Led Zeppelin/ AC/DC: Celebration Day/ Live at River Plate

As John Lydon (née Rotten) is forced to bankroll his own albums and the likes of The Damned, Buzzcocks and Stiff Little Fingers play to audiences numbering hundreds rather than thousands, it’s pretty obvious who won the Punk Wars. I was on the spiky-haired side in 1976, but 36 years later am as comfortable listening to ‘Good Times Bad Times’ and ‘Ramble On’ as I am ‘Anarchy In The UK’ or ‘White Riot’.
Those are the two blues grinders that kick off Celebration Day, the 2CD and DVD document of Led Zeppelin’s December 2007 tribute to their former Atlantic Records boss, Ahmet Ertegün.
The first thing that strikes you is unlike other rockers of his vintage – Roger Daltrey is one who immediately springs to mind – Robert Plant can still hit the high-notes, and the ones at the guttural bottom end of the spectrum too.
Also showing no signs of musical decay – physically it’s a different story – is Jimmy Page whose guitar-playing on ‘Kashmir’ and ‘Tramped Under Foot’, in particular, is peerless.
For the most part, it sounds less proggy and knowingly epic than it did back in the day, which could have something to do with John Paul Jones’ participation alongside Dave Grohl and Josh Homme in Them Crooked Vultures.
The obvious exception is ‘Stairway To Heaven’, one of the most preposterous, overblown and wonderful rock epics of all time. ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Rock And Roll’ are Jason Bonham’s chances to shine, with Bonzo’s not so little boy drumming up as furious a wall of noise as his dad. 
The London O2 concert looks as good as it sounds, with the stage bathed in sumptuous colours, Page and Plant vying to see who can throw the most outrageous shapes and director Dick Carruthers understanding that when the performances are this good you can be sparing with the special effects.
Throw in an extra hour’s worth of rehearsal footage, and Celebration Day is the perfect full-stop on a career that really does now seem to have ended.
“We don’t speak very good Spanish, but we speak rock ‘n’ roll pretty good.”
So says Brian Johnson at the end of ‘Rock N Roll Train’, one of the 19 runaway expresses that comprise AC/DC’s first live album since their 1992 storming of Donnington Castle.
Little – well, actually, nothing – has changed in the intervening years with Johnson still sounding like he’s gargling Brillo Pads when he sings, and the rest of the band re-creating note for note songs that are within touching distance of their OAP Bus Passes.
All of which was good for the 80,000 mad Argentines who came to the River Plate football stadium wanting blood and got it, courtesy of versions of ‘Back In Black’, ‘Big Jack’, ‘Shot Down In Flames’, ‘Thunderstruck’, ‘T.N.T.’, ‘Let There Be Rock’, ‘Highway To Hell’ and ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ – never have the “Angus!” chants at the start been so ear-perforating – that you really don’t want to be meeting down a dark alley.
Innovation may come as naturally to AC/DC as speaking Spanish, but in the heads-down no-nonsense mindless boogie stakes they remain the Guv’no