Come Together musical collective play and dance in the rarified air of the highest peaks, bringing Led Zeppelin and the Hammer of the God’s music down for us mere mortals.
All four initial albums are Led Zeppelin, from a band which swung like a lead balloon as coined by Keith Moon. The fourth, also known as Zoso, has a certain level of immortality.
There was high anticipation and excitement from obsessive Zepp freaks for this show, when it was first announced (I am speaking for myself).
The Come Together ensemble can be anointed with legendary status. First concert just before covid 2020 with Neil Young’s Live Rust, and they have gone on to become the Dictionary of Rock’n’roll.
They can stand beside the Funk Brothers (Motown), the Wrecking Crew and the Stax house band.
First song smashing out of the blocks is Immigrant Song with the distinctive banshee wail.
The core. Brett Adams virtuoso guitar, Jol Mulholland musical director and guitars, Mike Hall bass, Alistair Deverick drums, Jordan Matthias keyboards.
Jenny Skulander (Devilskin) is the first guest vocalist, and she rides the rolling waves crashing on the shore jumbo riffs, with her powerful deeper female vocal register.
The best way to open a Zepp show, and Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience did the same the two occasions they have played here.
Over the Hills and Faraway. Milan Borich (Pluto) sings in Rock’n’roll falsetto to a song which alternates between pastoral Folk and Metal blasts.
Julia Deans announces herself in customary fashion. Isn’t this fucking amazing! She is fronting the Mad Max powering down the desert behemoth that is Good Times, Bad Times. She channels both Jimmy Page in her long hippie slacks, and Robert Plant in her goldilocks’ hair style.
Seamus Johnson (Seamouse) comes close to stealing the show vocally with his extreme Rock to Metal falsetto, every time he fronts. The first one is Communication Breakdown.
There is no let-up in the power of the vocalists. Eliza Jane EJ Barnes is the daughter of Jimmy Barnes, and her first appearance is to sing the first ballad of the evening, All of my Love.
This is the only song outside the classic first six albums. From In Through the Out Door. I was disappointed with this when it first came out, but with time its treasures and charm revealed itself as a good Art Rock album.
All the quintet of singers hit the mark, and as with the band behind, it is like listening to a polished, remixed and remastered version of the originals.
The principal reason why Plant is so averse to any band reunion is because he does not have that stratospherically high range combined with the leather-lunged power anymore. At their only full reunion in London 2007, the songs were done in a lower key.
Great female vocalists are ideal to carry this off. Heart, with the Wilson sisters remain one of the best post-Zepp Rock bands (like Barracuda, which Devilskin with Skulander released this year).
One of the greatest achievements of the original band was the way they expanded and took the Blues form to new and innovative heights. It has also attracted insane vitriolic comments about how they ripped off Black American artists.
This comes mainly from liberal whites who like to virtue signal. For the Black artists, it’s a different story.
Howling Wolf in 1956 said Elvis got his pull and spirit from the Blues.
Muddy Waters was grateful to the Rolling Stones for creating a renaissance for him. He praised their version of I Just Wanna Make Love to You.
Blues was languishing in America in the Fifties, the time when electric R’n’B was evolving quickly. With the push North of the Black community for employment (goin’ to Detroit Michigan) that music was a reminder of their poor shameful Southern roots.
The Black community turned their back on the artists. In Britain, it resonated with yer Scousers, yer working class, yer Irish. And with the middle-class lads who went to Art school, marking time before they had to face prospects of a real job.
Jimmy Page was one of the comets who came up through the late Fifties. An ace session guitarist in step with Clapton, Beck, the Yardbirds, to the New Yardbirds to eventually flying the lead balloon.
The Blues went into the cosmos in a parallel world with Hendrix.
Since I’ve Been Loving You, with Skulander, is a nod to classic Otis Rush. My tears, they fell like rain.
The Lemon Song with Borich. He does seem to be getting the lemons squeezed, as the song makes reference to that Killin’ Floor.
Let us finally get to Led Zeppelin then. You know which one.
Hey hey Mama said the way you move/ Gonna make you sweat/ Gonna make you groove.
Skulander is back in black hot pants. Let the hostilities begin with Black Dog!
Deans does well to match this, and the band are incendiary with Rock and Roll. Both Doo-Wop classics The Stroll and Book of Love are name-checked.
Battle of Evermore. Borich and Barnes sing as a two-hander. Mandolins from Mulholland and Barnes. Super-charged English Folk evocative of Fairport Convention. Sandy Denny sang on the original.
Then it’s time for that one. The one that gives Plant palpitations.
Skulander does the honour on Stairway to Heaven. Adams has a twin neck six and twelve string. The flute sound must come from the keyboards of Jordan. Quite dreamy and folky in the first part.
There’s a feeling I get/ When I look to the West. Used as a dedication quote from one of Bret Easton Ellis’ edgy and disturbing novels.
It there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now signals the drums to come in. This line has attracted a lot of sarcasm from critics, but it feels appropriate on stage tonight. Two guitarists play three instruments, and the 12-string resonates.
There is a conspiracy theory that Page put a curse on Rolf Harris for his wobble board version. Why he ended up in prison.
A lot of mystique surrounds the band, especially Page and his fondness for self-styled Beast Aleister Crowley. He bought his mansion Boleskin House, on the shores of Loch Ness. This is where some tracks were recorded.
Page is a student of the occult, spirituality and associated esoterica. It is through him that Beat Godfather and essential influence on many of the best musicians of last century, William Burroughs, also gravitated.
They discussed the shamanistic power that Led Zeppelin generated in their heyday. Page said at a certain stage we could not cope with demand. Bigger venues and extra shows but it was never enough.
The peak of their powers also meant they needed to be responsible to the hold they had on the consciousness of their fans. Who were akin to devotees.
This is demonstrated with the version of When the Levee Breaks.
The famous drum intro leads off. The one that has been sampled, oh, a million times. It is an adaptation of a Memphis Minnie song. As critic Robert Chrisgau wrote, it is a Blues which transforms almost by alchemy into a powerful spiritual mantra.
It is the Rock’n’roll equivalent of Qaawali music without being Eastern at all.
That the band capture this is incredible. Borich sings in tongue. The genesis of renaissance Metal
Overtly Eastern and conventionally majestic is Kashmir. Deans sings this one and she adds to the mystique by being shrouded on black at the start,
The slowly building drone riffs sound orchestral. The engine room drum and bass have been monolithic all night. This one includes the big gong.
No surprise they finish with Whole Lotta Love. Barnes leads this with all other singers on backing vocals, and she hits this one out of the theatre.
Adapted from Willie Dixon’s You Need Love and first recorded by Muddy Waters.
Way down inside/ Woman you need love. The original band gave this a nuclear detonation.
Brutal and effective low-register riffs are the backbone. The orgasmic middle is there in reduced form. Returns with a Blues guitar solo then extends on the vamp and keeps howling and screaming.
The falsetto screams and moans which were a trademark of Plant, have their origin in James Brown. Listen to the mashup of Whole Lotta Sex Machine on YouTube.
The Come Together Ensemble playing Led Zeppelin IV is likely their best show to date. This is from an obsessive, and my only gripe is that they didn’t play all the rest from albums one to six.
Rev. Orange Peel