 
& 9th ave is not exactly posh city..if anything it looks like muggers paradise. 
But lo and behold 
behind those forbidding gnarly metal doors exists a world of the like you'd 
never expect. 
Once past the "list keepers" and really really big bouncers we were greeted by 
a very dimly lit 
but quite appealing club room/bar. Some food in the back and really good drinks 
at the bar. 
I'm a beer boy so decided to stick with Heinekens.

It was actually pretty quiet other than the odd mix of Datsuns,Bowie, Donnas, 
and various new 
hip music being spun by a very serious " I can break you with my scowl " 
looking dj-ess. Was 
this a Matrix dream I'm in? 
We settled down with our drinks and finally really got to talk to each other. 
Cindy and her 
hubby are great folks & hit it off with my wife as did Jeremy and Kat. All good 
people. 
I like good people. Mike, Pascal and myself however immediately found ourselves 
"on the prowl" 
looking for signs of our boys. First to show up was JPJ with his wife maureen 
and Jimmena. 
Cindy, who does alot of work for the ABC Trust, was very acustomed to all these 
people so 
she was very nice in introducing us to Jimmena and some of the other key 
players in the 
organization and Jimmy's side of the Zep camp. I envy her! Oh BTW Dave, her 
hubby, was sporting 
the most fab LZ tie I have ever seen. Must find one for my own wardrobe. Then 
the place got 
instantly more crowded as JP and his security entourage entered as well as 
Plant's. 
Jimmy was quickly escorted to the back and was being introduced to VIP's I did 
not recognize 
and Robert took up shop in front of the club by the bar. He was immediately 
surrounded and 
hounded by the beautiful people and getting near him was impossible it seemed. 
As I made my 
way back I noticed that Jimmy was already missing!!!! OH NO ! Was that it?!?!?! 
I found Jimmena 
and in the midst of speaking to her I snuck in " Ummmm like where's Jimmy? Has 
he left already?" 
She explained that he wasn't too fond of tight crowded places but will be 
around once things 
settle down. We parted ways and I found myself by JPJ's side. I just didn't 
know how to approach 
the man. So I just stood by trying to be as casual as I could listening to the 
other conversations 
he was in...of course the inevitable reunion questions and eye rolls. I had my 
break there and 
chimed in to his wife "Oh my just how often does he have to hear that?" That 
broke the ice for 
me and before we knew it my wife , Maureen and me were standing about talking 
about our kids!!. 
Holy smokes...such good down to earth people I would never imagine them to be. 
Eventually I 
got to talking with John Paul and spoke of our trek to Bron-Yr-Aur, my wife 
being Scottish, and 
music of course. I mentioned how inspired I was by his mandolin playing during 
the Zooma tour 
and how I picked up mine again afterwards. He told me "Just keep on playing it! 
It's a fabulouly 
fun instrument to play" And then a question I had been thinking of for some 
time now.

NEWSFLASH!!!YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!!!  I, along with Mike and Jeremy as 
witnesses got this 
from the horses mouth so to speak: I asked "John, it's been bugging some of us 
for over 20 years 
now...just what was that phone doing on your keyboards at Knebworth?!?!?!?" We 
explained how 
this has been a topic of discussion on FBO many times over and we just had to 
know. And the 
answer is " Well, it served no purpose really. It just was put there sometime 
during rehearsals 
and soundcheck and just became stuck there and became sort of glued to the set. 
I really don't 
know why it just sort of never got moved" So there you have it...no direct line 
to Mellotron 
support, no line to Satan, no request line to the Queen. It was just there.
HA!  John is an extremely amicable person as is his wife. We asked for his 
autograph and even 
for a multitude of posed pictures. He gladly and graciously oblidged. Of course 
Tango man cut 
off my head in one, John Paul in the other and got a great close up of the back 
of my wife's 
head with my camera but his shots came out great and am awaiting breathlessly 
for them to arrive. 
This was the first of the index cards I had brought along to be used. One down 
2 to go!!!! 
We could've talked for ages but there were other people that we were hogging 
him from so I 
decided to try to get at Plant again. Robert was still by the bar and seemed to 
be getting a 
bit tired of the people around him and as he was walking towards the back, when 
asked by Mike 
if he could sign his Neal Preston's "Portraits" book, brushed him aside and 
sternly said "NO." 
hmmph. I guess if you don't have the cleavage you don't rate. Robert, hate to 
sat it, but that 
is just plain not a nice way to behave towards your fans. So be it. Soon after 
that Robert 
disappeared. No matter really as I was just absolutely thrilled at this point 
to even have 
been in the same room with them. I was trully honored to be living this life of 
the rich and 
famous!! I spoke with Kevin Shirley again and congratulated him once again on a 
job well done. 
He explained that it was alot of painstakingly detailed work, expecially 
considering the age 
of some of the material they had to work woth. Remeber folks, some of it's 
close to 35 years 
old and certainly wasn't recorded in a 5.1 fashion or even close. Did I mention 
Kevin's 
"Caveman" nickname suits him to a t. He's a big strong boy!

