Sunday, January 23, 2011













The night of the Royal Albert Hall concert, 1970, Roger Daltdrey was with his then girlfriend, Heather, accompanied by a friend a young French model named Charlotte Martin. A slim, elegant blonde with perfect features, she was Jimmy's type and he made sure Roger introduced him to her after the show.
Jimmy Page was introduced to Charlotte Martin on his 26th birthday in 1970 by Roger Daltrey and his girlfriend Heather after the Royal Albert Hall gig. Heather was convinced that Jimmy and Charlotte would hit it off. Charlotte was used to the attention of musicians, but Jimmy was different. Compared to most rock musicians she'd met he seemed quite sophisticated. Quietly spoken, undemonstrative, but confident and quite sure of himself.
That night was the beginning of a long and stormy relationship of Jimmy and Charlotte. After the show got over Jimmy and Charlotte spoke for a long time and when she invited him back to her London flat, he agreed to go without a second thought, getting Cole to drive them.
Pamela Des Barres writes in her book ''I'm With the Band'' that Jimmy fell in intense and dramatic love with Charlotte on his birthday.
When the band gathered at Grant's office four days later to begin the drive down to their next show in Portsmouth, Charlotte was still on Jimmy's arm. With Pat Bonham. Maureen Plant and Mo Jones also joining the band on the road for the UK tour, suddenly Charlotte became the new 'Mrs. Page', the slot previously occupied by Miss Pamela. However, Jimmy's affair with Charlotte would remain in place a lot longer than his dalliance with the prettiest GTO. It was, in fact, the start of the first really significant love affair of the guitarist's life, and one he would remain true to even after the band had returned to the road in America. An almost unheard of sacrifice, even for the married men in the band, for Jimmy it was a sign of something much deeper. UK tour ended in Leeds later that month, they settled in Jimmy's Pangbourne Boathouse on the Thames, enjoying an Edward life-style along the river amid Jimmy's growing collections of antiques and pre-Raphaelite furniture.
Pamela Des Barres also writes "Miss Chirstien sent me a letter about Lady Charlotte, and my mind was stiffened like a stone''. Miss Chirstien (another member of GTO's) was living in London with Todd Rundgren at that time.
Richard Cole writes in his book 'Stairway to Heaven' that "Charlotte was the type of girl who you couldn't look at just once. Tall. Thin. Blonde. Perfect features. You had to glance a second time''. But he also writes ''At least in her relationship with me, she was aloof, unfriendly, and indifferent''.
Jimmy and Charlotte had a stormy marriage, but they had one daughter Scarlet Page, born in March 24th 1971, who is now a photographer. When onstage for Page and Plant's 'Unledded' reunion in 1994, Robert Plant announced to the audience that Page's daughter, Scarlet was conceived "about half an hour" after "That's the Way" was written in Bron-Yr-Aur cottage, Wales. Then Jimmy took Charlotte and Robert took Maureen and their daughter Carmen with them.
Jimmy and Charlotte didn't have a good relationship the first half of the 1970s, but from the late 1970s 'till the begining of the 1980s their relationship get better, and Jimmy was calling her 'my lady'. Jimmy threw elaborate parties for her at Plumpton Place and Old Mill House.
Especially, on her birthday, in 1982, Jimmy had a great party for her at their 'Old Mill House'.

xoxo

LadyNoir

No comments:

Post a Comment