"Led Zeppelin are over!" Jimmy Page's manager has declared. After more than a year of tour and reunion rumours, Peter Mensch wants the gossiping to cease. "There are absolutely no plans for [the band] to continue. Zero. Frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about it."
Of course, it's Mensch himself who fanned the flames of rumour this week, thanks to a BBC 6 Music interview in which he predicted a Led Zeppelin tour – and even a new record. Mensch now says he hasn't spoken to the BBC "for like four months or something", rendering the whole business rather confusing. It doesn't help that the BBC interview, posted on 7 January, 2009, is dated 7 January, 2008.
There is nothing ambiguous about Mensch's most recent comments however. "If you didn't see them in 2007," he told Music Radar, referring to Led Zeppelin's one-off reunion concert, "you missed them. It's done. I can't be any clearer than that".
2008 became the year of Led Zep Spec after word leaked out that guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham, son of original sticksman John Bonham, were practising together. Although singer Robert Plant was public about his lack of interest in a reunion – calling the rumours "ridiculous and frustrating" – the other members soldiered on, allegedly seeking a replacement.
"They tried out a few singers, but no one worked out," Mensch confirmed this week. "That was it. The whole thing is completely over now."
While Plant remains busy with his Grammy-nominated Alison Krauss collaboration, Jimmy Page's plans are rather more opaque. "Fuck if I know," Mensch said of the guitarist's intentions. "I'm waiting to hear."
Weren't the Yardbirds going to reunite?