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Fourth report from fans in London

Monday, December 10, 2007

(Photo from yesterday's soundcheck taken by Ross Halfin)

The concert is underway, and Led Zeppelin is about to start. Stay tuned!

Update: Songs played will appear in the comments section of this post!
Looks like the lineup was a bunch of Ertegün favorites. This according to New Musical Express:
The Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert is now well underway at London's O2 Arena.
The concert started with a supergroup of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Keith Emerson, joined by Alan White and Chris Squire from 60's prog rock group Yes, and Bad Company's Simon Kirke, performing 'Fanfare Of The Common Man'.
The group were then swiftly followed with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings taking to the stage, who are to be the night's house band.
Singer Maggie Bell, rock'n' roller Alvin Lee and Mike Sanchez then took to the stage to perform a succession of 50s soul ballads.
Paul Rodgers came on next performing his classic riff track 'All Right Now' followed by Bad Company's 'Seagull'.
Foreigner then took to the stage with their biggest hit 'Do You Want To Know What Love Is', the band were accompanied by a children's choir for the huge sing-along chorus.
The stage is now being cleared for what presumably will be Led Zeppelin.

32 comments:

Steve Sauer said...

First song was "Good Times Bad Times"

Steve Sauer said...

Gonna toss a credit out to the source of the "Good Times Bad Times" info: http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10

The site appears to be getting a lot of attention. Mine isn't. Any info I can glean there I will pass on here. So keep checking here!

Steve Sauer said...

"Good Times Bad Times" -- great opening number. First full version of the song too. Then they did "Ramble On," both played at yesterday's soundcheck. Third is "Black Dog" and Plant's first utterance of "Hey hey mama!" Fourth is "In My Time of Dying." Wowwie!

Coda1980 said...

Keep it coming steve ...great job..omg i wish i was there...nme.com and ledzeppeli.com sites are way to slow or crash....thanks Vance Chicago IL USA

Steve Sauer said...

I'm getting my live info on the concert from a few Web sites, but they're all crashing! This just demonstrates the power of Led Zeppelin.

Gotta wonder how long this "In My Time of Dying" is lasting...

coda1980 said...

I feel like I am dying not being able to be there.....

The Power and Fury of Led Zeppelin!! love it...omg my head would blow up if I heard Page's solo on "in my time..."
those lucky 20,000 bastards!!!

Steve Sauer said...

Now the NME page I cited appears to have been hacked! It keeps trying to get me to install some performance optimization software that I suspect is malicious. I'd advise not going to that page... just stay right here where it's nice and safe. Pull up a chair.

Steve Sauer said...

OK, back to the set list. Off of the album Presence, "For Your Life" made its live debut today after that long "In My Time of Dying." Then back to Physical Graffiti again for "Trampled Under Foot."

Steve Sauer said...

On the home page of BBC.co.uk, one of the most popular terms users are searching their site for right now is "dinosaurs." Glad to see Led Zeppelin is alive and well in merry ol' England!

Steve Sauer said...

Looks like "Custard Pie" is next. I remember Jason saying this was one they practiced early on back in June!

coda1980 said...

I am here till 5pm Chicago time..then a mad dash home...will be non stop Zep tonight!

Cant fing the word...FOR YOUR LIFE ...OMG

Please do your best to update! and thanks...I could responded all night ..but I wont anymore sorry didnt mean to take up the space.

thanks...

Steve Sauer said...

As rehearsed yesterday, next up is "Nobody's Fault but Mine." I can't wait to hear about the new segments they improvised. Apparently, Jason was the brainchild of it!

Steve Sauer said...

There was an apparently erroneous report from NME saying "The Lemon Song" was after "Tramped Under Foot." That's now been removed from their posting.

Looks like it's moved to this page so it's in news story form: http://www.nme.com/news/led-zeppelin/33075

Apparently news story form is supposed to be better? I don't know, it's still slow to load, but at least it hasn't been hacked with viruses!

Steve Sauer said...

