Back in 1969, producers at the BBC invited Led Zeppelin to perform for an audition panel. From this distance it's seems like an outrageously pompous request, but it wasn't unusual. Hopeful musicians would go in, play two or three songs, and a report card would be produced, deeming the artists worthy of airplay or screentime.
In 1965 David Bowie auditioned, only for one of the judging panel to describe him as "a singer devoid of personality”. Elton John was dismissed as a writer of "dreary songs" with "precious little musical ability", while Marc Bolan was deemed "crap, and pretentious crap at that."
