According to Robert Fripp, owner of Discipline Global Mobile, John Paul Jones is now "getting down and dirty. Burning!" This was already evidenced by the new letter on JPJ's website, but it's good news.

Site news: Watch me slowly redesign the site. I may move it to it's own geocities address, as well.

JPJ will be playing two nights in Italy - July 14 & 15. Hopefully that means the new album's completion is close... but I don't want to start any rumours!

Sadly I am not sure how often I'll be able to update this site with news and tour dates over the next 2-3 months. I'll try to get any important stuff up, of course. Even though I've figured out a way to get rid of the evil Geocities pop-ups, I might even get the site its own URL --- can you believe that someone already owns "carouselambra.com"? Damn!

There's been no real explanation disclosed, but the House of Blues web broadcast of the New Orleans show that was to be on June 3 was cancelled.

The word is that John Paul Jones recorded a track for the upcoming "Tribute To Sun Records" album. This comes from a usually credible source, but I've heard EVERY imaginable name tossed about as to who is going to be on it --- Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, Beck, Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Page/Plant, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, David Gilmour... on and on and on and on. Hard and fast info about the already fairly-legendary album is difficult to come by. For now, I guess, we can assume JPJ's inclusion to be true.

Nick Beggs is playing in gigs around Europe (with his Stick) this June. He hopes to release an album by the end of year too. July apparently has some JPJ gigs (still not much word about that). All the while, Nick will be helping JPJ on "ZOOMA"s followup album.

A streaming video of John Paul Jones' concert at the House of Blues in New Orleans earlier this year will be broadcast over at the House of Blues website on June 3rd. You can watch it for free, or pay for a broadband experience. For more information -- Clicky.

Also it appears that the rumour that JPJ will be at the Pistoia Blues festival in Italy on July 15 is in fact true. (Robert Plant's new group is playing on the 14th.) JPJ and the Bad-ass John Paul Jones Orchestra may be playing a few festival dates this summer. This is tentative, and not firm yet. Have they already recorded new material? Hopefully!

A rumor is going around that JPJ will be playing at the Pistioa Blues festival in Italy in July. Tight But Loose says to check out the Pistoia Blues website for more info. I did, but saw no mention of JPJ anywhere! My guess is it's a rumor that was removed from their site by the time I checked - they do have a list of rumors or artists they're trying to convince to come play. The really interesting thing is that Robert Plant and his current group, Priory of Brian, are probably going to play the same festival.

Someone was auctioning off a "JPJ Zooma Interview" cd, which is apparently an interview from the radio and the song "Zooma" on a cd. The picture certainly made it look like a real disc/release, but I don't know for sure! My guess is it's the Rockline interview, but he did a few radio appearences in the past 6 months.

JPJ is going to be on the "Open Mike with Mike Bullard" tv show in Canada tomorrow. More promotion! :) Recently, he's been doing more and more radio and tv appearences... that's strange since the tour is ending here in the next few days. Also an interview from the SXSW Festival will be available on broadcast.com on April 5. The VH-1 show yesterday that JPJ was on was called "Daily One".

Sorry I haven't posted anything here in awhile... I've had a lot of other nonsense going on. The Song of the Week has been going a lot less frequently than I'd like, so it'll just be whenever I feel like it. Next up - "Crackback"! I have been updating the Gigography page whenever I get info though.

Also JPJ was on VH-1 yesterday. I'm not sure which show, but it was hosted by three VJs, who asked him about the usual crap. He also played a little bit of "Going To California" on his mandolin (like he does on tour now). Where and when they filmed this, I'm not sure, but a little national promotion couldn't hurt!

Ignore my comments below about the UCLA basketball team. They returned to sucking pretty quickly.

A public "Get Well Soon" to my friend, and internet Led Zeppelin legend, Buckeye! Use his site to full potential and you'll know everything imaginable about Led Zeppelin. Bruce, I'm starting to feel confident that UCLA could take OSU in basketball now!!

In JPJ news, not a lot. The tour, you should know by now, starts tomorrow over in Florida. Rock shan't die!

