And this time, the person fanning the rumor flames is none other than former Robert Plant fill-in and self-proclaimed "long-time pal" of Jimmy Page David Coverdale, who told the UK's Mirror "I'm expecting a call from Jimmy any day asking my band Whitesnake to support them on their world tour. Am I on board? You bet. Probably worth billions!" Well, more like £250 million, according to the Mirror. The alleged tour, which is now rumored to start in late 2008 or early '09, will supposedly mark the band's 40th anniversary. And hey, if it doesn't work out, perhaps some forward-thinking promoter can book a tour of bands who have claimed to be the Led Zeppelin reunion tour's opening act? I count the Cult, Velvet Revolver, and Whitesnake—surely that could fill at least a thousand seats at an arena. (You could even have Lez Zeppelin open, just to confuse the NME all over again.) [Mirror]
You might not think so, and I definitely don't think so, but South Carolina resident Cindy Ennis apparently has the money to show that she disagrees with us, spending $1,829 for four seats on the inaugural run of Led Zeppelin: The Ride, which will be one of the big attractions at the music-themed amusement park Hard Rock Park. (Yes, it's still opening, stone-hewn Jimi Hendrix and all.) The ride will make its first run—set to the strains of "Whole Lotta Love," and just under three minutes long—next Tuesday, and Cindy will be right up front!
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Back when the Bonnaroo lineup was announced, the NME plastered its Web site with announcements that Led Zeppelin would be playing the Tennessee festival—an announcement that was occasioned by the press release noting that the all-female Zep tribute band Lez Zeppelin was on the bill. Such are the perils of being the world's fastest music news service, right? Well, the breathless British tabloid is still convinced that the band will, in fact, play again, despite Robert Plant reportedly turning down a huge reunion-tour payday. And it's not afraid to take out-of-context quotes from a Led Zeppelin story running in its sister publication Uncut and place them in front of fun-house mirrors for not one story, but two, in order to prove its point.
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Does the world really need another benefit concert series? Especially one with the sorta-vague, probably-not-gonna-be-solved-by-a-will.i.am-set goal of "ending all war at the end of our 10-year period"? World Peace One, a group that already has the endorsement of a member of the Nobel family, thinks so, and they're going to enlist quite the roster of artists to play their series of concerts around the world, which is set to begin May 17. While Jack Johnson somehow isn't on the promoters' wishlist yet, Led Zeppelin is, and so are U2 (understandable), Madonna (sure), Caetano Veloso (ooh), and INXS (what?). Click through for the full wishlist of people who World Peace One hopes will be pressured into saying "yes" by being asked "So, what you're saying is that you support war, then, right?"
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Robert Plant on Radiohead: "What is this rhyming crap?" Robert Plant on the Red Hot Chili Peppers: "[like a] nursery rhyme." The Sun writer who got this tip is outraged at the thought of anyone comparing the Red Hot Chili Peppers to something as trivial as a poem for a sleepy child, but I actually think Plant's being kinda generous! [The Sun via ONTD / Photo: Getty]
We all got some late-night roffles when multiple news outlets ran with the fake news that Led Zeppelin would be playing Bonnaroo this year, even though the official lineup announcement said that all-lesbian lady Led Zep tribute band Lez Zeppelin would be playing. But what if the announcement of the not-real thing was a way to throw Led Zeppelin diehards off, and make sure that true Bonnaroo fans get their tickets first? One of our commenters, A Roach, thinks this might be the case! He explains: "For argument's sake, lets say [Led Zeppelin] really ARE headling. No way could Superfly announce it before tickets go on sale—the thing would sell out instantly with people who don't usually go to Bonnaroo. The "real" Roo fans would largely be shut out (or at least left to the luck of the draw). This would be a disaster for Superfly: the loyalty/brand would be damaged, and the fans who have gone every year would crucify them. But Superfly knows this."
More conspiracizing after the jump!
