“Phenomenal!” is how Page will later describe it. Nowhere is this more evident than on the monolithic reading of Kashmir in which Plant finally appears to lose his inhibitions. Material such as Dazed And Confused (wherein Page retreats, bow-in-hand, into a laser-generated green pyramid to create a tenebrous atmosphere) and a richly textured Stairway To Heaven which moves with both grace and increasing power) is undoubtedly classic, yet is delivered with an inventiveness and authority that brushes aside any sense of nostalgia. Tonight, however, the past is almost rendered irrelevant by a heroic, urgent, utterly transfixing performance. Another tune previously unaired on-stage, its inclusion is startling bearing in mind that the track was recorded in late 1975 and included on Presence – an LP made when Plant was convalescing from a near-fatal car accident on Rhodes and Page, by his own admission, was in the grip of addiction. “This is our first adventure with this song in public,” announces Robert Plant as Page strikes up the riff to For Your Life, the band’s lyrically scalding commentary on the LA coke scene. Jones straps on his fretless bass and Page turns to a Gibson semi-acoustic to deliver a brutal In My Time Of Dying, Plant’s vocalising combining with Jimmy’s slide work as Bonham adds to the music’s heft. His vocals are noticeably lower than on the recorded version on the band’s debut album, adding nobility and gravitas to the lyric’s reflective sentiments. “In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man! Now I’ve reached that age, I’ve tried to do all those things the best I can!” wails Robert Plant. In a pitch black arena, Jimmy Page provides the answer to the latter via two trenchant barre chords, underpinned by rhythmic strikes from Jones and Bonham as the stage slams into life with Good Times Bad Times – a surprise opener which Zeppelin never actually played live in its entirety in their 1969-77 heyday. The air is alive with fan-chatter, a sense of uncertainty and a raft of questions: with his fractured finger, leading to the show being postponed from November to December, how well will Jimmy be able to play? Will Jason Bonham cut it compared to his late father John? Will he be able to recreate that vital rhythmic chemistry with John Paul Jones? Can Robert Plant still hit those high notes? Will the show rise above previous ill-fated reunions like the debacle of 1985’s Live Aid and the rusty Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary? And, simplest of all, what the devil will they start with? To say that the level of excitement is palpable is an understatement. But the 18,000 ticket holders packed into the venue formerly known as the Millennium Dome are only here to see one act. Held as a tribute to Atlantic Records boss and Zep acolyte Ahmet Ertegun, who died at the age of 83 following a backstage fall at a Rolling Stones concert at New York’s Beacon Theatre in 2006, tonight’s show is nominally a multi-artist bill. I HEARD there were 20 million fans that applied,” says a disbelieving Jimmy Page speaking to MOJO a few weeks before the O2 show, referring to the online registration and lottery system used to distribute the £125-per-head tickets. Tonight in London, with Paul McCartney watching on from the gods, they are once again. In the summer of ’73, Led Zeppelin truly were the biggest band in the world. Up flash the numbers: 56,000 tickets for the Tampa show, yielding $309,000 versus $306,000 grossed by The Beatles at Shea Stadium eight years earlier in front of a slightly smaller crowd. He is Scott Shuster and he transports us back to – the day Led Zeppelin drew “the biggest crowd ever assembled for a single performance in one place in the entire history of the world” at the Tampa Stadium, breaking the record set previously by The Beatles. The lights go down and, as the arena fades to black, a television screen above the stage crackles into life to reveal a clean-cut, bespectacled American newscaster, hair parted to the left, wearing a blue-grey suit and a long-collared shirt. As part of MOJO’s own celebrations to mark 30 years of the world’s finest music magazine, we’ve revisited the interview in full… December 10, 2007, The O2 Arena, London Five years later, as the band prepared to release Celebration Day, a document of that legendary night in London, MOJO invited Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones to take us backstage at the O2 and to lay bare the truth behind what happened next. In 2007 Led Zeppelin played what is widely regarded as the gig of the century.
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