Pageia Obscura: Short Stints in Forgotten Groups

In this series "Pageia Obscura" I intend to cover obscure facts and episodes in the life of Jimmy Page.

Jimmy Page is well known for being in various bands throughout his career, many of which are household names, The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes. Some are lesser known, The Firm, The Honeydrippers, Neil Chrisitian & The Crusaders. Some however, are completely forgotten, and it's those bands that I would like to highlight today.

Jimmy began life as a "Professional Musician" in the humblest of way; busking. You may not recognize the term but you if you've ever seen a guy playing music in a public area for whatever change you may have in your pocket, well, that's busking. Following his stint as a busker, Jimmy went on to back Beat poet Royston Ellis at the Mermaid Theatre from 1960-1961:

Royston Ellis

After this Jimmy joined Neil Christian and the Crusaders. Page would be with Neil Christian for two years, playing his way all over England and even recording a couple songs in the studio until he contracted "Glandular Fever" aka, Mononucleosis, and decided to quit the group. In an interview with Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone Magazine in 1975, Jimmy had this to say about his end in the group:

"[I was] traveling around all the time in a bus. I did that for two years after I left school, to the point where I was starting to get really good bread. But I was getting ill. So I went back to art college. And that was a total change in direction. That's why I say it's possible to do. As dedicated as I was to playing the guitar, I knew doing it that way was doing me in forever. Every two months I had glandular fever. So for the next 18 months I was living on ten dollars a week and getting my strength up. But I was still playing."

Neil Christian & The Crusaders (Jimmy is on the right)

After he left Neil Christian's group Jimmy went to art school as he stated in the above excerpt, but like the above excerpt also states, he didn't quit playing guitar. While he attended art school Jimmy would frequently join in onstage at the Marquee Club in London and jam with various groups including, Cyril Davies' All Stars and Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated; Alexis Korner's group was a sort of future English Guitar God nursery.

Before quitting art school and becoming a full time session player, Jimmy had short stints in three other groups. The first was Carter-Lewis & The Southerners, a duo of song writers fronted by Ken Lewis and John Carter. The two men were in need of a band to back them so that they could play the songs they wrote, so they asked Jimmy, who agreed. Jimmy's time in the band was short lived though, and he soon departed from the group.

Carter-Lewis & The Southerners

Jimmy's next group was Mike Hurst and The Methods. Mike Hurst had been in a band with Dusty Springfield called The Springfields, and had a couple of minor hits until the group broke up in 1962. So in 1964 Hurst formed The Methods with both Jimmy and a young Albert Lee on guitar. The band didn't last long and Hurst soon left. Interestingly enough Hurst would go on to become a producer and discover Cat Stevens.

Mike Hurst

Jimmy's final pre-session era band was Mickey Finn and the Blue Men. There was no Mickey Finn oddly, the band was named for lead guitarist Mickey Waller; Waller would leave the band in 1963, but the name remained. Jimmy hooked up with the band at The Hackney Club 99 and strangely wowed the group with his harmonica ability and was asked to join. Like his previous groups, Jimmy's stint in the band was short lived though the band continued on until 1971.

Mickey Finn and the Blue Men (Jimmy is standing on the right)

And thus are the cacophony of unremarkable groups that Jimmy Page involved himself with in his youth; a veritable "who's that" of musical history. Though these groups never made it to the big time as they once dreamed they would, all of them left a lasting legacy through the further success of their young band mate and guitarist, James Patrick Page. Better to live on as a footnote than to just fade away forever I suppose.