The Jeff Pulver Blog: Led Zeppelin Reunites in honor of Ahmet Ertegun and ROCKS the WORLD!

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December 11, 2007

Led Zeppelin Reunites in honor of Ahmet Ertegun and ROCKS the WORLD!

I have a strong passion for music. In fact, music is my life. And friends of mine know how much I like Rock and Roll. For myself and for many of the friends I grew up with, Led Zepplin is on the soundtrack of our childhoods and of our lives. Last night at the O2 Arena in London was an amazing night for music. And an experience I hope to never to forget. What started out as surreal when I was able to walk around backstage before the concert and literally “hang out” with the artists, managers, and just about everyone associated with the event, to the time I walked into the O2 for soundcheck, and then to the time I decided to give up my seat in exchange to stand in the front line with the people who had General Admission, nothing prepared me for the amazing night of music that I experienced.

Last night’s show brought together people from 50 countries. Standing around me was an American from Iraq, a couple from Chicago, a man from Birmingham, a person from Australia and a person whose parents didn’t let them go to see Led Zepp in 1977 at Madison Square Garden when they were 12 years old. There seem one thing we all had in common…a love for Rock and Roll and the music and the memories Led Zeppelin gave to all of us.

Long Live Rock and Roll!

The photos and video that I took were shot using my new Sony DSC-T200. I’m working on a video recap of the show that I hope to post in the next day or so. In the meanwhile, some of the photos I took last night are below:

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: Led Zepplin, facebook, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

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Posted by jeff on December 11, 2007 07:35 AM | Permalink

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Comments

Posted by: injection molding at June 16, 2009 07:12 AM

One of the best performances I've seen. And the pictures are not bad too :)
Thanks for sharing Jeff!

Posted by: Live Music News at February 25, 2008 04:48 AM

Wow, that was a very well written article. Made me feel like I was there. Thanks!

My cousin's claim to fame is being a security guard at Nassau Coliseum and burning one with the boys!

I saw Page/Plant and it was great. Sadly missed this show. Bummer. Thank God for DVD!

Posted by: PI Outsource at January 5, 2008 03:23 AM

i saw the phYSICAL GRAFITTI TOUR IN 1975 TARRANT COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER (F.W.TEXAS) NO WARM UP BAND THEY PLAYED 4-5 HOURS WOW ITS SO GOOD TO SEE THE ENJOYMENT THEY STILL CAN BRING READING THES LETTERS BROUGHT ME BACK

Posted by: jim mclauchlin at January 4, 2008 06:15 PM

Alan White is the drummer of Yes, Erik;-)

Now, I wonder has anyone footage of the Emerson performance (he is one of the very few musicians who tends to blow my mind...)?

Posted by: Bjørn Are at December 26, 2007 07:19 PM

Following is a review I sent out to all my Zepheds after the Dec. 10 show. One requested that I post it on a blog for his convenience. So I am. This also counts as my very first blog post ever. I know...

-Erik Rothenberg

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Dear Fellow Hardcore ZepHeds:

On December 10, 2007, Led Zeppelin played their first full concert since John Bonham died. For me, it was one of the most, epic adventures in appreciation, satisfaction and gratitude to the Universe of my life. I exited this concert a changed man from bearing witness to this event.

Below is my best recounting of the events from beginning to end.

Erik
London
11/12/07

Pre-Show:

The roller coaster drama surrounding learning about the show, applying for the lottery, waiting, praying, waiting, thinking that it was no-go, then winning the tickets, only to be told we might lose them because the purchase went on the wrong credit card, the middle of the night desperate calls to London and rude low-level treatment from Ticketmaster, finally getting through to the promoter, finally getting confirmation that we would retain them, making it to London, going down the day before to pick up our wristbands, fearing we could not obtain proper victuals, my mate being nowhere to be found the day of the show, but appearing in the seat 2 minutes before the show – was intense.

By this time, I was still processing what was about to happen and therefore not fully convinced it was going to happen. I had my ticket, I was at the show, surrounded by Zeppelin fans and none of us could still actually believe that we were actually going to see this show.

Paul (the Irishman with whom I roomed with in Peru and who scored the winning pair) arrived in the seats with a couple of beers, just in time to confirm that he had a significant and timely meeting with a Rastafarian in Camden Town earlier in the day. He had two things to do that day, not including waking up.

Harvey Goldsmith, the promoter, came out about 7:15 and said a few words. Then it was on to the documentary film about Ahmet Ertegun, the son of a Turkish diplomat who followed his love of the black man’s music into founding Atlantic Records. He recorded Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and many others including the acts that played last night. He was truly a music lover and was universally loved at Atlantic by the people and acts who were under his care. He died, tragically, if appropriately, at Rolling Stones concert last year when he fell at the age of 83.

