Jimmy Page – My favorite photo of mine

My favorite photo that I ever took of Jimmy….

Jimmy Page at Ronnie Lane’s party – La Mansion Hotel, Austin, Texas – after the gig on March 23, 1985 with The Firm….

It’s the night we really got to talk for the first time and he was so complimentary of my photos that it made me red with humility…. It was the night he asked for my phone number and a friendship started from there….

The night this photo was taken, he sat down and really perused my photos both of the Dallas ARMS show, but also the photos I had taken onstage of him and The Firm in Houston two nights before on March 21, 1985…  Jimmy was cool enough to set seats on the stage for Ronnie and us, and after the gig I thought it was important to let Ronnie and Jimmy have a dedicated discussion without interruption, including from me…

You can imagine how hard it was to stifle myself from trying to talk to him after getting to enjoy Jimmy’s return to the US in seats he provided us onstage…  But I kept my mouth shut the entire night in Houston, and really didn’t start talking to Jimmy at Ronnie’s party until I got this “shout out” from the other side of the room……”Hey Mark – these are the best shots I’ve seen yet of the ARMS tour – can I get your phone number and address so I can get some copies for my archive?  And I’m thinking, did Jimmy Page just compliment me and ask for my phone number?!?!?  And sure enough, the phone rang a few weeks later with, “Hello Mark, It’s Jimmy….!”

Needless to say, I didn’t ask “Jimmy Who?”

So you can imagine, when he and Jimena asked me and my wife to go to the O2 with his family, well it just made for a point of intense reflection in the entire journey I’ve had with him, including the 20 Page Plant shows I got to see in 1995 and 1998, starting with this photo…  The guy has just been incredible to me and my family for THREE decades now….

When I showed him this photo years later, he looked at it and said, “Wow Mark, not very many people have caught me that, uh…..”relaxed”….in a photo….”

Thanks for many years of good times, Mr. James Patrick Page…..!

Photo:  Mark Bowman Images