Robert Plant and The Band of Joy - Angel Dance @ Beacon Theater

Going back in time a bit to Sunday night January 30 at the Beacon Theater. What a great show Robert Plant and the Band of Joy put on! The above video is "Angel Dance," which was originially done by Los Lobos.

Robert Plant and The Band of Joy - 12 Gates to the City

This is such an uplifting song that Robert Plant and the Band of Joy played on Friday October 29, 2010 for the BBC Radio 2 Electric Proms. The song is an amalgamation of "12 Gates to the City" by Reverend Gary Davis; "Wade in the Water" a traditional song which appears on Patty Griffin's Downtown Church (2010) album; and Led Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying," also a traditional song which was on the band's Physical Graffiti (1976) album.

The choir is good, although not really necessary, not when you have Robert Plant and Patty Griffin singing. I really like that Plant appears to be having a great time on stage, which seems easy since he has put together such an ultra-talented group.

Favorite Song on Tommy Album

TheWho.com has a poll up asking what is your favorite song on Tommy (1969) and so far the results have "Sparks" in front with "Amazing Journey" and "Pinball Wizard" trailing. Other choices are "1921," "I'm Free" and "The Acid Queen."

The question is being asked as Roger Daltrey prepares to perform Tommy with his solo band at next week's TCT Charity Concert. He'll do a warmup show tomorrow night in Bournemouth, U.K. before the charity event on Thursday March 24.

Polls, brackets, etc. are all rubbish to me and my God have we overdone it lately....but that's for another post and another blog. Still, the poll gave me an excuse (as if one is necessary) for me to post The Who performing "Sparks." This one (audio only) is from a concert on May 31, 1976 in front of 80,000 people at the Charlton Athletic Football Ground in London.

Pete Townshend Speaks on Japan

Pete Townshend posted a message on his blog regarding the tragic events that have occurred and are ongoing in Japan He does a good job of expressing his support to Japan and concludes with:

"My cheque is in the post, sent with love, respect and gratitude that I am able to help in a small way."

It's a good post and is written with great humility. Nice job, Pete!

John Entwistle's Mom Has Died

John Entwistle's mom has passed away. This was posted by John's son Chris on his Facebook page on March 10:

Hello everyone. Would have posted later this morning once I had spoken to some people that I cannot contact until Monday am. However, the news seems to have leaked out .... so, for those of you who don't know yet, I am very sad to say my grandmother Queenie passed away at 2:45 pm on Friday. She had gone into Cheltenham Hospital having suffered a stroke several weeks ago. Even though the left hand side of her body was paralysed and she was suffering from a bad chest infection, her voice was back to the point where she could shout at nurses anyway!?!

She was appearing to rally and get better. We were talking to her about moving into a very swish nursing home in Stow to convalesce. But on Friday morning the stroke extended and she lost the right hand side - she couldn't rally from that. I was thankfully able to be with her, as were my mother and stepfather. Thank you so much for all your kind messages.

What's Next for The Who?

There's plenty of talk around the various Who message boards about what the band may or may not do next. Roger Daltrey will be playing this Saturday night in Bournemouth, U.K. This will be to warm up for his performance of Tommy on Thursday, March 24 at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concerts.

After that, it's all speculation!

Pete Townshend (pictured above with The Clash) has been very quiet in communicating with the press and the fans on The Who's website. The person that runs the site mentioned that The Who will be touring Quadrophenia in September or that there could be some kind of tour with the band doing Quadrophenia one night, a "greatest hits" show another night and possibly Tommy another night.

As one message board poster wrote, you might want to run that one by Pete.

Led Zeppelin Live @ Earl's Court (1975) - Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp

I first picked up a guitar when I was a little kid - probably around seven or eight. I broke a guitar string and decided to go for the piano instead. I was into playing for many years until college when I stopped and only played sporadically until a few years ago when I got back into it to some degree. I don't have a piano where I live so I'm not able to play as much as I would like. Although I have been looking at possibly buying a keyboard. Anyway, I started playing the guitar about three years ago. Someday I would like to be able to play this song, this incredible song off of Led Zeppelin III.

Just to clarify a couple of things: the song's title was misspelled on the album cover during initial printing and should read "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp." On another note, there is also an instrumental "Bron-Yr-Aur" which is on Zeppelin's Physical Grafitti (1975) album.

Happy Birthday Roger Daltrey!

Roger Daltrey turns 67 today! Nice front row video taken by a fan at the NME Awards on Febryary 25. Roger and the Foo Fighters performed "Young Man Blues."