Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert
| Concert by Led Zeppelin | |
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| Location | The O2 Arena, London |
|---|---|
| Date(s) | December 10, 2007 |
| Led Zeppelin concert chronology | |
The Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert was a benefit concert held in memory of music executive Ahmet Ertegün at the O2 Arena in London on December 10, 2007. The headline act was the English rock band, Led Zeppelin, who performed their first full-length concert since the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, in a one-off reunion. Bonham's son Jason Bonham played drums during the band's set, and also provided backing vocals on two songs.
According to Guinness World Records 2009, the concert holds the world record for the "Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert" as 20 million requests for the reunion show were rendered online.
In October 2012, Celebration Day, a concert film documenting the event, was released. Both the film and performance by Led Zeppelin have been highly acclaimed. A shortened version of the concert was broadcast by the BBC in the UK on 8 December 2012.
On September 12, 2007, it was confirmed during a press conference by promoter Harvey Goldsmith that the surviving members of Led Zeppelin would reunite for the show, with Jason Bonham filling in on drums. The concert was originally scheduled to take place on November 26, 2007. It was to help raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey.
Tickets were made available via a lottery system through the website Ahmettribute.com, costing £125 / $250, with all proceeds going to Ahmet's own charity. The website exceeded its bandwidth allowance and crashed almost immediately following the announcement, with the promoter predicting that the gig would cause the "largest demand for one show in history". The promoter claimed that one million people registered for fewer than 20,000 available tickets. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page later commented:
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