I've received a few extra JPJ "ZOOMA" boots in the past week or two. I haven't had time to listen to them all yet :-(, but mostly they sound great! One even has a bit of "Dazed and Confused" at the end of "Bass 'N' Drums". I'll go through them with more detail soon, hopefully this weekend. Anyway, right now, I have Los Angeles, New York, Cologne, Chicago, Glasgow and New Haven. Boston is on it's way!

Happy Leap Year Day! "Cool Song of the Week" will be starting here tomorrow. If you want to throw some suggestions for what song should be chosen for any week, email me at any time. It was going to be "Cool Song of the Day", but that's too much work. Also, Celine Dion has posted on the "Feedback" section of johnpauljones.com.

There seems to be some confusion over the date JPJ will be playing at The Guvernment in Toronto, Canada. Originally, it was announced as being on April 2. But someone in Toronto reported to Tight But Loose that American Ticketmaster is STILL selling tickets to a show in Pasadena, MD on March 30. So it is of my opinion, at this point, that the April 2 (Toronto) date still stands - as does the March 30 (Pasadena, MD) show. If anyone can offer further proof, let me know!

A quick note about the South By Southwest Festival for all my readers in Austin, TX. (I like to pretend I have readers everywhere.) The festival is like four or five days of (seemingly) every club in Austin being filled by 3-4 artists each night. JPJ will be at the Texas Union Ballroom on Sat. Mar. 18th. (Also at that club is the Meat Puppets, from "Nirvana Unplugged" fame.) Check out the SXSW website, linked above, for more info. I suggest, after JPJ's show, heading over to La Zona Rosa and seeing Tenacious D!

Well, I posted yesterday to the Led Zeppelin mailing list to find out which JPJ bootlegs have begun to appear, and let me tell you -- I'm falling way behind! I only have New Haven and Glasgow myself (with Los Angeles, New York, and Cologne on the way), but here's a list of what I hear is out there:

Hague, Holland (video); New Haven, CT; Boston, MA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Cleveland, OH; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Frankfurt, Germany; Cologne, Germany; Milan, Italy (video); Glasgow, Scotland; Wolverhampton, England; Manchester, England; London, England; Osaka, Japan; Tokyo, Japan;

Also let me add that I do not necessarily know how to get a copy of any of these shows. If you have a boot of something not on here, drop me an email - shankar00@yahoo.com.

Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers, if I have any. Beck's "MIDNITE VULTURES" is my suggested Valentine's Day music - with lyrics like "I can smell the V.D. in the club tonight" and "I wanna defy the logic of all sexx laws", you can't go wrong! Beck is awesome... he's the one guy who's as almost as cool as JPJ! :-P Anyway, I'm rambling off topic.

Anyway, the big news around here, you've probably noticed on the front of this site, is that a close-to-complete schedule of JPJ's "2000ma" tour (sorry, I still like my name for it!) has been released. There may be some more added too. I've updated the Gigography page with the new info, and it's on the front page too. It's a good thing's Buckeye's 'reputable source' was actually incorrect! Obviously, JPJ doesn't care about MONEY and SELLING OUT as much as most people... (See the Nov. 3, 1999 News date below.)

Once this little tour is finished, JPJ will return to working on another solo album - he says he has ideas lined up for it already. I have no idea what to expect... it could be anything from "ZOOMA" Part Two or more acoustic-y stuff or jams like "Jump Blues" or an attempt at the bluegrass music JPJ says he likes a lot or who knows?

This site surely ain't the prettiest one on the web, but I think there's some good info on here. I sure wish I could take a few days and add all my discography data... (sigh)

2 more dates for "2000ma": Mar. 20 in Atlanta (Roxy Theatre) and Mar. 25 in Chicago (Park West). JPJ will be using the same "JPJ Orchestra" (Nick Beggs and Terl Bryant), but isn't sure if he'll be switching up setlists, or what.

There's also a new letter on JPJ's official website (www.johnpauljones.com) from JPJ lining up his plans, and thanking his fans, and whatnot. There will be another solo album too! Please read the letter! [Sorry, bad pun. :-p]

LATE AFTERNOON NEWS
According to Tight But Loose (the best place for Zep news), some of JPJ's shows (specifically, Seattle, Portland, and Vegas) were videotaped. They're thinking about a one hour tv broadcast (on what channel, I can't imagine!) and a two hour home video (and DVD hopefully) release. JPJ is helping go through the footage himself. Sounds good!

