Financial Times FT.com

Led Zeppelin, O2 Arena, London

By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney

Published: December 11 2007 17:44 | Last updated: December 11 2007 19:53

Just in case we needed reminding that band reunions don’t come bigger than this, the set opened with archive footage showing a dandyish Led Zeppelin touching down in their private jet, The Starship, en route to a stadium in Florida where they broke The Beatles’ box office record in 1973.

Back then, an air of notoriety and violence surrounded them. There were rumours of black magic and outrageous tales of sexual depravity. Yet they were derided too. Reviewers sneered that they were “crass”, a “limp blimp”; they were blamed for stealing the blues from black musicians and caricatured as barbarians. (When the Financial Times, far-sighted as ever, published a rave review, Robert Plant was delighted: it meant that his father, a regular reader, would forgive him for not becoming a chartered accountant.)

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