In the summer of 1989, rock-stars gathered at London Metropolis Studios to record all-star version of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” hit to help Armenia after the Spitak earthquake. Mediamax presents the special project dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Rock Aid Armenia to reveal previously undisclosed details. 

Rock Aid Armenia special project is supported by the British Council. 

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The all-star squad of Rock Aid Armenia was comprised of members of Queen, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden, ELP and Free. Many Led Zeppelin fans keep asking why no one from their favorite band featured in that squad.

Rock Aid Armenia founder Jon Dee has told Mediamax that Led Zeppelin’s bassist John Paul Jones was actually supposed to produce the recording.

Jon Dee recalled:

“I asked Brian Eno for his advice as to who could produce the session recordings. He suggested John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin. Brian then arranged for us to meet up and John Paul Jones and I met 3 times to discuss how the record could be made.

Unfortunately, the filming crew were unavailable for the date that we had originally chosen for recording the tracks. For the new recording date John Paul Jones was not in England, so he had to pull out”. 

However, Led Zeppelin did leave a trace in the project: their ‘Rock’n’Roll’ was recorded for Rock Aid Armenia along with Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’.

Roger Daltrey

Photo: Tony Mottram/Rock Aid Armenia

It was performed by an extraordinary group of people: the legendary lead singer from The Who Roger Daltrey, Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris and drummer Nicko McBrain, and tennis stars Pat Cash and John McEnroe, who performed as guitarists.

Jon Dee tells the story:

 “After we had our top 40 hit in the UK with Smoke on the Water, I wanted to do a follow up record. I decided to do a remake of ‘Rock‘n’Roll’ by Led Zeppelin. I spoke to Roger Daltrey from The Who and he agreed to be the vocalist. I then managed to get Nicko McBrain and Steve Harris from Iron Maiden to do the drums and bass.

Ian Gillan came up with the idea of the tennis players John McEnroe and Pat Cash playing guitar on the track as they were getting lots of media coverage about their guitar-playing skills back then. Ian introduced me to Pat. Pat agreed to do it and he then got John McEnroe on board.

John McEnroe, Jon Dee and Pat Cash

Photo: Tony Mottram/Rock Aid Armenia

I produced the sessions which were a lot of fun to record. We got a huge amount of media publicity and we had a live gig with the guys at the Limelight Club.

John and Pat did a great job on guitar, but as it was a hard rock version of the song, it didn’t get in to the UK charts. It was too heavy music-wise.

However, I love this version and we are putting it out on to iTunes for people to buy. It will be pushed out as Rock Aid Armenia: Roger Daltrey and The Full Metal Rackets, so please buy it!

Photo: Tony Mottram/Rock Aid Armenia

What’s nice about this is that to this day, Pat Cash is still one of my closest friends”. 

Rock Aid Armenia recorded ‘Rock’n’Roll’ at Sarm Studios in London. The project returned there in 2010, when Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi and John Lord recorded ‘Out of My Mind’. Just like in 1989, Nicko McBrain performed as the drummer.

Read also:

Ian Gillan, Jon Dee and “the orphans class” in Spitak

The fake Wembley poster and the real meeting with Stas Namin

Roger Taylor takes over as drummer for Rock Aid Armenia

David Gilmour helps put together the constellation of Rock Aid Armenia

“Rock and Mercy”: Komsomolskaya Pravda covers Rock Aid Armenia in 1989

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On 5 June 2019, Yerevan will host a gala night to mark the 30th anniversary of Rock Aid Armenia. Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and organizer of Rock Aid Armenia Jon Dee will attend the gala. The visit and celebration of the anniversary are organized by Mediamax Media Company and DoSomething (Australia).

The sponsor of Rock Aid Armenia’s 30th anniversary celebrations and the rock stars’ visit is IDBank. Koor Wines is the partner of the event.