ter Grant and Jimmy Page conspired to hype the group and keep them in the news as much as possible. Whether by leaking stories of diabolical pacts, fake burglaries of the band’s cash from a hotel safe in the US (watch “The Song Remains The Same”) or news exploits of the band’s tour activities (the red snapper incident, for example). There’s nothing like a good outrageous incident to guarantee headlines in the press and interest in the group’s next record.
The musical content and musicianship within Zeppelin was undoubtedly superb, but the ‘packaging’ and the mystique-causing-controversy demonstrated a previously unseen skill by anyone in the music industry to propel a group into the stratosphere in this way – Zeppelin even refused to release singles to help promote their next album! “Commercial suicide” said the record label’s A&R men. “Nah,” said Grant, “the punters’ll just buy the album instead of the single.” And boy, was he right.
It’s fair to say that Grant was most definitely the fifth member of Zeppelin. Without his powerhouse approach to business, marketing and looking after ‘his band’, it’s doubtful Zeppelin would