Led Zeppelin has joined forces with YouTube for an exclusive streaming event of the band's 2012 concert film Celebration Day. The reunion show held on December 10th, 2007 at London's O2 Arena, was played as a tribute to the band's friend, mentor, and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. Celebration Day will be streamed in its entirely for three days only on the official Led Zeppelin YouTube channel, starting this Saturday, May 30th, at 3 p.m. ET.
The 2007 reunion show was released in 2012 as Celebration Day, which is available on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray disc, and chronicles Zeppelin's first full-scale, complete concert since July 7th, 1980, which marked the band's final show with the late-John Bonham in Berlin, Germany. Celebration Day, which features Jason Bonham filling in for his late-dad on drums, went on to score a Grammy Award in the Best Rock Album category. The Celebration Day album was released on November 19th, 2012 and peaked at Number Nine on the Billboard 200.
The tracklisting to Celebration Day is: “Good Times, Bad Times,” “Ramble On,” “Black Dog,” “In My Time Of Dying,” “For Your Life,” “Trampled Underfoot,” “Nobody's Fault But Mine,” “No Quarter,” “Since I've Been Lovin' You,” “Dazed And Confused,” “Stairway To Heaven,” “The Song Remains The Same,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Kashmir,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Rock And Roll.”
Jimmy Page shed some light on the band's rehearsals for the O2 show: “Actually the period that we rehearsed over, it may have run over six weeks, or whatever, but we weren't rehearsing every day. We had a little block here and a little block over there on the run up to it.”
John Paul Jones was asked about how he felt after Zeppelin wrapped its first complete concert in over 27 years: “There was an immediate feeling of relief that we actually got through it and did well. I don't know. That was kind of. . . (laughs) I don't know. I didn't feel much after that, to be honest. It was kind of numbing. It was a really good place we were in, I think.”
Jason Bonham, who filled in for his dad, whom he lost when he was only 14 years old, felt as though his whole life had been building up to drumming for Zeppelin: “But for me, as I said, it was a huge, huge honor to play. And all I was concentrating on the night, 'cause I knew there was that many people there — I was just concentrating who was on the stage. I just wanted to impress my mates here, my dad's friends.”
Robert Plant said that performing the band's 1976 Presence classic “For Your Life” for the first time onstage was a definite highlight of the show for him: “Just like Jason, I was amazed I was there playing with Led Zeppelin. And I was just saying, 'Now, where does the vocal come in?' And I know I made a couple of errors — 'just had to shut up instead of doing too much. But. . . I think that was my favorite part of the show, to be honest. Because we were. . . none of us could bring too much back from ever having ever played it before. It was a great experience and that is flying by the seat of the pants. These guys did such a great job on that. It was very exciting. Great light show, too.”
