As telegraphed by its title, the acclaimed Led Zeppelin documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin only charts the band's early, formative years, ending with the quartet's now-legendary performance at London's Royal Albert Hall on January 9, 1970. Bernard MacMahon's film only enhances Zeppelin's reputation as one of the greatest live rock bands in history... and fortunately cuts off long before the group's lacklustre, at times shambolic, reunion show at 1985's Live Aid concert confused those of us who were seeing the hard rock icons perform for the very first time.
At this point, we should insert a very obvious and important caveat: Led Zeppelin ended with the death of drummer John Bonham, aged just 32, on September 25, 1980. And while Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones have shared stages since losing their friend and bandmate, they have always been at pains to stress that, without Bonham, the band's heartbeat, there could never again be a truly authentic Led Zeppelin live performance.
Given his long-standing friendship and professional relationship with Robert Plant, Phil Collins would have known this, and therefore would have been fully aware that he was on a hiding to nothing when he accepted an invitation to be a part of Zeppelin's 'reunion' performance at Live Aid. Even so, it appears that Collins was unprepared for the sheer scale and fury of the criticism which followed in the wake of their 22 minutes onstage at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium on July 13, 1985.
