Yet another new setter for the New Year – welcome Deri!
It’s Tuesday, so we’re on the lookout for a theme……and as we worked our way through the clues, it became apparent that there were a lot of hints leading towards Led Zeppelin, one of our favourite bands from our era – late 60s & early 70s.
As we filled the grid we realised that there were more specific references to Jimmy Page, songwriter and lead 15ac in Led Zeppelin who was previously a member of the 1ac, another great 60s group.
With some electronic help we established that today is Jimmy 6ac 10ac birthday and that he wrote (or co-wrote) 21ac & 12ac, 13d, 16d and the 24d 25d for Led Zeppelin.
Initially we were surprised that there seemed to be relatively few thematic entries, but when we found that 13d and 16d were Zeppelin tracks (unfamiliar to us), we reviewed the clues and realised that Led Zeppelin and other brilliant bands from the late 60s and 70s were represented in the wordplay – quite an achievement and a great intro from Deri – more please!
An anagram (‘collapsing’) of IS DRY BReAD missing or ‘not providing’ the ‘e’ (energy)
Double definition
A reversal (‘recalled’) of EH (what) TEL (‘jocular’ name for Terry Wogan)
Violet Elizabeth, in the ‘Just William’ stories has a lisp, so she might ‘read out’ A T S (last three letters or ‘pieces’ from Keats) as AY-TEE-ETH – a homophone of EIGHTIETH
‘get partner’ is an ANAGRAM of Peter Grant – apparently a notorious manager of Led Zeppelin
Alternate (‘occasional’) letters of eRrOr LuLu
BIDE (stay) in I M (middle letters or ‘centre’ of Crimea)
A reversal (‘retreating’) of RAT (deserter) I (one) after GUy (missing the last letter or ‘curt’)
TIT (‘singer’) LED (‘that fronts Zeppelin’)
STING (bassist – Sting in The Police) Y (last letter or ‘end’ of Synchonicity – a track by the Police)
A reversal (‘retro’) of K (last letter or ‘back’ of funk) COR (my)
DER (‘the’ in German) BELL (roar) – we had to check this – round INN (pub)
An anagram (‘explosive’) of TORY TALES
PR (prince) 1AM (an hour after midnight)
YOU (solver) NG (no good)
An anagram (‘stewed’) of HARE BONES – we’d never come across this vegetable before
YAh (yes or ‘agreed’ for a Sloane Ranger) missing the last letter or ‘almost’ round or ‘touring’ ALT (key – on a keyboard)
An anagram (‘strange’) of gUITAR (15 across) missing the first letter or ‘lead’ + LIST (record)
B (British) LEARY (Timothy Leary, the ‘LSD advocate’) EYE (observer) D (last or ‘final’ letter of featured)
A homophone (‘heard’) of REAMS (masses) – the Anglicised pronunciation of the city’s name
A reversal (‘after lift’) of DEGAS (painter) round G (first letter or ‘front’ of gallery)
P (pressure) IT (‘computer work’) round or ‘taking’ T (time)
A reversal (‘upset’) of O (old) BERG (composer) – a new word for us
SLY (secret) round H (husband) in an anagram (‘pants’) of CORAL
An anagram (‘daft’) of SCRIPT DUE A
INTER (plant) P (page) LAY (song) – Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were songwriters for Led Zeppelin
TAN (tangent – ‘function’) GERE (Richard Gere, film star) round or ‘hosting’ IN (home)
E (electronic) in or ‘beset by’ HITCH (snag)
IN (trendy) STAR (A-lister) – another new word for us
Hidden (‘a little’) in deCOY PUzzled
LEnnON (John Lennon – ‘Beatle’) missing the middle two letters or ‘heartless’ round or ‘describing’ M (first letter of McCartney)
S (second) + O N G (last letters of Apollo Zeppelin gig)
Right up my street as a theme and, as our bloggers observe, there was as much fun in the surfaces as there was in the solutions. I only discovered it was Jimmy Page’s eightieth on concluding the solve with that word appearing prominently. It could have been simply what the grid threw up but I had my suspicions. Having done a couple of date-related themers myself, I am particularly chuffed for Deri’s debut that this anniversary actually falls on a Tuesday.
