Thursday, September 13, 2007

LED ZEPPELIN - IT'S ON


They've gone and done it: "Led Zeppelin" - that's Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, along with Jason Bonham - will be playing a "one-off" gig at London's O2 Arena on November 26. It's a fundraiser for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, and is a tribute to Mr. Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records. There's going to be a raffle for the chance to buy tickets for the show, which will also feature Pete Townshend (who was signed to Atlantic as a solo artist), Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones Records used to be distributed by Atlantic), and, er, Foreigner. It seems odd that any other artists would be necessary with Zeppelin on the bill.
But I wonder - are Plant/Page/Jones going to go through all the work to rehearse for just one gig? From there, it's not a big stretch for them to say, "Well, we could raise even more money if we do a second date..." And from there it's not a far leap for them to consider how much they could make for themselves by doing a few more dates. Of course, there's been standing offers for the three guys to reunite for years - but they've never gotten as close as performing together since their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over a decade ago. And that was on the eve of Page and Plant's tour (which didn't feature Jones).
I wonder how good they're gonna be: like I said in an earlier post, as much as I love Zeppelin, I'm more interested in seeing Robert Plant in 2007 touring with Alison Krauss for their new duo album.

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