Led Zeppelin : Celebration Day review

It seems a lifetime ago that the clock on the Led Zeppelin website started counting down to the big announcement. Now, a worldwide cinema screening later, Celebration Day has hit the high street.

The band’s sensational 2007 reunion for the Ahmet Ertegun memorial concert at London’s 02 Arena (that’s the Millennium Dome in old money) has been captured on two CDs and a DVD – and it’s a barnstormer.

It sits comfortably alongside the previous landmark live sets, The Song Remains The Same and How The West Was Won, bringing the Zeppelin story to what many still believe is a premature conclusion.

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham – son of late, lamented John – are on fine form as they power through a setlist of classic Zeppelin anthems, and the odd surprise.

As befits a great gig, it’s a memorable movie, too. Director Dick Carruthers keeps camera trickery to a minimum, allowing the music to do the talking, only occasionally inserting mobile phone fan footage.

So how can they possibly still cut it? After all, the original Zeppelin high-fliers are spring chickens no longer.

Plant’s vocal isn’t what it once was, hence his more melodious work of late with Alison Krauss and Band Of Joy, and some of the songs have been lowered in key to make things just the right side of comfortable. Page’s fingers aren’t as nimble as they used to be either.

Sure, some of the guitar solos are sloppy – he admits as much himself – but they emerge gloriously messy in very best live rock and roll tradition.

Jones, however, is the constant. Solid, sure-footed, the glue that binds his bandmates to the revelatory powerhouse drumming of Bonham Junior, whose Rock And Roll concert closer is a man-made thunderstorm.

Opening with Good Times Bad Times – you won’t be able to wipe the smile off your face – Zeppelin serve up Ramble On before letting the song ramble on into the opening of Black Dog, rock’s most impossible guitar riff.

There’s a spine-tingling In My Time Of Dying, during which Plant and Page excel, then the first curiosity of the night: a live debut of For Your Life, unprepossessing in the Presence studio but better onstage.

Trampled Under Foot, with Jones’ keyboard funk, ups the game again. After the bluesy Nobody’s Fault But Mine, he’s back with No Quarter, shimmering soundscapes slowly unveiling the underlying riff.

Since I’ve Been Loving You is nostalgia incarnate, Dazed And Confused gives Page the opportunity to bring back the violin bow, and Stairway To Heaven, well, Stairway To Heaven brings the house down.

The Song Remains The Same races along like a runaway train before Misty Mountain Hop boasts a surprise vocal duet between Plant and Bonham, Plant explaining how John loved to sing.

They save the best ‘til almost last. Kashmir proves an epic performance, Led Zeppelin after all checks completed, surely ready for take-off again. The gig closes with a playful Whole Lotta Love and that Rock And Roll thunder.

Don’t let this be their swansong.

* There are all manner of versions of Celebration Day, by the way, ranging from a basic double-CD to the deluxe edition which boasts a bluray, DVD, two CDs and a bonus DVD tracing rehearsals at Shepperton Studios.

Encore! Extra screenings of Led Zeppelin Celebration Day

You wanted ‘em, you got ‘em.

Such has been public demand for the Led Zeppelin Celebration Day cinema screenings that the band have just authorised another batch – warning that this time really will be the last chance to see it large.

There’ll be screenings across the UK on Thursday November 8. See the official website for details.

The movie of Zeppelin’s 2007 reunion at the Ahmet Ertegun memorial show staged in London’s 02 Arena had worldwide theatrical release by Omniverse Vision on 1,500 screens in over 40 territories on October 17.

It was supposed to be a one night only sensation, but was oversubscribed.

Hence a final ‘Encore’ screening at cinemas on November 8, plus a smattering of December dates in towns where screens were unavailable.

Celebration Day will then be available in multiple video and audio formats on November 19 from Swan Song/Atlantic Records.

Here's a checklist of all the Encore dates:

UK	City Screen	Greenwich	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	Bluewater	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	CDL Bristol	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	CDL Derby	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	CDL Leicester	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	Coventry	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	Dudley	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	Nottingham	08-Nov
UK	Showcase	Peterborough	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Bolton	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Bristol Cribbs Causeway	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Cheshire Oaks	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Edinburgh Omni Centre	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Leeds Kirkstall Road	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Islington	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Westfield (White City)	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Newcastle-under-Lyme	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Norwich	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Portsmouth	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Staines	08-Nov
UK	Vue	Worcester	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Bath	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Birmingham Broadway Plaza	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Blackpool	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Bournemouth	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Bracknell	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Colchester	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Dundee	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Glasgow Quay	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Huddersfield	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Kilmarnock	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Lincoln	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Maidstone	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Manchester Printworks	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Mansfield	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Newcastle Silverlinks	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Tamworth	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Taunton	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Telford	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Wimbledon	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Wrexham	08-Nov
UK	Odeon	Belfast	08-Nov
Ireland	Odeon	Blanchardstown	08-Nov
UK	City Screen	Brixton Ritzy	09-Nov
UK	City Screen	Picturehouse at FACT	09-Nov
UK	City Screen	Oxford	09-Nov
UK	City Screen	Cambridge	08-Dec
UK	City Screen	Exeter	11-Dec
UK	City Screen	Southampton	11-Dec
UK	City Screen	York	19-Dec
UK	City Screen	Leeds Hyde Park	22-Dec

