“I was turned onto them when I was about ten. Then by the age of about 12 I was hooked,” he says. “When I was ten it was 1970, so it was when they were first starting to pump out. Whole Lotta Love blew me away the first time I heard that. And then when Led Zeppelin III came out, my brother had it, I fell in love.”
Interestingly, Led Zeppelin weren’t critical darlings during their heyday. Not that their devout fanbase ever seemed to mind, though. “[Led Zeppelin III]was an album that was really given the bum steer by reviewers.” Contarino says. “They said, ‘Oh that’s it, they’ve lost it. Led Zeppelin’s finished.’ But I think it still stands as my favourite album.”
Next came Led Zeppelin IV, which features the track that lends its name to this show, as well as several other favourites like Rock and Roll and When the Levee Breaks. For Contarino, the album’s opening number, Black Dog, is a personal favourite. “It’s got everything dirty, sexy cool and groovy for a young boy,” he says. “Everything imaginable of your fantasy is there.”
Before long, Contarino’s immense love for Led Zeppelin encouraged him to start playing music himself. “I started to play guitar, started to sing, forming little bands. We didn’t know what we were doing, but you always tried to play a Zeppelin song or two and failed miserably. So Led Zeppelin became something of a passion to sit back and listen to rather than something to perform. It was just too hard. It was hard to find musicians that could play it correctly and I just couldn’t sing it.”
After this realisation, Contarino certainly didn’t expect to carve out a career fronting Australia’s longest standing, most successful Zeppelin tribute act. But that’s exactly what he’s achieved since the inception of Zep Boys in 1986. Though, he was initially hesitant to join the band.
“My brain was programmed to never attempt Led Zeppelin, otherwise you’ll fail. So when I was approached by a couple of guys in Adelaide who rang up and said, ‘We’re thinking of doing a whole night of Led Zeppelin,’ I remember saying, ‘Ah guys, I don’t think so. I don’t think I’m prepared to put myself through that.’
“By that stage I’d been singing in hard rock bands, writing my own stuff and performing a Zeppelin song here and there. After I hung up that phone call I went, ‘I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to find out.’ It was just more to find out where I was at as a musician and singer. I wanted to know if I had the goods.”
Zep Boys have been the focus of many highly-praised tribute shows over the last 30 years, which seems to give an affirmative answer to Contarino’s initial query. With the added power of the Black Dog Orchestra, the Stairway to Heaven show will cover the eclectic terrain of the Zeppelin catalogue.
“Led Zeppelin has this mystique and this heaviness about it, but it isn’t metal. Going to California is not a rock song; All Of My Love is not a rock song; and Kashmir is a powerhouse, but it isn’t a rock song. Songs like The Rain Song, that’s a movement – it’s like something that Vivaldi and Stravinsky would write. Just like Stairway To Heaven is. Then you’ve got flat out, balls to the wall rock songs like Immigrant Song, Whole Lotta Love and Black Dog.”
BY NORTHMORE PUGIN