Also as rehearsed yesterday, "No Quarter." So that's everything that was played at yesterday's soundcheck already.

There was a questionable report yesterday that said "D'yer Mak'er" and "Communication Breakdown" were also rehearsed yesterday. We'll see if they're played.

Steve Sauer said...

Alan Woodhouse over at NME has just written this: "The crowd is going wild inside the O2. People are hugging strangers, some are crying, some are punching the air with joy. This must be the rock n roll equivalent of winning the world cup."

Steve Sauer said...

Thanks to Steve "The Lime" Jacobetz and Chris "The Orange" Finley for keeping me apprised of the set list from their homes.

"Since I've Been Loving You" was up next after "No Quarter."

Steve Sauer said...

I swear I'm not making this up. "Dazed and Confused" is next. I'm beginning to doubt there will be an acoustic set. Just like on Mothership.

Steve Sauer said...

They must be coming to the end. "Stairway to Heaven."

Steve Sauer said...

The BBC has aired a portion of "Black Dog" in a report on an evening news program. This is good news because not only does that mean there's footage available, but it also means media outlets have access to it!

This morning, the folks at Good Morning America had a worthless discussion about aging rockers, using Led Zeppelin as a starting point. Can they still rock hard was the question they asked. It would be great to follow up that story tomorrow with some footage proving they can.

Steve Sauer said...

Wow, "Stairway to Heaven" was sandwiched between "Dazed and Confused" and "The Song Remains the Same."

Steve Sauer said...

NME reports "Misty Mountain Hop" followed "The Song Remains the Same":

"Plant kicked this one off by praising the job drummer Jason Bonham has been doing, stepping into his late father's shoes tonight."

Steve Sauer said...

Shout-out to my band World Peace Party, which has been doing a fine job of covering "Misty Mountain Hop." We started practicing it together two weeks ago.

From "The Song Remains the Same" to "Misty Mountain Hop" is not a bad segue, if they did it seamlessly. (Well, Jonesy would likely have to switch from bass to keys, but imagine if he's playing keys with a bass strapped around him, with a wireless hookup.) But I mean, in terms of keys. Assuming they're doing them in the same keys they always did them live, "The Song Remains the Same" ends on a D minor 7, and "Misty Mountain Hop" is in A. Any musician can tell you that's a fine blend.

Steve Sauer said...

OK, following "Misty Mountain Hop" is "Kashmir." Wow.

Steve Sauer said...

I'm now listening to the ending of "Whole Lotta Love" over the phone. Thanks, Chris!

Steve Sauer said...

To describe what I heard, there was a lot of interplay between Page and Plant, and also between the band and the audience, culminating in "you need" [long pause with cheers] "looooooooooooooooooooooooove!" Robert raised his voice in a mighty glissando for that.

Steve Sauer said...

Robert's doing some talking, but I can't tell what he's saying. But whatever he's saying, the audience sure likes it!

Steve Sauer said...

Opening notes of "Rock and Roll" now!

Steve Sauer said...

From what I can hear over the phone, sounds like "Rock and Roll" is in the key of G.

Steve Sauer said...

End of the song: Been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely, extra lonelys, several of them. And Bonham comes in with the final drum fill and Plant sings a long, drawn-out "time" over it.

Steve Sauer said...

That is probably it. There's a picture of Ahmet Ertegun on the screen, says my buddy Chris. He says Jeff Beck is two rows in front of him and "does not look happy." He says there are a lot of celebs in the place and mentioned member(s) of Megadeth is/are there.

Steve Sauer said...

Yep, that's it for the show! The house music came on, signalling that's it. My friends Chris and Brian were a row behind former Led Zeppelin tour manager Richard Cole, so they said hi. Dave Mustaine is the Megadeth member Chris said was there.

Just a few more thoughts from my buddy Chris, who was amazed at Led Zeppelin's set list. Keith Emerson played some of Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue in D minor" during the concert-opening "Fanfare for the Common Man."

