Led Zeppelin take to stage after 27 years

After 27 years, one dead drummer and a broken finger, the band that symbolised rock and roll excess like no other took to the stage for a proper show tonight.

The three surviving members of Led Zeppelin have played a handful of songs together a couple of times since drummer John Bonham died in 1980.

But critics agreed they were largely shambolic. This time it was the real deal, a 90-minute set at London’s O2 arena in front of 10,000 people who counted themselves among the luckiest music fans in the world.

The internet rush to buy tickets to see Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Bonham’s son Jason saw up to 20 million people crashing the website with the winners being drawn by electronic lottery.

Then the scheduled show last month, in memory of former Atlantic records boss Ahmet Ertegun, who signed and sponsored Zeppelin, had to be cancelled when Page broke a finger falling over in his garden.

The band’s publicists have declined to say which one.

Finally tonight Page, Plant and Jones, with a combined age of over 180, burst on to stage with youngster Bonham, 41, and opened with 'Good Times, Bad Times', the first track of their debut album.

Profits from the show will go to the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which pays for student scholarships to universities in the UK, US and Turkey.

It will also be used to establish a music scholarship at Ravensbourne College in Kent.