Becoming Led Zeppelin starts as a lot of rockumentaries do – with one of the band’s most recognisable riffs (guitarist Jimmy Page’s 1969 skull-rattler from ‘Good Times Bad Times’) blaring over a montage of old newsreels and concert clips. But that wasn’t always the plan.
Originally, director and co-writer Bernard MacMahon wanted just one complete video for the opening: chilling footage of the doomed Hindenburg airship, spectacularly bursting into flames as it landed at NAS Lakehurst in 1937.
“We tracked down every single frame, including some that have never been seen before,” MacMahon tells NME, sitting alongside producer and co-writer Allison McGourty. The original acetate disc had been damaged and there was a huge “gouge” in it, but thanks to some technical wizardry they were able to clean it up. “You could hear the real sound of the Hindenburg actually exploding – with all the [people] screaming. It was so shocking and horrifying.” An iconic photograph of the disaster would eventually adorn the cover of Zeppelin’s debut album, though MacMahon decided the newly restored sequence was too distressing. “You couldn’t begin a Led Zeppelin film like that…”
Perversely, the terrifying images of that majestic vehicle plunging to its fiery fate provide the ideal metaphor for Led Zeppelin’s story. The blues-loving, follically blessed British quartet shot to fame in the late 1960s playing a heavy, distorted brand of rock and roll that was supercharged by each member’s unmatched instrumental prowess. Ignored by the UK media, they travelled across the Pond – as the Hindenburg did on its final trip – to America. Met there by an insatiable, ready-made fanbase of rebellious teenagers, The Beatles’ edgier, sexier descendants soon became the biggest band in the world. And like the Hindenburg, the largest airship of its age, their reign was cut short by a sudden tragedy – the death of drummer John Bonham, aged just 32, in 1980. They broke up immediately.
In the following years, we’ve had a smattering of one-off appearances and even a well-received reunion gig in 2007 at London’s O2 Arena, plus re-releases, live recordings and compilation albums. Nevertheless, Zeppelin have never quite managed to reform properly. So how did two relatively unknown filmmakers in MacMahon and McGourty, get the grumpy proto-metal grandpas on board for a project they had never heard of and that gave them absolutely no creative control?
First to be contacted was semi-retired Page, preoccupied these days with shouting across his west London garden at pesky neighbour Robbie Williams. Luckily, he wasn’t too busy for a meeting and arrived at Kensington’s Royal Garden Hotel in November 2017 carrying some bulky Waitrose shopping bags. These contained not Page’s lunch, as MacMahon first thought, but battered diaries dating back to the ‘60s. They chatted for seven hours before the famously exacting musician declared he was “in” – with a proviso. “Jimmy turned to me and said ‘Do you want to make this [film] about me?’” explains MacMahon. “To which I replied, ‘No it’s about the band.’ He smiled and said, ‘That will be a little more difficult, we don’t exactly have Christmas together.’”
They tried bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones next. “We called his management, who said that John was not interested in making a Led Zeppelin film and to save on the postage!” McGourty says. They countered by sending a DVD of American Epic, their acclaimed miniseries about the advent of recorded music in 1920s America, with instructions for Jones to give it a watch. “A day or two later, there was a phone call: ‘He’d like to meet you.’” They did so, this time in Chiswick, and explained why he should be interested in making a Zeppelin film. Jones was won over.
That left Robert Plant, the curly-haired Brummie in whose footsteps every louche, hip-swinging frontman now walks. Plant, the recipient of seven Grammys, has arguably enjoyed the most successful solo career of the three living Zeppelins – and consequently gets most of the blame for their periods of inaction. “It has to be agreed by all of them. It’s the same as Pink Floyd, it’s a band agreement and you’ve got certain bandmembers that think it interferes in their solo career,” sniped photographer and friend of Page Ross Halfin, when asked about a potential live album in August 2021. MacMahon and McGourty expected to need all of their persuasive powers.
“Robert was slightly different [to Page and Jones] in that we had to prove we were never going to give up,” says McGourty. It took trailing Plant to tour stops in Perth, Sheffield and Los Angeles before he would even agree to anything further than a quick, post-gig chat. Finally, he caved and invited them to Birmingham for a substantial sitdown. Upon arrival, MacMahon and McGourty were stunned to find he’d brought a friend along: John Bonham’s widow Pat. “We didn’t know she was coming, it was an amazing surprise,” says MacMahon, pulling out a photo. Plant and Bonham are leaning over a tattered scrapbook, smiling at an old picture. “It was a sign that he was interested – and they both signed an agreement to do the film.”
Pat’s presence by Plant’s side is a moving reminder of their history. Zeppelin’s mesmerising lead singer and dynamite drummer were friends and bandmates on the West Midlands pub scene long prior to Page recruiting them – and it’s no surprise their families remain close. To some, proof of the group’s enduring bond provides fresh hope of more activity in the future and, dare we say it, a reunion.
The chances are slim, admittedly. In May 2019, Becoming Led Zeppelin was announced via an excitable press release featuring quotes from each member. After that: radio silence – except for news of a 7-inch vinyl ‘Immigrant Song’ single that was confirmed in October 2020 but abruptly cancelled without explanation a day before it was due out. On top of that, neither Plant, Page nor Jones attended the film’s premiere events in Los Angeles and London earlier this year.
McGourty says they “never expected them to come to the premiere” and their mere involvement at all was “a miracle”. However, a 2021 document obtained through a fansite’s Freedom Of Information request revealed then-distributor Altitude’s desire to have all three promote the film at Venice Film Festival that summer. Only Page ended up going – and it feels like the band are as far away as they’ve ever been from collaborating again.
In a week when Black Sabbath unveiled a massive farewell show and The Rolling Stones continue to tweak plans to go on the road yet again, Led Zeppelin’s dormancy feels even more like a missed opportunity. Think about it: one last goodbye gig in the sun – Plant belting, Page thrashing, Jones grooving. With all surviving members recently performing or making music, surely it’s not beyond them?
“There’s no right answer to that question,” says MacMahon. “That’s the exciting thing about Zeppelin. There’s no way of telling what’s gonna happen or what’s gonna go on. There’s nothing predictable about them – and that’s what makes them interesting.”
‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ is in UK cinemas now