No summer tour plans announced for any Zeppelin members; only a rumor of Jimmy Page joining Jeff Beck

• Jeff Beck, newly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is on tour right now. The first date was last night in Scranton, Pa., and he's set to visit Philadelphia's Electric Factory tomorrow and New York's Irving Plaza the next couple of nights. From there, he's off to New England, the Midwest and California, before a U.K. tour in June and July, with some Canadian dates and a short European tour rounding out that month.
  
  As for a rumor reported today by Boston Herald's Inside Track that says Jimmy Page may join Beck "on tour later this year," it's not a rumor I could find anywhere else recently. Of course, we did hear back in July 2007 another reported rumor -- that time courtesy of Rolling Stone magazine and others -- that Page and Beck were going to join up with the already-touring original Yardbirds members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty, and that hasn't happened.
  
  But you never know if Jimmy Page might show up at Jeff Beck's concerts. Check out those tour dates here and decide for yourself.
  
  
• Sara Watkins just released an album produced by John Paul Jones, and she'll soon be out on tour. It looks like she's booked to open for Old Crow Medicine Show for a few dates in the South, starting this Thursday. She's supposed to play on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" next Monday night and then head to Minneapolis for shows on April 15-16 that kick off her first-ever headlining tour.
  
  Jones will not be a regular in the touring lineup although he is scheduled to appear with her on Monday's TV spot, which will tape in New York. Jones is committed to being in New York to perform with Sonic Youth on April 16-19, during Watkins's headlining shows in Minneapolis, Naperville, Ill., and Nashville. But if Jones sticks around in New York for just a few days more, he would still be around when Watkins performs at the Mercy Lounge on April 22. This may be the best chance of Jones sitting in during the tour, but you can view all the tour dates here and decide for yourself.

Side note: While Watkins is out touring, she will presumably take with her Pete Thomas, who drummed for Elvis Costello in the Attractions lineup that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and again later for Costello's Imposters lineup. That lineup also included bassist Davey Faragher, who was said to be one of the members of the Watkins solo band (also called the Works Progress Administration -- and, previously, the Scrolls) back when it was lining up in December 2007.

• But it probably doesn't bother Elvis Costello when his former bandmates find new things to do. He has a new band now called the Sugarcanes, and he'll be using them on a dozen or so tour dates this June and August. The band includes Stuart Duncan on fiddle and banjo and Dennis Crouch on bass; both toured last year with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Also in Costello's Sugarcanes lineup is Jerry Douglas, who's a member of Krauss's Union Station. They'll be supporting Costello's June album release, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, which (also like Plant and Krauss's Raising Sand) is produced by T Bone Burnett and features him on electric guitar.
  
  
• There was speculation late last year of a new studio project by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss leading them to some tour dates this year. However, nothing more currently appears on the horizon. Heck, there hasn't been any indication that any recordings proceeded beyond the "pre-production" stage as Krauss pronounced it. No word even if Krauss will be out at all this year.
  
  And whatever happened to Plant's band the Strange Sensation? I always thought it would be natural for him to return to that group once he was done with Krauss. That's the group that helped him record the albums Dreamland and Mighty ReArranger, and he went out on tour with them several times between 2001 and 2007, right up until Raising Sand was released. All throughout Plant's association with Krauss, the front page of his official Web site had a link to biographies of his band members, who were listed as the guys in the Strange Sensation. But last week, his site was redesigned for the first time in four years, and the Strange Sensation stuff has disappeared.
  
  
• Tour dates for Foreigner continue without Jason Bonham on drums anymore. They've had Bryan Head on drums ever since Bonham's departure last summer, which he explained at the time he was doing so he could rest up with his family in the event he was suddenly called into action by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Foreigner's out playing all the time and currently has shows booked through October.
  
  
• The surviving members of former Swan Song recording artist Bad Company have reunited again and will be playing 10 shows in late June and early July. I'm a fan of the fact that this band's first reunion of the original lineup reunited in honor of Peter Grant, their manager and Led Zeppelin's, after his 1995 funeral. They played a show last year, and they're returning to the same venue to kick off their limited tour and sell a DVD of the 2008 appearance.
  
  Perhaps it's a plan the Led Zeppelin members ought to consider since they have a DVD to release and seemingly don't have very much else to do in the near future.
  

Jason Bonham, leaving Foreigner, confirms U.K. rehearsals with Page, Jones of Led Zeppelin

The son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham has confirmed he has been called to England upon occasion to rehearse new material with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

Jason Bonham, who filled his father's shoes onstage at Led Zeppelin's one-off reunion concert in London last December, says rehearsals have taken place with them in England "a couple of times" since that show. Bonham describes these most recent sessions with Jones and Page as "magical."