 

Led Zeppelin : More UK screenings for Celebration Day

If you missed the big event on Wednesday, fear not.

There are going to be bonus UK screenings of Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day tomorrow, Sunday October 21.

But before you go, ring the cinema first.

The official Led Zeppelin Facebook feed has been full of complaints about cinemas showing the movie at low volume, and with no surround sound.

That was the case when I saw it at Cineworld Solihull on Wednesday, and I see similar complaints about screenings all over the UK.

So pick up the phone, and tell them you want it loud and proud – or you’ll go somewhere else.

For details of the screenings, and to see the guilty ‘hush hush’ cinemas named and shamed, click here.

Led Zeppelin : will there be a reunion tour?

It’s the $64 million question; the elephant in the room.

Will they do it again?

They certainly still have what it takes – or, at least, they did five years ago when they reunited at London’s 02 Arena.

After watching Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day at a packed cinema on Wednesday, the proof is there for all to see.

If you were gutted that you couldn’t get tickets for the 2007 supershow – 20 million people entered the ballot for the chance to buy 18,000 tickets – then you’ll be doubly disappointed now.

Because Celebration Day lives up to its title. It’s a celebration not just of Led Zeppelin but of the sheer bloody joy of rock and roll.

As they serve up a setlist of iconic songs, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones have the world once more in the palms of their hands.

There should, of course, be a king-sized hole where John Bonham used to be.

But Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin legend, drums up a storm. He is simply sensational.

Somewhere up there, his dad will be proud as punch.

It’s not note-perfect – God forbid! – and at times it’s downright messy.

Jimmy Page is the first to admit that he hit quite a few bum notes, but adds that there were no ‘major fixes’ needed for the movie.

So what you get is a warts and all performance that surpasses every expectation.


Highlights are a majestic Kashmir, passionate In My Time Of Dying, powerhouse Rock And Roll and – yes, I know it’s unfashionable to like the damn thing these days – Stairway To Heaven. You’ll find the full setlist at the end of this blog.

I’d last seen Zeppelin at the Manchester Hardrock – long since defunct – way back in December 1972. I feared that the reunion would spoil my memories of a magical night, one of the best gigs I’d ever been to.

In the event I need not have worried. Led Zeppelin can still cut it.

They should do it more often.

But will they?

It’s long been held that Page wants to get Zeppelin flying again, but that Plant isn’t keen, preferring to tread new musical paths with first Alison Krauss and latterly with his Band Of Joy.

Jones, we believed, had fallen out with the others. Besides, he’s been playing with Them Flying Vultures, the band he formed with Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and Foo Fighter Dave Grohl.

But since the hype surrounding the movie began, there have been mixed messages.

Page says he is just waiting for promoter Harvey Goldsmith to ask the band to do it again.

Goldsmith famously got the band to do the Ahmet Ertegun gig back in 2007 by hand-writing letters to the Zeppelin stars,

Would Page be happy to receive another letter asking the band to reform again, he was asked last week?

“What’s he been doing for the past five years?” replied the guitarist. “Why hasn’t he written a letter already?”

Plant, meanwhile, branded a journalist “a schmuck” for daring to ask the unmentionable question.

But then he added: “We’re pretty good at what we do but the tail should never wag the dog, really. If we’re capable of doing something, in our own time, that will be what will happen.”

Asked about how it had felt to relaunch Zeppelin, if only for one night, he added: “There was a real feeling of camaraderie, and actually, successful adventure.

“It was peculiar and strange at times but at the same time it was very rewarding for all of us and it really did work as a performance.”

Jones, meanwhile, admits that his abiding memory of the gig was just “getting through it all”.

“It was pretty good,” he said. “I think it worked out really well – but it was a relief come the end of it, I have to say.”

Jason Bonham would be available if rumours are true that his band Black Country Communion’s new album Afterglow is to be their last.

So that’s the ‘would they?’

‘Should they?’ is another question altogether.

On the strength of the performance, and by public demand, then yes.

But if they really want Celebration Day to be remembered as such a special ‘one-off’ then no.

