Howard Mylett's Perspective on the Sonic Boom Series

Published Led Zeppelin author, Howard Mylett, is interviewed in Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 – Break & Enter. He also contributed many photographs and lent his expertise to guide the project, becoming a valuable resource, mentor and friend. Still, he had no idea what the finished book looked like until he received his review copy on August 29! Here are his first impressions.

Dear Frank and Lou:

Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 – Break & Enter arrived today and I can't thank you enough. It's excellent, and as you so accurately printed under the picture of me as an 8 year old on page 570, I've loved music for the last 53 years! This book is so beautifully put together that it is of true encyclopedic/museum quality and one I'm very proud to be associated with.

Nothing has been scrimped on. The contributors are a true cross mix of musicians, engineers, ex-hippies, early concert goers, deejays, promoters, Zep collectors to name a few of the forty, in-depth and revelatory interviewees. The book also covers the subculture of 1968/69. The commendable quality of the hardcover book ensures that the reader is drawn in directly with contributions from the very first of the 712 pages, focussing on an almost unquenchable thirst for knowledge about a group that has provided so much and so many varied styles of music.

As the book says on its gold-imprinted cover, it covers 40 years from September 1968 to the present day. The fact that Led Zeppelin had two albums' worth of recorded material in 1969 plus Jimmy Page's time spent in concert with The Yardbirds gives more credence to how those two remarkable albums made such an unprecedented impact on the youth of the day.

There are some rare visuals from 1968 to 2007. Full marks must also go to Jørgen Angel whose vintage New Yardbirds and early Led Zeppelin historic shots are evident throughout the book. Plus the great previously unseen colour action shots of the December 2007 O₂ concert add to the feel of the group's power and make us wish we could have experienced more of Zeppelin's live performances.

My next week or so will be spent absorbing the wealth of facts the book uncovers, many of which are previously unknown to me. This is truly the in-depth volume of a trilogy that no TRUE Led Zeppelin fan will want to miss out on.

This book is sensational. It has already become a much treasured volume. Whenever I can grab an hour or more I'm ploughing through each and every interview, sometimes returning to an interview I may have only read the day before. Frank's skill with interviewing makes for very informative reading and you should be praised for that. The book takes the reader back to a special place in time when the world was a very different place.

With every article I read, the more I'm learning about and becoming fascinated with my favourite group. This book has everything a Led Zeppelin fan could wish for: newly discovered facts and information plus rare, previously unpublished details from a vast range of interviewees who are a credit to the book and any serious Led Zeppelin fan.

Thanks to all of you who were involved in this mammoth task! I can genuinely recommend to anyone thinking of buying a copy, get in quick because this book knocks many others for six. Because the book is self-published and self-financed, it is not available in bookstores. Selling such a high-quality book through the trades would no doubt mean that the price would far exceed that offered online at www.enzepplopedia.com. It will sell like hotcakes for any fan who wants to try and relive that special rarely touched-on, live feel of Zeppelin breaking ground in the USA.

I commend you both for producing a volume that is on a par with the written words of The Beatles Anthology. Congratulations, mate. Very well done! Be proud, be very proud.

Here's to the 2nd and 3rd volumes!

Howard Mylett
August 29, 2008