Monday, Mar. 09, 2009

A Stairway to Concert Heaven

The legendary British rock band ended its run on a cryptic, quiet note in 1980 after the sudden death of drummer John Bonham at the age of 32. And unlike many of their contemporaries, Zep had stuck to their guns. Despite a discography that included some of the most iconic anthems of the era, the group never so much as hinted at a comeback tour, despite the appearance of an eminently suitable replacement for Bonham: his son, Jason, who formed a group of his own in the late '90s. So the news Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones would join Bonham the Younger for one night only, at a concert for Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, was greeted as the hard rock Rapture. A million people registered for a lottery to buy the 18,000 tickets at $255 a pop. On the secondary market, the tickets sold for as much as $2,000 each. Ever since, music blogs have occasionally exploded with speculation over a full-blown comeback tour, but vocalist Robert Plant has said he remains uninterested.

Read TIME's review of the 2007 performance