EXCLUSIVE Seventies rock legends Led Zeppelin to reunite for UK gig &
world tour
By Sean Hamilton Showbiz Editor
Sean.Hamilton@Sundaymirror.Co.Uk
24/06/2007
IT'S the reunion rock fans thought would never happen. Led Zeppelin
are planning to re-form for a massive world tour.
The surviving members of the Seventies "Whole Lotta Love" group have
been approached to headline a memorial concert for the founder of
their record label, who died last year.
They are understood to have agreed - and during discussions about the
concert, they gave the green light for a tour afterwards.
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Singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul
Jones will be joined by the late drummer John Bonham's son Jason. Led
Zep, who split in 1980 following the death of Bonham, have reunited
only a handful of times in the last 20 years - most famously for Live
Aid in 1985.
But a tour has never been on the agenda for the group who invented
hard rock with songs such as Whole Lotta Love, Stairway To Heaven and
Black Dog.
Plans for the gig in London to remember Atlantic Records boss Ahmet
Ertegun are in the advanced stages. Approaches have also been made to
the Rolling Stones, Genesis, James Blunt, The Streets and Bloc Party.
A friend of the band said: "Page, Plant and Jones spoke and agreed to
do the memorial concert. They are waiting for a definite date.
"And no-one can quite believe it, but during discussions about the
concert they all gave the green light to a tour if it all goes well
and they don't all fall out.
"It has been hoped-for and denied for years. But this is closest they
have ever come to a reunion tour. The feeling is that this is going
to happen next year.
"They have watched the way The Police and Pink Floyd have come back
together.
"And, of course, they would like to step up again to the world stage
before they are all too old to do it. They certainly don't need the
money. But they would like the adulation."
A world tour by Led Zeppelin would generate a whole lotta cash. The
Stones' epic A Bigger Bang tour has already grossed more than
£200million.
But, with 300million album sales worldwide, money is not a concern
for Led Zep. While they no longer make the mayhem for which they
became famous - at their peak, the band wrote the rock rulebook for
drink and drug-fuelled antics - the surviving members all still make
music.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have continued to work together on-and-
off and in 1998 released the album Walking Into Clarksdale.
Plant, now 58, has never left his roots in the West Midlands and
still lives on a farm near Kidderminster.
Since splitting from his wife Maureen Wilson in 1982 he has remained
single, although he has been romantically linked with singers Alannah
Myles and Najma Akhtar.
Often voted the best rock guitarist of all time in polls, Page, 63,
from Hounslow, Middx, wrote the soundtracks to the Death Wish films
in the 1980s.
A renowned philanthropist, he was awarded an OBE two years ago for
his charity work helping Brazilian slum children. His daughter
Scarlett is a respected photographer.
John Paul Jones, 61, from Sidcup in Kent, has continued as a musician
and record producer and has worked with Paul McCartney, Brian Eno and
R.E.M.
John Bonham died aged 32 after choking on his own vomit following a
drinking session. His son Jason is also a fine drummer and has filled
in for his dad at the rare reunions as well as playing with Foreigner.
