This morning John Paul Jones confirmed long-standing rumors that Led Zeppelin have been rehearsing without Robert Plant and may hit the road with a new singer. “We’ve had the odd singer come in and have a bash,” the bassist said. “We really hope that something is going to happen soon because we really want to do it and we’re having a lot of fun. Robert [Plant] doesn’t want to do this sort of thing, at least for the moment.” Who could these “odd singers” be? Might Page and Jones follow in the footsteps of Journey, Yes and Boston and scour the Internet for a new singer? Follow the jump for YouTube clips of three top Zeppelin cover bands (plus Lez Zeppelin, above) as well as Journey’s Arnel Pineda and Page’s last two Robert Plant replacements all doing their best Robert Plant impressions. Who should get the call? (more…)

Photo:Getty

After weeks of rumor and hearsay, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones has all but confirmed the band will soon hit the road again. Unfortunately, the reunion this time won’t include Robert Plant. As Jones said to a Manson’s Guitar Show in England last weekend, Jimmy Page, Jason Bohnam and himself are all “itching” to hit the road after reuniting in London back in December 2007. However, Plant has been occupied with his tour with Alison Krauss. So while Plant hopes to reunite with his Led Zep bandmates “in a couple of years,” Jones said Led Zeppelin will instead go on tour with another vocalist in place. “As soon as we know who it is, we’ll let you know who it is,” Jones said of the new singer. (For Rock Daily’s YouTube replacement singers, click here!) (more…)

Photo: Jackson/Getty

Robert Plant has finally responded to all the rumors circulating about Led Zeppelin finally launching a full-blown reunion next year. Unfortunately, it’s not the response Led Zeppelin fans were hoping for. “Robert has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years,” a statement on Plant’s official website reads. “Contrary to a spate of recent reports, Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin. Anyone buying tickets online to any such event will be buying bogus tickets.” U.K.-based rumors spread on the internet last week that Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham were threatening to recruit another vocalist, which reportedly prompted Plant to rejoin the band for a tour next summer which would have included sets at Bonnaroo and Coachella. It was all fiction. “It’s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward,” Plant said. (more…)

Jason Bonham recently talked to Rolling Stone’s David Fricke to discuss how he prepared for the Led Zeppelin reunion show and how he’s dealt with the legacy of his legendary father John. Click here for more from Jason Bonham.

[Photo: Putland/Retna]

• Robert Plant told UK magazine Uncut the right reason could lead to another one-off Led Zeppelin concert, but didn’t make any promises. “Hopefully, one day, we could do it again,” he said. “Our profit is — it’s metaphysical.”
• Dave Matthews Band has partnered with Ticketmaster and iTunes to offer fans a free live album of highlights from this summer’s tour. Anyone who purchases a ticket through the ticketing giant will get a code redeemable in mid-September for the recording, which will go on sale to the public a month later.
• Rumors have surfaced that the original Korn lineup may be reuniting. The band was together for 12 years before guitarist Brian Welch left in 2005 and drummer David Silveria left in 2006.
• Steely Dan’s Walter Becker has announced his first solo album in fourteen years, Circus Money will be out in June, and added a tour could happen later this year.

Velvet Revolver is the frontrunner to open up for Led Zeppelin if the band were to go on a full reunion tour, says VR’s Duff McKagan. “I understand that we have it, although I imagine there will be plenty of bands prepared to kick and punch us out of the way for the privilege!” said McKagan. One of those bands who will likely fight it out is the Cult, as lead singer Ian Astbury told a Cincinnati crowd last November that his band would be opening for the Zep reunion tour. Another potential wrench in the works would be Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland’s tour with a reunited Stone Temple Pilots. No Zeppelin reunion tour has been announced, as Robert Plant has scheduling commitments to his joint tour with Alison Krauss until September.

