Led Zeppelin - Blog/Review

My son was fortunate enough to be selected for the Lottery, so on Oct. 24th we got our tickets.  He has a friend that works for US Airways and we were able fly on standby at a great price, so we didn't lose anything when they delayed the show for two weeks.  Had a friend in of mind in England, book us a room not far from the O2 arena. 

Sunday, flight left Charlotte about 8:00 p.m., arrived at Gatwick (non-stop) at about 8:40 a.m. UK time.  Got some sleep on the flight over, maybe 3 hours. 

Monday,  We had no problem getting through customs,  I wasn't wearing an Amsterdam shirt like some people I know!     We took the train from Gatwick to London and then the Tube over to our hotel.  Arrived about 10:30 a.m. and they let us check in early since our room was available. Got cleaned up and headed to the O2 to get our tickets and merchandise.  They really did a good job in limiting the scalpers from getting the tickets, because the person that won the lottery had to be the one to pick up the tickets.  Once inside the O2, which was very impressive itself, we got in line for our tickets, they had it by organized by your last name letter.  So we had just a couple of folks ahead of us.  They verified all the information with my son, then they puts wristbands on us and give us our tickets.  Yeah!!!   We headed over to the merchandise line and it was very long!  Took us over 2 hours to get through it, but glad we did.  Met a lot of people in the line from all over the world, over 50 countries represented.  Finally got through the merchandise line, got some posters, limited edition of just 1200, very pricey though, over $120 in US dollars (the dollar is terrible over there).  Was going to get my daughter a t-shirt and Angela but they had run out, was able to get me one though and some programs and my wife a coffee  mug! 

After the O2, we went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and took a short nap to get reengerized.  Then at about 3:30, we headed to central London, to Picadilly Cirus area and did some sight sightseeing, hit a couple of pubs and had some cask ale and fish and chips.  Left there around 6:00 p.m to go the O2.

Arrived at the 02 about 6:30, found our seats, which were in the upper section but on Row A, so we didn't have anybody blocking our view.  The arena is very impressive, about 20,000 people were there and the GA was on the floor and it was jammed packed.  Check the merch. tables one more time to see if they had anymore women t-shirts but no way... Everything was selling out and fast, glad we had gotten what we did.

Starting at 7:00 p.m. they did this video tribute to Ahmet and then all the different people mentioned on other posts began to play.  The highlight was Paul Rodgers doing his song from his Free days, "It's Alright Now" and "SEA GULL"! Could not believe it, he has a great voice!  Joe does it justice on Sloe Gin but it was really neat to hear Paul sing it.  Foreigner played one song, really cool.  They finished at about 8:20, then the stage was being cleared for the Led. 

At 9:00, the moment has arrived, the audience was super, super electric.  When they took the stage, I thought the place was going to explode, they erupted on the scene and didn't take any prisoners.  I was really wondering how they would be, after not playing together like that for 27 years, but they surprised everybody. Plant's voice was amazingly strong, couldn't hit the super high notes like in the old days but he was incredible.  John Paul, hadn't missed a beat, very solid musican on bass and keyboards.  Jimmy was Jimmy, not the most amazing guitarists from a techincal standpoint, but he did play extremely and surprisingly well.  Jason was a highlight indeed, did his Papa proud as Robert would say.   The first couple of songs, the sound was off a bit, but they finally got it dialed in.  There was some feedback throughout the performance, but that is the way they always played back in the days.  Very, very loud, always on the brink of feedback. 

All the songs have been posted before on the forum, but there were so many highlights.  Ramble on was amazing.  Dazed and Confused was simply the best.  Jimmy used the Bow of course and when he was doing that, he was in a box of green lasers, very cool.  They finished about 10:50, and for the first encore was Whole Lot of Love, and they came out for a second encore and played Rock and Roll.  By 11:10 the concert was over.  So for over 2 hours they played their hearts out, they really performed very well.  When Jason went off the stage, instead of the fist on the heart and did it on his biscep, tribute to his dad not doubt.  It had been 37 years since I saw them in Macon, GA when they played for over three hours.  It is not fair to compare, but I must stay they played like it was the old days.  It was really very emotional. 

My son and I got separated in the mass of people leaving the O2, he was interviewed by newspaper reporter.  Got back to the hotel about 11:50 and my son made it back a little after 12. 

Tuesday,  got up about 7:00 a.m, had breakfast, made our way back to Gatwick for our 11:40 a.m. flight.  Arrived in Charlotte about 3:45 p.m.  It was about 8:45 flight on the way back, going over it is a little over 7 hours.  My wife picked us up after we got through customs and was back home by 5:00 p.m.  Wow, I am tired from typing all of this.  But just wanted to give some of the fellow Zep fans what it was like for the past two days in London.  The only regret is that we couldn't have stayed longer, it is a great city to visit.

I was really glad that I was able to experience this with my son, he had a great time, even though he wasn't feeling good.  We had a lot of fun together and this is one for the books. 

Great, great, great Concert!!!

Cheers everybody....