Notably absent from the newly-disclosed rehearsals by these Led Zeppelin members was singer Robert Plant, who has spent much of this year touring North America and Europe, including several shows in the United Kingdom, in support of last year's collaborative album with Alison Krauss.

Bonham has likewise been on tour this year, with the group Foreigner. He has spent several years drumming for the group, which he said was one of his favorites growing up in England. In a telephone interview broadcast live in Detroit last week, Bonham said his time with that band is shortly coming to an end.

The shift coincides with a flurry of activity from the otherwise relatively dormant Led Zeppelin camp. Page, who has not played onstage regularly since touring with the Black Crowes in 2000, bounced back from a minor injury to one of his fingers last year to make three very high-profile onstage appearances over the past nine months. Led Zeppelin has managed to keep its name in the news consistently over the past year, when a new career-spanning compilation called Mothership was released, as was a significant upgrade to the band's vintage concert film from 1976.

Over the weekend, Page appeared with guitar in hand at the Olympics' closing ceremonies in Beijing to perform Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" with singer Leona Lewis.

The guitarist's only other onstage moment so far this year came in June, when both he and Jones turned up at a Foo Fighters concert at London's Wembley Stadium to sit in on live renditions of "Ramble On" and "Rock and Roll" with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins, who traded off drums and vocals with one another.

Both of Page's live appearances in 2008 have been preceded by posts on the Led Zeppelin discussion group For Badgeholders Only by a New York-based fan calling himself Nech, who posts subtle hints to fellow Zeppelin fans of possible activity to come. When asked if he has an inside source, he insists he is fed information by a source he playfully describes with such terms as "my dentist's lesbian receptionist's boyfriend." Nech was able to tip off the group to the exact timing of the press conference announcing last year's reunion concert.

Bonham's spoken words about rehearsing in England with Page and Jones, which came in a radio interview on Friday, constitute the first public comment from any of the three musicians involved. This may also mark the first official confirmation of a statement Nech made online on Friday, April 11: "Jimmy, Jason and JPJ have been in a rehearsal studio in London last week...making new music."

Bonham's comments came early on Friday, Aug. 22, in the same radio interview during which he broke the news of his impending departure from Foreigner at the end of this month.

The younger Bonham now says ever since he left the stage of the O2 Arena in London having played for two hours with Led Zeppelin's Plant, Page and Jones, he began believing it was possible for the group to do something further. He has kept his obligations to Foreigner throughout 2008, touring in support of the band's latest compilation, No End in Sight: The Very Best of Foreigner.

The reason he is leaving Foreigner now, Bonham told radio hosts J.J. and Lynne on Detroit's WCSX 94.7 FM, is because he has been away from home for long and misses spending time his family. Bonham said that in case something happens with Led Zeppelin, he would have had time off from constant touring before that happens, whatever it is.

"I've been over a couple of times," Bonham said of his Zep-related rehearsals in England this year. "I've been working with Jimmy and John Paul and trying to do just do some new material and some writing. I don't know what it will be, but it will be something. ...

"I have to say this is something that I've always wanted to do. But asked to say as to what this project will be? At the moment, all I know is I've had the greatest pleasure to go and jam with the two guys and try to work out and try material, and so it's been fantastic from that aspect. When I get there, I never ask any questions. I just -- if I get a phone call to go and play, I enjoy every moment of it. Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. All my life, that's what I've dreamed of doing."

Bonham is full of hope with regard to a possible future making new music with Page and Jones, and he knows he is aware Led Zeppelin has many fans with similar hopes.

Foreigner has four remaining tour dates in the United States this month, and the band is scheduled for a short break before resuming the tour midway through September, assumedly with a new drummer. Their tour dates can be found here.

An MP3 of WCSX's interview with Bonham is available here.

Official: Led Zeppelin to reunite, Nov. 26 concert confirmed

The three surviving members of Led Zeppelin will reunite this November for a single show in London, according to an official announcement made today.

As promoter Harvey Goldsmith stated at a London press conference in their absence, the group's performance Nov. 26 at the city's O2 arena will be at a concert that will also include Pete Townshend of the Who and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.

There was no mention of whether Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones would consider playing another gig together after the tribute concert to Ahmet Ertegün, the Atlantic Records cofounder and close personal friend to Led Zeppelin.

"During the Zeppelin years, Ahmet Ertegün was a major foundation of solidarity and accord," Plant said in a press release. "For us, he was Atlantic Records and remained a close friend and conspirator. this performance stands aloneas our tribute to the work and the life of our long standing friend."

The reunited Led Zeppelin will also include drummer Jason Bonham sitting in to fill the seat left by his father, John Bonham, whose death on Sept. 25, 1980, caused the band to announce its retirement later that year.