 After hobnobbing about for awhile Cindy then pointed out to me a close 
personal associate to 
Mr. Jimmy P. And I decided to take the initiative to introduce myself. Hey, you 
never know right?
  
I came up to him, introduced myself and before I could even begin to thank him 
he loudly blurts 
out "So you're the famous NEch!" I almost shit in my pants! And then he 
goes.."So does your 
wife still think you're loony?" "Excuse me?" I go. And he says, "Yeah in your 
post this morning 
you said you're wife thinks you're all loonies" I couldn't believe what I was 
hearing!!! I 
said " Seriously you actually read my posts?" And he says" Yes WE always do" 
Coronary # 2. 
That was like the most humbling thing I've ever heard. Of course I proceeded to 
thank him 
very heartily for the DVD releases, the music Jimmy has produced and for this 
party. Jeremy 
was with me at the time and we talked a bit about the list and he told us that 
they use us as 
a "barometer" so to say to see what the people think and judge the pulse of the 
Zeppelin 
community. Then he asks us "Have you met the band?" coronary # 3!!!!! "Why no , 
I mean other 
than chatting with John Paul, his wife and Jimmena  no sir we haven't" He 
motions for us to 
follow him and I ask, "Can I please get my wife?" He hesitated for a bit and 
then said "Ok... 
your wife? YEs I guess that'll be fine." As we were walking to the secret 
staircase, I 
grabbed Linda ( My wife who's as loony as me now!) by the arm and said " don't 
ask just let's go"
He cleared us past the security ( really tight at this point I must say..kinda 
like the 
Secret Service all decked out with dark shades, earpieces and walkie talkies ) 

