The Guitar Teenage Jimmy Page Had to Have (and Quickly Mastered) After Watching Eddie Cochran Play
In 1968, Jimmy Page formed Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. Years before his time with Led Zeppelin, Page played guitar in a band called Neil Christian & the Crusaders. According to Bob Spitz’s 2021 biography Led Zeppelin: The Biography, Page once saw Eddie Cochran play while he was a member of the Crusaders, and this inspired his guitar playing.
Jimmy Page saw Eddie Cochran perform
While a member of Neil Christian & the Crusaders, Page became locally famous thanks to his guitar skills and the large number of gigs the band put on.
In Led Zeppelin: The Biography, John Spicer, the bassist in Neil Christian & the Crusaders, shared that young boys idolized Page and the guitar he played.
“Everywhere we played, people always came up to talk to Jim,” Spicer said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography. “Boys especially made a beeline for the Stratocaster. It was still such a novelty in England. And Jim could make that guitar practically speak.”
When the Crusaders were at a gig one night, they were able to set aside time and see Cochran play.
“We managed to arrange our appearance so that we could get out for an hour and a half and go see their show,” Spicer said in the biography. “Eddie came out with the orange Gretsch.”
Spicer added, “It just bowled us over, Jimmy especially.”
Jimmy Page decided he needed Eddir Cochran’s guitar
According to Spitz’s biography, Page saw Cochran’s Gretsch and “wolf-whistled at it, as one might at a beautiful woman.”
“I’ve got to have one of those,” Page said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.
Spitz writes that Page had a Gretsch of his own within “a week or two.”
In Led Zeppelin: The Biography, Spicer revealed that Page practiced guitar for multiple hours a day.
“Jim was never without a guitar in his hands. He practiced guitar relentlessly, easily several hours every day,” said Spicer. “Oh, probably six hours a day. When I was at school, probably eight.”
How the guitarist joined Neil Christian & the Crusaders
As a teenager, Page came to know members of a band called Red E. Lewis & the Red Caps. After the band’s guitarist Bobby Oats left, Page was considered to be a replacement.
“Chris and Red were both enamored of Jimmy. They said, ‘The kid’s only fifteen, but he can play, he’s fantastic.’ It was decided to invite him to a rehearsal in London to see if he fit the band,” Spicer said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.
After Page joined the band, more members left and were replaced, including the band’s lead singer. This resulted in the band’s manager, Chris Tidmarsh, joining the band as a singer.
Tidmarsh took on the stage name Neil Christian and the band became known as Neil Christian & the Crusaders.
