On December 10th 2007 the seemingly impossible
happened. Led Zeppelin, the world’s original super group and one of the few
bands in history who could rival The Beatles for fame and popularity at their
height, reformed for a one off concert at London’s
O2 Arena for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert. The show set a world record for
ticket demand with over twenty million people (including myself) registering
online for a chance of one of the 20,000 tickets. Like close to twenty million
others I didn’t get a ticket for a show that myself and other fans had been
waiting for, for over twenty five years.
Fast forward nearly five years to October 17th 2012
and the concert was screened for one day worldwide in cinemas ahead of a DVD
and Blu Ray release on November 19th. This time demand wasn’t so
high and I managed to get two tickets for a screening at my local multiplex.
While in no way the same as seeing the band, my favourite of all time, live,
the two hours I sat in the cinema were amazing. The band showed that despite
having barely played together in thirty years and missing original drummer John
Bonham whose death in 1980 was the trigger for the band’s breakup, that they
are still able to rock with the best and sounded close to as good as they have
on any other live recording I’ve seen.
