Damian Jones of NME reports:
On September 30th, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page sated that he ruled out any chance of the band playing together ever again.
Page was hosting a playback of his remastered versions of Houses Of The Holy and Led Zeppelin IV at Olympic Studios in London when he confirmed the news.
Asked directly by NME if remastering the albums made him want to reform the band again, he said, “I don’t think it looks as though that’s a possibility or on the cards, so there’s not much more I can say about that. I’m not going to give a detail-by-detail account of what one person says or another person says. All I can say is it doesn’t look likely, does it?”
When pressed on whether this was down to frontman Robert Plant, Page added, “I’ve just said it doesn’t look very likely.”
His comments come after Plant recently said that he felt “disappointed and baffled” after Page dropped repeated hints about wanting to play with the band again. The guitarist also said that he was “fed up” with his bandmate for delaying his plans. Led Zeppelin last played together in 2007 for a one-off tribute to Atlantic Records’ Ahmet Ertegun at London’s O2 Arena.
But Page did today confirm that he is likely to form his own band and play live material right across his whole career, including his Zeppelin work, in the near future.
He told the Q&A session, “If I was to play again it would be with musicians that would be… some of the names might be new to you. I haven’t put them together yet but I’m going to do that next year. If I went out to play, I would play material that spanned everything from my recording career right back to my very, very early days with The Yardbirds. There would certainly be some new material in there as well.”
Page added, “I love playing live, I really do. Live concerts are always an interesting challenge because it means you can always change things as you’re playing every night. You can make it even more of an adventure. I would play all of the things I’m known to play – instrumental versions of Dazed And Confused etcetera, etcetera…”
The playback saw a selection of remastered tracks from the latest reissues aired in a theater against a backdrop of old tour posters and photos of Led Zeppelin.
It followed a reissue campaign earlier this year of the band’s first three albums. Various formats of ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ and ‘Houses Of The Holy’ will be released on October 28th.
source: nme.com
72 Responses
Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Jimmy Page, Bob Weir – Dead Zeppelin?
Unlike some bands of Led Zeps era, it is good to see them not tarnish their legacy by staying too long at the party. Jimmy Page has never come close to the success he had with Plant. Robert, on the other hand had a very successful run as a solo artist. He also reworks Led Zep music to match his current musical stylings. I swear if he turns Black Dog into a polka, it may be time to blow my head off. That being said, why should Robert go back out with Zeppelin? He is living his dream and has been clear that he does not want to be a tribute band. As a fan, the best thing about Zeppelin is that we have their remarkable catalog (currently available on Rhino remastered for the 4th time, this time featuring “smell-a-disc”), to listen to and enjoy as they are eternally young. The Stones should have stopped a decade ago …. at least. Led Zep had nothing left for their fans, hence Plants comments that the additional tracks added to the latest remasters are “not relevant.” I applaud Robert for letting it go and not flogging the same dead horse for the sake of a dollar.
Jimmy Page should get Jason Bonham and John Paul Jones to join up with Ann & Nancy Wilson. Call it Led Heart. Boom. It would be amazing. Screw Robert Plant for denying us a Led Zep reunion.
Phil, have u been smokin some mCRACKen? Plant has the common sense. Jimmy can’t come to the realization its over
How about a second Coverdale/Page album? If you don’t have the one album they did together, then you are missing out on some seriously kick ass music. One of my all time favorites.
great album
No doubt, still listen to it regularly! Love it.
I thought that album was ok. Coverdale sang king of raspy on it, not his usual Whitesnake rock belting.
There were a few really good songs, but I hope that Page goes with someone else, somebody a little more original sounding.
I love that old Strat Jimmy is holding in the picture. I love old, classic guitars, especially old gibsons and pre-CBS Fenders. My brother has a 1959 Les Paul Jr double cutaway that sounds amazing despite the fact that it only has one P-90 pickup at the bridge. It’s a great old guitar he bought from a guy who had bought it when it was brand new. I’d love to have an old pre-CBS Strat, which means it was made before 1965. I have a reissue of the 1961 Gibson SG that I bought brand new back in April at Guitar Center but I’d really like to have an original one of those. Back in the late 60’s through the early 70’s my dad’s main guitar in the bands he played in was a 1960 Fender Stratocaster but he sold it at one point.