Well, the night finally came and passed in a typically extravagant manner. 20 million left ticketless and teary, and a small sample of lucky lottery winners embraced what could be, and very well should be Led Zeppelin’s final ever gig. A number of rock stars like Jick Magger, Giam and Loel Nallagher and Manrilyn Marson showed up. Inevitably, a number of ‘obviously not fans of Led Zeppelin but here to look like like I do and obviously capitalise on the fact that I can get in free and get papped in the name of rock’-stars showed up…pouty stickwomen and their trilby and tattoo sporting companions…you know the ones, and anyway that’s beside the point.

So far I’m hearing nothing but good stuff about the concert, I’ve seen the tiniest snippet of Black Dog on the news and on YouTube, looked pretty good! I’ve been hearing that if all went well, which I’m told it did, the concert would be released on DVD. So there may be no official way to see the show until then.

The Guardian have said great things, as have the BBC…but there’s millions of us wanting to see it! So thank the lord for handheld recording equipment. I’m sure photos, audio bootlegs and video footage will start flooding in over the next few days…In fact my ankles are wet from a wave of digital Zeppelin as I type this post. Any good stuff you took of the gig, mail it to me and I’ll stick the best ones on my blog.

NME have some good photos of the gig already take a look at some snaps:

This one’s my favourite so far, I’ve already feasted my eyes on it:

What was it again?

Some sort of musical ensemble, twanging some songs?

Somewhere?

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh.

Anyway, yeah, I’ll have a think…I did find another stencil though, good to see they’re still out there:

Latest on the Led Zeppelin newsroll.

Apparently Jason Bonham is eager to perform to a ’son of a drumming rock-god legend’ type of standard at the concert next Monday. Yes that’s right, a week away folks, that’s seven more days of post-broken finger rehearsals too. I’m excited to see how the whole thing works out, good or bad, tour or no tour, good Bonham/bad Bonham…yeah, back to Bonham jr, apparently he – along with the rest of the Led Zeppelin faithful – believes he underperformed at the Atlantic records 40th anniversary bash in 1998, I think. He says he’s done ‘his homework’ this time and won’t disappoint: fullstoryheredrummerboy 

The other three Zeppelin veterans are keen to big Bonham up, stating that he seems better prepared and able to do justice to his father’s legacy this time round: furtherbonhamrelatedspeculation

There’s a little article situated HERE! featuring Jimmy Page and his response to the death of John Bonham and his coping with the subsequent disbanding of Led Zeppelin. Only short, but pretty insightful and worth a read if you have a minute.

There’s a hugely speculative and possible totally untrue and massively unfounded rumour that Led Zeppelin are to play the Bonnaroo Festival, Tennessee, next year. Metallica are also supposedly confirmed for the ‘eclectic’ and ‘largest hippy festival’ apparently, possibly, possibly definitely not, 100% maybe. haveagandersatthisbigfatrumour

One week to go then, you think about that sunshine(s).

Ian x

The matchmaker was their mutual promoter, Jerry Weintraub (later to produce the Ocean’s 11 series with George Clooney and Brad Pitt), who took Jimmy Page and Robert Plant up to Presley’s Las Vegas hotel suite.

Zeppelin’s music then permeated the airwaves. They were enormously popular, an enigmatic force of hard rock. Presley had already reinvented himself as the jump-suited King of Vegas, and an “honorary drug-enforcement” pal of Richard Nixon’s.

For the first few minutes of the summit meeting, Elvis ignored Led Zeppelin. The room was filled with an awkward silence. Bodyguards monitored the temperature. Jimmy Page – who had first picked up a guitar after hearing Elvis singing Baby Let’s Play House on overseas American radio – began to fidget. What was going on? Did Elvis really want to meet them? Was this a big misunderstanding?

Finally Elvis turned to his guests. His first question had nothing to do with Zeppelin’s music. It was their roguish reputation that interested him. “Tell me,” asked Elvis, “is it true, these stories about you boys on the road?”

For a surreal moment, they found themselves staring at the three-dimensional embodiment of their own youthful rebellion. Plant spoke first, without cracking a smile. “Of course not,” he said. “We’re family men. In fact, I get the most pleasure out of walking the hotel corridors, singing your songs.” Plant leaned forward, and offered his own best Elvis Presley impersonation. “Treat me like a foooool, treat me mean and cruuuel, but loooooove me…”

Presley eyed Plant very carefully. Presley’s “Memphis Mafia” studied the moment with growing intensity. And then Presley burst out laughing. The bodyguards burst out laughing. Suddenly, the atmosphere was dorm-room friendly.

For the next two hours, Presley entertained them with his own road stories, and tales from his movie-making days. He confessed that he had never heard Led Zeppelin’s music, except for the one song his stepbrother played him – Stairway to Heaven. “I liked it,” said Presley.

Later, walking down the hallway from the hotel room, Page and Plant congratulated themselves on their meeting with the King. Had it really gone as well as it seemed? The answer arrived a moment later.

“Hey,” came a voice from down the hall. Elvis had poked his head out the door. They would never meet again, but this last image was one for the memoirs. It was Presley, serenading his new hard-rock friends with a perfect imitation of Robert Plant doing him. “Treat me like foooool…”

Taken from telegraph.co.uk