Led Zeppelin at their 2007 reunion concert. Photo / Supplied
Ask any die-hard Led Zeppelin fan about Stairway to Heaven, and eventually Bron-Yr-Aur will come up.
It's the name of the remote cottage in Wales where the band, sitting fireside, wrote the song. At least, it's where guitarist Jimmy Page has always said he wrote the song -- a perfect
image for a band obsessed with Celtic iconography.
What you likely won't hear is Headley Grange, a now-closed recording studio in Headley, England, where bands like Fleetwood Mac, Genesis and Bad Company rehearsed and recorded.
Until now. During Jimmy Page's testimony in Zeppelin's ongoing copyright battle with the band Spirit over Stairway to Heaven, Page admitted he didn't write the song at Bron-Yr-Aur, pronounced "bronariar." Instead, he wrote it elsewhere and first played it for his bandmates at the Headley Garage.
That might sound like a minor detail, but to Zeppelin fans, it's akin to the levee breaking. Bron-Yr-Aur has been a destination for the faithful, a place of pilgrimage. The song's origin story just went from storied to pedestrian.
