Led Zeppelin press conference

Announcer: Please welcome John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant. Ladies and gentlemen: Led Zeppelin.

Robert Plant: Nice and unassuming.

Announcer: Thank you for coming, thank you for being here. Nice to see you all again. And I think I'll take the liberty of asking the first question then we'll throw it out to the floor. I was wondering if each of you could tell the audience what your sort of lasting memory is of that great night in December 2007 at the O2. And maybe start at the far end with John.

John Paul Jones: Lasting memory? Getting through it all. Yeah it was pretty good, I think it worked out really well. But it was a relief come the end of it, I have to say.

RP: Yeah for me I think, I was just, I think relief was the... it's a terrible thing to say because I do like relief. And you can never condemn it. But in truth, the idea of actually being where I am now in my lifetime, to get back in the middle of that music was a spectacular experience, and I was approaching it from a different angle so to get through it and come out the other side was something kind of not much sort of miraculous I think, but great fun.

Announcer: Jimmy?

Jimmy Page: Yeah I, the lasting memory of it is the fact that I remember walking up at the steps onto it, on to the stage. And then the moment right at the very end of it. The rest of it had passed, very very quickly actually, and, but I knew, the lasting memory of it was that I knew that what we intended to do, which was to go out there and stand up and be counted and let people who maybe didn't know Led Zeppelin but had heard a lot about it, to show why we were what we were, and not only that, we were really, you know, we'd a really good time that night and made a lot of people happy.

Announcer: Okay, let's throw it out to the floor for some questions. The gentleman, yes you sir. If you could wait for the microphone as I said and tell us who you are.

Press: Hi, yeah, does it work? Yes. Hi I'm (?) from Amsterdam, Holland. Let me first say how wonderful it is to see the three of you together, gentlemen. My question: You started this show with Good Times, Bad Times, was there any significance in choosing that song to start with? And to put it more boldly, does that sum up Led Zeppelin's career?

Announcer: Who would like to take that?

JPJ: Well it was, I mean, it was the first number on the first record, wasn't it?

RP: Yep, yeah.

JPJ: So it seemed a fitting beginning. Although I'd forgotten quite how complicated the first riff was, and later regretted. But I think we, I think we did a good job and it just seemed a good rousing start to the evening.

RP: Yeah, it's a kind of, a pretty concise piece of music in the kind of Zeppelin world so it's like a tune rather than an extended piece of music for itself. So it was a good place to start, nice and concise and that finale, the end of the track, there was little bit of a sort of knowing and kind of interesting look between Jimmy and I 'cos on the outro it's a guitar, then a little bit of vocal scat, and a bit of guitar. It was very interesting that kind of to get into a groove early on and to hear Jason wailing away behind us, I mean, he was singing his heart out. It's great.

JP: Sure, I think out of all, because people wouldn't have known what we were going to play, and what we were gonna start with, there'd probably been a lot of sort of guessing about what it would be and you probably would imagine that that was one of the last choices that we would have come up with so it was more the unexpected as well. They go "Wow, they've taken that on for the first number! Let's see what they're gonna do next."

Announcer: On the teaser trailers that ledzep.com has been putting out that is the track used, and it has tremendous impact I think. When you hear those opening chords.

JP: Yeah

Announcer: Next question.

Press: Hello, hello guys. My name's Lenny from Today.fm, as the envoy from Ireland, first of all I'd like to officially invite you to Ireland, whether it's for a gig, or whether it's to stay in my house. I got a couple of bedrooms and there's a futon if you need to, or top and tail, whichever guys. I just want to know, are there any particular memories from your time together in the seventies, when you sit down and have a couple of pints, a couple of single malts, and there's just one thing that you're all thinking of, and you go "Yeah, that was why we did it, that was amazing."

RP: What you mean socially or musically?

Press: Yeah, when you're together. You know when guys hook up after a while and it's like you were never apart. You could be away for a hundred years but it doesn't matter.

RP: I think, you know, the thing is, we've just been, we don't see each other too often, but we just spent about an hour or so discussing the stuff to do with Ahmet's educational stuff and all that and no sooner we start talking than some little innuendo creeps in, most of which should, you know, it's just what happens when you're, you spend a lot of time together, some old memory that kind of crops up and you go "Ooh! That's something to forget." You know? So it's good, there's lots of those things drifting around.

Announcer: Next question. The gentleman with the dark glasses.

Press: Hello I am Philippe, Rock & Folk magazine, France. I would like to know, did Jason Bonham do the job well, were you happy with his drumming?

JP: Is that Philippe Paringaux?

Press: No, Phillipe Manoeuvre.

