How 15-Year-Old Jimmy Page Came to Play for Neil Christian & the Crusaders (and How the Band Convinced His Parents)
While Jimmy Page is most known for playing guitar in the rock band Led Zeppelin, his first major start came in a band called Neil Christian & the Crusaders. According to Bob Spitz’s 2021 biography Led Zeppelin: The Biography, it took quite a lot of convincing for Page’s parents to let him tour with Neil Christian & the Crusaders as a teenager.
The members of the band talked to Jimmy Page’s parents
In the 1950s, Page played in a band called The Paramounts which often opened for a band called Red E. Lewis & the Red Caps at the Contemporary Club in Epsom.
When the band’s guitarist left, Page was brought in as a replacement. He was still in high school when he first joined the group.
According to Led Zeppelin: The Biography, the band’s manager Chris Tidmarsh had to work hard to convince Page’s parents to let him tour.
In the biography, Page said, “He reassured my parents and said he’d keep a watchful eye on this young lad.”
Spitz writes that “Tidmarsh even threw in a cash incentive. ‘If I promise to pay [Jimmy] £15 a week, would you consider him playing in the group?'”
Page’s parents still turned that offer down because of Page’s age and the fact he was still in school.
Jimmy Page’s parents eventually let him play
It turns out only one thing convinced Page’s father to let his son play in Red E. Lewis & the Red Caps.
Spitz writes, “It was only when Tidmarsh assured him that the gigs would all be weekend dates and he would personally drive young Jimmy home afterward that Mr. Page gave his consent.”
Of course, this proposition did not last long due to the demands of the band’s touring schedule.
According to Led Zeppelin: The Biography, “pretty soon they leaned on Jimmy’s parents to let him take the train to London after his school day was over in order to fill that card with weeknight gigs. Reluctantly, and with caveats, Mr. Page gave in.”
Page’s schooling also kept the band from performing too far away so that the band could get Page home at a semi-reasonable hour.
In Led Zeppelin: The Biography, Spitz writes, “They played within a hundred-mile radius of London almost every night of the week, upholding the promise to drive Jimmy home afterward, often getting to Epsom at three o’clock in the morning. It was all Jimmy could do to keep up the routine. He was burning the candle at both ends.”
The future Led Zeppelin guitarist quit school to tour
After Page joined Red E. Lewis & the Red Caps, some members ended up leaving the band. Tidmarsh, the group’s manager, took over as the band’s lead singer.
When Tidmarsh gave himself the stage name Neil Christian, the band became known as Neil Christian & the Crusaders.
As the band became more popular and its touring schedule more demanding, Page made the decision to leave school and focus on performing full-time.
“I left school and went straight into Neil Christian & the Crusaders,” Page said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.