The younger Bonham has been drumming in recent months for classic rock group Foreigner, which has also been booked to perform at the Nov. 26 concert.

Concert proceeds are to benefit the Ahmet Ertegün Education Fund, set up to "provide students with annual scholarships to universities in the UK, USA and Turkey," according to an official press release. "In addition, a music scholarship open to all will beestablished at Ravensbourne College in the UK."

Tickets to the event, priced at 125 British pounds ($254), are available exclusively from a random drawing at http://www.ahmettribute.com/.

Aside from three one-off performances in 1985, 1988 and 1995, and two jams at family members' weddings, Led Zeppelin has not reunited for a tour.

While the Led Zeppelin members are rumored to have been rehearsing together over the past month, the concert in November would be their first public appearance together since May 22, 2006, when they were awarded the Polar Music Prize at a ceremony in Stockholm.

The most recent performance by all three former members coincided with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, on Jan. 12, 1995. At the time, Page and Plant were toward the start of a mini-reunion of their own that, by the end of 1998, had resulted in two full-length albums as well as a home video and television special heralding their work together.

Led Zeppelin's much-anticipated performance is set to take place during a rare month of new releases from the band showcasing live and studio material recorded mostly during the band's 1970s heyday. A plethora of new releases are to hit stores on two consecutive Mondays, with the performance taking place on the Monday of the following week.

Rhino Records, in conjunction with Atlantic, will release a new greatest-hits collection called Mothership with a U.K. release date of Nov. 12, followed one week later with Atlantic's upgraded reissue of the soundtrack to Zep's 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same, as well as Warner's reissue of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray with additional footage.

Ertegün's surviving wife, Mica Ertegün, stated in a press release that her late husband "would be very proud that Led Zeppelin have chosen to reunite and headline a benefit concert in his name featuring so many of his friends. I would like to thank all of the artists for their generous contribution to help make Ahmet’s vision a reality."

Singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini will also appear at the concert on Nov. 26, and Wyman will perform with the Rhythm Kings.

Initial reports from the press conference:

• New Musical Express
• Rolling Stone
• Billboard
• Uncut

How feasible is Nov. 26?

What's the feasibility of a Led Zeppelin reunion concert in London on Monday, Nov. 26?

Robert Plant is pretty busy, but he doesn't have any shows scheduled at the moment. Jimmy Page hasn't played a concert in a while, and John Paul Jones seems to have a pretty open calendar when he's not working on his own album or another side project.

Also mentioned in this reunion rumor is Jason Bonham, son of the late John Bonham, now playing drums with Foreigner. According to their tour schedule, the band will just be ending a tour of South Africa with a show in Cape Town on Nov. 24. So that could put him up in England for a day of rehearsal on the 25th.

Now you may be thinking that's cutting it short. But of course, the few Led Zeppelin reunion gigs in the past have pretty much all happened on little or no rehearsal at all, so this wouldn't be unprecedented.

As far as a marketing standpoint for their new releases, the date would be excellent. Mothership is due Nov. 12 in the UK, with The Song Remains the Same soundtrack and DVD release exactly one week later, and that alleged concert exactly one week later. Three Mondays in a row of huge Led Zeppelin events? Genius.

Tribute to John Bonham

These comments originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

The 30 days affectionately known among some Led Zeppelin aficionados as "Zeptember" certainly have ups and downs that are unparalleled in any other month.

Zeptember sees the beginning of a legacy of live Zeppelin shows, which we marked earlier this month with the 37th anniversary of Page-Plant-Jones-Bonham's first concert together.

Sadly, this month also sees the beginning of the end. In Led Zeppelin's history, the end is unmistakably denoted by the passing of one of its members, without whom the others just could never go on as they were.

"He was an ex-bricklayer who weighed about 250 pounds and was six-foot-three," producer Eddie Kramer said of John "Bonzo" Bonham, who died 25 years ago tomorrow.

RIP John Henry Bonham
May 31, 1948 - Sept. 25, 1980

On a much happier note, the Bonham drumming legacy still lives on today through that aforementioned son, Jason Bonham. Now 39, he's currently playing for a great lineup of the rock group Foreigner. Their current U.S. tour packed houses this summer and will continue to do so through November. Each show even pays tribute to John Bonham with the group covering a Led Zeppelin song.

A thrilling live video of Foreigner's "Juke Box Hero" from this tour is available at the group's official Web site, www.foreigneronline.com, in the Gallery section. They impressively ease into a portion of "Whole Lotta Love," and bald-headed Jason Bonham commands on the drums through the very end.

It will be a pleasure to see them perform live in Baltimore next weekend.