Led Zeppelin

I've been inundated all day with emails pointing to the fact that the BBC have confirmed that the three surviving members of LZ are reuniting for a one-off concert in London in November (though I was a little disturbed that it was described as the latest in a series of high-profile reunions which included that of The Spice Girls.  P-uh-lease!).  But, as I said to Del, if it wasn't for the plain teaching of the word of God, I would be tempted to become a postmillennialist at this point.  And at least one Free Kirk minister has indicated his hope that he will get invited to the UK for a communion season some time late in the year (name and address supplied).

One of the things that was so unique about the band was the fact that they were all great musicians.  Most great rock bands had at least one dodgy member; not LZ. Rock solid, all four of them. This will surely make choice of the stand-in for John Bonham absolutely critical if the kind of Phil Collins/Live Aid debacle is to be avoided (Zack Starkey, perhaps?).  Like Athanasius and the Cappodocians, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

The ticket prices will, presumably, be preclusive -- ironic, as always, that a musical form originally designed to thumb its nose at the establishment has become so internalised within the new establishment and more costly than opera.  The Zeppelin reuinion will, by and large, be the preserve of the very rich. A bit like the blues becoming the quintessential white guy's music.  But I bet the raw power of Plant's vocals and the lyrics of songs such as `Since I've been loving you' probably speak with more honesty and clarity of the reality of the human predicament than either the bland pop of the Spice Girls redivivus or much of what passes for Christian music in the contemporary scene.