Posted on 12/10/2007 5:17:00 AM PST by period end of story
Once may be enough for Led Zeppelin as band members reunite for the first time in 19 years at a much-hyped London concert Monday.
Some 20 million people competed in an Internet lottery for the 18,000 tickets, priced at 125 pounds (€175, US$250) each, for the show at London's O2 Arena. It has already been postponed a month because of guitarist Jimmy Page's broken finger.
Page, 63; John Paul Jones, 61, and Robert Plant, 59 — original members of the band — have recruited drummer Jason Bonham, 41, to take the place of his father, John Bonham, who died in 1980.
The band split up after Bonham's death, and whether there will be any more Led Zeppelin reunions is an open question.
Page has said he is eager to do it, Jones has been noncommittal and Plant, in effect, said: "Don't ask."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
$4.5 Million for an evening’s work. Not a bad payday by anyone’s standards.
Oh man, I am SO old.
“Profits from the show will go to the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund,” to fund scholarships in Turkey, UK, and US.
New Edition
Boyz to Men
N'Sync
Backstreet Boys
Who can tell the difference between these people? They get big for a time, they make far more money than I ever will -- yet, their time in the sun is brief and limits their power over the industry. Because they are inherently replaceable, there is something like a ceiling on how big and powerful they can be. That's the new business model.
I guess every age has its dinosaurs, and the Rock age is no exception. It's pretty hard to improve upon the legacy of those bands, and a few others- The Who, Eagles, Clapton, AC/DC....
One of my co-workers is there. I am SOOOOO jealous!
For those who haven't heard it.
I would definitely pay to see these guys live. The wife and I just saw Van Halen last week in Seattle. Terrific show, a lot of fun. Eddie Van Halen can still maintain “World’s Best Guitarist” after the performance I saw. Absolutely mind-boggling what that was able to do with his guitar. And hid 16-year old son on bass guitar did very well, too.
F’in Lead Balloon would have been just another Brit Blooze Rock band without the outstanding arrangements and instrumentation of John Paul Jones. BTW: Jonsie is the only one of the three surviving members who does NOT look like walking death.
Zeppelin Ping
Eddie’s great. Thankfully, heroin is hell on your liver, not on your playing (just ask Clapton and Charlie Parker).
LOL! Party on Wayne!
Forget Zep. I’m holding out for the Monkies to re-unite.
A good start to the morning. :)
I am surprised they’re not going to be at the Company X-mas party, after the pole dancers we had that one year...
The top 10 charts included a lot that wasn't rock and roll back in the 1960s as well. Charts don't indicate what the kids are listening to or what is the best music of the era.
You can't damn modern rock and roll acts just because the industry has a bigger grip on what gets exposure than they did in the early 1960s.
The Beatles were released on 5 labels (MGM, Decca, Swan, Vee Jay, Capitol...) before they got a "hit". The "guitar group" sound was "out" according to the suits. And those early singles from the "Beat Brothers" were attempts at "standards" like When The Saints Go Marching In, Besame Mucho, My Bonnie, etc. which is NOT the typical playlist of the 1958-1962 Beatles' concerts.
Same as it ever was.
And who of today’s top bands can pack concert after concert like the superbands- Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd and on and on.
And to qualify a band's talent based on "who can pack concert after concert" is to fall for the mythmaking of Bill Graham who poo pooed bands like Joan Jett/Lita Ford/the Runaways, The Jam and others in a face to face meeting on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show (out on DVD now). If ticket sales are the barometer of talent, then Hannah Montana is the "best" we have today because Mr. Achy Breaky Heart's daughter sells out shows instantly and parents fork over $250+ a ticket.
The sheds still pack in oldie (er, "classic rock") acts. There was a time when it was inconceivable for someone over 25 to play "rock and roll" (which had started as adult juke joint music and then was co-opted into being a youth movement). If you played rock and roll as an adult, you were considered to be playing music for kids and not equal to your peers. Even the Rolling Stones thought it would all be over in 1981 and branded that the "last" tour. Mick Jagger openly mocked the 1972 rock and roll show that equal billed Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Bill Haley, and Chuck Berry 15 years after they hit the charts. Mick said "I wouldn't have thought anyone would want to come" (in this day and age).
Used to be you'd put out 2 albums a year, now it is 2-5 years between albums.
Something happened in the late 80s to rock and roll. I dunno, I’ve heard several theories. I think the fan base was broken up into different genres that could not be joined again, rap, punk, heavy metal, hip-hop, even country.
Rock still exists, Country almost doesn't. Rap isn't rock, it never was. The problem is that "rock" is accepted as the word for "cool" music. But a lot of rock music isn't rock and roll at all. Soft rock (as heard on AM radio in the 1970s and 1980s) wasn't rock. The Velvet Underground have some soft songs but those songs were never classified as "soft rock". Same with slower/softer David Bowie.
They call rap the new rock but it isn't. Maybe it's the new scat, or be bop, or doo wop. And there are a lot of country rappers of the days of old who have been ignored in the history of "rap" (speaking over the music, particularly in rhyme or at least in a rhythm) (see Smoke That Cigarette, Hot Rod Race, Hot Rod Lincoln, I've Been Everywhere...)
Let's see if the old bands can sell new albums and not just nostalgia. Dylan can do it. So can the Who. It isn't a hypothetical challenge.
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