* Celebration Day will be available on CD, DVD, Blu-ray and vinyl from November 19. Do not miss it.  Here’s the setlist, as promised:

1. “Good Times Bad Times” (John Bonham, John Paul Jones, and Jimmy Page)
2. “Ramble On” (Page and Robert Plant)
3. “Black Dog” (Jones, Page, and Plant)
4. “In My Time of Dying”/”Honey Bee” (Bonham, Jones, Page, and Plant/Muddy Waters)
5. “For Your Life” (Page and Plant)
6. “Trampled Under Foot” (Jones, Page, and Plant)
7. “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” (Page and Plant)
8. “No Quarter” (Jones, Page, and Plant)
9. “Since I’ve Been Loving You” (Jones, Page, and Plant)
10. “Dazed and Confused” (Page)
11. “Stairway to Heaven” (Page and Plant)
12. “The Song Remains the Same” (Page and Plant)
13. “Misty Mountain Hop” (Jones, Page, and Plant)
14. “Kashmir” (Bonham, Page, and Plant)
15. “Whole Lotta Love” (Bonham, Willie Dixon, Jones, Page and Plant)
16. “Rock and Roll” (Bonham, Jones, Page, and Plant)

Led Zeppelin reunited 2012 : the picture

NOT so lean and mean these days, but oh so cool.

Led Zeppelin reunited briefly on Friday to promote the release of Celebration Day, the long-awaited DVD of the band’s 2007 reunion gig at the 02 Arena.

Although they posed together in London, they refused to be drawn on the question of whether they will ever play together again.

It’s thought that Jimmy Page is desperate for another outing, and that John Paul Jones has resolved differences with the others.

But Robert Plant has sought in recent years to distance himself from his Zeppelin past, preferring a successful solo career.

Led Zeppelin : new Black Dog trailer for Celebration Day

You can't beat a bit of Black Dog ...

Yes, it's another trailer for the Celebration Day DVD out on November 19.

Or catch it early in a cinema near you on October 17.

Robert Plant : I haven't the faintest idea what Led Zeppelin anthem Stairway To Heaven is about

Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant admits he has no idea what iconic anthem Stairway To Heaven is all about.

The track is one of rock’s most revered songs – and is banned in many music stores because so many budding guitarists try playing it.

But speaking at a press conference in London today, Plant said: “I struggle with some of the lyrics from particular periods of time.

“The musicality and construction of Stairway To Heaven is peerless. Maybe I didn’t quite feel the same about the lyrics a little bit later on in life, further on down the road.

“Maybe I’m still trying to work out what I was talking about. Every other f****r is!”

The three surviving members – Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones – were back together to promote their new DVD Celebration Day, the film of their 2007 reunion gig in tribute to the late Atlantic Records supremo Ahmet Ertegun.

Drummer John Bonham died in 1980.

Led Zeppelin : Celebration Day 02 DVD trailer

So the waiting is over.

We’ve held our breath as the countdown has continued.

And now it’s official.

Led Zeppelin’s 2007 reunion gig at London’s 02 Arena is finally to be released on DVD.

But first there’ll be special screenings in selected cinemas around the world.

The film of Celebration Day has a worldwide theatrical release by Omniverse Vision on 1,500 screens in over 40 territories on October 17.

The theatrical screenings will follow premieres in London, Los Angeles, New York, and other major cities. Tickets for the public screenings are available from today via www.ledzeppelin.com

Celebration Day will then be available in multiple video and audio formats on November 19 from Swan Song/Atlantic Records. Specific product details will be announced soon.

It was on December 10, 2007 that Zeppelin took the stage at the 02 to headline a tribute concert for dear friend and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. What followed was a two-hour-plus tour de force of the band’s signature blues-infused rock ‘n’ roll that instantly became part of the legend of Led Zeppelin.

Founding members John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were joined by Jason Bonham, son of late drummer John Bonham, to perform 16 songs from their celebrated catalogue.

Although 20 million people applied for tickets, the band’s first headline show in 27 years was seen only by the 18,000 ticket holders who were fortunate enough to have secured seats through the worldwide lottery.

Here’s the tracklisting for Led Zeppelin : Celebration Day:

1. GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES
2. RAMBLE ON
3. BLACK DOG
4. IN MY TIME OF DYING
5. FOR YOUR LIFE
6. TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT
7. NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MINE
8. NO QUARTER
9. SINCE I’VE BEEN LOVING YOU
10. DAZED AND CONFUSED
11. STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
12. THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME
13. MISTY MOUNTAIN HOP
14. KASHMIR
15. WHOLE LOTTA LOVE
16. ROCK AND ROLL

See you at the screenings!