Post by Pina on May 9, 2005 9:28:53 GMT
A big thank you to Yevgeny for providing this transcript to the Robert Plant press conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia on March 13, 2005. 
Robert Plant Press Conference. 03.13.2005
Winter Garden, Hotel Astoria, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
15.15. Plant enters, takes jacket off, sits and tells the organizer to allow us to ask our questions.
Translator: We ain’t got much time.
Plant [to the translator]: Okay, spread the questions to everybody in the band.
Question (Commerciant Daily Moscow): Recently Q magazine mentions Led Zeppelin as one of the most influential band in the World…<br>Plant: Wait a minute…can you get these photographers… to sit down?
Question (continues): …when you’re watching or listening to the bands of today…<br>Plant: Do I listen today?
Translator: …yes, when you listen to them do you agree with Q magazine that Led Zeppelin is one of the most influential bands?
Plant: Ah, well…I know that Q magazine is trying to sell…copies of magazine so…but it would be ridiculous for me to have an opinion on that…yeah…and I thought it would be George Michael.
Question: As for the next album… tell us about the making of new album, what is it going to feature…cover versions or new songs?
Plant: Ah…the next album comes out in three weeks time…in fact if you go to certain places in Moscow it’s already out…no cover versions…thirteen original songs…came out of this pulsating combination of musical talents and imagination…so maybe you would ask any one of these pulsating…entities? I dare you…<br>Question: I have a question to Plant and to musicians at the same time. I imagine how hard it is to make a band to get together because in one hand all musicians can participate in some solo projects so Mr.Plant, aren’t you afraid that they are going to leave you?
Plant: Yes, I do…in fact…when I was a small boy I sang: “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”…oh, you can’t…what can you expect…everybody has to do what they have to do…if you get tired of something you gotta move on…<br>Question: Question to the band: aren’t you afraid to get lost in shadow of Plant?
Plant [laughs]: I am big but not that big!
Adams: I think in the1960s and 1970s there were many groups who spent a lot of time working together developing the personality…now…in England…it’s rare that this happens…now technology and economics…everybody is quickly trying to make a hit record with one computer…what we are trying to do is to make a kind of alchemy between everybody…so the sum is greater than the part.
Deamer: May I add? Journalists write us in the shadow of Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin…they tend to focus entirely on Robert full time and they seem to suffer deaf to fact that there are… drummer, keyboard player…<br>Question: In concert you often use old equipment, mandolin etc…do you try to achieve 60s sound?
Adams: …no, it’s a mixture between everything John Baggot is using…computer technology…sometimes I’m using Sakhara Lute of four thousand years old design…all sounds good.
Question to the musicians: If you would be not a musician of Robert Plant band but a producer what would you make him change?
[Deamer did not understand the question] Adams: If you weren’t in the band and you were a producer what would you change?
Translator: What would you make Mr. Plant change?
Baggot: Get his hair cut.
Deamer: I would like to borrow Robert’s wig. [everyone laughs]…turns to Baggot: Maybe you too…<br>Adams: There’s enough to share.
Translator: Sorry?
Adams: There’s enough to share between all three [because the translator was bald as well]
Question (Classic Rock Magazine): You all the band members came to the band with the experience, was it hard for you to find your place in the context...of the new band?
Adams: It’s true that as a guitarist when you start to play with Plant…it’s history…you got just make the balance between…in a way of forgetting this group…and at the same time benefiting from the riches.
Plant: Can I just say…if it was only history…then for all of us in this room…it would be a very sad…too dimensional condition that we would be at…so as…this project develops or devours itself…or flies to the Sun we would take in so many new ideas and that is…that is my salvation because my history is…is very relevant and also it’s a very beautiful and emotive gift that I carry…and I must use it as currency to move into the future…Amen.
Question: Do you have your favourite photo session where you like how you look and when was it made?
Plant: What?
Translator: Can you name one? Is there a picture where you like yourself?
Plant: Oh, yeah…the one with a bird in my hand…and a cigarette…and a beer…and women…and money…and drugs…and I can’t remember anything…and absolutely…no conscience… [everyone laughs] but now we are the World’s finest scrabble players.
Translator: Scrabble players?
Adams shows the line made of letters: It’s a game…<br>Translator: Oh, yeah, yeah… [keeps translating]
Plant: And we carry a virtue and a virginity around the World and it’s new religion…of eating…and…<br>Adams: …and playing scrabble
Plant: …and playing these games…so…that picture reminds me of some guy I think I knew.
[clapping]
Question (Radio Roks): Salvador Dali in his book said: “Nothing is important…it is important that your hand is led by an Angel”…what forces in your opinion have been helping you…were they supernatural or natural…Heavenly?
