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The Song Remains the Same: Led Zep reunites for one-off gig
by Michael Thurston

LONDON, Dec 10, 2007 - Rock legends Led Zeppelin took to the stage at their long-awaited reunion concert Monday evening with a blistering display of their greatest hits, reviving memories of their hell-raising 1970s heyday.
The three surviving members of the iconic group -- singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones -- were joined on stage by their late drummer John Bonham's son Jason for the spectacular one-off gig, kicking off the much-hyped concert with "Good Times Bad Times", the opening track on their debut album, "Led Zeppelin".
"We're gonna rock hard tonight," Richard Cooper, 37, from Memphis, Tennessee said, beaming at the front of a mass of humanity preparing to stream into London's vast O2 Arena.
"It's like a once in a lifetime experience," Cooper, who brought his whole family to enjoy the show, told AFP. "We've got to go and party."
The party started even before the show began, with strangers clinking beer bottles with each other in the long queues, where faded Led Zeppelin T-shirts from past concert tours were much on display.
"It's an enormous event," said Jacques Harrar, a 49-year-old Frenchman who came over from Paris with his wife.
Nearly two decades after they last took to the stage, the group promised to pull out all the stops, vowing to play all their classics including era-defining hits like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Love" and "The Song Remains the Same."
The London concert, a tribute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, was originally scheduled for November 26, but was put back by two weeks after Page injured his left little finger stumbling over in his garden.
The band, formed by Page in 1968 from the ashes of The Yardbirds, are credited by some as having single-handedly created the cliche of the television-defenestrating, groupie-consumed rock band.
Their name came from a joke by The Who's drummer Keith Moon -- a rock wildman himself -- who forecast they would go down like a metallic version of the infamous airship. The "a" was removed in case US fans mispronounced it.
But they defied that prediction, and went on to sell more than 300 million albums over the decades, their records remaining rock staples despite Bonham's untimely death after choking on his own vomit in 1980.
Most fans had assumed they would never take the stage together again -- but then in September they unexpectedly announced the reunion for the tribute to Ertegun, who signed the band four decades ago and died last year.
Reflecting the excitement around the reunion -- even amid recent comebacks by bands like Genesis and The Police -- up to 20 million people applied for the 20,000 tickets, awarded by ballot, at 125 pounds (255 dollars, 175 euros) each.
Patrick Trombley, from Florida, said he grew up with Led Zeppelin but was just too young to see them before the split 27 years ago.
"I've been waiting and waiting and waiting to see them for a very long time," he said, adding he felt "very blessed" when his name was pulled out of the ballot.
The gig is the first time the three surviving band members have played together in public for 19 years: they did a benefit gig in 1988, and three years before that played at Live Aid.
But Page -- famous for his visceral guitar solos and occasional use of violin bows -- said both those performances were "shambolic," with drummers who did not know the songs and little or no rehearsals.
Monday's concert will be different, he has vowed.
In theory the gig is a one-off -- singer Plant has talked about doing "one last, great show" and has insisted it will not be followed by a tour. But Page and bassist Paul Jones dropped hints last week that there could be more.
Even Plant -- reportedly the most reluctant to do more -- fuelled the rumours, telling a weekend newspaper: "It wouldn't be such a bad idea to play together from time to time."

p/s:Dipetik dari sumber yang dirahsiakan atas kehendak pihak penerbit sendiri. Adalah tidak diketahui sebab sebenarnya namun ia adalah dipercayai sebaha'haha'gian dari tindakan provokasi majlis peguam yang cukup diketahui umum di kala ini.