Related Stories:

• Jimmy Page: “Zep Tour Would Happen Later This Year”
• Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones: “We’re Meeting This Month”
• Zeppelin Watch: Ian Astbury says The Cult Will Open for Led Zep in Cincinnati Next Year

[Photo: Getty]

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page announced at a press conference early this morning in Tokyo that if the band were to reunite for a large-scale tour, it wouldn’t happen until at least September. Page, who was in Japan promoting Mothership, cited previous commitments, most notably Robert Plant’s joint tour with Alison Krauss, as the main stalling point, saying, “Robert Plant also had a parallel project running and he’s really busy with that project, certainly until September, so I can’t give you any news.” The news rubbishes all those “Led Zeppelin headlining Bonnaroo” rumors, as well as the claims made by the Cult’s Ian Astbury, who told a Cincinnati crowd his band would open for Zeppelin during their reunion tour. Zep’s Robert Plant, who attended the New York Knicks game Friday night and was interviewed at halftime by MSG TV, said of Led Zeppelin possibly getting back together, “You never know what is around the corner.”

Related Stories:

• Led Zeppelin: The Reunion Set List
• Led Zeppelin: The Full Report From David Fricke
• Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones: “We’re Meeting This Month”

[Photo: Getty]

In the only interview with a bandmember since Led Zeppelin’s reunion concert, John Paul Jones looks back at the show of the year — and ahead to a possible tour. David Fricke spoke with the bassist for the new issue of Rolling Stone, and Jones revealed, “It could be fun to do more stuff,” that the band is having a meeting this month and that the group prepped for their December 10th show as though they were going on tour for a lifetime — breaking out Jimmy Page’s lifetime arsenal of equipment for testing. Click here for a bonus Q&A, where Jones talks about his bandmates’ performance at London’s O2 Arena, working out how they played “Stairway to Heaven” and more.

Related Stories:

• Led Zeppelin: The Full Report From David Fricke
• Led Zeppelin Roundup: Backstage and Beyond
• Led Zeppelin Returns: Photos from the Reunion Show and More

• It’s a new year, with new Led Zeppelin tour rumors: The latest speculation has Foo Fighter Dave Grohl waiting on an invite to drum on an alleged reunion tour. Grohl, who has expressed his willingness to do the job, was allegedly up for Jason Bonham’s gig at last month’s one-off show. Bonnaroo buzz has also returned, despite Robert Plant’s scheduled tour with Alison Krauss, after an “insider” told The Mirror “[Fans] have been bombarding [Led Zeppelin’s] Web site to get back together for good but only Robert Plant wasn’t keen to commit. Now he’s had a change of heart and if it goes well they are also talking about touring.”
• R.E.M.’s fourteenth studio album will be called Accelerate and, as Michael Stipe revealed last month, will hit stores on April 1st. Stipe recently told Uncut, “We spent less time making this record than we have in twenty years. … I feel like there’s a confidence in the material, and a communication between the three of us that hasn’t been there for some time.”
• Jessica Simpson has confirmed she’s in Nashville working on her country debut, telling Billboard, “I am a country girl. I grew up in Texas, and country music was what I listened to.” The album is scheduled for a 2008 release on Columbia Nashville.
• Five of James Brown’s children have challenged the late singer’s will, claiming it should be invalidated because “former advisers used undue influence to get him to create charitable trusts that the advisers would profit from.” The bulk of Brown’s financial legacy has been allotted for trusts to educate his grandchildren and other needy kids, and one of Brown’s advisers calls this latest attack “an act of desperation.”
• Teenybopper crime spree! A five-year-old boy and nine-year-old girl used a gift card to break into a New Jersey home on Christmas Eve and steal $200 worth of presents, including Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers CDs. Hannah Montana hysteria was also to blame for a six-year-old Texas girl lying about her father dying in Iraq. The girl and her mother wrote an essay about the fake experience to secure tickets to the sold-out show, but forfeited their win after the truth came out. The girl’s mom explained, “We did whatever we could to win.”

Now the pleading begins. A Led Zeppelin superfan left this message on our voicemail demanding in colorful fashion that we pull some strings to get Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to tour:

Random caller, we heed your cry. Now it’s your turn, readers: Post your most compelling argument as to why Led Zep should take their show on the road right here. All comments will be directly forwarded to the band’s management.

