Source of dismal assessment of Led Zeppelin reunion status offers murky clarification

So, more on those two seemingly conflicting quotes from Jimmy Page's manager that showed up on the Internet yesterday.

MusicRadar now offers an explanation pointing out that the BBC article providing the earlier quote from Mensch is actually dated Jan. 7, 2008 -- a year ago.

And therefore, MusicRadar surmises, the interview we were all reading yesterday must have been a year old and carry only information that has become obsolete through a year's passage of time.

So, MusicRadar argues, the correct explanation is that Mensch now says the possibility of future collaboration among Led Zeppelin's members is off the table. That's what he told them on the phone yesterday, so they consider the chance of this collaboration non-existent now, although it could have been at the time of Mensch's earlier interview for the BBC, whenever it was truly conducted.

But that argument doesn't exactly hold water with me, and here's why.

MusicRadar is right that the BBC article is dated Jan. 7, 2008, not Jan. 7, 2009. Good catch.

However, explain why the Peter Mensch interview clips were used in the most recent "Music Week" podcast on the BBC site. I downloaded and played it yesterday where this new podcast was displayed ever so obviously. It wasn't hidden in some year-old archive where I had to dig it up. It was right there.

If the BBC interview were really a year old, in theory, somebody would have recognized it. I would like to think I would have remembered coming across it only 12 months ago. I would like to think somebody at the BBC would have intercepted it before it were released for a second time.

There's no way the BBC would have purposely hoarded the interview for a full year before using it! What would the purpose of that be?

OK, now let's consider the content of the interview. BBC interviewer Matt Everitt refers to rumors that Steven Tyler was jamming with Page and Jones -- rumors that didn't exist before late October 2008. Peter Mensch also discusses the auditioning of singers, which wouldn't have happened by this time a year ago.

The BBC interview was probably conducted in November, or late October at the absolute earliest, circumstances mentioned in the interview suggest.

So I would think the 2008 inscription on the article's dateline was the result of a typographical error. As of yet, this has not been corrected. (Update: It was a typographical error, and it eventually was corrected. It now reads 2009.)

But as to why Peter Mensch would deny to MusicRadar having given an interview to the BBC, I don't know.

Maybe he gave the interview a month or more ago and didn't know what interview MusicRadar was referring to when it came up in yesterday's brief phone conversation.

We do have further reason to believe, however, that when MusicRadar's Joe Bosso called Peter Mensch yesterday for comment on the BBC article, the interviewer asked (pitifully) about a "Led Zeppelin" tour. Look, even MusicRadar admits the conversation went something like this:

JB: "Hey Pete, nice interview with the BBC, who's replacing Robert Plant, then?"
PM: "What interview? I haven't spoke to those guys for like four months or something."
JB: "So Led Zeppelin are not going to tour and record?"
PM: "No chance."

So, I guess that's what Peter Mensch was saying wasn't going to happen: a Led Zeppelin tour. Feh. Like we really needed clarification on that point.

But is it possible Mensch also means, by extension, there's no chance of any project involving collaboration between Page and Jones?

Because if that's what he means, then, well, that sucks!

As far as the comment that Mensch has no clue what Page will be up to in the event that this band with Jones and Bonham has already fallen through, that's saddest of all.

Somebody on the discussion group For Badgeholders Only has suggested that this signals the end of Jimmy Page's career once and for all. What a sad assessment if this is true.