New music is ready for next year, Jimmy Page affirms

Sky News was taping an interview with Page and "It Might Get Loud" director Davis Guggenheim, discussing the movie for its London premiere yesterday, which saw Page making a rare public appearance.

It seems, from his comments, that such appearances are going to be much less rare for him beginning in the near future. During the interview, Page declared, with resolve, that he would be debuting some new music in the new year.

Confidently, he announced, "Next year, I have every intention of playing music live and making it -- manifesting it. I've got it. I've got it there. I've got the music waiting. It just needs to be done. So that's it. That's what I'll be doing."

His emphasis in that last sentence was on "I," to which Sky News showbiz correspondent Steve Hargrave replied, "You, singularly." The question had probably been about whether the future would hold any Led Zeppelin reunion activity.

Page referenced the time that has passed since the Led Zeppelin reunion concert at the O2 arena in London on Dec. 10, 2007. The second anniversary of that concert was one week ago tomorrow.

"It's been two years!" said Page. "Two years since the O2. It's time to do that," he said, referring to sharing the new music he has ready to be heard.

And with that, Page broke into a giant smile, the kind that will surely be seen again and again in the weeks and months ahead.

LedZeppelinNews.com has been covering Page's statements on new material not only throughout the current year but also, through its sister site, as far back as in 2004, when Page was first said to be working on a Santana-style album project.

This was Page's first, and most definitive, comment on new music of his for the past several months. His last hint of it was in August, during an interview with Billboard magazine. At that time, he addressed the subject of new material with less certainty, saying that "ambitious projects ... take time to put together if you're going to do them properly."

Page did say at the time that he wanted to "be seen" next year, and he also said in June that "It Might Get Loud" contains "little tastes and shades of" his new music.

Page's photographer, Ross Halfin, wrote in a Dec. 7 entry in his online diary that he's "been working on something with him [Page] for the past couple of years which will be out in February or March next year - I think."