Phil Collins shares why he took the blame for Led Zeppelin’s disastrous Live Aid performance

A disastrous reunion from legendary rock band Led Zeppelin is Phil Collins‘ fault, according to the drummer.

The Genesis member says he took the fall for the band’s awful performance at Live Aid, and knew it was falling to pieces early into the set. Collins would reflect on the performance in his autobiography and suggested both Robert Plant and Jimmy Page knew they were far from their best that night. A flurry of issues beyond Plant and Page being far from their best dogged the performance, including the work of Tony Thompson, who “opted to ignore” all of Collins’ advice. Collins would call the performance “very uncomfortable” for the entire roster of musicians on stage, but believes he was given more than his fair share of blame as nobody wanted to criticise the returning Led Zeppelin.

Collins wrote: “I knew the wheels are falling off from early on in the set. I can’t hear Robert clearly from where I’m sat, but I can hear enough to know that he’s not on top of his game. Ditto Jimmy. I don’t remember playing ‘Rock And Roll’, but obviously I did. But I do remember an awful lot of time where I can hear what Robert decries as ‘knitting’: fancy drumming.

“And if you can find the footage (the Zeppelin camp have done their best to scrub it from the history books), you can see me miming, playing the air, getting out of the way lest there be a trainwreck. If I’d known it was to be a two-drummer band, I would have removed myself from proceedings long before I got anywhere near Philadelphia.”

Despite the rough start to the show, Collins kept himself positive by wondering whether a reformed Led Zeppelin would wish to continue with drummer Thompson, who was doing as much as he could to impress the group.

Collins continued: “Onstage I don’t take my eyes off Tony Thompson. I’m glued to him. I’m having to follow – he’s taking the heavy-handed lead and has opted to ignore all my advice. Putting myself in his shoes, he’s probably thinking, ‘This is the beginning of a new career. John Bonham isn’t around any more. They’re gonna want someone. This could be the start of a Led Zeppelin reunion. And I don’t need this English fuck in my way.’

“I’m not judging him, God rest his soul. Thompson was a fantastic drummer. but it was very uncomfortable, and if I could have left that stage, I would have left, halfway through Stairway… if not earlier. But imagine the coverage of that? Walking off during The Second Coming? Who the fuck does Collins think he is?

“Geldof really would have had something to swear about. After what seems like an eternity, we finish. I’m thinking, ‘My God, that was awful. The sooner this is over, the better.'” It’s a performance which has yet to be officially released, with the Led Zeppelin team refusing to allow the footage to be used for the Live Aid DVD, according to Collins.

He claimed: “Led Zeppelin won’t let the performance be included on the official Live Aid DVD. Because, of course, they were ashamed of it. And I find that I am usually the one blamed for it. It couldn’t possibly be the holy Led Zep who were at fault. It was that geezer who came over on Concorde who wasn’t rehearsed. He was the culprit. That show-off.”

Page would suggest the rehearsal for the show, which lasted just an hour, was a “bit of a kamikaze stunt” by the group. Frontman Plant would reflect on one of the many problems the band faced during their Live Aid show, suggesting his voice was “long gone” before he got on stage with the band.

He said: “Emotionally, I was eating every word that I had uttered. And I was hoarse. I’d done three gigs on the trot before I got to Live Aid. We rehearsed in the afternoon, and by the time I got on stage, my voice was long gone.”