In the presence of Page

Published on February 18, 2008

Having honed their skills on the riffs of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, most of Thailand's best rock guitarists were stunned last week to find themselves summoned into the great man's presence.

Fresh from a triumphant one-off Zeppelin "reunion" concert for charity in London in December - and just past his 64th birthday - Page was enjoying a private stay in Bangkok and made two appearances at clubs on Royal City Avenue.

Warner Records managing director Nadda Buranasiri set up the initial connections.

"Actually," reports local axeman Ae Wizard, "Jimmy said he didn't want to go to any pubs because he was worried about being hounded, especially by the media, but since it was a Sunday, he told Phi Tiva to set up a private party for him."

Tiva Sarachudha, editor of Season magazine and owner of the well-known rockers' pub O-Leng, and Nol "Or Inca" Singholka quickly put the word out and within 30 minutes had plenty of musicians for an impromptu jam.

The makeshift band played on February 3 at O-Leng.

"He told me I play really well!" Ae says, beaming. "And I told him he was my inspiration."

Among those along with Ae serving as sidemen to the British legend were Pop the Sun, Moo Kaleidoscope, Olarn Phromjai and Or Inca.

The first question anyone would ask is what Led Zep songs did they perform?

"We didn't play any Zeppelin songs because we didn't have time to rehearse any!" Ae says, distraught at the missed opportunity.

"Led Zeppelin's songs are so beautiful with their complicated structure, so different from Deep Purple or the Scorpions. So you don't find many Thai bands that can play them."

Instead - and fully compensating for the missing Zep catalogue - they played the blues standards "House of the Rising Sun" and "Crossroads", followed by Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and "Little Wing".

The local talent then treated Page to a sampling of Carabao songs, including "Refugee", on which Kanakam "Bee" Apiradee handled the vocals.

Later the rock god shook hands with the various assembled guitarists and posed with them for pictures. On hand were Ae, Moo, Olarn, Asanee Chotikul, Surasee Itthikul, Somchai Kamlertkul and Manote Puttan, plus Grammy Records' Kris Thomas and DJs Pong and Wasana Weerachatplee.

"I didn't want to ask for his autograph or get a photo with him or anything," says Manote of his long-time idol. "I just wanted to stare at him!"

On February 8 Page and a pair of unidentified Western pals made their own way to Overtone, the music club founded by Prart Aroonrungsi and his wife Lar. There, Page sipped Coke and listened to Chatree "Ohm" Kongsuwan playing tunes from his new album, "Into the Light".

Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul

The Nation