Led Zeppelin – Celebration Day

The “root” of this release is attached to a certain sad event, back in 2006. It was December 14 of that year when Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records president, passed away after an accident he suffered at the Beacon Theatre in New York – he slipped when walking the stairs – attending a Rolling Stones show (Three years later, one of the greatest personalities in Greece, Evgenios Spatharis, had suffered the exact accident and left us the same way and I would like to take the chance and characterize those who tried to make us forget about that mighty Greek as the very image late Evgenios made famous in my country – they know what I’m talking about).

However, due to the fact that not all people can be ungrateful, a year after Ertegun’s gone, on December 10, 2007, Led Zeppelin (their entire discography has been released through Atlantic), for the very first time since their split-up in 1980, gave a full show at the Ο2 Arena in London, a concert dedicated to the memory of the Turkish/American owner of Zep’s “home” (Three more appearances – a few minutes each – occurred in 1985, 1988 and 1992).

Tickets for this special concert were only given, in lottery terms, following a website request; a special webpage was created for that matter and 20.000.000 requests were made for just 20.000 seats!!!

The whole event was taped and it’s the main theme of “Celebration Day”. It was presented as a movie, in certain parts of the world (a marketing move I guess) and members of the band were also present, yet such a thing did not happen over the projection in Athens Music Hall.

In my opinion it would be wrong to start analyzing Led Zeppelin’s performance. Their appearance was exceptional, they wouldn’t risk it unless they were certain that the concert would be flawless. We are talking about the same people recently rejected 200.000.000 dollars offered to them to tour again! Their performance on the diamonds that put them at the top was ideal; there is not even one small glitch in what we see or listen to, in terms of sound, vision, cameras etc. The only thing one could notice is that Jimmy Page would hardly tour today. It’s clear he’s given up on that issue a long time ago. He is an excellent performer, yet, during the course of the concert, his fatigue is obvious.

Apart from the two c.d.’s and the concert DVD, there is also a second, bonus, DVD, featuring the band rehearsals at the Shepperton Studios, four days prior to the show, lasting for about two hours. There is also live footage off the news commending on the event as well as a report following the movie presentation in Tampa, Florida.

The Led Zeppelin logo itself, in such a unique live show of the British legends, is enough reason to acquire this release.