Led Zeppelin News

A man has admitted bootlegging charges after hearing evidence from Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

Robert Langley, 57, from Buckingham, originally denied three trademark and two copyright infringements after being caught at a record fair in Glasgow.

The seizure of CDs and DVDs two years ago included £11,500 of counterfeit Led Zeppelin material.

The band’s guitarist last week told Glasgow Sheriff Court he would never sanction the sale of his material.

Page, 63, had told the trial how he had been asked up to Glasgow by British Phonographic Industry officials following the raid at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in May 2005.

The millionaire musician had already become aware of massive sales of pirate Led Zeppelin material across the world.

The haul taken from Langley included a £220 box set of a Led Zeppelin tour in Japan and a £40 set of a warm-up session in Denmark.

More prosecution witnesses were expected to take the stand in a trial that was set to last up to three weeks.

But, Langley - who previously walked free from three similar trials in England - changed his plea to guilty following Page’s evidence.

As well as the Led Zeppelin discs, Langley also admitted having £1,790 of Rolling Stones material and £885 worth of music by The Beatles.

Langley, of Embleton Way, Buckingham, will be sentenced next month.

He also faces further another hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Veteran rockers Led Zeppelin, who have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, are to enter the modern age and offer an album of specially selected tracks to download on the internet.

Mothership, a collection including ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Dazed and Confused’, will be available on Apple’s iTunes and is the band’s first venture into selling on the internet. Only the Beatles’ back catalogue, along with Radiohead, remain substantial iTunes refusniks.

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones have chosen the tracks themselves. Mothership will be available online on 12 November.

Led Zeppelin fans will have a lot to celebrate this fall thanks to the release of three new titles in multiple configurations. First up on Nov. 13 via Atlantic/Rhino is a two-disc, 24-track best-of, “Mothership.” A deluxe reissue of the soundtrack to the 1976 concert film “The Song Remains the Same” with previously unreleased material and a new DVD edition of that movie will arrive Nov. 20 via Atlantic/Rhino and Warner Home Video, respectively.

“Mothership,” tracks for which were chosen by surviving members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, represents all eight of the band’s studio albums. In addition to a two-disc set, the album will also be available in both “deluxe” and “collector’s” editions with a DVD featuring varied live content from the previously released “Led Zeppelin DVD.” A 4-LP vinyl package will also be sold.

As for the “The Song Remains the Same” soundtrack, it now sports six songs not included on the original album: “Black Dog,” “Over the Hills and Far Away,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” “The Ocean” and “Heartbreaker.” The album and film were recorded during a July 1973 stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“The Song Remains the Same” DVD includes all 14 songs from the original concert for the first time plus previously unreleased performances of “Over the Hills and Far Away,” “Celebration Day,” “The Ocean” and “Misty Mountain Hop.” Rounding out the bonus items are a 1976 BBC interview with Plant and band manager Peter Grant and contemporary footage from the robbery at New York’s Drake Hotel during the MSG run.

Beyond a standard DVD, the film will be sold in both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, as well as a limited collector’s edition that includes the soundtrack, a T-shirt with the original album art and reproductions of memorabilia from the era.

All the catalog activity gives further heft to rumors Plant, Page and Jones will reunite to perform at a proposed Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert this fall in London. Although no details have been announced, the group is also said to be mulling offers to tour under the Led Zeppelin name in 2008 with the late John Bonham’s son Jason filling in on drums.

Press Release