There have been many people that have come out and claimed that they were asked to be in Led Zeppelin, today we will examine an alleged offer extended to guitarist Top Topham.
Tony "Top" Topham is little known today, he has the unfortunate honor of being the forgotten first lead guitarist for The Yardbirds, before being being replaced by Eric Clapton. Topham was was a founding member of the band alongside his mate Chris Dreja. They got together when he was in art school in 1963 and quickly started to get noticed. Just two months after forming the band, they were signed by Crawdaddy Club owner Giorgio Gomelsky. Faced with a decision of going professional with music, or remaining in art school, Topham chose the latter:
"I was only 15 then, three or four years younger than the rest, and there was no way my parents would let me go out five or six nights a week to play music, even though I was already bringing home double what my father was earning. I was going on to Epsom Art School and they wanted me to take it seriously. Eric Clapton was the obvious person to replace me. Later on I didn't regret leaving because they'd moved away from the blues music that I was interested in. Even if I'd stayed with them to become professional I think I would have left later for the same reasons Eric left."
After his stint in The Yardbirds, Topham went on to play music with Marc Bolan (of T.Rex), Christine McVie and Peter Green (of Fleetwood Mac; in addition Green also played with John Mayall) and in 1988 he formed a band with his old Yardbirds mate Jim McCarty. Topham has also recorded solo projects, notably his album "Blue Horizon.
Topham has alleged that in 1968, when Jimmy was getting his new group together, he rang Topham up and asked if he'd care to join. Topham elaborated on this offer in an interview with Guitar International:
"This is what happened,in 1968 I was making Ascension Heights, my album with Blue Horizon records (CBS), with Mike Vernon as the producer. I received three telegrams, which I still have, from Peter Grant and Jimmy Page, expressing an urgency to get in touch with them, one of these said “great news for you.” I called them from our local telephone box in Kingston on Thames, Surrey, we didn’t have a phone in those days, and I spoke to Jimmy who I saw reasonably regularly. He said he wanted to reform under the name of the New Yardbirds and hit America, and asked if I would be interested.
Wait for it, I said no. As I was writing and playing on my own album at that time it seemed like the right choice. Whether he was intending on me being in the band, I know not. It was a flurry of ideas and I would think at that time as he owned the Yardbirds name, which was a very clever move."
Obviously, if he still has the telegrams as he claims to, then it would be very likely that at one point Jimmy considered having a second guitarist in the group. Many other people have made similar claims, so it is of course entirely conceivable that this did indeed occur. It's interesting to imagine, "what if?"
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| Top Topham 1963 |
"I was only 15 then, three or four years younger than the rest, and there was no way my parents would let me go out five or six nights a week to play music, even though I was already bringing home double what my father was earning. I was going on to Epsom Art School and they wanted me to take it seriously. Eric Clapton was the obvious person to replace me. Later on I didn't regret leaving because they'd moved away from the blues music that I was interested in. Even if I'd stayed with them to become professional I think I would have left later for the same reasons Eric left."
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| The Yardbirds with Top Topham (Far Right With Arms Crossed) |
Topham has alleged that in 1968, when Jimmy was getting his new group together, he rang Topham up and asked if he'd care to join. Topham elaborated on this offer in an interview with Guitar International:
"This is what happened,in 1968 I was making Ascension Heights, my album with Blue Horizon records (CBS), with Mike Vernon as the producer. I received three telegrams, which I still have, from Peter Grant and Jimmy Page, expressing an urgency to get in touch with them, one of these said “great news for you.” I called them from our local telephone box in Kingston on Thames, Surrey, we didn’t have a phone in those days, and I spoke to Jimmy who I saw reasonably regularly. He said he wanted to reform under the name of the New Yardbirds and hit America, and asked if I would be interested.
Wait for it, I said no. As I was writing and playing on my own album at that time it seemed like the right choice. Whether he was intending on me being in the band, I know not. It was a flurry of ideas and I would think at that time as he owned the Yardbirds name, which was a very clever move."
Obviously, if he still has the telegrams as he claims to, then it would be very likely that at one point Jimmy considered having a second guitarist in the group. Many other people have made similar claims, so it is of course entirely conceivable that this did indeed occur. It's interesting to imagine, "what if?"
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| Top Topham |
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