It looks like Jimmy Page is finally resigned to the fact that there won't be a Led Zeppelin reunion.
Page was at a listening party for the upcoming reissues of Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy at Olympic Studio in London when NME asked him if remastering the albums made him want to reform Zeppelin again. Page replied, "I don't think it looks as though that's a possibility or on the cards, so there's not much more I can say about that. I'm not going to give a detail-by-detail account of what one person says or another person says. All I can say is it doesn't look likely, does it?"
Later, Page said that he will most likely be forming a new band next year to tour with music from his whole catalog. "If I was to play again it would be with musicians that would be… some of the names might be new to you. I haven't put them together yet but I'm going to do that next year. If I went out to play, I would play material that spanned everything from my recording career right back to my very, very early days with The Yardbirds. There would certainly be some new material in there as well."
"I love playing live, I really do. Live concerts are always an interesting challenge because it means you can always change things as you're playing every night. You can make it even more of an adventure. I would play all of the things I'm known to play – instrumental versions of Dazed And Confused etcetera, etcetera…"
The remastered Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy will be released on October 28. Page has release a couple of alternate versions to tease the release. You can hear Black Dog with enhanced vocals and guitar overdubs here. The Rain Song with the piano mixed to the background can be heard here.
-Spencer