WHOLE LOTTA LED, ZEPHYR LOUNGE, LEAMINGTON SPA

by Andrew Lock, 14 Feb 2016 A late in the day change from the spacious Assembly to it's smaller sister the Zephyr Lounge did nothing to hinder this full blooded tribute to the mighty Zeppelin and 2 1/2 hours of the bands most iconic tunes and a few rarities was the order of the day.

This is one of the most impressive tribute acts I have ever witnessed a 5 piece outfit (who's counting when they were this good !) who concentrated on the music rather than going down the look-a-like route and who are this year celebrating their 20th anniversary.

The line-up included upfront impressive vocalist Lee doing full justice to Mr Plants impressive range and a great story teller to boot, Nick on lead guitar very much the rock god pulling off all the mighty Page riffs and solos with his huge rack of guitars and aircraft control like pedal set-up while at the back Charles gave a momentous Bonham like performance on the sticks, the line up was completed by Geoff on bass and Martin supplying keyboards and at times second guitar.

After a mood enhancing montage intro tape the surprise opener was a stirring 'In the Evening' and other first half rarities included a groove filled ‘Night Flight' and a raucous ‘Custard Pie'.

Blues fans were kept happy early doors with a down 'n' dirty ‘You Shook Me' (fab harmonica by Lee) and an epic ‘In my Time of Dying' and my personal highlight of set 1 was a magical ‘Ramble On'.

From the start of the second set the audience seemed to have swelled and definitely had made their way closer to the stage and were more ready to rock and this set was chock full of stone cold classics.

On the punchy, full throttle rock side ‘Misty Mountain Hop', ‘Heartbreaker' and ‘Living Loving Maid' had the first few rows boogieing and head banging and the epics returned with spellbinding performances of ‘Dazed and Confused', a momentous ‘Kashmir' and with the addition of the iconic double neck guitar a crowd pleasing ‘Stairway to Heaven'.

All that was needed was a strong finish and the encore was just that with the audience rocking up a storm to the one-two punch of ‘Black Dog' and ‘Rock and Roll'.

A night to remember for Zeppelin fans performed by Zeppelin fans who just happen to be top rate performers.