The "2000ma" tour begins! (I gave it that name. :-)) The word from Ticketmaster.com is that JPJ will be playing The House of Blues in New Orleans on March 14, 2000. Tickets go on sale this Saturday. I'm sure more dates will be coming in the next week or so too.

Good news, everybody! JPJ is going to resume his "Zooma" US tour in March down in Florida. He hopes to hit more areas that he didn't reach last fall. Specific dates should be coming soon...

Happy 2000! Here's to JPJ returning to tour, despite rumours of the contrary. Or at least, finishing up another album, which he's been talking about! :-)

Also a Happy Birthday to John Paul Jones! Interestingly, he shares a birthday with John Baldwin. Rock on!

So far, I've heard absolutely nothing about the Japanese concerts, so I haven't had anything to update. I did take a little time and redid the front page... I think it looks a little bit better. I still need to make the pics smaller, so they don't take so long to load, but I'll work on that. I've also got lots and lots to add to the discography, and I may have a little time over the holidays to play with it.

Haven't had much to update really... I've been busy. The Europe tour wound down, and the crowds were quite small, from what I've heard. The setlists stayed the same. He's off to Japan for a short while next week. Tour dates for next year should be forthcoming soon. Tell everyone you know to buy "Zooma" for the holidays!

JPJ's record label, Discipline Global Mobile posted something today on their website that the rumor about JPJ not touring next year is in fact FALSE. His booking agent is currently working on scheduling dates down in the south of the US, and some returns to some places he already played. They hope to announce these new dates by the end of the year. Come back to LA, JPJ! You cancelled one of your shows on me... :-)

Also a letter to the Feedback section of www.johnpauljones.com mentions that Chicago radio has been playing "Zooma" (the song) fairly regularly! That's very cool!

Also thanks to my friend, Chester for the plug on JPJ's message board!

John Paul Jones' Official Website, www.johnpauljones.com is now up and running. There is a tour section, a biography section with some really neat pictures, a track-by-track description of "Zooma" by JPJ, and a feedback page. This is the official site, and hopefully will continue to grow and expand.

Oh and there is still hope that JPJ will return to the US next year, despite my "news" on Nov. 3. No decisions have been made yet.

My friend Bruce received bad news from a 'reputable source':

"There will not be any more tour dates next year. Ticket sales this fall have been less than hoped for, marketing has been slim (much due to JPJ being on such a small record label with limited resources compared to major record companies), and sales of the CD in the whole scheme of things have been marginal. He's well known to all of us in the Zep fraternity, yet his name recognition elsewhere is slim...hence the lack of response from the non-Zep community. Apperently it's only a matter of time before the "Additional Dates to be Announced for 2000" message will be retracted from JPJ's mangagement company and/or DGM Records."

With the US tour finished, get on over to Europe! Who knows if he'll ever do a world tour again, even a not-so-extensive one like he's doing now. The good news is he has constantly referred to his 'next album'! Also caring about album sales isn't really in JPJ's style, especially with some of his comments recently about why he went with Discipline Global Mobile as his label. Concert tours need to make money to continue though, so that could be a problem. I really would be surprised though if we were never to see him on stage again.

Well, this weekend I finally came to a full appreciation of "Zooma". Honestly, despite my website here, the album wasn't my favorite in the JPJ catalogue (a couple of exceptions are "Snake Eyes" and "The Smile of your Shadow"). Seeing it done live really rocked me though. The album was meant to be heard and played live, I think. What a great time! Nick Beggs, the Stick player, rules too. I was leaning on the stage the whole night, catching up with some old Zep comrades, and being blown away musically. I also snuck into the House of Blues via the back door about an hour early and watched the soundcheck! Sweet!

The Sun Theatre show on Oct. 31 was sadly cancelled. My guess is ticket sales weren't great, and there was some weird scheduling (it was supposed to start at 7pm, with some Halloween Ball at 9!). I got my refund, but they wouldn't let me keep the ticket.

Last week, on "Rockline" JPJ took phone calls from fans and chatted with the host. I only heard about 10 minutes of it. JPJ claimed "Kashmir" as his favorite Zeppelin song, and "Down By The Seaside" his least!