JP: Sorry, what was the question? Did Jason Bonham what?

Announcer: Were you happy with Jason's drumming?

RP: That's Philippe's Dad!

JP: "Happy with Jason's drumming?" Wow, Jason was absolutely monumental in his performance and his playing from the very first rehearsal right through to the O2. He was incredible, the whole spirit, his enthusiasm, and his knowledge of what made Zeppelin 'tick' musically  was just something else, just really wonderful to be able to work with him for that amount of time as far as I felt, to do a proper full set and you know, really communicate musically with him. It was really, really good. Nobody else could have done it.

RP: We've played with him before at his wedding. Sadly he decided to go to bed during the wedding reception and because I was a kind of friend of the family from way back I was the one that had to go up to his room and get him to get out of bed. Do you remember that? Yeah and then he played with us.

Announcer: Next question. This lady here.

Press: Hi, hello, I'm Claudia from Music News UK. First of all, fantastic film, fantastic concert. I would like you to question where do you stand now with regards to Stairway To Heaven? Because, if I'm informed correctly, Mister Plant was never really for it and Mister Page always really was for the song. You had a different opinion on the song.

JP: Mister Page what?

Press: You really always championed the song and I think Robert, Mister Robert Plant never really was for it.

RP: Well I struggle with some of the lyrics from particular periods of time and I don't know the musicality and the construction of it is peerless. But maybe I didn't quite feel the same about the lyrics a little bit later on in life as I got a bit further down the road. Maybe I'm still trying to work out what I was talking about. Every other fucker is, I mean.

JP: Maybe you were channeling, Robert?

RP: Channeling is a good one, yeah. Owain Glyndŵr is, you know, that's where it came from.

Announcer: Let's take some at the back there. Gentleman in the front row of the second section with the T Shirt on.

Press: Hi I'm Jean Paul Heck (?) also from the Netherlands. I think the old question, I was at the gig in 2007, and you waited five years to release this beautiful DVD. What's the reason to wait that long?

JPJ: Five years is like five minutes in Zeppelin time. I'm surprised we got it out so quickly.

Announcer: Another question. Gentleman in the front row here.

Press: John Wilson from BBC Radio Four. I was there that night at the O2 and, in the words of the song, "Thank you". But, we talk about Good Times, Bad Times starting the set, but what was the first song you played in the first rehearsal, and how was it?

JP: It's probably, it's Train Kept A Rollin'. But we did more than just Train Kept A Rollin' during that rehearsal. But how was it? Well, we all got into the rehearsal room and played and it was like earth-shattering for each and every one of us, that's what it was like.

RP: We didn't have any material did we?

JP: Well not really, they were just doing whatever but it was just the intensity of what was going on and the communion, if you like, of the four of us. It was very intense, right from that point. There's no doubt about it.

JPJ: The very first epic rehearsal.

JP: The rehearsals in Gerrard, yeah.

RP: Gerrard Street.

JPJ: Gerrard Street, yes.

RP: I think we did…

JPJ: It was like "What do you know?" "Well I don't know, what do you know?" "Well I don't know." And then Jimmy said "Train Kept A Rollin'?"

Press: No sorry, I meant rehearsals for the O2 show.

RP: Oh!

JP: Oh!

RP: Oh, I was gonna start going on about...

JP: You got a little extra there!

RP: …fantastic that we got…Aren't we coherent? I was gonna start talking about Garnet Mimms And The Enchanters. And As Long As I Have You. What was the first thing that we did? Yeah, yeah I understand the question. Fucking hell. Moderately.

JP: In Jason's notes he mentioned that we did Houses Of The Holy. Yeah, as one of the first ones. He wasn't quite sure why we did Houses Of The Holy. Probably because it wasn't going to be one of the hardest ones that we were gonna have to approach, for each and every one of us. So that was a good one to be limbering up with, and to just get into a groove if you like. I would say that it was instant.

JPJ: Yeah.

JP: Yeah, yeah. There was willingness you see, to do this?

JPJ: Jason was great because all the songs we played throughout the Zeppelin years, as the setlists were different, we would end songs in a different way in order to accommodate the next song, and so we'd play something a bit "How does this end?" And we'd look at Jason, and Jason goes "Well 1971 it ended like this, and in '73 you went into so and so and so." And so he had this encyclopaedic knowledge of everything and it was just a real help wasn't it?

RP: He's got some great bootlegs. I mean, it's spectacular. Some great Beatles stuff too. He's a mine of information and I don't know which band he's gonna be in next, but he's really got it down.

Announcer: Okay, another question. Gentleman in the black T Shirt. Yep.

