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Getting the Led Out
Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on Led Zeppelin's historic
reunion
By Alan Light
Special to MSN Music
It is a rock 'n' roll fantasy that most people had abandoned. On Dec.
10 at London's O2 Arena, the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin -- Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones -- will take the stage accompanied by Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer, John Bonham. The concert marks the first time Led Zeppelin
has performed together in almost 20 years, and only the third time the lineup
has appeared since Bonham's death in 1980.
Anticipation for the event has spurred an avalanche of ticket requests,
followed by fresh suspense when the group was forced to reschedule from the
original concert date of Nov. 26. Guitarist Page reportedly fractured his
finger, prompting the delay. The concert is a benefit supporting a scholarship
fund created by Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who passed away last
year.
When the show was announced, the Web site on which tickets were being sold
was so overloaded that it crashed. In the end, 20 million people around the
world entered the lottery for the arena's 18,000 tickets. The response was
incredible, but not shocking: Led Zeppelin is one of only two bands to sell more
than 100 million records in the United States (the Beatles, of course, are the other, while Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks are the only solo artists to hit that number).
The aura surrounding their majestic recordings -- eight studio albums released
between 1969 and 1979 -- seems only to have grown over the years.
Speaking on the phone from London's Landmark Hotel a few days before
beginning rehearsals for the reunion show, guitarist Page and
bass/mandolin/keyboard player Jones made it clear that they're not taking this
event lightly. "This is a really serious commitment," says Jones. "We need to
get so familiar with this material again that we're not just re-creating a show,
but doing something that's genuinely good."
The O2 performance will follow directly on the heels of several new Zeppelin
projects. In October, the band announced that its music finally would be
available for digital download, ending one of music's highest-profile holdouts.
A new two-CD "best-of" compilation titled "Mothership" is being released Nov.
13, followed the next week by a remixed and remastered version of their 1976
concert film and soundtrack "The Song Remains the Same," with six previously
unreleased tracks (including such skull-crushers as "Black Dog," "Misty Mountain
Hop" and "Heartbreaker").
"Song," which was recorded over three nights at New York's Madison Square
Garden in 1973, isn't generally considered a first-rate document of live
Zeppelin; the "Rolling Stone Album Guide" dismisses it as "desultory." But the
remastering is a revelation, the DVD includes such extras as news coverage of
the famous robbery that took place at the band's Manhattan hotel during one of
the shows, and the sheer scarcity of material from these towering rock
superheroes makes any new recordings significant.
The future of the 21st century Led Zeppelin seems very much up in the air:
Plant has said that he considers the O2 show a one-time thing, while Page has
left the door open for more work going forward. For now, though, Page and Jones
sound genuinely excited about the band's return to the stage, raving about a
secret rehearsal they did in late spring to test the waters.
"We're right on the brink," says Page. "Next week we start, and I'm really
looking forward to it. If it's anything like the little things that we've done,
then this is going to be a terrific journey."
MSN Music: How does it feel to be playing together again?
Jimmy Page: Well, earlier this year we had this clandestine get-together.
There had been a bit of a rift between us, so we had to find out if it could
work, or was there too much water under the bridge? And that session felt
absolutely fantastic -- it was urgent, vibrant, everything you might have hoped
for and then even a bit extra, a bit more than that.
When the Ahmet thing came up, it was a call to arms. It gave us the
opportunity to come together.
John Paul, I saw you this past June at the Bonnaroo festival, and you
were having a blast sitting in and jamming with everyone. Have you been able to
bring that spirit and enthusiasm into these rehearsals?
John Paul Jones: To be honest, though, it went the other way as well. (Story Continues On Next Page...) |
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