Led Zepagain's trip to see Led Zeppelin at the
O2 Arena in London, Dec 10, 2007
by Steve Z

First, HUGE thanks must be given to Jimmy Page's tour manager, who made the tickets available for us. We are extremely honored, eternally grateful for and blown away by that gesture! (And for a few surprises which you are about to read about…)

Pre-show:
We flew out to London Thurs night, Dec 6, arriving on Friday, Dec 7, to allow us some extra time to get over any jetlag for the show on Mon, Dec 10. On Sat evening I finally got over to an internet cafe to find an email from Jimmy's tour manager with the location to pick up our tickets, as well as Surprise #1: an invite to the rehearsal the next day! So, the next morning we headed over to get our tickets, and with the 4 tickets were Surprise #2: Four backstage after show party passes!

From there, we headed on over to the O2 Arena for the rehearsal. As we waited to be let in, we heard the guys start up 'Good Times Bad Times.' What a feeling, to stand outside, knowing it's LED ZEPPELIN playing in there! We also heard them do 'Ramble On' before we started inside. As we got our laminates and headed in, they're going through 'In My Time of Dying,' which sounded incredible! It was really cool to see Robert down in the middle of the floor watching the other 3 run through 'No Quarter'! Also, watching them work out a new rhythm part in 'Nobody's Fault', with the harp, was excellent. I was thinking they were going to open the song that way, since that's all we saw them do of it, but the show proved me wrong on that one. They did use that for the harp solo in the song, though.

From the rehearsal, we headed over to a local pub, The Pilot, for some drinks, and had a great time meeting and hanging out with fellow Zep fans from all over the world. This gathering was organized by the extremely nice Dave Lewis, founder of the awesome Led Zeppelin magazine 'Tight But Loose' and author of some fantastic Led Zep books as well. I got to chat with Dave, as well as people that I've only known from Led Zep internet sites and email lists, so this was really a great experience for me. (Nech, TangerineMan, SIBLY, jameskg, here's till the next time!) We also met Paul Hammond, a fellow Zep tribute band guitarist, from the Philly based band Get The Led Out, and even a few Led Zepagain fans who were over for the show (Hey Peter & Murph!).

Monday night: The Show!
We got to our seats, and had a great time just looking around at the crowd. Our section was just immediately off to Jimmy's side, first level (Sec 112, Row J). Would have been a perfect view if not for the sidefill monitors, but since we mostly stood up through the whole show, they didn't block too much. Just before the show started, a group walks in the row right in front of us, including Brian May from Queen, and actress Juliette Lewis, who are both patrons of the ABC Trust, Jimmy Page's wife's charity. Brian was extremely nice, shook all our hands and said hello. As a lifelong Queen fan (I saw them just a few months after I saw Led Zeppelin in 1977), this really added to the whole experience! In the next section over was Richard Cole, Led Zeppelin's former tour manager, who Swan has met previously, so he & I went over to say hello.

After a video tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, the show opened with an all-star band of Keith Emerson (ELP) on keys, Chris Squire (Yes) on bass, Simon Kirke (Bad Co) on drums and Alan White (Yes) on tympanis, plus a horn section, performing 'Fanfare for the Common Man.' Excellent way to open the show! This was followed by Bill Wyman & the Rhythm Kings, featuring some different guest singers. Guitarist Albert Lee was also a part of this, who was phenomenal. Paul Rodgers joined in for 'All Right Now', then did Bad Co's 'Seagull' solo on acoustic guitar. Right after 'All Right Now', which Brian May was really smiling through, I leaned over to him and said, "Hey, that guy's pretty good, you should audition him," which he (thankfully) laughed at!

Foreigner took the stage with a kids choir, for 'I Want to Know What Love Is,' and then the lights came on, and it would soon be time for the main event!

To actually see Led Zeppelin performing together again, words cannot describe! The opening was great, starting with the 1973 news report from Tampa on the video screen (from the new Song Remains the Same DVD), straight into the "DA DA" of Good Times Bad Times, and the place erupted! We had a great view of the floor with the crowd just rocking out. Jason Bonham was incredible, sounding at times like his dad, but putting a lot of his own style into it, too. 'Ramble On' started off darker and bluesier, until the chorus kicked in like the original, with Jason and Jimmy hitting the accents along with John Paul Jones' bass line. That ended with the final chords of 'What Is and What Should Never Be,' which led straight into 'Black Dog.' A huge highlight of the set was 'For Your Life,' which had never been done live by Led Zeppelin or Page/Plant. ('Good Times Bad Times' & 'Ramble On' were also not played live by Led Zep, but Page/Plant did them.) Jimmy debuted a brand new Gibson Black Beauty Les Paul for this one, issued this year as a new signature model, and built after the one that was stolen from him back in 1970! 'No Quarter' included the dry ice fog, and some great piano by Jones. In 'Dazed and Confused,' not only did Jimmy pull out the violin bow solo, but they included the green laser pyramid around him, as they did on the 1977 US tour and 1979 Knebworth shows! 'Stairway to Heaven' was indeed played, after which Robert said, "Hey Ahmet, we did it!" They did indeed, and followed it up with a rocking 'Song Remains the Same!' 'Kashmir' was simply EPIC, with Robert blowing everyone away, hitting notes that nobody expected him to be able to still hit! What an incredible ending to an incredible show! The first encore, 'Whole Lotta Love,' included Jimmy's theramin, and Robert teased us with "One night I was laying down," but it was just a tease... The final encore of 'Rock and Roll' brought the house down, and they took their bows as the video screen lit up a huge "LED ZEPPELIN" logo behind them. They were done! 2 hours 10 minutes of pure magic! LED ZEPPELIN 2007! I can still hardly believe it really happened!

After show:
Right after the show, first thing I saw was Jeff Beck trying to get down from our section, only to be told that he had to go back up to get out. I think he was ready to just hop over the rail and down on to the floor! So we all headed upstairs to the after party, with Heart's Ann Wilson just in front of us, although we didn't get a chance to meet her.

When we got home, I was totally exhasuted (1 hour sleep after the show, a 3 hour trip to the airport and a 10 hour flight...), but still so wholly charged up. I don't think I'm gonna sleep a normal night's sleep for a long time to come!