Press: Hi Neil Curry, it's CNN. I just wanted to ask if at any point during this gig in 2007, or at any point since, did you think "That was great, I fancy doing some more of those."? And if not, why not?

RP: Hello Bill

JP: Actually can I ask you all a question? You've all been to see the film, did you enjoy it?

Audience: Yes!

JP: Well then we've done our job haven't we? Thank you.

Announcer: Alright, next question. This lady in the front here please.

Press: Can you answer the question please.

RP: Oh, it's kiss and tell!

Announcer: No I think the film has answered your question. So I think this lady here.

Press: Hello my name is Anna, I'm from the Croatian Daily Paper.

JP: Hello Anna.

RP: Hello Anna.

Press: Congratulations, first of all. I would like to ask you, when you look at the music bands, music stars today, where's it's more about production and PR and about the way they look more than they sing, do you feel like in your time you had much more fun?

JPJ: I'd hope so.

JP: Yeah. Yeah, as far as being able to create music and just piledrive onwards without all the sort of trappings that there might be today, absolutely, yeah, gave us that wonderful vehicle as a creative unit. There's no doubt about it. Absolutely, because A, we weren't having to follow up a single or any of this stuff. We were just, we were there to make music and go out and propagate it, spread it. You know, by playing concerts? So yeah, that was a much easier process and more positive for musicians, really.

RP: Yeah you know, there was no long term retrospective overviews about people's careers and stuff. The bands that were playing when we first kicked off together, nobody really expected there to be anything just beyond the next experience. Even if it was making records or not, there was no concept of thinking about this and looking like a bunch of soccer managers.
 being interviewed at the end of a match. I mean, it was more like the people that we met along the way were brigands to some degree. Everybody was just having a great time and the concept of looking back and asking about what you said about "Don't you feel like you can do it again?" The good thing about what we were, when we were really happening and we were together and that was that sole purpose in creative life, was that we were always creative. We were talking just an hour ago about how you would just move off on an angle or a diagonal somewhere and another shape of music would just come through and we would build that and develop it into a new project each time. There was no thought about "What do you think about it now?" You know, I was still thinking about whether or not I'd finished my French homework!

Announcer: John, do you want to say anything for that?

JPJ: I've forgotten the question. Spacing out.

Announcer: Another question please. That gentleman in the middle there, him.

Press: Yeah hi guys, it's Dave Lewis from Tight But Loose.

RP: Yay!

Press: Hello mate. I've just watched the film; absolutely joyous. Absolutely joyous. There was a lot of joy in the playing and you could see that in you guys looking at each other and really feeling the music. Was there a point during the set where it really began to take off and you felt "This is really happening!"? Was there a point for you when you thought "We're doing it!"?

JP: Yeah; the first number. I'm not being… I mean that. Right from the first number.

Press: Fantastic, it really was really clear that there was a lot of joy that night. So thanks for that, cheers.

Announcer: Thank you, this gentleman here has been waiting for a while.

Press: Hi, yep I'm Nick from Q and Kerrang Radio. I just wanted to know, hypothetically, had you made some cutscenes like in The Song Remains The Same, what fantasy sequences might have represented you individually in 2012?

Announcer: Have we got enough time for that one?

JP: Maybe the whole concert was a fantasy sequence, really?

RP: I think it was! I think going down the river on a boat was already the beginning of it when we got to the O2 by boat.

JPJ: Oh yes!

RP: You know, I saw Arthur, I saw Guinevere, I saw, you know, there was the three princesses.

JPJ: What was in your tea?

RP: When?

JPJ: What was in your tea?

RP: Some of it won't go away.

Announcer: Another question. This gentleman in the front.

RP: Good idea though, what a good thought!

Press: Schmidt (?), Polish Radio. Gentlemen, my impression is that you actually created the ultimate live version of some of the songs. Maybe because of the modern technology that's allowed us to see and hear it in perfect way. But, do you feel that way as well, that some of those songs are the ultimate live versions?

JP: They were certainly the best versions we could do in 2007 because the versions of the songs we would be doing in, say, 1969 would have changed and mutated by the time we got to 1973 and 1975. The music was always mutating so I think we did, in the rehearsals we were doing, the numbers had subtle differences to them, and sometimes quite dramatic differences to them as far as the textures and the energy of them. But as far as what we did, to have, you know, just the one concert, yeah I think we did pretty definitive versions of the material. Certainly better than any cover bands would do, that's for sure!

JPJ: Yeah, I mean the technology obviously did help to a certain extent. Having the latest recording technology and a lot of microphones and a lot of cameras too. So everything looked fantastic and sounded fantastic.