He leads us to a table where Jimmy is seated and once Jimmy is done speaking to 
other folks 
He simply says "There are some people I'd like you to meet" Oh my Jesus, Oh my 
Lord, my world 
stood perfectly still. All these years, all those flights of fancy, what to 
say, what to do.... 
How do I ...what do I... And Jimmy in his ever so quiet and demure voice simply 
starts off, 
"Why Hello, how are you." He's HUMAN!!!! I took his hand and simply said, "It's 
an honor to 
meet you sir. I have loved your music for so long and it has meant so much to 
me, I just want 
to thank you, thank you so much for the wonderful music you have provided to us 
over the years.
" I then actually introduced my wife Linda to him and Jeremy as if we had been 
freinds for 
years!!! He just made me feel that at ease. Jimmy was just so pleasigly polite 
it was incredible. 
We pretty much just made some small talk, I told him how I saw them just blocks 
away in the 
Garden in '77 and followed their solo carreer, we even mention our Bron-Yr-TRek 
again and my 
wife asked about him living in Scotland as she's Scottish and after shaking his 
hand for the 
3rd time and saying thank you again and agin it finally dawned on me to ask if 
we can have his 
autograph. He said sure and I pulled out my deck of index cards and when he 
asked to who to write 
it to I said "Nech n-e-c-h..." I swear to you he stopped looked at me and with 
an almost knowingly 
inflection to his voice said "Ohhh..Nech!!! Why Sure!" I swear I felt my knees 
going weak. Did 
HE does HE read my posts?!?!?!?!?!!! His associate just smiled at me and at 
that moment I really 
really thought I was gonna lose my composure. But somehow I kept my cool and 
then actually asked 
for another autograph for Linda as I realized I should've included her to begin 
with. Mine's said 
"Rock On!" and to Linda he wrote "Lots of Love" And then pushing my luck I said 
"Oh and could you 
just do one more?" and he was laughing and said he didn't mind at all I said 
make it out to 
Mako ( My brother's nickname) and he asked "Is *that* a 
girl?!" and I explained that no, it's my brother's nickname but he's the one 
that introduced me 
to Led Zeppelin in the first place and Jimmy says "Well then,all right that's 
good enough!" and 
proceeded to write out yet another autograph for me. I gave Jeremy an index 
card and Jimmy signed 
that for him as well. Good thing I had the foresight to bring those. I was on a 
roll so figured 
might as well ask if a picture was possible. Jimmy seemed ok with it but 
another of the security 
people was vehemently opposed to it and said definately not. He said maybe 
later when Jimmy 
comes back down and I was totally fine with that. After all I had 3 autographs 
and was actually 
speaking with Jimmy.
At that point Robert Plant came up to the table waved at us, but before anyone 
could introduce us, 
Robert simply stated "Bye I'm going now" and was quickly whisked away by his 
security council. 
Oh well, so much for getting his autograph. It looked like Jimmy's team was 
also setting up for 
a move so we shook hands once more and were escorted back downstairs and as 
Jimmy was going out 
the door to his Limo I called out to him 
" Now Jimmy How about 'How the EAST was won'?!?!?" He laughed and was also 
whisked quicly towards 
a waiting Limo. And then everyone was laughing as he apparently went into the 
wrong limo and got 
out waved to everyone again and hopped into the second limo that was there. I 
guees that one was 
for Jonesy.

Apparently after Plant left is when Jones made his way up to the second level 
so didn't look 
like we'd see him for awhile again. In my opinion that made it seem as if no 
matter what's said 
there is some sort of anymosity between the two. But that's just my take on it 
and I am probably 
reading way too much into it all.

All in all, JPJ is the most easily approachable if not just for the security. I 
wonder if he 
just chooses to do it that way or if their respective management teams chose it.

We stayed downstairs until the party completely dwindled down and they started 
closing up shop. 
It was at that point that we realized that Pascal was just hitting it off 
fabulously with none 
other than Zoe Bonham! What a riot! She looks alot like her dad except much 
prettier. 
We talked and joked about for awhile, posed together for pics and got her 
autograph as well. 
I asked where Jason was and was told that he had just purchased a new home and 
was "moving house" 
In speaking of her father she reminded us "Hey I play too!!!!!" Really fun 
people. I could've 
stayed all night. It was probably around 01:30 and we had to get going, after 
all we did have a 
little one to get to gymnastics the next morning. Linda, Kat, Cindy, Dave, 
Jeremy and I all 
walked out into the cool drizzly NYC night leaving Mike and Pascal behind with 
Zoe and her 
entourage. Thinking back now I think that Pat Bonham was there as well and we 
missed out on 
getting her autograph. 

We parted ways with the rest of the gang once they hailed a cab and for the 
strangest reason , 
well not really, I had Bron-Yr-Aur playing in my head as we strode off back to 
our car engulfed 
by NYC's majestic skyscrapers, being drizzled on by God's cool rain. I thanked 
God, I thanked 
my Father(rip), I thank you & you know who you are. And people ...EYE thank yew.

Once I get my pics in and others I will put up a quick web page for your 
viewing pleasure. 
Stay tuned.

Till the next time...

Play it often, Play it loud. Disregard the art..it's the music inside that 
counts. 
We wanted it ...we got it. It's oh so good. SOOoooo GGGooooooodd!

We are the Ocean.

Nech