Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page may have spoken too soon last month when he told Kerrang! magazine that he didn't know whether his resuscitated partnership with Robert Plant would continue. Page and Plant's management has issued a press release implying that the duo, which got back together in 1994 to release No Quarter: Page & Robert Plant UnLedded and last year for Walking Into Clarksdale, might team up again soon.

At the tail end of a missive about Page's appearance at NetAid and his upcoming shows with the Black Crowes was the following information: "Robert Plant is in the process of completing a photographic study of Morocco (more details to follow). Current plans are for them to work together later this autumn."

Insiders say that the management company is just buying time in hopes of getting the explosive duo on speaking terms again. They say that Plant isn't in Morocco at all, but rather has been playing a number of shows under the name of "The Priory of Byron" (taken from the Priory of Sion, a secret society of Knights Templars) with his old cohort, Kevin Gammond from the Band of Joy, the Birmingham-based band in which Plant played prior to joining Zeppelin. According to Led Zeppelin fanzine Proximity, the Priory of Byron performed at the Bridnorth Folk Festival in northern England on Aug. 28, and at Shrewsbury's Jazz and Roots Club on the 26. They are currently slotted for another show next weekend.

There is hope that Plant will join Page at NetAid, much like they did at the 1985 Live Aid show, where the two reunited for the first time since their 1980 break-up. Sources close to the duo claim that Plant has been asked to perform with Page at the concert, which will take place on October 9 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, but as of yet, no decision has been made.

Meanwhile, the Led Zeppelin spirit is alive and well with Whole Lotta Blues: Songs of Led Zeppelin, featuring cover versions of some of Led Zep's better known songs performed by a variety of blues artists including James Cotton, Otis Rush and Robert Lockwood Jr., was released Tuesday.

JAAN UHELSZKI
(Sept. 22, 1999)