Music producer Kevin Shirley has told LedZepNews that he’s not connected with any work on Led Zeppelin’s upcoming archive releases after online speculation theorised that he had returned to working with the band.
Shirley worked with Led Zeppelin in the past on “DVD,” “How The West Was Won,” and the re-release of “The Song Remains The Same.” He was, essentially, the band’s go-to music producer throughout the 2,000s, but Jimmy Page now prefers to work with John Davis.
Fans on the Steve Hoffman Music Forum and also on the FBO mailing list speculated earlier this month that Shirley had returned to work with Led Zeppelin on an upcoming live release.
The speculation came about following a tweet that Shirley sent on September 29 which mentioned Led Zeppelin and included a link to a Facebook post which has since been deleted or made private.
The discovery of that tweet kickstarted speculation that Shirley was mixing a new Led Zeppelin live release. But Shirley told LedZepNews that it’s not happening.
“No, I did not post nor delete anything about Led Zeppelin news,” Shirley said via email. “I haven’t been involved with Led Zeppelin since we finished the remix of song remains the same. I attended the O2 concert which was the last time I saw Jimmy page in person, and that was on the stage. I haven’t spoken to him since.”
Instead, it seems like the tweet was instead an automatic posting connected to his Facebook profile, and he likely shared a link to his previous work with the band, rather than a cryptic teaser of his involvement in an upcoming release.
It’s not surprising that fans are looking out for social media posts revealing information about upcoming Led Zeppelin releases. Jimmy Page said in an interview released in December that “there’ll be Led Zeppelin product coming out, for sure, that people haven’t heard because I’m working on that. Next year will be the fiftieth year so there’s all manner of surprises coming out.”
And Page’s current producer, John Davis, seemingly posted a reference in October to his work on an upcoming Led Zeppelin project before deleting the Facebook post. Davis never replied to our question about his deleted Facebook post.
(Facebook/John Davis)
Good! Mr. Shirley is the king of compression, witness his work with Black Country Communion.
Good – what Shirley did in compressing all the life and ambience out of Bonham’s drum sound was godawful. Never understood why Jimmy Page approved that.
Another “Good” from me too. He’s great if you like all the Dynamics removed from a recording. I don’t know how this guy gets work.