Announcer: Another question. Let's go towards the back. That gentlemen in the second section with his hand up there. Yep, you, yes please.

Press: It really is me! Good afternoon boys, an absolutely incredible film. I was there on the night, but, in a way it was even more emotional watching it for some reason. I just wanted to ask about what kind of…

Announcer: Could you just say who you are?

Press: Sorry, I'm Sean Keegan from BBC 6 Music. Thanks for having us. I just wanted to ask you a little bit about the emotions that were in the room with regards to Jason being on the drums, and there seemed to be moments in The Song Remains The Same and in Rock N' Roll where he was kind of channeling his father. And I wondered how it made you guys feel about having Jason there and not having John there, what kind of emotions were going through your mind?

RP: Well Jason lost his father when he was a young boy, and he has been struggling with that for a long, you know, from that time onwards. The thing is that his father encouraged him to play the drums from when he was a tiny weeny kid, you know? And in those days his dad used to coach him and chide him and stuff like that, but when his dad left him, he was left to his own devices but always referring to his dad, and also referring to the great drummers that he knew, so it was kind of inevitable over the years there's always been a kind of rub between us all, hasn't there really? Between us as friends and family and stuff like that. So, it was appropriate and it was wonderful and also his vigour was so fantastic too, he drove us. Whenever we started being a bit, sort of, "Eurgh." Jason would blast through the whole thing and it was peculiar and strange at times, but at the same time it was very rewarding for all of us and it really did work as a performance with him at, kind of, driving us on, which was great for him, great for his family, and great for his grandma; John's mum Joan and the whole thing was a sort of easing of all those years of discussion and debate from Jason to us.

Announcer: Okay, this gentleman in the front here.

Press: How you doing guys? Ken Sweeney from the Irish Independent in Dublin. Question for you Jimmy: The late blues guitarist Rory Gallagher, I think he beat you in a poll in 1972 as the best guitarist, were you an influence on Rory, or was Rory an influence on you, and did you rate Rory Gallagher?

JP: Well yeah, I liked Rory and in actual fact I had the real pleasure to meet him. Curiously enough it was at our management's office in the days of, the very, very early days. And he come up to meet up with Peter Grant and we just had a really good chat in the reception for ages, he was a really, really lovely man. And he was a fine guitarist and singer. I know he's really loved in Cork. Sure.

Announcer: This gentleman in the middle there. Thanks Jim.

Press: Hi, I'm James Jackson from The Times. First I've got a two-part question. Firstly, you must have been in a tremendous high when you came off the stage, how did you celebrate that night, such a great event, and how did it contrast the old days? And secondly, if you wouldn't mind humouring us, just how crazy did the figures get to do it again that were thrown your way?

RP: Did we celebrate? We just, I think, hugged each other and went "Pfff, wow! What did that take? It was amazing!" And you know, the thing about consternation, everybody's eyes were waiting for it to go, not so much right, as wrong. You know, because it's asking a hell of a lot to do that. So, there was a real feeling of camaraderie and actually successful adventure really. As Jimmy was saying, it was nuts we didn't do any warm-up gigs or nothing like that. We just, that was the warm-up! Which is a really great way of doing things, but it does have its downsides.

Announcer: Another question.

JP: Yeah. There was a massive party that went on afterwards, I know that. Because there was lots of celebrities and stuff that were there, and they must have had a great party while we just sort of disappeared off into the ether.

RP: The Marathon in Chalk Farm Road is a very good 24 hour place to get food.

Announcer: Okay, another question. Okay, gentleman here.

Press: Hi, John Earls, Daily Star. How conscious were you of individual faces in the crowd at the O2? Were you able to see like Macca or Dave Grohl or anyone out of the corner of your eye when you were performing?

JP: Could you please say that question again?

RP: Slowly.

Press: Yeah, sorry. How conscious were you of individual faces in the crowd at the O2 when you were performing? Did you see Paul McCartney or Dave Grohl or anyone out the corner of your eye when you were actually on stage?

JP: Absolutely no, didn't. I wasn't aware of anybody being there apart from us on the stage and communicating with an audience. I heard, you know, there was like three generations of Presleys there, which is quite something! You know, that sort of thing came to, there were guys from Oasis and this, that and the other. But you couldn't actually see anybody from the stage.

RP: They were in the posh seats!

JP: They were too busy looking at each other!

RP: I think they must have been in the posh seats.

JPJ: If they weren't in the first row you couldn't really see them. I don't think they were.

Announcer: Question, lady in the second section please.

