#stargroves

[singemall-stayallnight]

Led Zeppelin at Stargroves during the making of Houses of the Holy, 1972.

By the time they started playing the track [Dancing Days] with me, it just had the most amazing vibe, just a glorious groove. They all enjoyed playing it so much.

I'll never forget playing it back to them from the mobile truck and how excited they all were. It was a lovely sunny day, and there was Jimmy and Robert and a couple of others all sort of linking arms and dancing on the lawn.

—Eddie Kramer, Guitar Player magazine, March 2023

[omg-hellgirl]

During the filming of the 1975 Doctor Who episode "Pyramids of Mars", Stargroves, Mick Jagger’s countryside mansion, was used as a key location. Permission was granted by Mick, though he was away at the time, with only his parents staying at the estate during production.

[stellastarr7]

[snortleme]

waiting for jimmy

[wholelottazepp]

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant recording new songs using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at Stargroves, Newbury, Berkshire, England. May 15, 1972.

[probablylisteningtoledzeppelin]

Production legend Eddie Kramer on Led Zeppelin – Houses Of The Holy sessions

“Houses Of The Holy and Physical Graffiti are sort of interconnected, so I’m involved with both records to a degree. There were a bunch of engineers on both records, actually. We cut tracks at Stargroves, which was Mick Jagger’s house, using the Stones’ mobile. So we had all of these tracks, and Pagey would figure out what he wanted to do with them. That was his vibe.”

[out-on-the-zeppelin]

“Jimmy never forgets. I had all my pictures from Stargroves ,a great series of pictures of Robert with an acoustic guitar , and I showed them to Jimmy in a hotel in New York twenty years after the event. He goes, ‘That fucking prat…’ He just went off like a fucking rocket about Robert: ‘I told him never to touch my fucking guitar. I went round the corner for a quick gypsy’s and he had the fucking audacity to pick up my fucking guitar and I told him never to touch it!’ I said, ‘Jimmy, give it up. It was fucking years ago.’ The paranoia and the suspicion and all that stuff is part and parcel of who he is, and unfortunately it manifests itself in some weird ways” -Eddie Kramer

[singemall-stayallnight]

The man they initially brought in to help them achieve their goal was renowned producer/engineer Eddie Kramer. Known for his work with many legendary acts, including his groundbreaking engineering efforts with Jimi Hendrix, Kramer had worked with Zeppelin on III, on which he was credited as director of engineering, although his most recent encounter with the band had ended badly during sessions the previous year at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. "Everything was going fine until they ordered in some Indian food," Kramer says today. "A whole bunch ended up on the floor. I was pretty possessive about the place and I asked them to clean it up. And they all walked out!" All that had been forgotten by the time Kramer got the call to fly to England to work on Houses of the Holy, and he arrived at Stargroves to find the band in a buoyant mood. "The weather was good, the atmosphere among the band was very jolly," he says. "Jimmy had Jagger's bedroom. Everyone was happy."

Guitar Player, March 2023