Venue: London Astoria                              Date: 10th June, 2002

It's been a while since Robert Plant has done any full electric gigs; he's been in acoustic mode with his Priory of Brian hobby band in recent years.  This hastily arranged concert was in support of the forthcoming 'Dreamland' album which mainly consists of "reinterpretations" (the record company's words!) of classic songs.

Plant has always been into world music, as anyone who's listened to his solo stuff - and even some of the later Zeppelin material - will testify, so it's no surprise that for a support act he had a band from North Africa (an educated guess) playing what you could probably call global chill-out music.

Following their set the place gradually filled up to capacity in the lengthy interval before Plant and his band emerged to a rapturous welcome. Plant has recruited a young band by the name of Strange Sensation who, with their short hair and modern attire, contrast strikingly with Plant who was dressed all in white and, with his customary mane of golden hair, is still looking every inch the rock god.

The band can play too, producing a very effective wall of sound for the heavier tracks and showing admirable restraint on the more reflective material, allowing ample space for Plant's vocals to work their magic.

Material-wise Plant started off airing several tracks from his solo back catalogue; in particular a fair few from 1993's 'Fate of Nations', which is regarded by fans as one of his best. These were mixed in with the "reinterpretations" of 'Morning Dew' (the first single to be lifted from the new CD) and a very strange version of 'Hey Joe' - nothing like Hendrix's version and not really an improvement in my opinion!

Still, at least Plant and his band were actually using the original material as a starting off point, rather than just producing a carbon copy which many bands do.  In any case, any shortcomings are immediately rectified by a great take of Zeppelin's 'Going To California'. To be quite honest, a large proportion of the crowd would have been perfectly happy if Plant had simply sung Zeppelin tracks all night - but that isn't Plant's style; he's not ignoring his heritage, but is proud of his solo material - and on this showing he has every reason to be.

That said, the highlight of the evening has to be the first encore, a sublime reading of 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You'. Plant wrings every ounce of emotion out of the song in front of an awestruck crowd; this was almost worth the price of admission in itself.  Plant seemed to know he couldn't really follow this and after a cover of Tim Buckley's 'Song For The Siren' the lights came up.

All in all, a great gig - and proof that Robert Plant can still cut the mustard in the live arena.

Tom