From the Rock and Roll WTF Files….he’s Jimmy Page to explain one of the strangest award show stories I’ve ever heard.
“Robert Plant and I had been invited to accept an award from Channel V – India’s premier music channel – and we had won an award for longevity.
“The highlight of the show were to be Los Del Rios, whose ‘Macarena’ song was a global hit at the time. Unfortunately at the last minute the duo pulled out of the trip as one of them had developed a sore throat; which was quite ironic considering they were going to mime. As it was, the chief dancer and choreographer of their video was to perform the song on her own. I believe this was the first time Channel V was doing this on an international level and now they had a bit of problem. They approached us to do something and of course we didn’t have any instruments and hadn’t rehearsed. It was suggested that we could mime Rock’n’Roll with Roger Taylor from Queen on drums (who was there to accept an award on behalf of Freddie Mercury) and a bass player from Goa.
“We agreed to it and did a quick rehearsal, I felt sorry for Channel V that they’d been let down by the Macarena boys. During the rehearsals the Goan bass player was well behaved but when it came to the show he suddenly developed a dose of Saint Vitus Dance and transformed into Billy Whiz crossed with the Flash. He couldn’t stop moving throughout the song and made it even more of a pantomime than it already was. But hey we did it and it was real good to be part of this special award show which is still being aired today”