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The above screengrab comes from the AP's story on the Bonnaroo lineup, which clearly suffered from having a night copyeditor who wasn't up on her "funny" lesbian cock-rock cover bands that are almost named after icons of said genre and are, ahem, billed way, way too low to be considered "headliners." (Well, at least she's as good at figuring out in-joke-laden riddles as we are.) According to my sources who weren't out on the town during this whole kerfuffle, we can blame the NME for the foul-up. Tsk tsk, NME. You should have run with the "surprise Baltimora show" angle instead!
Continuing to jerk fans around with the tease of a possible reunion tour/one-off performance at yr local Krispy Kreme following their December reunion gig in London, Led Zeppelin have occasioned another story where the hopeful headline is dashed (or at least brought down to Earth) within the first three paragraphs. This time around Reuters 
Kevin Bronson at the Los Angeles Times has a sort of update on the heatstroke-inducing desert jam that is Coachella Festival, the lineup of which is being announced next week. According to Bronson, not only is the above poster totally off, My Bloody Valentine will not be one of the "surprising veteran act[s]" on the show's roster—but who cares, because apparently Portishead is going to be there! Maybe I should brave the desert, although I'd need to stock up on some SPF 150 and a gigantic floppy hat before doing so. A list of bands who are, so far, totally definitely 100% rumored to be appearing according to the Internets and blog boards and such after the jump. Can you say "yay, '90s"?
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Hole up at a hotel for a month and pay the staff to disable your room's Internet access? Give new meaning to the term "bulk candy"? Distribute gold dollars on street corners until you got mugged? The possibilities are endless, really! And yet there were some people who decided that they could use that money to buy a single ticket to Led Zeppelin's reunion gig at the O2 Arena in London last month, according to the UK ticket-resale site Seatwave.
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Scuttlebutt that Led Zeppelin was going to headline the Bonnaroo festival this June started back in December—only to be subsequently denied by the festival's management shortly after. But the Mirror is claiming that Led Zep's headlining gig is back on, thanks to Robert Plant having a "change of heart." (Maybe the Bonnaroo organizers enticed him with the prospect of playing a bluegrass set as well? Or maybe this isn't true at all and just filled a ginormous New Year's-induced news hole within the Mirror's pages? It's so hard to tell!) Anyway, not to be outdone by its not-even-music-centric UK tabloid rivals, the scrappy site Gigwise has a Led Zep-related rumor of its own, and it's kind of a doozy if you read it straight:
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First we had Ian Astbury dropping not-so-subtle hints that Led Zeppelin would be touring, and that their openers would be his band the Cult. And now, even though Robert Plant appears to be booking 2008 with anything but Led Zep dates as fast as he can, it seems crazed fans of Polyphonic Spree/Tripping Daisy main man Tim DeLaughter are claiming that both of their hero's bands would be opening the tour. Ian, can you come out and at least try to help quell this misinformation? Because people are apparently falling for this. And they're also thinking that the tour will be renamed in honor of the reformed Daisies:
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So now that Led Zeppelin has broken the seal on its reunion—and made a lot of money for a lot of people in the process—and stoked rumors of stints at Madison Square Garden, other venues around the United Kingdom have started floating the idea of the reunited rockers playing follow-up shows (once Robert Plant gets the whole bluegrass thing out of his system, anyway). Two such stories popped up on Blabbermouth today, and even though both are pretty much boilerplate "we've contacted the promoters, and we'll have them if they ever head out on the road" stores, one headline writer seems to be a bit less... optimistic about the chances of Led Zeppelin gracing his local rugby and soccer field.
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After much speculation over who, exactly, was trying to get clips from Led Zeppelin's Monday show at the O2 arena removed from YouTube, the culprit has come forth. And it's not anyone at Warner Music Group, or even Jimmy Page himself. Instead, it's the Brooklyn-based outfit GrayZone, which calls itself "the 'bootbusters' of the entertainment industry." (Yes, really.) And it turns out that the mass removal being attributed to WMG was the result of a glitch, or at least what the company claimed as it explained itself to Silicon Alley Insider:
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