This post should really be categorized as “NO Tour News,” because it turns out that there will be no reunions of any kind this year for Led Zeppelin or The Faces.
Regarding the Led Zeppelin reunion tour… Robert Plant did not want to do a tour with his ex-bandmates, even after their hugely successful 2007 one-off show. He made his point in the Uk’s Sunday Times by stating that, “The whole idea of being on a cavalcade of merciless repetition is not what it’s all about.” Although I would have been thrilled with a Zeppelin tour, I can understand his point. Plant has carved out a nice solo career for himself, and he’s all about moving forward.
The remaining members (Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones) were still pushing for the tour, though. They teamed up with drummer Jason Bonham (John Bonham’s son), and began the process of auditioning singers to replace Plant.
Last September, Plant expressed his disinterest in the whole idea again by posting on his official site this statement: “It‘s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward. I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects.”
As you would have guessed, nobody, and I mean nobody could replace Plant. At first Page, Jones, and Bonham wanted to tour under some other name than “Led Zeppelin”, but now they are simply dropping all of it.
Page’s manager, Peter Mensch, made this point abundantly clear on MusicRadar.com by saying, “Led Zeppelin are over! If you didn’t see them in 2007 [when they played a one-off reunion at London's O2 Arena], you missed them. It’s done. I can’t be any clearer than that.” He goes on to explain, “They tried out a few singers, but no one worked out. That was it. The whole thing is completely over now. There are absolutely no plans for them to continue. Zero. Frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about it.”
Okaley-dokaley, Mr. Mensch… but if it’s ok with you, here’s a rare outtake of “Friends” for us to enjoy.
Your Dig-It Downloads:
Download: Friends (outtake)
Led Zeppelin on Amazon
Led Zeppelin on iTunes
I have to admit that I was quite hopeful for a Faces reunion, especially after the surviving members got together for a much publicized rehearsal. We here at TheFrontloader.com were so excited about it, we posted an old Faces bootleg to celebrate the occasion. There were rumors about recruiting Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Flea, to replace Ronnie Lane… there were rumors about a new album in the works…
Turns out that none of that was happening, though. In a recent Billboard article, it was reported that a spokesperson for Rod Stewart issued this statement: “There are no plans for a Faces reunion tour this year.” In addition, a spokesperson for Flea seemed confused by saying that Flea “knows nothing” about a possible Faces tour.
Ratfarts.
Going back to Plant’s statement about “The whole idea of being on a cavalcade of merciless repetition is not what it’s all about,” do you agree with him, or do you enjoy seeing these older bands hit the road again? The Van Halen reunion tour wasn’t actually a “reunion” because it didn’t feature all of the original members, and the whole notion of The Doors without Jim Morrison was ludicrous for me… but nobody can argue that The Police‘s reunion tour wasn’t $340 million successful.
Do you think these reunion tours hurt or help the legendary status of these bands?
Here’s a live performance of The Faces‘ “Flying” to simmer on.
Your Dig-It Downloads:
Download: Flying (live)
Faces on Amazon
Faces on iTunes
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I think if a band can come back and tour as a full band (and all living members agree to it) and still sound tight, then these tours can be a good thing. They can introduce new people to their music as well as give their loyal longtime fans another chance to see them play. BUT, if there is a bunch of drama surrounding the reunions with people talking smack about each other and media blowing stories out of proportion, then yeah, I can’t see the reunions being very helpful…
Well yeah, I think if they have more music they want to make, and they enjoy jammin’ together again it’s all good.
I can see with bands as big as Led Zep that the hype could take away the fun, and that’s a shame for those of us who would really like to see them play.
And a Faces reunion would be very cool. I think there’s people out there that don’t know how much Rod could ROCK back in the day!