The word is nearly official: according to World Entertainment News sources, rock legends Led Zeppelin are planning to reunite and may launch a tour next year.
Sources close to the Zeppelin camp say members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones plan to reunite for a one-off memorial concert in London for Ahmet Ertegun, the Atlantic Records founder who died in 2006.
"Page, Plant and Jones spoke and agreed to do the memorial concert,” says the source. “They are waiting for a definite date."
Led Zeppelin recorded on Atlantic, and the group’s label, Swan Song, was a subsidiary of the Atlantic label.
In addition, if all goes well, the group have reportedly agreed to follow up the memorial concert with a tour in 2008. “It has been hoped for and denied for years,” says the source. “But this is the closest they have ever come to a reunion tour. The feeling is that this is going to happen next year.”
Led Zeppelin's members have performed only on a few occasions since they broke up in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham. Reportedly, Page, Plant and Jones will perform with Bonham’s son, Jason, for the Ertegun concert and tour.
Rumors of a reunion tour previously surfaced in 2003 when Page, Plant and Jones reconvened to announce the release of the triple live album How the West Was Won and video collection Led Zeppelin DVD.
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