Page and Plant Future Unclear
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page may have spoken too soon last
month when he told Kerrang! magazine that he didn’t know
whether his resuscitated partnership with Robert Plant would
continue. Page and Plant’s management has issued a press release
implying that the duo, which got back together in 1994 to release
No Quarter: Page & Robert Plant UnLedded and last year
for Walking Into Clarksdale, might team up again soon.
At the tail end of a missive about Page’s appearance at NetAid and
his upcoming shows with the Black Crowes was the following
information: “Robert Plant is in the process of completing a
photographic study of Morocco (more details to follow). Current
plans are for them to work together later this autumn.”
Insiders say that the management company is just buying time in
hopes of getting the explosive duo on speaking terms again. They
say that Plant isn’t in Morocco at all, but rather has been playing
a number of shows under the name of “The Priory of Byron” (taken
from the Priory of Sion, a secret society of Knights Templars) with
his old cohort, Kevin Gammond from the Band of Joy, the
Birmingham-based band in which Plant played prior to joining
Zeppelin. According to Led Zeppelin fanzine Proximity
(www.buckeye-web.com/prox), the Priory of Byron performed at the
Bridnorth Folk Festival in northern England on Aug. 28, and at
Shrewsbury’s Jazz and Roots Club on the 26. They are currently
slotted for another show next weekend.
There is hope that Plant will join Page at NetAid, much like they
did at the 1985 Live Aid show, where the two reunited for the first
time since their 1980 break-up. Sources close to the duo claim that
Plant has been asked to perform with Page at the concert, which
will take place on October 9 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, but
as of yet, no decision has been made.
Meanwhile, the Led Zeppelin spirit is alive and well with Whole
Lotta Blues: Songs of Led Zeppelin, featuring cover versions
of some of Led Zep’s better known songs performed by a variety of
blues artists including James Cotton, Otis Rush and Robert Lockwood
Jr., was released Tuesday.