It was 40 years ago this Friday that Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died. The 32-year-old had consumed around 40 shots of vodka and tragically choked on his own vomit. Just 11 weeks previously he had performed his final concert with Led Zeppelin, which took place in Berlin, Germany on July 7, 1980.
The concert came at the end of the band’s summer tour and later became known as the Cut The Waffle tour.
According to Far Out Magazine, their stripped-back performance saw the ritual of Bonham’s incredible drum solo on Moby Dick cut out.
Plus, gone were Jimmy Page’s violin bow guitar solo on Dazed and Confused and John Paul Jones’ improvised keyboard intro on No Quarter.
Led Zeppelin began their final full line-up show with Train Kept A-Rollin’ from their early days.
Earlier this summer, Jimmy Page was asked about the idea of Led Zeppelin touring again.
Speaking with BBC Radio 2, while promoting his previously unreleased track Scarlet with The Rolling Stones, the 76-year-old said: “At the time of the O2, we thought — myself, John Paul Jones and Jason [Bonham, John’s son] — that there was going to; it was said that there were gonna be some more dates.
“It would’ve been really good to have done that after the O2, ‘cos we’d put a lot of work into The O2 and we were really on it, y’know?
“But it didn’t come off.”
Sadly Page added: “It seems really unlikely that there would be a tour in the future.
“Unlike The Rolling Stones, they do sort of know that the fans love that — also I know that with Led Zeppelin [fans too].
“But it doesn’t look as though there’s anything in the future, unfortunately.
“We’re talking about a concert that was gigantic at the time, but that was 2007: time passes, y’know?”