For years, Led Zeppelin fans have bemoaned the lack of a good concert document from the band -- an authorized one, at least. The 1976 soundtrack album to the performance film "The Song Remains The Same" just didn't cut it, and the faithful have scurried to find expensive bootlegs of inconsistent quality ever since. Some of the best-known unreleased recordings come from the group's performances on BBC radio programs during 1969 and 1971. Between them, they catch Zep's sharp growth arc during its early days, from the gut-bucket blues covers of its first stop on the "Top Gear" program to the legendary 1971 "In Concert" appearence at London's Paris Theatre, where Zep previewed soon-to-be classics such as "Stairway To Heaven", "Black Dog", and "Going To California".

The recently released "BBC SESSIONS" album presents twenty-four performances from those shows -- not the whole BBC canon, but a solid representation of the hits ("Whole Lotta Love", "Dazed and Confused") along with a wealth of covers that includes newly unearthed renditions of Eddie Cochran's "Something Else" and Sleepy John Estes' "The Girl I Know", both never before available on a Zeppelin album. Fans want more, of course, but "BBC SESSIONS" certainly helps to fill a gaping void in the Zep catalog. Phoning in from London, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones enlightens us on his band's connection to the Beeb, and gets brutally candid about his estrangement from surviving bandmates, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

How did "BBC SESSIONS" come to be?

I met the other two on sort of Zeppelin business, generally, and we thought we should listen to the tapes and see what's there. So they got the tapes out from wherever they were hidden, made cassettes of the stuff and passed them around, and we thought, "Yeah, this would be good to put out." We made sort of a final list of the tracks, and Page did some editing and came to the final selection.

These aren't the full shows, of course. Did you think about putting them out in their entirety?

No, not really. The different versions of some songs, we just thought it was really nice to hear them played quite so differently. But I don't think there's any reason to have an extra CD of stuff that maybe is not quite up to standards. You have to make decisions, whatever you do.

Were the BBC shows a big deal for a band back in those days?

In those days there was a thing called needle time, when the BBC was only allowed to play four or so hours of gramophone records per day. And so, if you didn't get played on the Top 40 radio, which was two-and-a-half minute singles - which we didn't do - the only other outlet was to do these shows where we were allowed to expand and play like five-, six-, seven-minute songs. So, yeah, it was quite a big deal, and it was a way to get the music to the audience that couldn't make it to the gigs, perhaps.

Led Zeppelin had something of a rowdy reputation throughout its career. Did you behave yourselves at the staid BBC?

It was a bit of a strange atmosphere, and we were sort of young, unruly, enthusiastic cocky band taking over the place. But our behaviour was proper, anyway. Page and I were studio musicians before that, so we knew how to behave in a studio. The lunacy came in being on the road later, I suppose. We kinda learned it from other people, to be honest. "Here's what rock and roll bands did on the road." I never knew that before. We were perfect gentlemen and professional. You don't go trashing studios -- that's ridiculous.

Did listening to the tapes bring these performances back to you?

Certainly, yes. I suppose just the fire in the playing was particularly noticeable, and the cockiness was there. You sort of rip from one song to another and roar into them at frightening speeds. We'd been on the road a lot by the time those sessions were recorded; the albums were always the starting point of the music, and then we'd take it out and expand it on the road. And then we'd come straight off the road into those studios. So we were shit hot, as the saying goes. And we knew it, of course.

There's a great degree of growth that's palpable from session to session. Did the group feel that way, too, and what accounts for it?

That is a natural process of just playing a lot together. You get closer and closer, you get to anticipate each other's moves. Bonzo and Robert were a lot less experienced and a lot less mature, musically, than Page and I. They were those few years younger than us and certainly hadn't had... I mean, I turned professional at age sixteen and was playing in beat bands and big tours by the time I was seventeen, so I was a well-experienced musician by the time I joined Zeppelin, and Page was similar. And so it's the maturation of the other two more than us.

One of the joys of the album is the cover songs. Did you carefully choose those to reflect the band's roots and influences?

No, they're just for fun. It's stuff that you do in rehearsals to warm up -- "Oh, you know that one too?" It's that sort of thing. We started putting them in the early days, when the act wasn't that long. If anybody knew more than four bars of anything, we would all just join in. So that's how that stuff started. But it was fun, mainly you're not trying to be like "Hey this is a new angle or a different interpretation" or any stuff like that. We weren't that pretentious.

So is there more live material in the vaults that you might release someday?

These live tapes just pop up, rather than "We've got a great big store we're going to release bit by bit." You come across the stuff; this kind of appeared, really, while we were doing other Zeppelin business, as I said. But basically, Page and Plant are doing their album, and I'm doing mine, a solo album coming out early next year.

Have those Zep meetings gotten a little weird, particularly after the Page-Plant project in 1995 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction?

Definately around the Hall of Fame thing, yeah. Before that, I don't know, because I never heard from them.

Your zinger ("Thank you, my friends, for remembering my number") is one of the great moments in Hall of Fame history. How did that go down with the other two?

They looked very sheepish, I thought. I thought I scored a direct hit. I was very hurt by it - not taht I care to be in Robert's band at the moment. I mean, apart from anything else, I was just going on the road [with Diamanda Galas] when it happened, and all these people kept on asking me, "Why aren't you with them?" and I kept going, "Well, you better ask them. I know nothing about it." I was put on a particularly embarrassing spot quite a lot of times. I felt, not stupid, but... Why? Why doesn't somebody just say something? Just say, "We don't want you" or whatever. I really don't mind. It just seems so spineless to sort of crawl away. But it was hurtful not to be asked. We got on really well together in the old days -- and in fact about six months before they made "Unledded" or whatever it was called, I'd seen Robert and he was showing me pictures of his kids and stuff. It was all very odd.

Have the three of you ever had a chance to talk about it, at these meetings or elsewhere?

Not really, no. As I said, I find it hard to talk about, and they certainly don't want to talk about it. I know Page certainly looks at me a bit funny sometimes. I think Robert's in another world; I don't know what he thinks anymore. And we were close. It seems just odd. And then they called the album, "NO QUARTER". I can't believe it.

Did you catch their tour at all?

No. Why would I go to a live show and just hear them doing whatever they do to the music? I'd seen setlists and stuff like that; they're all over the internet. On one hand, Robert's saying they're not Led Zeppelin, and yet they play a 99 percent Zeppelin show. And you go, "Well, he's not fooling somebody." I'm not interested in all that stuff. I want to do something a bit vital an dinteresting. We did all that stuff really well -- twenty years ago.

So what will your solo album be like?

Instrumental rock. Blues-based rock. Lots of riffs. Lots of computers as well. I haven't chosen the drummer just yet. I've written all the songs. If I take it out on the road, next year, I may have a drummer.

There is, of course, the strong assumption that you, Page and Platn will reunite to play Led Zeppelin songs at Atlantic Records' fiftieth-anniversary bash next year. Will it happen?

Well, there's no plans at the moment. As I say, we're all busy working on our albums, so who knows. It'll be funny doing anything with them again. I kind of hope I don't have to. I don't know what more I can tell you about that. I would rather not, to be honest.