13-Year-Old Jimmy Page Plays Guitar on BBC Talent Show
OK, it's 2017, so I realize it's incredibly unlikely that you've never seen this video.
Still, on the off-chance that you have not........
Check out this clip of a 13-year-old Jimmy Page and his band performing "Mama Don't Want to Skiffle Anymore" (or something to that effect) on a BBC1 talent show—Huw Wheldon's All Your Own—in the late Fifties.
When asked by Wheldon what he wants to do after schooling, Page replies, "I want to do biological research to find a cure for cancer, if it isn't discovered by then."
Lonnie Donegan was probably the biggest name in skiffle—a style of music that combined elements of American blues, jazz, country and folk—in the U.K. at the time (1957, although some sources say the show was filmed in 1958). In fact, John Lennon's first band, the Quarry Men, was a skiffle group that regularly performed Donegan's "Rock Island Line" and other now-forgotten gems.
That is, of course, Page on the left, wearing the dark sweater. Enjoy!
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
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