Brother and Sister Self-publish Book to Commemorate Led Zeppelin’s 40th Anniversary
FORT ERIE, ON, July 25, 2008 – After forty years, you’d think it would be difficult to find something new to say about Britain’s rock’n’roll super group, Led Zeppelin. Author Frank Reddon has spent over a decade on the research trail to do just that. He and his sister, Lou Anne Reddon, are about to release the first in a series of three books, called Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume I – Break & Enter will be officially launched on September 7, 2008 – exactly forty years after Led Zeppelin’s first-ever public appearance. That was at Gladsaxe Teen Club, in Copenhagen, Denmark. At the time, the group was called “The New Yardbirds”. Frank and Lou Anne met with and interviewed people who actually attended that historic performance.
Their accounts form an important part of the book, which is based entirely upon primary source interviews Frank has conducted with authors, musicians, educators, audience members from forty years ago and people involved with the group’s ongoing legacy today. “Nothing like this has ever been written about Led Zeppelin,” Frank explains. “The tales of rock’n’roll excess have been done to death. Volume I – Break & Enter seeks to explain how and why Led Zeppelin’s music has endured, as told by the people who were there watching music history be made.” Chapter I is called “Break”. It deals with the band’s earliest days, when founder and lead guitarist Jimmy Page was still with The Yardbirds, then The New Yardbirds and finally Led Zeppelin. Chapter 2 is called “& Enter”. Its focus is on the band’s First U.S. and Canadian Tour of 1968-69 when Led Zeppelin was just one of several “British Invasion Bands” trying to make a name for itself in the North American market.
“You don’t have to be a Led Zeppelin fan or scholar to appreciate what this book is about,” says Frank’s sister, Lou Anne, “I wasn’t!” She explains that the book is not just about Led Zeppelin, but provides a fascinating overview of the popular music scene in the 1960s. “Frank’s interviewees describe the venues where Led Zeppelin played and what it was like to be in the audience, hearing them for the very first time. Some of these people were musicians who shared the bill with Zeppelin. They offer amazing insights into the band members’ technical abilities that only other musicians would be aware of. Then there’s the whole hippie counterculture aspect that Baby Boomers will recall with affection and that this generation will be learning of through eyewitness accounts.”
The hardcover 7×9″ book of 700+ pages is not available in book stores, but can be pre-purchased online at their website, www.enzepplopedia.com. Until the release date, the shipping to USA and Canada is free and international orders are half off. The book itself costs $59.95 plus GST.