The first act was a super-group of sorts, composed of Chris Squire, bassist from Yes, Keith Emerson of ELP, Simon Kirk, drummer for Free and Bad Co. and whose sister in law I met on the flight over to London from New York. Also some guy named Alan White whom I have no idea who he played with. They played Fanfare for the Common Man, the same tune at the beginning of the Stones’ Love You Live. Only it got into a jam and sounded very much like a Yes/ELP jam, which was cool. Weird, but cool. But what would you expect from Yes and ELP?

Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings played next, essentially the backup band featuring a number of side/guest artists; they had some guy who looked like Jim Carrey in The Mask, only in Purple, sing I Got A Woman by Ray Charles. Paolo Nutini is the last artist Ertegun signed to Atlantic; the Scottish/Italian young soulish singer played next, singing Mess Around (Charles) and Bang Bang; Maggie Ball, a sixtyish white woman, sang Aretha’s Do Right Woman; Albert Lee did Baby that is Rock and Roll, a hot African American backup singer chick did Show Me (a man whose got a good woman); Paul Rodgers, singer for Bad Co. and Free and one of the great voices of Rock sang “All Right Now”. He followed it up with a solo acoustic.

Foreigner came on after that and played “I want to know what love is” which was completely lame except for the fact that apparently it brought a tear to Ahmet’s eye and they played it for him, and also brought on the St. Lukes Church of England girls choir, which was a lovely touch, reminding me of the Stones using the London Boys Choir on Can’t Always Get What You Want.

Pete Townsend was originally on the bill and never made it. Guess he had enough of Jimi opening for him at Monterey in ‘67 to open for Jimmy in London in ‘07.

All of this lasted less than an hour.

Then there was a break.

Picture, if you will, 18,000 Zeppelin fans about to see the concert of their life. During the break, there was quiet, awe, respect, wonderment and good vibrations everywhere. I do not remember the moment that the lights went out. I can’t imagine anyone else did either. We were all busy with internal processing.

The Show:

General Comments:

OK. Let’s be extremely clear:

There is no amount of hype or anticipation that could match the grace, power, beauty and strength of this epic show.

There is no way I would have sold my ticket to this show for any amount of money, and hearing this morning that somebody paid a record $30,000 for a ticket sounded completely reasonable to me (assuming killer seats), except that I can’t imagine what kind of idiot would let said killer seats to this show go for that meager price.

They sounded better than any live Zeppelin show I have ever heard recorded. That means all the music on Song Remains, How the West, Live DVD, various bootlegs, etc. don’t even come close to replicating the uniqueness of the particular strain of exact reverb, feedback, pitch, tone, timbre and especially tempo – just ever so slightly slower than anything else you have ever heard – cannot be used as a basis for trying to explain what we heard here. I only hope they release the show so you can see what I am talking about. While most ageing rock bands speed up their music to cover their faults, Led Zeppelin slowed down – and then played the blues – you cannot hide and the boys did an amazing job.

Page had found a groove on his guitar that was at once unlike and more like any Zeppelin ever. Plant has still got the voice, sexual charisma and style of a rock god in his prime, but with a mature, wizened, yet eternally playful groove fed by a deep appreciation for the blues as well as what a review described as a ‘burnished timbre . John Paul Jones adapted well to the interplay between Bonham and Page. And Bonham had done his homework, arriving at this gig with power and force reminiscent of his father, but with his own take on some of the tunes.

This was a REAL LED ZEPPELIN CONCERT. It had all the confidence, depth, intrigue and coolness of what the most hard core among us, myself included, might expect. The sound in the O2 arena was muddy but the band balanced it with an amazing, beefier playing. The lighting and effects were beautiful, appropriate and had a multifaceted Zeppelin sensibility. Our seats looked right down on the stage and the only two losers who didn’t show up to the show were in the seats next to us, so we could dance.

On a dark stage two spotlights by the drum set shot upwards. Four figures could barely been seen. It was surreal.

The first two notes of the first song on the first Led Zeppelin album - Good Times, Bad Times and the audience could not believe their ears; sang every word.

Ramble On and we are now actually beginning to believe that we are actually at a Zeppelin show

Black Dog. Ripping hard and deep into this experience.

In My Time of Dying. This was one of the highlights. Page played slowly, confidently and with a sound on his guitar I had not ever heard before. Richer, fuller, louder, more present than anything I have ever heard in any rock and roll show ever. As far as I was concerned that totally nailed it, and this my favorite Zeppelin song (extremely close tie with Battle of Evermore)

For Your Life. Plant introduced this song as “an adventure with a song we have never played in public before” - I read in Rolling Stone last week that they had planned to do this song but then scrapped it. They were moving around the stage like they were just wandering and giving it a try out. I began to realize that as Page played his slightly extra long guitar solo that they were doing this for the first and possibly only time and were giving it their all and that we were all co-creating this moment. It was clear that Page had full control of this band; I urge you to listen to this song (if you don’t have Presence, what are doing reading this?? Get it right now!). At exactly 4:04 on the studio track there is drum kick. Jimmy bows before Jason’s drum set and holds his hand to his ear as if to say “I want to hear that fucking drum KICK!” Priceless.

