With the dust settling from the raving success of Celebration Day’s release in cinemas, pleading fans have been soberly reminded that this was in fact Led Zeppelin’s definitive statement, rather than a primer for what’s to come.
Appearing on UK show, Later… With Jools Holland overnight, Zep’s iconic guitarist Jimmy Page has gingerly admitted that a full scale reunion “looks very unlikely”, NME reports.
Appearing on the talk show to promote the home video release of Celebration Day, a one off reunion show recorded at London’s O2 arena in 2007, Page seemed reserved as he broke the news, hinting that he had once in fact entertained the notion of a reunion tour.
“We’re almost five years after the O2 concert and I must say I thought there might be some other get together for some reason or another but, as the years ticked by, it doesn’t look very likely does it? But [at least this gig] is there.”
Performing as a tribute to the deceased influential music executive Ahmet Ertegun, the 2007 reunion sparked widespread hysteria as over 20 million fans applied for the chance to buy tickets in a worldwide lottery, with only 18,000 lucky punters receiving the opportunity.
Captured in its entirety, the band has been cautious about the footage’s release, before last month’s limited run in cinemas around the world, and next week’s vinyl, CD, DVD and Blu-Ray release of both the audio and video recordings.
Speaking of the concert’s significance, Page said, “It was important that if we were going to do [a reunion] at all, that we went out there and did it properly. We put a lot of time and effort into it so that it would be what you’re going to see now, which is just one show – that’s all we did, no warm-up gigs, no follow-up.”I thought there might be some other get together for some reason or another but, as the years ticked by, it doesn’t look very likely does it?
Page also explained the five-year lag time between the performance and film release, stating, ”It wasn’t designed to be a film at all. That’s why it’s taken a little while to come out, because we didn’t even look at it for two years after we’d done it, so we could be a bit more objective about it.”
However, while Zeppelin fans won’t be receiving a full-blown reunion, there are still plenty of goodies for diehards to get their hands on. Aside from the various Celebration Day packages available, you can also pre-order the guitar tablature book over at Music Dispatch, so you can jam along to the 16 song set list in your living room.
Perhaps more exciting however is the news that Jimmy Page is in fact hacking away at the Led Zeppelin back-catalogue in an attempt to remaster the band’s complete discography of major studio releases. The albums are rumoured to contain alternate takes and previously unreleased material, as well as redone artwork by the iconic street artist Shepard Fairey.
Best known as the creator of the Andre The Giant ‘OBEY’ stickers and street art, Fairey also designed the cover to the 2007 Led Zeppelin best-of compilation Mothership, with the band’s name plastered across an iconic blimp.
Those desperate to get their Zeppelin fix however will be able to catch the legendary frontman Robert Plant at this year’s Bluesfest as he makes the trek down to play with his Sensational Shape Shifters. While it ain’t Zep, if Page’s statements are to be believed, this is the closest we’re going to get.
