Led Zeppelin’s fight for attention and how they fudged their backstory

Led Zeppelin’s fight for attention and how they fudged their backstory

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold October 14, 2025 Duration: 39:42

This lavish, beautifully designed collection of late ‘60s news stories, reviews and press clippings sheds new light on the band’s roots and ascent from the days when the Kidderminster Shuttle would spell their name wrong and print their parents’ address. Richard Morton Jack, author and compiler of ‘Led Zeppelin: The Only Way To Fly’, looks back here at ….

 

… the fact that there was already a group called ‘Lead Zeppelin’ in 1967

 

… the way Page has fudged early details of his and the band’s career

 

… why 1968 was Last Chance Saloon for Plant, Jones and Bonham

 

… the second British Invasion and why America was so ready for them

 

… “the Hindenburg was only 30 years earlier. Imagine using the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster on a cover now!”

 

… their claim that critics always hated them in the face of massive evidence to the contrary

 

… Plant’s publicity stunts before he joined the band – Harold Macmillan, Legalise Pot, the Noise Abatement Society …

 

… the ‘60s Birmingham scene v the London scene


… their eternal grievance about the press sparked by the “Ground Zero” moment of Rolling Stone’s 1968 review

 

… the venues they played - the Toby Jug in Tolworth, Pirate World, an aqua theater, an ice rink in Vegas

 

… and the bands they shared bills with - Frosty Moses, Kimla Taz, the Ladybirds.

 

Order a copy of Led Zeppelin: The Only Way To Fly here: https://lansdownebooks.com/


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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