Led Zeppelin Michael Wale Led Zeppelin have gone back to America to continue a record- breaking tour that they have just interrupted with a three-week holiday. Ten years after The Beatles they are the group most American youth want to hear and watch, yet in England their success remains almost totally submerged. The basic reason is that they have never put out a "single" record here, relying purely on album sales; there is also a con- tinuing refusal to appear on tele- vision because they feel very strongly about the mono sound system of that media. Yet, like the similarly minded group Pink Floyd, every concert they ever play is sold out almost before the tickets go on sale. They are very much part of the "underground "-a word of the past-except that time has sorted out the pretentious from those actually capable of plav- ing. It is in Zeppelin's well con- trasted line-up that their strength lies. Above all, there is Jimmy Page. one of Britain's leading guitarists, a product of that nursei-y of the early sixties The Yardbirds - both Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck came from it. Page strikes each note cleanly even during the most complicated riffs; his playing is off-set by the lead singer Robert " Pei-cy " Plant, a product of the Midlands whose body on stage twirls and flickers while his voice screams out the high notes. Much of Zeppelin's musi- cal strength comes from the drive of their rhythm section with lohn Bonham, a strident timekeeper on drums, who even provides the rest of the group with a 20-minute interval vhile he plays solo oi stage halfway through their performance. He has the strength of the best white American drummers. Lastly-and he even introduced himself to me as " John Paul Jones, I'm also in the group "- is Mr Jones, a serious-minded and classically influenced key- board and guitar player, who admits that two years ago he almost applied for the job of Choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral. Led Zeppelin are the ultimate in heavy metal music. This is the main reason why they are so popular in America, where they have twice recently drawn over 50,000 people to stadia to watch them. It is a style of music, highly amplified and gutsy, that the Americans have taken to ever since Cream became -) popular there in the late sixties. It is a popularity not extended by the way to other more obvious British successes like Slade and Marc Bolan. Their music has gathered this strength and robustness over the years. since the group was formed in the autumn of 1968. Yet their latest album Houses of tlte Hfoly. which wa generally badly received by the music press, still reflects the ener- y of those earlier days. There is always something to pick and play again from their albums, which now number five. In particular I like "Black Dog" and " Rock and Roll " from their 1971 album, two tunes they have heen playing on their current American tour. Both typify the group, driven along by Bon- ham's strident drumming, led by Plant's pleading voice and filled out by the guitar of Page. Even though they are mightily successful. or perhaps because of that success, Zeppelin have many musical enemies, not least among certain sections of the press. In America they are coII- ducting a splendid two-way war with Rolling Stone, that one-time leader of the alternative press, which has now become almost part of the Establishment it used to attack. Rolling Stone had a go at Zep and when I was with the group at a concert in San Francisco, -he home town of Rolling Stone, Zep attacked back boldly from the stage, bringing a roar of support from the 53,000 spectators. They con- tinued the battle the next night at the Forum in Los Angeles. The second half of the American tour is unlikely to bring a peace treaty. Yet their influence continues to extend in the most improb- able directions. Play "Immi- 'grant Song" from their third album of three years ago and one realizes that more recently one heard it reflected by the Osmonds, of all people, in their hit " Crazy Horses ". I made the point to Wayne Osmond, who looked singularly blank about the name Led Zeppelin and suggested that his producer mav have heard of them. The Zeppelin audience Led Zeppelin