"Foreigner was a huge disappointment," Chris added, because of their song selection; "I wanna know what love is" was apparently their chorus of choice rather than "To be a jukebox hero with stars in his eyes." Weird; that's a Lou Gramm solo song (and happens to be my roommate's favorite!).

Don't forget Jason Bonham was drumming for Foreigner too.

Steve Sauer said...

Thanks for the comment!

Lou Gramm solo song? It would be news to the other members of Foreigner. Removing foot from mouth now.

Led Zeppelin Reunion


Photo courtesy of Simon Keeping

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin regrouped in 2007, with Jason Bonham on drums, to perform a year-end tribute to Ahmet Ertegun. Their widely praised concert was witnessed in person by fewer than 20,000 people. It is likely never to be repeated, and there are no announced plans to release the concert for home viewing. However, clicking the image above will bring up multi-cam footage of the entire Led Zeppelin performance as it happened on Dec. 10, 2007, at the O2 arena in London.

Many posts on LedZeppelinNews.com have centered on the possibility of a full-scale Led Zeppelin reunion, noting particularly the inaccuracies reported by the popular press.

Page


Jimmy Page stars with fellow guitarists Jack White and The Edge in this guitar documentary, directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"), which had widespread theatrical showings beginning in August.

LedZeppelinNews.com provided a review of "It Might Get Loud" at that time.

"It Might Get Loud" will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on Dec. 22 in the United States. Click here to pre-order on DVD or Blu-Ray. Prior to this, "It Might Get Loud" will be available on iTunes for two weeks beginning Dec. 8.

- What else should I know about "It Might Get Loud"?

- What else is Jimmy Page up to?

Plant


Just prior to the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in 2007, Robert Plant released the album Raising Sand with Alison Krauss. Their partnership has been the subject of much critical and commercial success, including victories at the Grammy awards two years in a row.

A follow-up to that album has been in pre-production, but Krauss's current priorities are new recordings and eventual touring with her signature band, Union Station. Progress on the second Plant/Krauss album is anticipated following the completion of the Union Station tour.

More recently, Plant entered the studio with famed U2 producer Daniel Lanois for some recording sessions, the nature of which has not been disclosed.

Following the breakup of Led Zeppelin, Plant went on to a rewarding career as a solo artist. He released six albums of his own between 1982 and 1993, two collaborative albums with Jimmy Page between 1994 and 1998, and two more solo albums since that time. Yet until Raising Sand, his biggest commercial success came in releasing an EP of classic cover material under the name The Honeydrippers.

- What else is Robert Plant up to?

Jones


John Paul Jones is now in one of the hottest and hardest rock bands, Them Crooked Vultures. The frontman, handling lead guitar and vocals, is Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters is on drums. As for Jones, he offers not only bass and keyboard but also mandolin, keytar, lap steel and whatever else is needed.

One album was released in November, and another is forthcoming. A tour of North America completed in November, and the band now heads to Europe in December and Australia in January.

- What's the latest on Them Crooked Vultures, the group featuring John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme?

- What else is John Paul Jones up to?

Jason Bonham


Jason Bonham, son of the late John "Bonzo" Bonham, does not take lightly the responsibility of carrying on his father's legacy. Having made a head start at drumming while he was a child, Jason is now passing on the same lessons to a third generation of Bonham drummers.

John Bonham's death in 1980 left such an impact on the surviving members of Led Zeppelin that they knew immediately they could not continue as they were. Yet Jason Bonham's familiarity with the band made him a shoe-in to join his father's bandmates on the few occasions reunion concerts have taken place.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of Bonham's most successful album release to date, the Platinum-certified disc The Disregard of Timekeeping released by his band, Bonham. To mark the milestone, he recently toured with a new band and played under the banner of "An Evening with Jason Bonham."

In the past, Bonham has also toured and/or recorded with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Foreigner, UFO, Paul Rodgers, Joe Bonamassa, Virginia Wolf, Airrace, Healing Sixes and Motherland. He also acted in the movie Rock Star and appeared on the reality TV show "SuperGroup."

- What's the latest on Jason Bonham?

Who Else

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