Led Zeppelin Will NOT Be Performing In Toronto
A blog posting last week on MuchMusic.com said Zeppelin would reunite for the second time in as many years to play four shows at the Rogers Centre (the former SkyDome) in August. A Globe and Mail report yesterday said that preliminary discussions were taking place with the dome.
Yesterday, though, two sources in the position to know both said they were unaware of any discussions involving Led Zeppelin playing in Toronto at any venue, with one source completely dismissing the speculation.
Music industry magazine Billboard inquired into the report "at the highest level" and, according to the magazine's news editor Jonathan Cohen, was "fairly confident there's nothing to it."A spokesperson for the Rogers Centre yesterday said there is nothing to the reports regarding Led Zeppelin, but did not close the door. "I would love to be able to say that they are coming, however at this time there is no scheduled date for a performance by the band in August," said Nadia Flaim, communications manager for the Rogers Centre. "It is simply too early to discuss venue or stage set-up, should they come to perform."
The prototypical hard-rock group, Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 comprising guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones. They disbanded in 1980 after Bonham's death. The three survivors reunited for one-off shows in 1985, 1988 and 1995 -- but had their first headlining gig as a reunited Led Zeppelin last Dec. 10 at London's 02 Arena. With Bonham's son Jason on drums, Zeppelin played largely sizzling versions of the band's biggest hits over two memorable hours.
Earlier last fall, both Page and Jones told the Sun that the foursome would wait to see how the 02 Arena show went before discussing, either privately or publicly, any further reunions. Zeppelin then regrouped without instruments in January, where Plant informed the others that he'd be touring this spring and summer with Alison Krauss behind their critical-hit CD Raising Sand. That tour concludes July 19 in Nashville.
With no official announcement from the band, speculation since January has focused on either a Zep tour, or series of dates, on this side of the Atlantic some time later this year. Considering the following band-member logistics, reports of Rogers Centre shows in August make almost no sense.
First, Jason Bonham is touring with Foreigner and they have two shows confirmed for late August: Aug. 22 in Detroit and Aug. 30 in Atlantic City. But the Rogers Centre's only stretch of four vacant days in succession in August is in that last week, because of stretches of Jays, Argos and Bills games earlier in the month. What's more, late August dates would mean Led Zeppelin would have at most just a few weeks of rehearsal time -- and that would require no down time for Plant after his long tour with Krauss. Finally, Plant and Krauss have at least one festival show lined up for September, and if you're Robert Plant you don't just squeeze in a few Led Zeppelin shows between your bluegrass gigs.
Plant was long seen as the biggest obstacle to any Zeppelin reunion. Publicly he always said it was because he's not into "nostalgia" acts, preferring instead to always break new musical ground either as a solo artist or in collaboration with others, such as Krauss. But those who intimately know Zeppelin's music and career suspect it might also have been because Plant can no longer hit the high notes he so fabulously reached on some of the band's most famous songs, circa 1968-73. In other words, he'd have the most to lose if he couldn't pull off a reunion, vocally. That's undoubtedly why Zeppelin played several songs at 02 Arena in lower keys, including Stairway to Heaven, Ramble On and The Song Remains the Same. Those stepped-down arrangements might even have been the key factor in Plant agreeing to reunite.
Might Led Zeppelin yet reunite later in the fall? Say, in November? And if in Toronto, wouldn't it make more sense to play at the Air Canada Centre? After all, no band ever cared more about its sound than Led Zeppelin, and all Toronto concert goers can tell you the sound just plain sucks at concerts held inside the concrete reverberation sphere once known as the SkyDome.
For Badgeholders Only, an Internet mailing list devoted to the band, reported in April that Page, Bonham and Jones had been in a rehearsal studio in London. Presumably, then, they're preparing to play something, somewhere, sometime.
Just not at the former SkyDome in August.
(The information in this web article was obtained from: http://www.hiphop-elements.com/article/read/4/25297/1/)
posted by LedZeppelinLives.com @ 6:00 AM
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