Led Zeppelin to rock London
2007-12-10 14:01
London - Once may be enough for Led Zeppelin as band members reunite for the first time in 19 years at a much-hyped London concert on Monday.
Some 20 million people competed in an internet lottery for the 18 000 tickets, priced at £125 each, for the show at London's O2 Arena.
It has already been postponed a month because of guitarist Jimmy Page's broken finger.
Page, 63; John Paul Jones, 61, and Robert Plant, 59 - original members of the band - have recruited drummer Jason Bonham, 41, to take the place of his father, John Bonham, who died in 1980.
The band split up after Bonham's death, and whether there will be any more Led Zeppelin reunions is an open question.
Page has said he is eager to do it, Jones has been noncommittal and Plant, in effect, said: "Don't ask."
"I've got things I've been working on for the past four years that I'm proud of," Page said in an interview with Q magazine.
"Some of the songs I've got ready are as good as anything I've done in the past. I wouldn't necessarily save them for my solo career."
'Good heart'
Plant, who was reluctant to join in publicising the reunion concert, told Rolling Stone magazine that "if people don't talk about a tour, anything is likely."
"The more people talk, the more pressure it puts on everybody," he said.
And if there is no more Led Zeppelin after Monday's show? "That's fine," Plant says, "because we will do it with a good heart."
The concert is a tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records who launched Led Zeppelin in the United States.
Profits from the show will go to the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which supports scholarships to universities in Turkey, the United Kingdom and the US.
Led Zeppelin reunited briefly in 1985 for Live Aid and again in 1988 for a 40th anniversary concert for Atlantic Records.
They also played a short set with other musicians when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
- AP