Before he became an international rock star with Led Zeppelin, guitarist Jimmy Page played guitar in a band called Neil Christian & the Crusaders. However, Page became sick while playing with Neil Christian & the Crusaders and decided to quit the band to enroll in art school. According to Bob Spitz’s 2021 biography Led Zeppelin: The Biographyart school gave Page a break from touring, but he spend a great deal of time still playing guitar.
Jimmy Page leaves Neil Christian & the Crusaders to enroll in art school
As a teenager, Page joined the band Neil Christian & the Crusaders, and he toured extensively with the group. Because of the lackluster touring conditions, Page became sick with mononucleosis and had to take a break from performing.
The guitarist also realized he was bored of touring with the band.
“The numbers we were doing were really out of character for the audiences that were coming to hear us play,” Page said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography. “It was just disheartening to go up to, say, Rushton or somewhere like that and find ten people having a punch-up. In the end, it just didn’t appear to be going anywhere, so jacked it in.”
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Because of this, Page decided to leave the band, and he enrolled in Sutton Art College near his parents’ house.
Jimmy Page played guitar while in art school
According to Led Zeppelin: The Biography, Sutton Art College was a calming place. Students were not required to submit a portfolio to earn admittance, and it did not have required courses for students.
Colin Golding, a fellow guitar player and friend of Page, said in the biography, “It had a very relaxed atmosphere. And during the time you were at art school, somebody would invariably start a band.”
It turns out, there were multiple up-and-coming musicians at art school in the area, and Spitz called art school “an incubator for rock ‘n roll.”
Rolling Stones member Keith Richards attended Sidcup Art College, guitarist Eric Clapton attended Kingston School of Art, and the Beatles member John Lennon attended Liverpool College of Art for some time.
“There were loads of people playing guitar there,” Richards said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography. “It was kind of a guitar workshop.”
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Jimmy Page joins Neil Christian & the Crusaders
Because of the relaxed structure at Sutton Art College, Page was able to find more of a balance with his guitar playing. According to Spitz’s biography, he joined a “pickup blues band” with Cyril Davies and played weekly.
Eventually, Page went back to Neil Christian & the Crusaders to record the band’s single “The Road to Love.”
“We didn’t play on the tracks. Session musicians did,” Page said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.
However, Spitz reports in the biography that “while producer Norrie Paramor wiped off the Crusaders’ bass and drum tracks in favor of professional players, he left Jimmy’s guitar intact.”
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