Plant said a few words about the blues and Robert Johnson and the Johnson tune Terraplane Blues which may be heard on the Robert Johnson box set and on Clapton’s Me and Mr. Johnson. He honored the blues and said this is their version of Terraplane Blues. By this time, Jones had migrated to the keyboards. They then proceeded to kick out an insane version of Trampled Under Foot.

After this honor of the blues, Plant said that one day, the band was in a southern Mississipi church house, listening to Blind Willie Johnson. The year was 1936. Nobody’s Fault But Mine. The harmonica solo on this song was not to be believed, nor Page’s guitar whose first notes filled the arena with a sound that only Zeppelin is capable of producing. But Bonham and Jones hit the rhythm section so hard and that was that. They were all so ON it was frightening.

Plant spoke of the "thousands and thousands of emotions that we've been going through for the last six weeks ... and to be here tonight for Ahmet and with Jason here."

No Quarter was in the first song they played when they got back together in the studio. The song which chronicles Vikings in Valhalla was matched by a stage filled with flowing dry ice, making the band look like they were floating in snow.

Since I’ve been Loving You. Page played as if he were just beginning to find his way through the song, even playing it a little like the middle notes of Tea for One before getting to about 0:48 in the song (on studio) and letting there be no mistake. Truly magnificent.
Plant said, "It's peculiar to think of creating a dynamic evening and choosing songs from 10 albums, but there are certain songs that have to be here, and this is one of them."
As the first few bars of Dazed and Confused opened the song, the crowd went completely insane. By the time it got to the guitar solo, Page was encased in a square green laser box on the floor of the stage with a green laser pyramid over his head – and little else to see on stage. He ripped hard on his guitar with his violin. About that time, my cel phone buzzes and it is a text from Michele, the cool chick who is there with her husband in the Warner Bros. execs seats. It simply says “Do you fucking believe this? M.” They didn’t do a really long Dazed where they go into 5 other songs or anything like that; they kept it simple. He simply hit all the notes of all the greatest moments of all his greatest performances of that song. When it was over, Plant simply said “guitar – Jimmy Page”.

Most of the show Page played the same Les Paul, but he also changed guitars more frequently towards the end. I think.

Stairway to Heaven. The audience was silent. Page appeared with his double necked guitar. The final guitar solo, was, like the violin/guitar solo of the previous song, an epic compilation of all the finest moments of all the finest Stairway guitar solos of all time. Some would say that Plant’s voice did not make it on this song, others would say it did. Either way, when it was over, the audience was severely blown away.

What would you do in a moment like this?

The Song Remains The Same. Bonham was so on top of this song it was magnificent. I danced the Hoochie Koo. An absolutely soaring, triumphant beauty with Plant’s voice trailing off into the night on the last note.

Plant then said that Bonham had been playing with them since he was 13 and had taken instruction at times from all of them, teasing him a little - and said that Jason actually had a very good voice and was going to sing. “Don’t be afraid, we rehearsed this because we really wanted it to be good” Plant jokingly told the audience. Bonham proceeds to bellow out from the drum set “I CAN’T QUIT YOU BABY” and you think he is going to hit the drums super hard, but he just shrinks and grins at Plant and there is a short, funny pause before they go right into:

Misty Mountain Hop. Totally hot.

When that is over, Plant says “it smells good up here” and then echoed Jim Morrison by pronouncing, as only a rock god may, OUT HERE ON THE PERIMITER THERE ARE NO STARS… OUT HERE (and we are all waiting to hear ‘we is stoned immaculate’) THERE ARE PEOPLE FROM 50 COUNTRIES. AND THIS IS THE 51ST COUNTRY

I have never heard a more powerful Kashmir. This was the song polled by Zep fans as the one song they wanted to hear most. You couldn’t possibly begin to imagine the way this sounded. Page’s guitar was absolutely transcendent, being far more powerful than the studio version where the keyboards tended to dominate, and playing note for note with Jones’ keyboard. Plant’s voice finally broke through during this song, causing Plant to shed a tear (as I later learned) and Page to break out into a broad grin. Just absolutely magnificent.

That was it. They took a bow and walked offstage.

