JIMMY PAGE Says LED ZEPPELIN Concert Will Overshadow Poorly Performed Reunions

The Pulse of Radio reports that Jimmy Page is confident that next month's LED ZEPPELIN reunion concert will finally give fans the same quality show that they performed during the band's heyday.

Page told Mojo that the band's inferior sets at Live Aid in 1985 and 1988's Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden were the reason that he demanded the band sweat out a competent and professional set in rehearsals. "I said that we could do it anywhere, anytime, provided there was enough commitment and rehearsal from all of us," he said. "I didn't want a repeat of Live Aid or the Atlantic (Records) thing. With Live Aid we came from our various incarnations with about an hour-and-a-half's rehearsal with (drummer Tony Thompson) who'd never played with before and then Phil Collins appears on stage as well. He was supposed to have been at rehearsals and he wasn't."

He said that the band's appearance at the 1988 Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in New York City with John Bonham's son Jason Bonham filling in for his dad wasn't much better. "At the Atlantic Records gig, we went on six hours late, so what are the chances of you peaking when you're jet lagged?"

Page went on to talk about the upcoming London show saying that the band will be playing beyond 90 minutes: "However long we play, it's going to be a fair representation of what we were about. I'm not sure if we were going to do tracks off all the albums. I don't want to give any secret(s) away."

John Paul Jones, who had publicly admitted that he felt excluded from Page and Robert Plant's mid-'90s reunion as a duo, said that he wasn't convinced that a ZEPPELIN reunion could be artistically authentic. "I was reluctant at first... but Robert and Jimmy persuaded me," he said. "I turned up at rehearsals, five days. Playing with Jason is great. He brings great energy and life to the whole thing. He's... a bloody good drummer, different from his dad but he knows the old bootlegs and everything."

Phil Collins, who drummed for ZEPPELIN at Live Aid, said that due to the fact that the legendary concerts were broadcast worldwide, it doesn't matter that the band had their lackluster set pulled from the recent Live Aid DVD, explaining that the footage will always exist in one form or another. "It wasn't their finest hour, and whether it's one of those things that they feel was bad enough on the day, but not to have repeated viewings — I mean, everybody videoed it, and if anybody wants to see it, they've just got to get their video out and play it," he said. "So I don't think it's gonna stop people from thinking about it and watching it."

LED ZEPPELIN releases its new best-of collection, "Mothership", today (November 13).

LED ZEPPELIN will perform on December 10 at London's O2 Arena. The show marks the band's first full concert since their final show with John Bonham on July 7, 1980 in Berlin.