Plant: I’m waiting for the Heavenly ones…most of the forces…probably the main forces were the black voices from the Mississippi delta…in…United States…actually that been brought as slaves from Africa…and to take advantage of the question…the music that we love and pursue…is the general forefather of black American music…the music from the deserts of Africa is the music that…it’s a distant relative of…if you like…the music that inspired me when I was a child…when I was a teenager…so they are beautiful black ghosts.
Question: What do you see as your achievements in life and in art…what do you pursue?
Plant: From now on? In the future?
Translator: No, in life…what are your achievements in life…and your goals in life and in arts…<br>Plant: My achievement is to still…be healthy…to be…a…absurd…a little bit absurd…to maintain a sense of humor…and to love a lot of people…and my future is…is with the Angels.
The guy who asked: Excuse me, this is about life…and in music? In art?
Plant: Oh, music! Oh, I just think we’re on this journey and we have to…we have to…we just have to…have some respect for it and hope that we can keep it afloat and enterprising…and I thank The God that I’m not in The Rolling Stones…because otherwise it’s just like everyday [shows with his hands some sort of marching].
Deamer: I think that within the band is to continue to write new music…that surprises ourselves…where we develop and transcend our own musical styles…<br>Question: Why are you performing only in Saint Petersburg? Why not other Russian cities?
Plant: Well, because we have this release in three weeks…we have to go to England, Germany, America, France…and we must go very quickly to many places but the Russian agent says that we can to go fourteen cities in Russia…finishing in Vladivostok…and then go to Japan afterwards…Can I ask the man behind this guy [points] where did he get this CD?
The guy: I bought it three days ago on Nevsky [the main prospect in St. P.] for a quint.
Plant: For a quint?
The guy gives the CD to the band members. They take the booklet out and discover that there is no booklet, open it and it makes Plant laugh out loud. Then for some time they keep looking closely at the CD. It is evident that Plant got very disappointed.
We are asked to do the last question.
The girl stands: How much time are you going to spend in Saint Petersburg [Plant keeps looking through the CD] and your impression?
Plant: We have received great hospitality…and…a…we don’t understand…really…too much…so we’ll stay as long as there is a bed for us…Thank you very much.
Plant stands up and leaves the room very quickly.
Robert Plant Press Conference. 03.13.2005
Winter Garden, Hotel Astoria, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
15.15. Plant enters, takes jacket off, sits and tells the organizer to allow us to ask our questions.
Translator: We ain’t got much time.
Plant [to the translator]: Okay, spread the questions to everybody in the band.
Question (Commerciant Daily Moscow): Recently Q magazine mentions Led Zeppelin as one of the most influential band in the World…<br>Plant: Wait a minute…can you get these photographers… to sit down?
Question (continues): …when you’re watching or listening to the bands of today…<br>Plant: Do I listen today?
Translator: …yes, when you listen to them do you agree with Q magazine that Led Zeppelin is one of the most influential bands?
Plant: Ah, well…I know that Q magazine is trying to sell…copies of magazine so…but it would be ridiculous for me to have an opinion on that…yeah…and I thought it would be George Michael.
Question: As for the next album… tell us about the making of new album, what is it going to feature…cover versions or new songs?
Plant: Ah…the next album comes out in three weeks time…in fact if you go to certain places in Moscow it’s already out…no cover versions…thirteen original songs…came out of this pulsating combination of musical talents and imagination…so maybe you would ask any one of these pulsating…entities? I dare you…<br>Question: I have a question to Plant and to musicians at the same time. I imagine how hard it is to make a band to get together because in one hand all musicians can participate in some solo projects so Mr.Plant, aren’t you afraid that they are going to leave you?
Plant: Yes, I do…in fact…when I was a small boy I sang: “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”…oh, you can’t…what can you expect…everybody has to do what they have to do…if you get tired of something you gotta move on…<br>Question: Question to the band: aren’t you afraid to get lost in shadow of Plant?
Plant [laughs]: I am big but not that big!
Adams: I think in the1960s and 1970s there were many groups who spent a lot of time working together developing the personality…now…in England…it’s rare that this happens…now technology and economics…everybody is quickly trying to make a hit record with one computer…what we are trying to do is to make a kind of alchemy between everybody…so the sum is greater than the part.
Deamer: May I add? Journalists write us in the shadow of Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin…they tend to focus entirely on Robert full time and they seem to suffer deaf to fact that there are… drummer, keyboard player…<br>Question: In concert you often use old equipment, mandolin etc…do you try to achieve 60s sound?
