Although Led Zeppelin's lead singer Robert Plant has insisted that he has no plans to tour or record with his former band, that hasn't stopped the speculation from continuing. Recently, conjecture about an upcoming regrouping and tour was redoubled by Zep's bassist John Paul Jones.

According to published reports, the musician told the audience at a UK guitar expo that tour talks are, in fact, underway.

"As you probably know, Jimmy, Jason and I are actually rehearsing, and we've had the odd singer come in and have a bash," Jones was quoted as saying, alluding to tabloid reports that the band auditioned different singers to take Plant's place should he dismiss the idea of a tour.

But Plant did just that as speculation grew, denying that the iconic band would tour again and indicating that he had no desire to join his bandmates in the next few years if they did tour. He posted a message on his official Web site, stating, "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."

It seems, though, that Plant might have been alone in that sentiment. According to Jones, he and guitar god Jimmy Page are eager to get back on the road, with deceased drummer Jon Bonham's son, Jason, stepping in to fill his shoes. "As soon as we know -- which we don't -- we will let you know," the bassist reportedly said. "But we really hope that something is going to happen soon because we really want to do it and we're having a lot of fun, actually, just rehearsing."

It's not unheard of for singers to be replaced, especially as bands continue touring well into their later years. Popular '80s band Journey replaced Steve Perry when he left the band due to hip problems. And most recently, prog-rock band Yes announced plans to launch their 40th anniversary tour without Jon Anderson, who was sidelined by acute respiratory failure.

Yet some critics say that without Plant, there is no Led Zeppelin. A report from Los Angeles Times suggested that, if the tours goes on sans Plant, the band should focus on creating a new sound and releasing new material under a different name to avoid looking like a tribute band.

But Jones and Page are already considering those things, if not the new band name. "It's got to be right," Jones said in an interview with Radio BBC. "There's no point in just finding another Robert. You could get that out of a tribute band, but we don't want to be our own tribute band. There would be a record and a tour, but everyone has to be on board."

Led Zeppelin Finds Its Old Power - By Ben Ratliff

LONDON, Dec. 10 — Some rock bands accelerate their tempos when they play their old songs decades after the fact. Playing fast is a kind of armor: a refutation of the plain fact of aging, all that unregainable enthusiasm and lost muscle mass, and a hard block against an old band’s lessened cultural importance.

But Led Zeppelin slowed its down a little. At the O2 arena here on Monday night, in its first full concert since 1980 — without John Bonham, who died that year, but with Bonham’s son Jason as a natural substitute — the band found much of its old power in tempos that were more graceful than those on the old live recordings. The speed of the songs ran closer to those on the group’s old studio records, or slower yet. “Good Times Bad Times,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” and “Whole Lotta Love” were confident, easy cruises; “Dazed and Confused” was a glorious doom-crawl.

It all goes back to the blues, in which oozing gracefully is a virtue, and from which Led Zeppelin initially got half its ideas. Its singer, Robert Plant, doesn’t want you to forget that fact: he introduced “Trampled Underfoot” by explaining its connection to Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues,” and mentioned Blind Willie Johnson as the inspiration for “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.” (Beyond that, the band spent 10 luxuriant minutes each in two other blues songs from its back catalog — “Since I Been Loving You” and “In My Time of Dying”).

Ahmet Ertegun, the dedicatee of the concert, would have been satisfied, sure as he was of the centrality of southern black music to American culture. Ertegun, who died last year, signed Led Zeppelin to Atlantic Records; the show was a one-off benefit for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which will offer music students scholarships to universities in the United States, England, and Turkey, his homeland.

By the end of Zeppelin’s two-hour-plus show, it was already hard to remember that anyone else had been on the bill. But the band was preceded by Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings—a good-timey rhythm-and-blues show with revolving singers including Paolo Nutini and Albert Lee, as well as a few songs each by Paul Rodgers (of Free and Bad Company) and Foreigner — all of whom had recorded for Atlantic under Ertegun.

