February

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is given out yearly to ‘performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording’. In 2005, Led Zeppelin were one of those performers. Sadly, John Bonham was no longer alive to see his achievement realized, a fact made even sadder when thinking that he was one of the most outspoken band members against the press’s derisory treatment of the group. On the day, Led Zeppelin were one of the 11 artists that year (along with the likes of The Carter Family, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jelly Roll Morton, Janis Joplin and The Staple Singers) that were recognized for their Lifetime Achievement. Some might have said it was actually about three or four lifetimes in one, of course….

April

Plant’s Mighty ReArranger

Credited this time to Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation, Mighty ReArranger was hailed by many as being Plant’s most impressive solo release to date. Easily as varied as the likes of Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy or Physical Graffiti, Mighty ReArranger showed a performer in complete control of all aspects of his musical past: blues, folk, Eastern and world music. While most ‘rock dinosaurs’ would be happy just to make an album that rocked again, Plant was upping the ante for all of his contemporaries by creating an album that resonated with the times, without sounding like a throwback to its creator’s own past glories. If Jimmy Page had originally seemed to be the driving genius behind Led Zeppelin’s music, Mighty ReArranger revealed Plant to be every bit the creative force that his old musical partner was.

November

Polar Music Prize

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by ABBA manager Stig Anderson and named after Anderson’s own Polar Records label. Each year the winners are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy Of Music and given one million Swedish crowns for their ‘exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music’. The award is unique in that it doesn’t categorize its winners, but treats music of all types as equal, and to be judged on its own terms. Alongside Led Zeppelin, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was also announced as the winner of the 2006 Polar Music Prize in November 2005.

December

Page Awarded OBE

Jimmy Page had often dedicated himself to chartiable causes, such as the ARMS Benefit shows in 1983, or even standing up for environmental causes concerning Loch Ness in Scotland in 1979. Since 1994 he had been an important figure in helping poor children in Rio de Janeiro’s shanty towns. With the help of the British charity Task Brasil, Page started the Casa Jimmy safehouse, which provided Rio de Janeiro’s underprivileged with clothing, food and job training. In December 2005, aged 61, the one-time occultist was awarded an OBE for his work.

Personalities | Introducing Led Zeppelin
Personalities | Led Zeppelin | After The Break Up (2006) | Key Events