Information on the Led Zeppelin ‘Pure Blues’ Newsletter

The First Issue of Pure Blues The Led Zeppelin Newsletter

By the end of the 1970s there were a  number of newsletters and fanzines dedicated to Led Zeppelin. Designed by fans for fans , most cost around one US dollar and would have really served a purpose for fans who, given the band’s reluctance to conduct interviews would have found information hard to come by. The advent of the internet age has made us forget just how inaccessible most artists were , for those of us old enough to remember reading the backs of new album sleeves or the reviews in the music papers of record releases and concerts  we find YouTube et al a holy grail.

The first issue of Pure Blues  The Led Zeppelin Newsletter  was published in January 1979. Priced  at seventy five cents, the front cover featured Robert Plant at the Seattle Kingdome during their famous tour of America in 1977.  The issue contains a full page of photographs from their concerts at Madison Square Garden in ’77, three pages of foreign Led Zeppelin and related vinyl’s,  book reviews and a letters page.

The second issue of Pure Blues The Led Zeppelin Newsletter

In the second issue there is an interesting article written by Howard Mylett who wrote a biography of the band, Mylett, from England was a huge fan and authority on the band and built a formidable collection of Zeppelin memorabilia. Also included are pages of photographs detailing the band’s rise, many of which I have never seen before. The front cover features Phil Buckley’s photograph of the band playing the Gavmont Theatre in Southampton, England in 1973.

Probably the biggest issue these newsletters had was that as they began so the band’s tenure was ending. The death of John Bonham saw an end to a career that was, for many approaching a natural demise and so, as time went on, new material was increasingly hard to find to write about. As a result these papers generally had a short print run which makes them such an interesting and collectible item.

The band’s appearance at Knebworth Park in England in 1979 was huge on both sides of the Atlantic and the fanzines ran with it.