There was a kind of loud serenity about Led Zeppelin’s set. It was well-rehearsed, for one thing: planning and rehearsals have been underway since May. The band wore mostly black clothes, instead of its old candy-colored wardrobe. Unlike Mick Jagger, Mr. Plant — the youngest of the original members, at 59 — doesn’t walk and gesture like an excited woman anymore. Some of the top of his voice has gone, but except for one attempted and failed high note in “Stairway to Heaven” (“there walks a la-dy we all know{hellip}”), he found other melodic routes to suit him. He was authoritative; he was dignified.

As for Mr. Page, his guitar solos weren’t as frenetic and articulated as they used to be, but that only drove home the point that they were always secondary to the riffs, which on Monday were enormous, nasty, glorious. (He did produce a violin bow for his solo on “Dazed and Confused,” during that song’s great, spooky middle section.)

John Paul Jones’s bass lines got a little lost in the hall’s acoustics — like all such places, the 22,000-seat O2 Arena is rough on low frequencies — but he was thoroughly in the pocket with Mr. Bonham; when he sat down to play keyboards on “Kashmir” and “No Quarter” and a few others, he simultaneously operated bass pedals with his feet, keeping to that same far-behind-the-beat groove.

And what of Jason Bonham, the big question mark of what has been — there’s no way to prove this scientifically, but let’s just round it off — the most anticipated rock reunion in an era full of them? He is an expert in his father’s beats, an encyclopedia of all their variations on all the existing recordings. And apart from a few small places where he added a few strokes, he stuck to the sound and feel of the original. The smacks of the snare drum didn’t have exactly the same timbre, that barbarous, reverberant sound. But as the show got into its second hour and a few of the sound problems were gradually corrected, you found yourself not worrying about it anymore. It was all working.

Led Zeppelin has semi-reunited a few times in the past, with not much success: short, problematic sets at Live Aid in 1985, and at Atlantic Records’ 40th Anniversary concert in 1988. But this was a reunion that the band had invested in, despite the fact that there are no plans yet for a future tour; among its 16 songs was one the band had never played live before: “For Your Life,” from the album “Presence.”

The excitement in the hall felt extreme, and genuine; the crowd roars between encores were ravenous. At the end of it all, as the three original members took a bow, Mr. Bonham knelt before them and genuflected.

Could the Rumors Be True ? A Led Zeppelin Reunion Tour? - By John Detrich

The other day a good friend called me up and asked “Have you read the front page of Yahoo yet today?”. Instead of answering, I opened my browser and right there on the front page of Yahoo.com was an article about a confirmed Led Zeppelin Reunion. I nearly fell off my seat. The biggest band in Rock n Roll history looks like it will finally reunite in a ‘supposed’ one-time show in London on November 26th 2007.

According to the article (and now its all over the internet). Led Zeppelin is reuniting with its existing members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Boham (John Bonham’s son) and will perform an extensive live set at London’s 02 Arena on November 26, 2007. The concert will aid the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund.

Whether or not a 2008 or 2009 tour (or any additional shows) is/are planned has not been confirmed. The band and any one associated has been keeping hush hush about the whole thing, so we may just have to sit and wait to hear something. Considering that over 20,000,000 (20 Million) people signed up for a chance to buy tickets to this one confirmed show, if they toured it would probably be the biggest concert tour in history.

Led Zeppelin to sell music online
10/15/2007 6:21 AM, Reuters

British rockers Led Zeppelin will offer their music online for the first time next month, they said on Monday.
The band, whose reunion gig in London in November prompted more than a million fans to apply for 10,000 available tickets, is one of the last major pop music acts to offer their catalogue digitally.
From November 13, Led Zeppelin, which disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham, will make its albums available for download from all online music retailers.
The group behind such hits as "Stairway to Heaven" and "Communication Breakdown," which has sold an estimated 300 million albums worldwide, joins the digital revolution sweeping the music industry as physical CD sales continue to fall.
"We are pleased that the complete Led Zeppelin catalogue will now be available digitally," said guitarist Jimmy Page.
"The addition of the digital option will better enable fans to obtain their music in whichever manner they prefer," he said in a statement.
As well as downloads, Led Zeppelin is teaming up with mobile provider Verizon Wireless to provide ring tones and full song downloads. Verizon Wireless is owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.
The band hit the headlines in September with the announcement of a one-off reunion gig on November 26 as a tribute to the late founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun, who signed Led Zeppelin in 1968.
The group will also release "Mothership," a two-CD collection spanning the group's 12-year career and a remixed version of "The Song Remains the Same" soundtrack from the band's three-night stint at Madison Square Garden in 1973.

