Jimmy Page at Headley Grange
Are you a fan of the group Led Zeppelin? I am! Then again, it doesn't take a huge fan to know that Led Zeppelin's fourth album is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. With no title, the fourth album has four cryptic symbols. The first (and only symbol with Roman lettering) is ZOSO. And this is what the name of the album has been called. Famously, this album contains such great songs as Rock and Roll, Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop, and of course the wonderful Stairway to Heaven.
This album's excellent atmosphere was achieved by the group's recording in an old house in the English countryside. The fine acoustics resulted in some of the finest songs in the history of rock music. Headley Grange still stands in the Welsh countryside and has a long history stretching back to the 1700's. Who else, but the great guitarist Jimmy Page (who has famously been interested in the occult and supernatural activity; giving an aura of mystique to the whole Led Zeppelin experience) would have an interesting story about one of Headley Grange's other-worldly occupants.
This story is from Guitar World Magazine, January 2002 edition, The Fab IV, by Brad Tolinski with Greg Di Benedetto, pages 61 and 62.
Page had heard about an old house in the English countryside a few hours outside of London that Fleetwood Mae had used as a rehearsal space, and he decided to check it out. Built in 1795, Headley Grange was a rather large three-story structure that was originally used as a workhouse for the poor and the insane. It was far from lavish, but its rough Victorian charm suited the guitarist just fine. Plus, the 200-year-old building offered something much better than creature comforts--it had presence.
"It was very Charles Dickens," says Page. "Dank and spooky. The room I chose to live in was at the very top of the building, and the sheets were always sort of wet. Headley Grange freaked Robert and John Bonham out, but I liked it, actually. I'm pretty sure it was haunted. I remember going up the main stairway on the way to my room one night and seeing a gray shape at the top. I double-checked to see if it was just a play of light, and it wasn't. So I turned around pretty fast, because I didn't really want to have an encounter with something like that. But I wasn't surprised to find spirits there because the place had a miserable past. One real positive outcome of us recording there is that, I believe, we revitalized the energy at Headley. The place became lighter as a result of our stay there.
Creepy, eh? Page suggests that these spirits seemed to enjoy their music and were somehow revitalized by it. Even the dead love their music. Now that's something to be proud of! haha...