But not for long. They came back on and it was Whole Lotta Love. Not a long one. They could have extended it and made that the only encore. The band got to the part of the piece where the wild ass sound effects are playing; Page is right up against the speaker with feedback controls, having tons of fun. And Plant sings “I don’t want much” - as in “I just want a little bit”. And only a little bit he takes. In a tune that could easily gone into “boogie mama”, he drops into a very slow bluesy ‘I hear my mama and papa talking’ as Jimmy plays along, ‘ooohhhh oooohhhh oohhhhh’, but then goes right back into ‘woman, way down inside…’. So they skipped what could have been a cool, 20 minute Whole Lotta Love, but - Beautiful nonetheless.

Another bow, another offstage exit. I am hoping for a Battle of Evermore, but ignoring the odds…

They come back on. And play Rock and Roll. Duh. Un-fucking-believable. Bonham’s solo at the end confirms and crowns him the inheritance of his father’s legacy forever.

I am still reeling from this show. I know that the band did make an audio and video recording of the show and owns all the copyright, etc. so if they want to they can release this show, which I think would be amazing. But I believe that they have more to say and while we may not hear anything on a tour for another 6+ months while Plant winds up some of his commitments with Alison Krause, we could just end up with a Zeppelin tour.

If that happens, they will dominate every other old and new band on the scene. The music is timeless. At the end of the day there is the Stones, Beatles, Who, Floyd and Zeppelin. But in 50, 100, 500 years, it will be just – Zeppelin. Why, because if they were to come out with Kashmir, or Nobody’s Fault, or When the Levee Breaks today, critics would be scratching their heads trying to explain the new phenomenon. This show was proof positive of that theorem.

Nuff said.

Erik

Posted by: Erik Rothenberg at December 24, 2007 03:16 AM

Wow!!! Fantastic!! What I would say?? Nothing! I’m crying as a child!.....never seen Zep (only 1995 Page&Plant at Albuquerque, NM, traveling 9 hours from my city in Mexico) this was my dream moment to have the opportunity to see them together, all started in 1980 when I was 12, my parents took us (my brothers) to visit my older married brother who lived in another Mexican city…..I was there nothing to do except to explore all my brother LP,s, a turn table and a big earphone….since I put the turntable needle in the 1st track of an old LP that’s all for me, what I heard took me to a place full of feelings!!! Wow!! What is this? I said!! I repeated the same song many times and the whole LP many more, what was that record? ….Zeppelin II, “Whole Lotta Love” opened my mind and soul, since there I was not a child anymore…..I have many stuff of them, I’m not the one that like to get bootleg but the only one I have (could not resist to get this) is the one with some rehearsals when they were developing the Zeppelin IV, amazing how “black Dog” and “stairway to heaven” were created……to see them now I put my info into the web for ticket opportunity, no luck, I buy lottery tickets for a pair of concert tickets from the “ABC trust for Children of Brazil” no luck…..I put messages I the web hoping someone can get for me a concert ticket….(what I was thinking?)…no luck…….you was the luckiest man on earth and seeing these photos made me cry a little bit more!!

Posted by: Federico Heinrichs at December 14, 2007 01:42 PM

Great photos, and seats!

Posted by: steve Garfield at December 11, 2007 03:52 PM

yo jeff - glad you made this happen - i remember your face and reaction when we were driving in your car when you heard about the concert and got on the phone to somebody in london when put the ducks in a row to make the dream come true and well life is short and glad to see the story you wrote and some of the pics captured the energy of the moment - great stuff - good to know you can still catch your dreams too -
be well
geo

Posted by: geo geller at December 11, 2007 11:58 AM

Okay... now I wish I'd been there.

Thanks for the Twitter updates and for sharing the great photos!

Posted by: Mark at December 11, 2007 11:36 AM

i was following the tweets too, thanks for sharing and the pics.
right up the front too.
nice one.

Posted by: eaon pritchard at December 11, 2007 11:20 AM

Roooooooooooock!

Posted by: jonny goldstein at December 11, 2007 10:48 AM

Outstanding! what an awesome experience it must have been. I am glad you were there, it may very well have been the musical highlight of 07.
Eric

Posted by: eric at December 11, 2007 10:01 AM

GREAT photos Jeff! Thanks for sharing what sounded like an awesome night!! :)

I saw them play together at Glastonbury (not 'as' led Zep) but they were great. This would have been amazing!

cheers!

Posted by: Kosso at December 11, 2007 08:54 AM

HELL YEAH!!!

Jealous doesn't begin to describe what I'm feeling. *grin* Thank you for sharing. Must have been a great experience

Posted by: C.C. Chapman at December 11, 2007 08:53 AM

Jeff:

Just awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. I was living vicariously through you via your "tweets" yesterday afternoon.

Cheers,
Connie

Posted by: Connie Crosby at December 11, 2007 08:51 AM

Wow Jeff, that looks like it was amazing. I wish I could have been there!

Posted by: Adam at December 11, 2007 08:46 AM

December 11, 2007

Led Zeppelin Reunites in honor of Ahmet Ertegun and ROCKS the WORLD!

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