 Some Led Zeppelin History

 Led Zeppelin, one of the greatest band in music history, was formed in ENGLAND around 1968 by frontman Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham.

They were originally named the New Yardbirds, after a brief period of live performances, they re-christened themselves Led Zeppelin and signed a recording deal with Atlantic Records who released their eponymous debut in early 1969; the band traveled the United States for the first time playing a series of live shows; Led Zeppelin made an impressive impact and within two months cracked the top 10 of The U.S. Pop Albums chart and hit #6 in Britain.

During that year, the band supported the album by touring in the U.S. and England; in the meantime recorded their second album which was released in October, "Led Zeppelin II" went straight to #1 on both U.K. and U.S. Pop Albums charts spawning "Whole Lotta Love" which peaked at #4 in U.S. Official Pop Singles chart.

"Led Zeppelin III" was issued in October of 1970, the album which featured two traditional songs, was written in Wales, largely influenced by Celtic culture; the record became an instant #1 hit in Britain and in U.S. Pop Albums charts.
The quartet released their greatest album in November of 1971, the untitled effort, referred to as "Led Zeppelin IV", generated a series of rock staples like "Stairway To Heaven", never issued as a single, "Black Dog" and "Rock And Roll" which entered the U.S. Pop Singles chart reaching respectively the #14 and #47 spots; nevertheless the band's fourth effort stalled at #2 in U.S. Pop chart, but topped the British Albums chart; in the States, on March of 1996, the album was certified 16 x platinum.

1973's "Houses Of The Holy" debuted at #1 on both American and England Albums charts, the most representative single, "D'yer Mak'er", hit #20 in The U.S. Pop chart; Led Zeppelin embarked on a sold-out U.S. tour and their summer show at Madison Square Garden in New York was filmed for the 1976's live concert movie, titled "The Song Remains The Same".
In early 1975 the group charted again at #1 on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean with "Physical Graffiti"; the double album contained the hit single "Trampled Under Foot" and continued the band's musical experimentation beginning with "Houses Of The Holy", that same year Led Zeppelin planned a world tour but in August 1975 Robert Plant was seriously injured in a car accident and the tour was cancelled.

The quartet returned the next year with "Presence" which topped the U.S. Top 200 LPs & Tapes chart and became their sixth consecutive #1 in their native England; by the fall of 1976 Led Zeppelin released their first official live album, "The Song Remains The Same", in conjunction with the film of the same name.

In 1977, while on tour in the States, Robert Plant was notified of the death of his son Karac. At the tender age of six he died of a stomach infection; Plant later wrote the song "All My Love" in the memory of his lost child.
Led Zeppelin reappeared more than two years later, in Europe, for a few live shows, the band headed back to the studio to record "In Through The Out Door" which was issued in September 1979, the album was another transatlantic success and soared to the top of the albums charts in U.S. and Europe.

On September 25, 1980 another tragedy struck when Zeppelin's drummer, 32-year-old John Bonham was found dead in his bed following an all-day drinking binge.

Before the year's end, the surviving members reported that without Bonham, Led Zeppelin could not be a band and broke up.
Robert Plant pursued a solo career and released the album, "Pictures At Eleven" in 1982, during the same year Jimmy Page issued a collection of archive material, "Coda", which rose to #4 in British chart and to #6 on the U.S. Top 200 LPs & Tapes list, its single "Darlene" peaked at #4 on Mainstream Rock chart.

Two years later Plant and Page reunited in The Honeydrippers releasing a mini-album of oldies cover, titled "Volume One".

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