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
Having seen Zeppelin at MSG on 2/12/75 I am glad there is no reunion. They have nothing to prove and trust me without Bonzo it isn’t Zeppelin. Robert has had a solo career Mick Jagger and Rodger Daltrey would kill for. Greg’s post above hit the nail on the head. Robert reinvented himself without the expectation a reunion would bring. Jimmy with a killer band of his own doing a career retrospective would be just great.
Agreed, guarantee you Mick Jagger and Rodger Daltrey wish in their wettest wildest dreams, they could’ve had solo careers outside of their respective bands as long and as successful as Plant has had outside of Zep.
Good for Robert Plant. He has a great career and integrity. Almost everyone else has done it, from The Who, greedy Fleetwood Mac to the greedier Eagles, KISS ($tanley and $immons), The Police (like Sting needs any more dough). Who wants to pay $200 for a lousy seat (2 grand for a good one) for an old Led Zeppelin reunion? All of the sheep, that’s who. The masses would lap it up and so would the promoters. Glad Plant isn’t going to let them. If you didn’t catch them in the 70s or the one off in ’07, then you’re out of luck. I think I’ll go throw Physical Graffiti on the turntable right now.
Eddie, Which episode of 4th and loud were u on? Classy move going on Paul n Gene’s show! Does this mean they will now do TMS? Too cool!
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f that arrogant robert plant,led zep was the best thing to have ever happened to him,hes been turning his back on what made him famous for years,its jimmys band anyway,he should go out with bonham jr,and jpj,and find a new singer kind of like what slash did,
” I haven’t put them together yet but I’m going to do that next year. ”
I guess I don’t understand why these artists wait so long. Maybe it’s legal wrangling, or something, but it these guys aren’t getting any younger. It’s the same reason I don’t understand why a phenomenal guitarist like John Sykes doesn’t put new music out and play. Such a waste.
I can appreciate where Plant is coming from. He’s moved on from the Zep years very successfully, and lets be honest, even with Jason Bonham playing the drums, it’ll never be Zeppelin, ever. I like what Plant is doing these days.
No Coverdale, no Myles Kennedy please. Both are ok singers, but they epitomize generic rock. Zeppelin was at no point generic rock music. They pushed boundaries and didn’t give a shit. That’s what Page needs to do, and it’s what Plant does all the time.
On another note, I do with that JPJ and Them Crooked Vultures would have made a little more music. I know it was a one off deal, but it had potential.