London,

Been a long time ... but well worth the wait

Led Zeppelin: 'onslaught on the eardrums'

Rock n Roll: but will they be back soon?

Led Zeppelin
O2 Arena - 10.12.07

Standing around on the O2 Arena floor at 8:30pm there was an intense atmosphere of eager anticipation. No, it wasn’t the fact that everyone wanted Foreigner to “Know what love is” somewhere else and get off the stage. There was almost a unified groan from 18,000 people when those soft rockers strutted out shouting “You know why you’re all here, its for Ahmet” – No, we were there for Led Zeppelin and no-one else and if we helped charity along the way well that’s just good for Karma, but make no mistake we were all there cos it had been a long time since we’d rock and rolled!

Eventually, the Bill Wyman organised support acts gave up and the buzz in the crowd grew, not the same kind of buzz in the Zep’s heyday, the smoking ban put pay to any flower power generation extra curricular activities, but there was a buzz nonetheless – what would be their first tune – it had to be Rock N Roll surely – the lights dropped, the crowd cheered, and Jimmy Page let rip the riff the world had been waiting 19 years to hear…Good Times Bad Times. It surprised everyone, but I had bet a pint with my mate that that would be the opening number, so the grin that was already across my face stretched a little bit further.

The band were relentless, tune after tune arriving in an onslaught on the eardrums, it was loud, it was raw, there were no backing singers or horn sections or surplus to requirement string quartets, it was just guitar, drums, bass and vocals, it was just Led Zep. Jason Bonham more than made up for the absence of his father, it was as if they’d all played together forever.

There were some monstrous highlights, Since I’ve been lovin you, Dazed and Confused, Kashmir, Stairway was in there somewhere, it was great to see all these fellas in the crowd, who looked like they hadn’t been out since the last time the band played, jumping and moving about as if they were teenagers again, it wasn’t pretty, they’ll regret it this morning, but it was definitely rock n roll!!

They came back for two encores, closing the night with Rock N Roll and I am more than convinced that it won’t be a long time until they do it again…all over the world…for loads more money…to loads more people. But for now I feel lucky to say “I was there”.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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