Led Zeppelin to reunite
 

Rock group Led Zeppelin to reunite
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 8:55pm BST 12/09/2007


Their wild hair may be thinner and their snake hips lost to middle-age spread but the news that Led Zeppelin are to reform for a one-off concert sparked the biggest scramble for tickets in rock history.


The British band, who have sold more than 200 million albums, will play together for the first time in 19 years at London’s O2 arena in November.


The group disbanded 27 years ago
But with just 23,000 tickets on sale, albeit at £125 each, demand for seats is anticipated to be so high that the organisers have been forced to sell them by ballot.

Led Zeppelin’s mix of blues, folk and rock brought them huge success, particularly with their most famous song Stairway to Heaven, but they split in 1980 after drummer John Bonham choked to death during a drinking binge.

Since then guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist John Paul Jones have only performed together twice.

They will headline a tribute concert to Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, who died last year.

Money raised from ticket sales will go to a music charity he formed.

Fans wanting tickets should register at www.ahmettribute.com. Names will be chosen at random.

The Godfathers of Rock:

- Led Zeppelin never released a single, preferring the long play album.

- Their name is said to have been inspired by Keith Moon, the late drummer for The Who. He was originally going to play in the group and joked they would go down like a "lead balloon". The "a" was left out of "Led" so that Americans would not mispronounce it.

- The band would hire entire floors of hotels and go on drunken rampages. In one incident John Bonham threw a number of televisions out the windows of the Continental Hyatt House hotel in Los Angeles, sparking a rock n' roll cliche.

- A version of Whole Lotta Love was the theme tune to Top of the Pops.

- Bonham’s drum solos at concerts could last up to 30 minutes, during which time the others would leave the stage. His drumming was so ferocious that he often broke his sticks and continued playing with his hands.

- Stairway To Heaven is the biggest-selling piece of sheet music in rock history. Over a million copies have been sold.

They had 10 Top 100 singles released in the U.S. -
Whole Lotta Love , only top 10 (#4) 1969.....three others reached the Top 40:
Immigrant Song (#16) '70, Black Dog (#15) '71, D'yer Mak'er (#20) '73
& Fool in the Rain (#21) '80...thier last, peaked after John Bonham's death.

kashmir is my ring tone--if bonham knew that, he'd roll over in his grave...

great, great band. one of my faves. if i had to listen to only one bands music for the rest of my life, it would be led zeppelin.

my favorite line from a song has got to be 'soul of a woman was created below'.

My favorite Zeppelin song too...also fond of When the levee breaks & Hot Dog .

Best song is all of my love.

i love kashmir! great song, and has to be turned up LOUD! of course, the singing always sounds better after a few cold ones (my singing, not the band!!)..

custard pie.

hard to pick a favorite, but love these in addition to others that were mentioned.


misty mountain hop
the song remains the same
trampled under foot
in the evening

The Rover, Custard Pie, and When the Levee breaks are probably my 3 favorites.

they've made so many good songs. i gotta register for tickets. thanx. since i've been loving you, dazed and confused,rock and roll, what is and never should be on and on and on. truly one of the all time greatest bands ever.

the rover has always been my favorite. most under-played song they have. you rarely ever hear it. in the light, also off physical grafitti, is another killer, along with no quarter off houses of the holy. those two songs don't have the "fm" sound, even though no quarter does get some play.

it must have taken an act of congress to get jones to play again. i read once where he was quoted as saying he'd rather kill page than play with him again.

I get to hear The Rover relatively frequently on Sirius, thanks to the program function the radio has: I get a warning every time the song is played:)

"The Rover" is the name of the song? I'll download it now

Battle of Evermore
No Quarter

Both are two of my favorites

As an interesting aside on Zeppelin, Howard Stern had a guy named Denny Somach on in late June. He has documented how Led Zeppelin basically "borrowed" every note of their first record from other artists.
For those interested, here's a link to the interview:
http://www.esnips.com/doc/3a626981-0...n-Denny-Somach

that's a nice function. i have xm and i've never heard it once.

right between custard pie and in my time of dying on side 1, disc 1, of physical graffiti. showing my age knowing the ALBUM lineup.

i have a ton of old muddy waters and robert johnson compilations, among others, and as much as i love led zeppelin, they definitely were rip-off artists early in their career.

I never said they didn't have any singles. What I said was they never made a specific song as a single, as many others did. All their singles were taken from Albums
:cool: