Been A Long Time Since Led Zeppelin Rock ‘N’ Rolled
Posted December 11, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Led Zeppelin rocked London’s 02 arena on Monday leaving 20,000 charged fans begging for more and the critics with nothing to work with but a “whole lotta” raving reviews and buzz about a reunion tour.
Guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist John-Paul Jones – with Jason Bonham sitting in for his late father on drums – shook the stadium with rock classics like “Black Dog” and “Misty Mountain Hop.”
The highly-anticipated show started with a drum explosion from Bonham, 41, when he blasted into “Good Times, Bad Times.”
They followed that with “Ramble On,” and with it destroyed all rumors that Plant could no longer reproduce his trademark wail.
The group’s first full concert appearance in almost 30 years sent fans into a frenzy of screams, howls and fist-pumping cheers with songs like “Stairway to Heaven”, “Black Dog”, “Kashmir” and “Dazed and Confused.”
Plant roamed the stage belting out hit after hit. Page also showed he still has the touch as well. Besides ripping out his patented riffs all night, he put the spotlight on himself when the band played the bluesy “In My Time of Dying.”
The 16-song set list produced few surprises. They did many of the songs expected, such as “No Quarter” and “Trampled Under Foot,” and the entire show lasted a bit more than two hours, mainly because of encores “Whole Lotta Love” and “Rock and Roll.”
The band also played “For Your Life” live for the first time.
“It’s quite peculiar to imagine … to think about creating a dynamic evening choosing from 10 different albums. There are certain songs that have to be there, and this is one of them,” Plant said in introducing “Dazed and Confused.”
The one-off gig was a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records, and the sizeable proceeds will go to an education charity in his name.
More than one million people from more than 50 countries entered an online lottery for 14,000 thousand tickets.
“I can’t believe people would come from 50 countries for that,” Page said after pointing out a banner in the crowd that read “Hammer of the Gods.”
One fan from Toronto paid $2,500 for a scalper ticket the day before the show.
