Celebration Day

Led Zeppelin require no introduction amazing records, blueprint setting concert tours and the ultimate in hotel worrying rock n roll antics. The band's legend grows yearly, and a brand which is stronger today than it's ever been has grown up around them. Many biographies and studies, but Celebration Day is the first to explore the group's world and career in this fashion, being an exhaustive A to Z reference work that deals with every song on each of their albums, every major gig they ever did, background information and relevant people, venues, contemporaries, incidents and articles. This meticulous study unearths numerous facts and figures that even the most ardent follower will have missed and takes a more in-depth look at areas that might only warrant passing mention in a typical biography.

Malcolm Dome is a veteran - another way of saying 'old git' - of over 30 years' service at the rock'n'roll mast. He started out his journalistic 'career' (if you can call it that!) in 1979, writing for the now defunct Record Mirror, becoming their so-called rock and metal expert. All of which was fair training in getting up and down the country talking to countless bands and reviewing endless gigs and albums. By 1982, he was ensconced on a most unpromising colour fortnightly magazine called Kerrang!, a young buck that was treated with such disdain by its own publishers that it was shoved into a coal hole. Still, that publication went on to do some damn fine things and remains a special era. Since then, he's worked on numerous magazines - Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Classic Rock Presents Prog, Raw - as well as writing (or co-writing) various books and broadcasting on the road (he has a weekly show on internet station TotalRock) and on TV. He also recently made a cameo appearance (is that the right description?) in the hit movie Anvil: The Story Of Anvil, and has also appeared in various other DVDs. Dome only saw Zeppelin once - at Earl's Court in 1975 - but they are still his favourite band of all time. He and Jerry Ewing have written two previous books together, and when not tapping away on keyboards, they can usually be found tapping on glass at the Crobar. There, the secret's out! So, why is Dome still writing and waffling about rock? Too daft and stupid to stop, probably.