Led Zep Reunion a Go?

Percy reportedly ruffled over the others bringing in a ringer? Eh.

By Fred Mills

The rock press shifted into hyperdrive this morning after Britain's The Sun reported that a full-on Led Zeppelin reunion is finally underway, with music websites and watchdog blogs such as Idolator taking a look at the prospects with a mixture of wishful thinking and skepticism. Naturally we can believe everything we read in the British press, eh?

The Sun report, titled "Led Yep," claimed that Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham's kid Jason had all but given up on Robert Plant signing on for a reunion - he's been busy all year with his Raising Sand project featuring Alison Krauss and had stated that the one-off reunion concert last December in London was enough whole lotta loving for now - so they'd been rehearsing with what the paper referred to as "stand-in singers... one American was so impressive they were confident they could hit the road next year without Plant."

The trio had been rehearsing in London and a "source" close to the band told the paper, "The band is really gelling. There's an American guy who has been standing in for Robert regularly and doing a great job. Obviously they want the original frontman to join them on the road but he still won't commit. They will be finalising plans for shows over the next couple of months and will tell Robert that if he doesn't want to be involved they will go ahead without him."

At that point, when he heard of the rehearsals, Plant reportedly got antsy and told them he'd come along after all.

That proverbial "source" for the story was quoted thusly:

"The rest of the band had all but given up on Robert joining them, but they were determined to go ahead so had started to seriously explore other avenues. When Robert realised the band were serious about doing it without him, it made him think long and hard. He realised he couldn't face the thought of not being involved. The band were over the moon when he told them the news. They are now forging ahead with the tour plans and they can't wait to get on the road."

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Pardon us if BLURT weighs in on the side of "bemused." The likelihood of Page, Jones and Bonham hiring a ringer is extremely low if you look at how consistent their track record had been over the years in regards to both actions and actual statements to the press. (These are not the ersatz Doors, in other words - their frontman is still very much alive and kicking.) A far stronger possibility is that they were simply rehearsing and felt that using a stand-in until Plant actually could join them later in the year would make working out the arrangements, song cues, etc. a lot easier than if they did it all as an instrumental 3-piece.

Hey, as long as we're at it, how about a semi-viewable video of Led Zep last December doing the most-played rock song of all time? Does anyone remember laughter?