Related Stories:

• Led Zeppelin: The Full Report From David Fricke
• Led Zeppelin Returns: Photos From the Reunion Show and More
• Led Zeppelin Roundup: Backstage and Beyond

By now, you’ve read David Fricke’s concert review, perused the post-show aftermath and watched the fan footage on YouTube. So what’s next for Led Zeppelin? As soon as Jimmy Page rested his guitar following “Whole Lotta Love,” tour rumors started swirling. According to Gigwise, who cites a non-existent story on NME.com (at least we couldn’t find it), Led Zeppelin is in talks to play two shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, per two “industry insiders.” Those “industry insiders” may be the same anonymous sources who leaked that Led Zeppelin will play this summer’s Bonnaroo festival. Well, they were a quarter-right: Reports now indicate that Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at the Tennessee fest as part of the Raising Sand tour. But then there’s the biggest rumor of them all, courtesy of British newspaper The Sun via Blabbermouth via NME, which said backstage banter between bandmembers led to one of them admitting he wants to return to the States to play three shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the site of the concert flim The Song Remains the Same. While all these rumors remain just that, the fact is Led Zeppelin mania has returned — the band’s merchandise and discography has enjoyed a significant increase of sales in the weeks leading up to, and the days following, their O2 Arena concert.

Related Stories:

• Led Zeppelin: The Full Report From David Fricke
• Led Zeppelin: The Reunion Set List
• Led Zeppelin Roundup: Backstage and Beyond

[Photo: Halfin/AT/Getty]

By now you’ve probably read about what happened onstage during Led Zeppelin’s show last night, but what else happened at the concert of the year? For one, Pete Townshend, despite reports to the contrary, did not perform: “I pulled out of the Ahmet Ertegun benefit the day I heard Led Zep were performing,” Townshend wrote on his blog. “They really don’t need me.” Many in the audience probably wished the other openers had taken Townshend’s stance, but they gave a polite reception to the other acts.

The show began with a prog-rock supergroup comprised of Yes bassist Chris Squire, Yes drummer Alan White, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s keyboardist Keith Emerson doing a progged-out version of Aaron Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman took the stage next with his longtime group the Rhythm Kings, serving as the house band for the remaining openers. Paul Rodgers joined them for “All Right Now” and Foreigner’s Mick Jones came out for “I Want to Know What Love Is.” All of the acts had been signed by the late Atlantic Records co-founder Ertegun, and Robert Plant made sure that the audience didn’t forget it, announcing “Ahmet, we did it!” after Zeppelin performed “Stairway to Heaven.”

Backstage at the main gig was one gigantic A-list conclave, featuring Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, David Gilmour, Dave Grohl, Marilyn Manson, Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, Michael J. Fox, Pink, Juliette Lewis, Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher and Steve Winwood. (more…)

From Led Zeppelin’s triumphant return to the stage last night, here are a few complete, fan-video versions of some of the songs the band played at the O2 Arena. Above, watch Zep kick off the show with a retro intro and “Good Times, Bad Times.” After the jump, check out full versions of “Kashmir” and “Stairway to Heaven.” Want more? Check out David Fricke’s review from last night’s show here. (more…)

For the second encore of their first full concert in twenty-seven years, at London’s O2 arena last night, Led Zeppelin tore into “Rock and Roll,” from their untitled fourth album, with a joyful vengeance. As drummer Jason Bonham hammered with the ghostly precision and ferocity of his late father, guitarist Jimmy Page fired dirty chunks of Chuck Berry and bassist John Paul Jones kept iron time with familiar reserve, singer Robert Plant sang the most obvious words of the night: “Been a long time since I rock and rolled.” Overhead, images of a much younger Zeppelin, in concert during the early and mid-Seventies, flashed on a huge digital-video screen. In those films, Led Zeppelin were the biggest, loudest and most cocksure band in rock. Jimmy Page’s now snow-white hair was still jet black; Robert Plant was a golden god, not yet a Viking elder, and the late John Bonham — whose death in 1980 abruptly ended Zeppelin’s reign — still ruled the engine room.

But the band that played underneath those memories last night was not the one that misfired at Live Aid in 1985 or again in New York in 1988. This one was rehearsed, ready and out to kill. This band was Led Zeppelin in every way.
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For the full document of tonight’s monster gig, you’re going to have to wait for the official DVD, which is due out next year, but here are two clips, the first from a British news broadcast showing a snippet of “Black Dog” (above) and the second a fan video of the first twenty-one seconds of the opening song, “Good Times Bad Times” (after the jump).
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