I am afraid I do remember GREBOs from my own teenage years in the 70’s. I was just a few years too late to catch Zeppelin in their absolute prime – Bonzo died when I was 17 – but they remain a favourite band, along with many of their contemporaries. [I may have mentioned this before but Plant and Bonham lived quite close to me and three of my school friends bunked off to attend the funeral. They actually got themselves a mention in the subsequent news report which listed many of the rock world’s A-listers at the event, ending up ‘ … and, somewhat incongruously, three boys in school uniform’.]
EIGHTIETH, TITLED, PITT, SCHOLARLY, INTERPLAY and SONG were my favourites.
Thanks Deri and B&J
I just about managed to finish this, but didn’t really enjoy it being a ‘rockaphobe’ (surely a better word is available) and had to do so much online research. However, 10A was brilliant! I can’t see bell= roar. Thanks Deri and B&J.
Thanks Deri and B&J!
Top fave: EIGHTIETH.
There are a few LAYs-Maybe thematic?
Mini theme: PITT: PRIAM (Troy connection)? And Led Zeppelin’s Achilles song…
Tatrasman @2: the belling/roaring of a stag?
What an excellent debut with a theme near and dear to my heart.
I learnt a few new things along the way, never having heard of Timothy Leary, nor “roar” = “bell”, nor the 29a vegetable (which sounds rather unappetising) nor the scruffy heavy metal fan.
The setter deserves some sort of wooden spoon for 4d, which I have visited on many occasions. It is spelt REIMS not RHEIMS and it took me years to be able to get moderately close to the correct pronunciation, which is absolutely nothing like “reams”. The French deride the incapability of the English to say this name correctly.
With lots of ticks on my page, EIGHTIETH was my favourite.
Many thanks to Deri, and looking forward to your next one. Thanks too to B&J.
[RD @5: never having heard of Timothy Leary, you might like to be reminded of this Moody Blues number.]
Rabbit Dave @5. I thought that but my Collins gives “Rheims” as an alternative spelling.
As others, quite a lot of new words for me but managed to complete. Couldn’t parse 10a, having never read the “Just William” books, but agree that it’s a brilliant clue.
The unchecked rows and columns contain a few words, nothing to constitute a nina, but I like the way column 12 begins with AIR and points nicely to GUITAR. A ‘Deri Air’, you might say.
There’s a diamond in the middle of the puzzle, celebrating the 60th anniversary of debut album Five Live YARDBIRDS(1964)
For 15a GUITAR we had to lift-and-separate Guy Gibson – leader of The Dam Busters. He died in 1944. Another 80th (Oak) anniversary.
I was never that huge a Zeppelin fan but this was a fun reminder of times gone by, and very clever grid filling. After spotting LEARY in 3d and then getting 16d TANGERINE I was expecting to find a DREAM somehere! I also enjoyed the Anglocentric homophone RHEIMS and the meta ANAGRAMMED clue. I did not know that use of BELL and tried to put GONG in to 23 🙁
I’d never encountered HORSEBEAN and initially guessed HORSEBANE which does exist as a plant, hence ‘vegetable’. Learned rather more than I wanted to know about horses when I researched the answer.
Oh – ad the balanced 21a/12a was really neat.
Then there’s Lulu in 12a ROLL
Her 1964 debut single Shout, ‘credited to “Lulu & the Luvvers” … peaked at No. 7 on the UK chart.’ Another diamond.
PM @6. I need to change my comment to “I had completely forgotten about Timothy Leary”. I loved the Moody Blues and I’ve even got the wonderful LP In Search Of The Lost Chord in my loft.
