December 10 - it worked for me:
10.30am got tickets and wristbands, what queues? Maybe we fluked it but plenty of time to get back to the West End and a few dinks in Soho and a few more in Covent Garden and eventually back along the Jubilee line, feeling like Gods amongst the commuters, to the big tent on the Thames.
7.15pm kick off: Harvey Goldsmith speech and little Ahmet bio films and then, Emerson, Squire, White and Kirke and brass section - Fanfare for the Common Man squire dong di diddly dong di diddly etc
Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings playing homage to the Atlantic label with Maggie Bell (doing Aretha), Albert Lee, Paolo Nutini (doing Ray Charles and BANG BANG Terry Reid), Paul Rodgers (All right now, Seagull). Ronnie Wood who was already replacing Townshend was a no show which is very Ronnie Wood of him when you think about it.
Foreigner - I wanna know what your drink is cos Im off to the bar and I’ll get you one...
And then the main event:
Good Times Bad Times - But of course, first song first album makes sense. But it werent loud enough!
Ramble On and Black Dog were OK but not quite there yet (Black Dog is just OK?!?) and Im thinking this isnt going to be the ear bleeding battering I want it to be... BUT... then the ghost of Peter Grant banged the heads of the 20million people on the mixing desk together and In my time of Dying onwards things started to get stretched out properly heavy and LOUD and the place is rocking.
Trampled Under Foot (credited by Plant as Led Zeps Robert Johnsons Terrraplane Blues before you start ‘ccusing them all over again) was magnificent, Talkin bout luuurrvve. Oh yeah!
And Nobodys fault but mine was blinding and I still have that insidious riff that seeps in to No Quarter playing in my head.
Plant says when you do a gig like this and you’ve got 50, 60 songs to choose from there are certain songs you have to do and this is one: Dazed and Confused and Page who is on fire by now is doing the violin bow thing with the green laser lights in a pyramid around him. There’s people from 50 countries here tonight says Robert - and a girl from another planet along the row from us - for whom the combination of whatever she’s on and the excitement of the moment cause her to be shrieking Fuck off fucking shut up shut the fuck up and flailing forward and down over the next 3 steep rows taking a few outraged young people with her...She had to go bless her... That’s how I’ll remember Stairway anyway.
And the final four songs - absolutely bloody magnificent, Misty Mountain Hop I love that rolling rhythm on that, Kashmir Oh my god! Plant lets out a barrage of those “Ooohyeaheeyeahs” and its spine tingling. Massive applause at end and back for Whole Lotta Love naturally - Shake for me girl I wanna be your back door man and Percy and Jimmy are grinning like shag happy cats and Jimmys big face looms up on the screens looking like Nanna off the Royle family sitting up in bed and then they pretended that was the end but nobodies going anywhere, well actually there was a bit of a flood for the exits, fools! 2nd encore - Rock n Roll. Its bin along time! accompanied by some little cinefilm footage of past glories, And I’m here to tell you there is absolutely NO WAY they won’t be doing this again soon (Look out for tour I reckon) They had too much fun and they were perfect. I bet if you could compare this to 1975 etc they were tighter/better now that they’re all well away from the heavy substance abuse.
Valve, at the O2 big tent dome place, up in the St James’s Park like view seats, sat next to a couple of Germans who never stopped eating and had BO. It was worth every penny. Ooohyeaheeyeah.
|
