Led Zeppelin: Reunion Gig

LED ZEPPELIN
The O2, London
Monday 10 December
[five stars]

And so, in the end, there is just the one question: did it live up to all the hype? In short, yes it did, and in every possible sense. But more of that in due course.

The longevity of Led Zeppelin's appeal has perhaps only truly become apparent with this reunion, well over a million people applying for tickets to the O2 show via the lottery that preceded it. Those applications had come in from 50 different countries, and inside the O2, the national flags of Canada and Brazil, Mexico and Italy are each unfurled and draped around the venue.

In the guest bars, one can espy the likes of Noel Gallagher, Dave Grohl, assorted Arctic Monkeys and Marilyn Manson, and then again Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Sienna Miller, erstwhile Formula One boss Eddie Jordan and Aston Villa football manager Martin O’Neill. All that remains is for Led Zeppelin to not, as Jimmy Page had worried in advance, fuck it up.

At 9pm, Led Zeppelin walk on to a huge welcome. Page, suited and booted, his hair long and grey, looks as elegant as a Victorian gentleman. Stage left, John Paul Jones, always their quiet man, is attired as soberly as a solicitor at a weekend retreat, his hair cropped short. Stockier and more grizzled these days, Plant completes a somehow unexpectedly dignified entrance. Led Zeppelin look and act their age, which is well and good.

They sound it, too, alas on the opening Good Times Bad Times. The snappiest of Zeppelin songs, the lead off track from 1969’s debut album begins to slip through their fingers, Page’s snaking riff coming loose from the moorings of Bonham’s backbeat and Jones’ rumbling bass. Footings are fortunately recovered for the ensuing Ramble On and Black Dog, Plant’s voice finding the extent of its range and the three musicians coming together as one.

Not that this prepares anyone for the seismic impact made on proceedings by In My Time Of Dying, the weightiest epic from Physical Graffiti and perhaps the archetypal piece of Led Zeppelin bombast. Opened by Page’s earth-turning slide and Bonham’s earthquake fills, it’s shocking to find three gentleman of such advanced years wielding such power. From here, Led Zeppelin lift off.

For Your Life (a grinding blues from the Presence album), played in public for the first time, the rolling and tumbling Trampled Underfoot, a trio of long, cascading set-pieces in Nobody’s Fault But Mine (another of the underrated Presence’s reclaimed gems), No Quarter and Since I’ve Been Loving You – through them all, the Led Zeppelin of contemporary vintage grow in confidence and stature.

In doing so, they roll back the years, bringing so much of their inherent iconography back into focus. There’s Plant, hair flying, chest puffed out, strutting like a peacock through The Song Remains The Same. Here’s Page, violin bow raised above his head, framed by a pyramid of green laser beams, conjuring up an unholy orchestra of sound from his guitar during Dazed And
Confused.

Plant, particularly, has spent decades attempting to either put distance between himself and his past, or to reinvent it in entirely new forms, but tonight Led Zeppelin are unapologetically Led Zeppelin: solos extend onto the horizon, their group setting never once wavers from ‘Hammer Of The Gods’.

And after so long with faces fixed in a picture of intense concentration, they eventually begin to relax and look as if they too are enjoying themselves. Plant jokes with Bonham, so too Page with Jones. Long the most fractious seeming of old couples, Plant and Page finally embrace, Page’s face cracking into the widest of smiles. How oddly touching it appears.



Not that this helps any of them get around the age-old conundrum of Stairway To Heaven. Their most beloved song it might be, but it became a bete noire for Plant and they’ve never been able to master it live. Tonight proves to be no exception. Page botches the intro. And while Plant, for once, throws himself into singing it, the musical scenery around him wobbles away until the climax comes and goes at an unseemly rush, as if band and audience have accepted it’s all gone south again and it’d be best for all if they quickly forgot about it and moved on.

The set-closing Kashmir is everything Stairway To Heaven is not. The better song anyway, its soaring riff unrolls with a real sense of sturm and drang. If there is an entirely unique Zeppelin moment Kashmir is it, and they nail it here, a great set’s greatest moment.

Come the inevitable encore, come a rattling Whole Lotta Love, the famous old riff still shaking the foundations, and a celebratory pummel through Rock And Roll. And then they’re gone, their arms raised aloft in triumph, their job very much done, with no indication here as to whether this really is it for Led Zeppelin.

And if indeed 10 December at the O2 is to be their final stand, then Zeppelin will have bowed out with a proper command performance. One is left to wonder, though, how they can now possibly leave all this behind again.

PAUL REES- Q Mag

SET LIST

Good Times Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time Of Dying
For Your Life
Trampled Underfoot
Nobody’s Fault But Mine
No Quarter
Since I’ve Been Loving You
Dazed And Confused
Stairway To Heaven
The Song Remains The Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir

Whole Lotta Love
Rock And Roll

Me: This is my all time favourite rock band, i wish i was there. From the setlist, this sure was the best ever. Full story will in the January 2008 of Q Magazine.

*For EVERY new monthly subscriber this month will receive a copy of Led Zeppelin’s new 24-track Greatest Hits double CD, Mothership. A Q five-star-rated classic, this superb collection was selected and sequenced by Led Zeppelin themselves, making it a must-have for all music lovers.

Info source: Q4Music: Q Magazine

Posted in: International Acts