The ‘Stairway to Heaven’ hitmakers - Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, along with late original drummer John Bonham’s son Jason - got back together for a one-off show at London’s O2 as part of a tribute to late Atlantic Record President Ahmet Ertegun and the guitarist has revealed they had initially planned to do more than just a single show, but further dates just never materialised.
Noticeably not mentioning singer Plant, Page said: “We'd had a lot of fun up to that point in the rehearsals because mainly it was the three of us.
“There'd be Jason [Bonham], John Paul Jones and myself playing together, so that Jason felt really part of the band, as opposed to like he's there because he's John's son. He was there because he was a damn good drummer and it was right that he should be sitting in that seat. But he needed to know that.
“And yeah, a lot of rehearsals went into it. We were ready for it.
“It had been said that there was going to be a tour. There weren't any dates put in, but obviously we had honed ourselves to the point where we were ready.”
Plant admits that a tour has never been discussed since, and he has ruled it out from ever happening again.
Speaking to Classic Rock magazine, he added: “But then there has not been any discussion about any tour ever since - nor will there be. So there you go. It's just one of those weird, odd things in the world of Led Zeppelin, really, another part of the Led Zeppelin phenomenon."
The 76-year-old musician admitted he was keen to perform for two nights of the tribute, even though the group were initially approached to only play for 30 minutes, because he was keen to override memories of their disastrous previous reunions shows, at Live Aid in 1985, which was marred by a lack of rehearsals, and three years later for the Atlantic 40th anniversary, when he had rowed with Plant shortly before going on stage.
He explained: “The idea was that we would do a half-hour set. But I said, I’m not rehearsing to do a half-hour set! We've got Live Aid... and the Atlantic fortieth.
“I thought, 'We're gonna go out there and stand proud,’ you know? So that means we've got to do a proper set. And that's what we did. So yeah, a second night would have been really, really good.
“In fact, the following day I started to get really jittery at 7 o'clock and I thought, I know what it is, it's because I'd paced myself towards doing the O2 and now there isn't an O2 to do.”
