Music Magazine Classic Rock Special: Led Zeppelin Sixth Edition Back Issue

I can remember the first time I heard Led Zeppelin. It was 1984. I’d just been to Woolworths in Saltcoats and bought the seven-inch of Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke? by The Alarm and a bag of fizzy cola bottles. I walked through the drizzle to my mate Fin’s house. Fin liked music. He played the drums. He’d be well into this Alarm single (I’d only heard it on the radio once but was already positive that it was one of the all-time greatest songs, ever).

At Fin’s I doled out the cola bottles and gave it a spin. He wasn’t that impressed. He passed me an album. “Stick this on,” he said, then he got behind the drum kit he had set up in his bedroom. “Second track.” He raised his sticks, ready to join in. I sneered. The record looked ancient! It had an old tramp carrying sticks on the cover! (In fact, like me, the record was a mere 13 years old at the time.) I dropped the needle onto the vinyl.

If, moments before, you’d asked me who the best drummer in rock was, I wouldn’t have missed a beat (it was Mark Brzezicki, obviously). Then I heard Rock And Roll and everything changed. The best drummer in rock? Easy: my mate Fin. And the fella on this crazy old record sounded awright an’ all.

Over 50 years after the release of their debut album, it’s sometimes easy to take Led Zeppelin for granted. But put their records on now while you read this magazine – a collection of Classic Rock’s finest pieces on rock’s greatest band – and you’ll find that their music still fizzes like a mouthful of cola bottles.