Dec 11, 2007, 12:58 GMT
London - After nearly 30 years, the old boys of legendary British hard-rock band Led Zeppelin proved they still had fire in their belly at a triumphant reunion concert in London.
The three surviving members and replacement drummer played their best-remembered songs including Dazed And Confused, Whole Lotta Love and Stairway To Heaven to an estatic crowd of about 20,000 in London's O2 Arena, formerly known as the Dome, late Monday.
The London Times said Tuesday the 'mothership of all reunions' was likely to fuel talk of a world tour of the greying rockers, now in their late 50s and early 60s.
The three remaining members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were joined on stage by Jason Bonham, 41, deputizing on drums for his late father, John.
The band instantly electrified the crowd as they opened the 2-hour gig with Good Times Bad Times, the first track of their debut album.
Plant, in jeans not quite as famously tight as they were 27 years ago, displayed enough energy to strut his 59-year-old body across the stage, as Page, 63, and Jones, 61, kept less energetic pace with him.
'It's difficult to believe this is a band that have barely played together for almost three decades. They sound awesomely tight,' commented the Guardian newspaper.
'All the way from 1975...bizarre, beguiling and better than ever,' the Guardian added.
'The familiar old sinew and swagger were still there,' commented the Daily Telegraph, while the Daily Mail concluded: 'As comeback shows go, this one was undoubtedly special.'
During the track In My Time of Dying, the band 'locked into a sensational groove,' commented the Telegraph, adding: 'It scarcely seemed possible that a group could be this good.'
For Leslie Wilde, 55, and her brother Steve, 43, who travelled from Chicago, obtaining a ticket for the gig was a dream come true.
'I thought I would never ever get the chance to see led Zeppelin again,' said Steve. 'We would have swum here if we had had to.'
The audience included fans from around the world who won admission in a lottery among nearly 20 million people who had sought to buy tickets.
Many were too young to have been fans of the band in their heydays in the 1960s and '70s.
Your Talkback on this Story