Photo: iTunes Festival, London 2014
Forty six years since he last played Camden’s Roundhouse, Robert Plant is back. And this time, he appears to have brought along one of the Duck Dynasty cast.
On closer inspection joining him on Monday night in London is Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson, erstwhile member of Cast and now the proud owner of the kind of beard that would induce envy in even the hairiest hunter.
Plant strides purposively onto the stage at the iTunes Festival and surveys probably the most mild mannered crowd he’s seen for a while. Sure there’s the odd KoRn t-shirt near the front, but it’s outnumbered by the pressed flannel shirts and the numerous pairs of varifocals. It was the sort of crowd that had you fearing what might happen if the Old Speckled Hen ran dry.
Then the Sensational Space Shifters begin, with Plant announcing “Hey! Hey! Hey! Let’s see what happens now.” What proceeds is five tracks from Led Zeppelin, four songs from Plant's excellent new album lullaby...and the Ceasless Roar, one former duet with Jimmy Page (naturallly without Page) and some early blues bangers. It is absolutely captivating, a variation on Plant's all-conquering Glastonbury set from earlier this summer.
Overwhelmingly this is due to the charm of the frontman himself. Sure he wields a mic stand in a way that might either part the Red Sea or smite a stage invader but he still takes everything in his stride. For instance when the audience clearly don’t know the words to “Going to California” he utters a good natured ‘Fucking hell’, a prolonged ‘Woooooaaaahhhh’ and moves on. He even includes a good natured gag at the expense of a fellow living legend. “I’m not like Tom Jones, who loves telling people how old he is: ‘Really, Tom?’ I think that should be kept under your hat. Or under your helmet, at least”
As for the tracks from the new album, 'Lullabye' sounds simply collosal, the sort of thing that Coldplay pre-uncoupling and Elbow in their prime could only dream of. The old blues number 'Spoonful' may veers close to parody but is more than made up for by 'Fixin To Die', a ferocious cover of Bukka White's anthem. It is clearly a personal favourite of Plant's: “This is a song we’ll always play, until we split up and get back together again.”
Although five Led Zep songs do feature in the set, the majority have to be largely refitted to please Plant's tastes - after all these days if he is 'Going To California’ he's going to bring along a Gambian griot along for the ride. When someone shouts for a Zeppelin track - a request flung at the stage like a beer can - Plant is gracious. Still the bellows for 'Kashmir' occasionally ring out, particularly during the quiet songs.
It’s also during these more 'pensive' moments that you realise the ridiculousness of the crowd sat upstairs. In no particular order within earshot of Gigwise we had a Frenchman attempting awkward seduction through 'Pocket Full Of Golden;, a woman who would announce "Ooh that sounds like a classic" in the opening bars of every track and the person in front of me doing a little light iPhone video editing during 'Thank You'. Neither the Roundhouse nor Apple's fault, Plant frankly deserves better.
The penultimate song is 'Whole Lotta Love' - even the Frenchman shuts up for a bit. It's skyscraper high, equal parts preposterous and perfect. The entire crowd is enraptured: even Plant permits himself a slight smile when he realises how good its sounding.
How, everyone asks, can he possibly follow that? A short moment later Plant comes back on stage and says he’s going to play a song from 1928. We think he’s joking. He’s not.
