I've noted some of this before...
In passing Phil Lynott with his arm over the shoulder of a blond model-type, going through Soho after coming out of the Marquee and saying "Hi Phil" the response was a crisp and succinct, "F*CK OFF!" - none of us were impolite back, more sarcastic at such a (small) big man being so unpleasant - one of the guys with us was a big fan and was somewhat shocked - I would not be willing to post my personal view of the man here...
A lady called Judie Tzuke - a bit of a one-hit-wonder but a very distinctive but diminutive figure somewhat like a scaled down Dolly - to me in my early twenties she was a beautiful woman with a wonderful smile who was easy to talk to and signed off her name with an arrowed heart - still have that tucked away somewhere...
Roger Taylor - diminutive, witty and debonaire... had the chance to chat to him at the Marquee club one night... he signed my pay slip (only paper I had other than cash) and joked, "Chr*st, it's been a long time since I've seen one of these", with a big grin...
I had a bumper evening in 81 in a pub in Chelsea for a Roadies Charity event where I had the chance to rub-shoulders with Peter Grant (a charming affable giant; nothing like I expected), Robert Plant (a great laugh), Jimmy Page (constantly cracking jokes with a ciggy constantly in his mouth), JPJ (cool but charming), Gary Bardens (then with MSG) and (my gawd, isn't he short) Cozy Powell - I had recently seen both of them playing with Schenker and had seen Cozy a number of times, big and small venues - both were a delight to talk to, pints in hand, down the pub with your mates - his loss was such a shock to me...
As a rock-n-roll evening it was a stunner, loads of roadies telling all sorts of stories, everyone in good humour, and something very special to me...
The event in Zep lore is the fabled point when everyone thought, "this is it, the rumours are true, Cozy's replacing Bonzo..." but it never happened, and at no point were they all seen together - I had this six by four piece off tatty gold-edged card which was the entry card with these six scribbles knocking about for years before I decided it would better used to funding other projects - never expected it to reach nearly $600/£400 - I hand delivered it with original pics and a coa to the buyer (surprisingly local - I made it a UK only sale) and a friend on this site has the only copy in existence - I'll not post images of it as I gave my word to the new owner and I'm sticking to it...
More later...