Led Zeppelin’s final reunion: The most in-demand concert ticket of all time
After the untimely death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, at just 32 years old, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin – vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones – unanimously agreed to disband.
“We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend,” they said in a joint statement, “And the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were”.
Signed with “Led Zeppelin”, the statement marked a turning point in the future of rock ‘n’ roll. Despite rumours that the group was searching to replace Bonham, looking to talents including Simon Kirke of Bad Company and Barriemore Barlow of Jethro Tull, the notion of someone attempting to fulfil the vitality that Bonham possessed fell to the wayside. In Bonham’s absence, Led Zeppelin’s mythic perception only grew stronger, their heavy metal reign still intact.
In the decades that followed, Plant, Page and Jones made sparse attempts to reunite. The first, performing for the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 13th, 1985, was doomed from the start: for one, there was a lack of rehearsal with their two chosen drummers, Tony Thompson and Phil Collins. Plant’s voice was hoarse, while Page’s guitar was out of tune, all while the monitors were malfunctioning. Plant’s reflection on the performance regarded it as an “atrocity”.
The trio tried again three years later, on May 14th, 1988, for Atlantic Records’ 40th Anniversary Concert in New York City. This time, they enlisted Bonham’s son, Jason, to fill in for his father. Again, the performance was ill-fated, with an argument between Plant and Page ensuing just before they began, over whether or not to play ‘Stairway to Heaven’, setting the tone for the night. Jones’ keyboard was missing from the live television feed, and Page later described the night as “one big disappointment”.
When Led Zeppelin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Jones’ joking comment of, “Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number”, during their acceptance speech revealed the fragmented nature of the band, the awkward glances shared between Plant and Page suggesting a disconnect that ran deep. Their brief performance set, joined first by Jason Bonham, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and later Neil Young and Michael Lee, was clouded by the presumed rift.
If any hesitations were floating in the minds of Led Zeppelin fans at the prospect of another reunion, all would be forgotten once it was announced that the trio, joined by Jason Bonham, would take the stage at the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert at London’s O2 Arena on December 10th, 2007. The night would be Led Zeppelin’s chance to remind audiences of their unrivalled stage presence, one that even in the midst of tensions and hiccups of the past, never faltered in their musicianship.
“I just really wanted to go out there, play well, and show what we could do,” Page wrote in an Instagram post, reflecting on the experience. “‘To stand up and be counted, so that people would leave the concert saying, ‘I expected them to be good, but I had no idea they could or would deliver like this.’”
Initially, the night would feature performances from various Atlantic bands, with Led Zeppelin slated for a 20-30 minute slot, but Page protested.
“I thought, I wasn’t going to do that,” he writes, “We needed to do a full-length set, because the energy, power, synergy, and synchronicity would build as the show continued. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve that in 20 minutes. We would have always regretted the fact that we didn’t play another hour at least.”
With Led Zeppelin at the helm, the show would make history. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, their reunion holds the record for the ‘Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert’, with 20 million people submitting online ticket request ballots. Performing to a crowd of 19,000, they opened the night with a raucous performance of ‘Good Times Bad Times’, immediately proving that they were returning in full force.
“The audience didn’t have time to catch their breath,” Page writes. “They could instantly tell we were taking this very seriously.”
In the layers of Led Zeppelin’s innovative brilliance, heard in their birthing of heavy metal, Bonham’s radical reconfiguration of drumming technique, their amplification of stadium rock and countless more accolades, their final show becoming the most in-demand concert of the century is an honour that should come as no surprise.
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