Press: Hi, I'm Georgie Rogers from 6 Music News. I'm just wondering, there's an incredible magic when you guys come and play together as well as the skill, do you see in any new acts coming up today that are making waves, do you see that same chemistry in any bands, are you aware of new acts that have it?

JPJ: It's difficult, most pop music today, or most bands today seem to be very, very song-based. And so everybody, for a start, everybody strings out across the front of the stage with their own microphones and plays straight forward which, of course, we never did. We were always working much more together, what with those instrumental sections and that. But, I mean, nobody seems to do that anymore. I'm kind of surprised, but it doesn't seem to happen anymore. So, from my point of view I can't really pinpoint anybody.

RP: Well I think we were ousted by the Cockney Rejects in 1977 for being a bit long-winded and going on a bit. I think Mumford And Sons excite me because they do construct and they do have drama and they do have optimism and they can turn a crowd upside down, which is fantastic. But there's a lot of great DJing stuff going on too, which is really good.

Announcer: Right, another question. This gentleman here.

Press: Hello. Hi there I'm Matthias Benuole (?) from France, the National Italian News Agency. I just wanted to ask you, I know you've just said that five years is five minutes in Led Zeppelin time. But I was wondering why? During this period of time when you decided to put this film, you have given a thought of what you would like for this film to achieve. Leave some kind of a legacy, won an award, or is it just a bit of fun, like the concert?

JP: Well, right from the end of your question: Yes, it will be part of a legacy because it's what we managed to do for one day. However, what needs to be stressed here was that when we played the O2 the idea of going to play the O2 wasn't to make a DVD or a film or anything like that at all. It just so happened that we had all of this material going on behind us and some very fine production and camera work that Dick Carruthers was doing and it made the utmost sense to record it, because don't forget we're only doing one show, we don't know whether we're gonna have half a dozen train wrecks in it, but at least to record it and even if it's just for our own collection or our own amusement. It wasn't something, unlike how everything else is done that "Somebody is going in to make a DVD and it's gonna be out so and so!" It wan't like that. So, it is what it is now though, and I'm really pleased that you're all enjoying it because it's great.

Announcer: We've got time for two more questions, so that gentleman over there who just put his hand up, we'll take you first, yep.

Press: Hi, Pierre Perrone from The Independent.  Hi Robert. Talking of train wrecks, I just wondered, live albums have notoriously been fixed, whether you've done any fixing to this and would you admit to any fixing of guitar, vocals or bass or keyboards?

RP: We're not gonna tell you that!

JP: Yeah, really?!

RP: What a fuckin' cheek! You're perfect. I think we had to tune the vocal at the end of Kashmir, to be honest because I'd run out of steam. There's only so many long notes that you can do with great… It was kind of "O-oooh".

JP: Yeah well there might have been a handful of fixes. In fact what I'm really saying is the minimum compared to what other people would do. Because the concert was what it was. There was very little that need to be messed about with because we'd really done it well in the first place.

Announcer: One more question. The lady there, this row here. Yep, thank you. Not that lady.

Press: Would you do it again?

RP: With you? Sorry.

Press: Hello, I'm Joanne from Reuters Television. It's a bit more of a personal question in a way about the music. What do the blues, and to a certain extent rock and roll, what does it mean to you now compared to thirty or forty years ago?

JP: Yeah, well the very early blues and rock and roll rock-a-billy, say, that I accessed in my sort of early teens, well I can still put that music on and really get excited by it now, still. Except that, along the way from those days, and I think for each and every one of us, our tastes become more eclectic across the board. But, obviously, certainly from my point of view, that music that I heard when I was like twelve or thirteen, really seduced me and it did a good job when it seduced me. So there we are!

RP: The thing about it is that country blues, so many more doors have opened in the last forty years to access singers like King Solomon Hill and some fantastic guys from the Delta who maybe only cut four or five sides but they really were real, they shaped so much for other people. I mean, the Willie Brown that Robert Johnson sings about in Crossroads Blues, I think he cut five or six sides and he was great. But the game was the game and everybody was out to play all sorts of different kinds of music along with the blues. Robert Johnson used to play all sorts of stuff, including songs of the day. So, the references to those old players, for me it's a kind of home of the heart. I really still feel moved by what their lives and their worlds and their aspirations might have been and it's untouchable really because they came from, like we do, they came from another time, and we kind of come from another time, really now, as you saw us this morning! So the blues and rock and roll for me is still part of the pulse through my life.

Announcer: John do you wanna finish off with any comment on that?

JPJ: The blues and rock and roll is part of the pulse through his life, I love it too!

Announcer: Alright, so thank you very much for coming and thank you to Jimmy, Robert and John Paul.