Adams: …no, it’s a mixture between everything John Baggot is using…computer technology…sometimes I’m using Sakhara Lute of four thousand years old design…all sounds good.
Question to the musicians: If you would be not a musician of Robert Plant band but a producer what would you make him change?
[Deamer did not understand the question] Adams: If you weren’t in the band and you were a producer what would you change?
Translator: What would you make Mr. Plant change?
Baggot: Get his hair cut.
Deamer: I would like to borrow Robert’s wig. [everyone laughs]…turns to Baggot: Maybe you too…<br>Adams: There’s enough to share.
Translator: Sorry?
Adams: There’s enough to share between all three [because the translator was bald as well]
Question (Classic Rock Magazine): You all the band members came to the band with the experience, was it hard for you to find your place in the context...of the new band?
Adams: It’s true that as a guitarist when you start to play with Plant…it’s history…you got just make the balance between…in a way of forgetting this group…and at the same time benefiting from the riches.
Plant: Can I just say…if it was only history…then for all of us in this room…it would be a very sad…too dimensional condition that we would be at…so as…this project develops or devours itself…or flies to the Sun we would take in so many new ideas and that is…that is my salvation because my history is…is very relevant and also it’s a very beautiful and emotive gift that I carry…and I must use it as currency to move into the future…Amen.
Question: Do you have your favourite photo session where you like how you look and when was it made?
Plant: What?
Translator: Can you name one? Is there a picture where you like yourself?
Plant: Oh, yeah…the one with a bird in my hand…and a cigarette…and a beer…and women…and money…and drugs…and I can’t remember anything…and absolutely…no conscience… [everyone laughs] but now we are the World’s finest scrabble players.
Translator: Scrabble players?
Adams shows the line made of letters: It’s a game…<br>Translator: Oh, yeah, yeah… [keeps translating]
Plant: And we carry a virtue and a virginity around the World and it’s new religion…of eating…and…<br>Adams: …and playing scrabble
Plant: …and playing these games…so…that picture reminds me of some guy I think I knew.
[clapping]
Question (Radio Roks): Salvador Dali in his book said: “Nothing is important…it is important that your hand is led by an Angel”…what forces in your opinion have been helping you…were they supernatural or natural…Heavenly?
Plant: I’m waiting for the Heavenly ones…most of the forces…probably the main forces were the black voices from the Mississippi delta…in…United States…actually that been brought as slaves from Africa…and to take advantage of the question…the music that we love and pursue…is the general forefather of black American music…the music from the deserts of Africa is the music that…it’s a distant relative of…if you like…the music that inspired me when I was a child…when I was a teenager…so they are beautiful black ghosts.
Question: What do you see as your achievements in life and in art…what do you pursue?
Plant: From now on? In the future?
Translator: No, in life…what are your achievements in life…and your goals in life and in arts…<br>Plant: My achievement is to still…be healthy…to be…a…absurd…a little bit absurd…to maintain a sense of humor…and to love a lot of people…and my future is…is with the Angels.
The guy who asked: Excuse me, this is about life…and in music? In art?
Plant: Oh, music! Oh, I just think we’re on this journey and we have to…we have to…we just have to…have some respect for it and hope that we can keep it afloat and enterprising…and I thank The God that I’m not in The Rolling Stones…because otherwise it’s just like everyday [shows with his hands some sort of marching].
Deamer: I think that within the band is to continue to write new music…that surprises ourselves…where we develop and transcend our own musical styles…<br>Question: Why are you performing only in Saint Petersburg? Why not other Russian cities?
Plant: Well, because we have this release in three weeks…we have to go to England, Germany, America, France…and we must go very quickly to many places but the Russian agent says that we can to go fourteen cities in Russia…finishing in Vladivostok…and then go to Japan afterwards…Can I ask the man behind this guy [points] where did he get this CD?
The guy: I bought it three days ago on Nevsky [the main prospect in St. P.] for a quint.
Plant: For a quint?
The guy gives the CD to the band members. They take the booklet out and discover that there is no booklet, open it and it makes Plant laugh out loud. Then for some time they keep looking closely at the CD. It is evident that Plant got very disappointed.
We are asked to do the last question.
The girl stands: How much time are you going to spend in Saint Petersburg [Plant keeps looking through the CD] and your impression?
Plant: We have received great hospitality…and…a…we don’t understand…really…too much…so we’ll stay as long as there is a bed for us…Thank you very much.
Plant stands up and leaves the room very quickly.
) and I have painted the Plant's Top 2005!
When is the gig, Mary ? ENJOY !!!!!
)!
Thinner ? ! ? Impossible ! ;D