Aussie Band The Delta Riggs Gobsmacked After Jimmy Page Shows Up At Their Gig

It’s one thing for Australians to turn up on music festival lineups and charts around the world, it’s another when an internationally renowned rock star turns up unannounced at an Aussie band’s gig.

That’s the surreal situation The Delta Riggs found themselves in this week when the one and only Jimmy Page made an appearance at a small London gig the Melbourne rockers played on Wednesday night.

But it wasn’t just sheer coincidence, the Led Zeppelin legend liked what he was hearing, rolled up and paid the £5 cover charge, then stuck around for the band’s half-hour set.

He even took the time to get himself snapped with the four-piece, with The Delta Riggs sharing the photographic results on their Facebook page with the caption: “Jimmy Page just turned up to catch our London show. No presh.”

The band’s drummer, Simon McConnell, had reportedly spotted Page loitering at the bar pre-show “about the same time as we had to go on, so we didn’t really have time to let it completely sink in,” bass player Michael Tramonte tells FasterLouder about the “pretty surreal” experience of getting a private audience with Page after the gig.

Tramonte calls the 70-year-old guitar hero “a chilled dude” who was keen to talk shop with The Delta Riggs backstage. “He said he ‘loved the tune with the great groove and Hawaiian chords’ which was ‘Supersonic Casualties’ and also ‘Rah Rah Radio’.”

The former number is the lead single from The Delta Riggs forthcoming second studio album Dipz Zebazios, while the latter number is the namesake of the band’s own independent record label as well as a song lifted from their 2013 AMP award nominated debut LP, HEX.LOVER.KILLER.

Page could well be receiving copies of both albums in the mail; the bassist telling FasterLouder, “well, he gave us his address to post him a record as well, so that was pretty rad…”

The Delta Riggs have been touring UK and the Europe hard since departing their native homeland earlier this year, kicking things off with an appearance at Sounds Australia’s annual ‘Aussie BBQ’ showcase at Brighton’s Great Escape (as one of more than 17 Aussie bands booked for the UK festival).

Since then they’ve played over 20 Europen gigs in the last two months, including the ‘London Calling’ event in Amsterdam and several festivals and club shows in Germany, where the band have been finalising mixes for Dipz Zebazios and recording in a Berlin studio with fellow countryman, Simon ‘Berkfinger’ Berkelman (of Philadelphia Grand Jury/Feelings).

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The Delta Riggs will return home to play their first Australian shows (since April’s Supersonic Casualties Tour) this July, playing SOSUEME’s 7th Birthday bash and the revamped Gasometer Hotel as part of Melbourne’s Leaps And Bounds Festival. Check out details of where to catch the quartet’s Jimmy Page approved rock below.