Led Zeppelin

It's been three decades and the lyrics still don't make much sense (what is a "bustle in your hedgerow" anyway?) but there's probably never been a song with such chart-topping impact (incredible since Stairway to Heaven was never released as a single). So love 'em or hate 'em, Led Zeppelin simply have to go down as one of the most successful and influential bands in the history of rock music.

In 1969, Jimmy Page was still considering the options for his new musical venture; in particular whether they should be a folk-rock act like Fairport Convention - or more worryingly, Pentangle. Then he heard John Bonham's drumming and two albums of thumping hard rock quickly followed. When critics dismissed Zep as blustering rock bozos, the band retreated to Bron-Yr-Aur, a cottage in Snowdonia, North Wales, that Plant had often visited as a child.

With no electricity or running water, they spent days walking in the hills and nights sitting around the fire plunging hot pokers into cider, smoking hash and writing. So important was the cottage and its setting that not only did they write a song about it (Bron-Y-Aur Stomp), but gave it a thank-you on the cover of the subsequent album (Led Zeppelin III) which was filled with acoustic subtlety. The critics - never satisfied - accused them of going all Crosby, Stills & Nash . . .

Their fourth album broke a few rules - Its sleeve carried no band name and no title, just four Runic symbols. The album contained Stairway To Heaven, the song which became so entrenched as a rock standard that to this day many guitar shops carry signs prohibiting it being played on their premises!

The band formed their own label in 1974, called Swansong.

On September 25 1980, on the eve of their US tour, drummer John Bonham was found dead in bed in guitarist Jimmy Page's house in Windsor, England, after a 12-hour drinking session. The autopsy reported the cause of death as pulmonary edema.

TRIVIA NOTE
Before becoming Led Zep's manager and terrifying hapless promoters around the world, Peter Grant was a professional wrestler who went by the name of His Highness Count Bruno Alassio of Milan. He also body-doubled for Anthony Quinn in The Guns Of Navarone.