The Yardbirds’ revolving mid-’60s line-up is unrivalled when it comes to guitar star power. The London group famously featured Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, in that order, across a period of just three years.
However, what’s less well documented is that there was an attempt to recruit Page to the band’s ranks before Jeff Beck’s arrival, while Eric Clapton was still in the band.
Page discussed the clandestine offer in one of his most detailed and candid interviews – a legendary six-hour discussion with Dave Schulps of Trouser Press in 1977. Part of that interview was later featured in the book Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell: An Illustrated History, and appeared in Guitar World in 1991.
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“The Yardbirds’ manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, approached me and said that Eric wasn’t willing to ‘expand,’” recalled Page. “I guess it was probably pretty apparent to them after they did For Your Love – Clapton didn’t like that at all. They had already started using different instruments, like harpsichords, and at that point Clapton felt like he was just fed up.”
Page then revealed that it wasn’t the only time he was approached while Clapton was still in the mind.
“The first time… was some time before then,” said the guitar icon. “Gomelsky said that Eric was going to have a ‘holiday,’ and I could step in and replace him.
“The way he put it to me, it just seemed really distasteful and I refused. Eric had been a friend of mine, and I couldn’t possibly have been a party to that. Plus, Eric didn’t want to leave the band at that point.”
Clapton, Beck and Page had a rivalry of sorts, but it was a friendly one, with all three players forming part of the bustling blues scene that was coming out of London’s Richmond-upon-Thames, at venues like The Crawdaddy Club and Eel Pie Island.
When Page did eventually agree to join the Yardbirds, it wasn’t as Clapton’s replacement, or even Beck’s, but after a request from the latter, who suggested he play as emergency cover for bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, who had quit suddenly in 1966.
That would prove to be a fateful decision, laying the foundation for Beck’s departure and emergence as a solo star, for Page’s own chapter with the group, and his eventual vision for ‘The New Yardbirds’ – perhaps better known by their later moniker… Led Zeppelin.