A couple of Violet E clues from the archives:
A measure of Violet Elizabeth’s malady? (9) FT Bradman
‘This bed’s horrid’, says Violet Elizabeth, as story intensifies (3,4,8) Guardian Nutmeg
“I’m more than pleased” said Violet Elizabeth, “but no Wembley this year” (2,3,7,4) Indy Knut
Jimmy Page also recorded with Lulu
KVa@13 – sickness; ??? ???? sickens; and – this one’s very good – ?? ??? run is ???? 🙂
🙂
Good stuff and welcome Deri – Violet Elizabeth is new to me, but I’ll remember her. Crossed my fingers for the spelling of RHEIMS, but while a homophone it seemed the only available option.
Thanks both.
Thanks both. I was only ever partly on the same wavelength here, in that I eventually grasped the Violet Elizabeth and Wogan references, but I am of the right vintage, however resorted to looking up Sloane Ranger and was still none-the-wiser perhaps as I have never seen ‘yah’ spelt out. As others have remarked, we are getting fairly niche when a homophone delivers a variant spelling of a word English people are wholly incapable of pronouncing correctly.
18a STINGY & The Police’s ‘fifth and final studio album’ Synchronicity
‘At the 1984 Grammy Awards … was nominated for a total of five awards, including Album of the Year, and won three.’ – A 4-TEE-ETH (Ruby) anniversary.
Well, I can’t stand Led Zeppelin except for a few of their songs (I quite like 21 & 12) but that didn’t stop me enjoying this splendid puzzle. Strong debut. Well done and thanks, Deri. And thanks for the blog, B&J.
RHEIMS is the anglicised spelling of REIMS – there’s a Rheims Way just down the road from me in Canterbury which us locals pronounce to rhyme with reams, so that all seems legit to me. It was where they placed the finish line when the Tour de France visited in 2007. The visiting French cyclists and organisers may well have pronounced it differently, which I expect made things interesting in planning discussions with the local authorities.
27a “Prince” had a good year in 1984, too – Purple Rain the album spent six consecutive months atop the Billboard 200; the film soundtrack also won an Oscar.
‘At one point … Prince simultaneously had the No. 1 album, single, and film in the US … the first time a singer had achieved this feat.’ Another ruby.
Thanks Deri and congratulations on your Indy debut. Even though I failed in the NW corner I found much to enjoy. TITLED, SCHOLARLY, HI-TECH, and LEMON were among my top picks. [And as long as we’re stretching the theme there’s YOUNG and HORSE on the bottom row, as in Neil Young and Crazy Horse.] Thanks B&J for the blog.
Thank you to Bert & Joyce for the beautifully rendered blog, and to everyone in the comments.
I enjoyed the deeper dives into hidden meanings. (There was a dark time when JP was into drugs and the occult, but thankfully he’s no longer a 3d 2d!)
Well, I completed this – just – without knowing anything about Led Zeppelin, and there were many I couldn’t parse. I did read some of the Just William books as a kid, and I remember Violet Elizabeth.
With Rabbit Dave@5 re RHEIMS which is certainly not available in that spelling chez lui, nor pronounced in the poor English fashion..
Thanks Deri n Bertandjoyce
Thanks Deri for a great themed debut and B&J for the blog.
The latter two might be pleased to know that a certain 7 and 3/4 year old was doodling on a kids menu at the weekend, was impressed to see that where it asked what his favourite band was he’d put down Led Zeppelin (and the Stones too).
ROCK and ROLL were 2 of my first 4 in and thought he would like to see what was emerging before school… hadn’t picked it up again until after his bedtime so will have to show the completed grid to him in the morning!
I thought ROCK, ROLL, INTERPLAY and SONG were all great themed clues.
Perhaps I can blame being the wrong generation, but I don’t think I really knew anything about Timothy Leary until today, despite hearing his name on this classic that I must have heard thousands of times!
Thanks Deri and BnJ
I think you can add 14D INTERPLAY to 15A GUITAR (and reverse them) as a themer, to indicate how JP layered his guitars in the studio versions – as an example, check out When The Levee Breaks from the fourth album.
[Meant to post this earlier, but forgot]