Editing Live Aid (section)

=== Led Zeppelin reunion ===
{{Quote box|style=padding:10px;|quote="I thought it was just going to be low-key and we'd all get together and have a play. But something happened between that conversation and the day – it became a Led Zeppelin reunion."| source =—Phil Collins on the Led Zeppelin performance<ref name="deriso">{{cite web |url=http://ultimateclassicrock.com/phil-collins-led-zeppelin-live-aid/?trackback=tsmclip |title=Phil Collins Considered Walking Out of Led Zeppelin's Live Aid Reunion |publisher=Ultimate Classic Rock |first=Nick |last=Deriso |date=2 November 2014 |access-date=30 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630195607/http://ultimateclassicrock.com/phil-collins-led-zeppelin-live-aid/?trackback=tsmclip|archive-date=30 June 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>|width=25%|align=right}}

[[Led Zeppelin]] performed for the first time since the death of their drummer [[John Bonham]] in 1980. Two drummers filled in for Bonham: [[Phil Collins]], who had played on singer [[Robert Plant]]'s first two solo albums, and [[Tony Thompson (drummer)|Tony Thompson]]. The performance was criticised for Plant's hoarse vocals, [[Jimmy Page]]'s intoxication and out-of-tune [[Gibson Les Paul]] guitar (his [[Gibson EDS-1275]] guitar was in tune), a lack of rehearsal, and poorly functioning monitors. Plant described the performance as "a fucking atrocity for us ... It made us look like loonies."<ref>{{cite book|last=Williamson|first=Nigel|title=The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin|year=2007|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-84353-841-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoledz0000will}}</ref>

Page later criticised Collins' performance, saying: "Robert told me Phil Collins wanted to play with us. I told him that was all right if he knows the numbers. But at the end of the day, he didn't know anything. We played '[[Whole Lotta Love]]', and he was just there bashing away cluelessly and grinning. I thought that was really a joke."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/live-aid-anniversary-queen-freddie-mercury-performances-bob-geldof-a9612071.html |title=Aaaaaay-o! Aaaaaay-o! Why Live Aid was the greatest show of all|work=[[The Independent]]|author=Mark Beaumont|date=11 July 2020 |access-date=10 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713123104/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/live-aid-anniversary-queen-freddie-mercury-performances-bob-geldof-a9612071.html|archive-date=13 July 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> Collins responded: "It wasn't my fault it was crap... If I could have walked off, I would have. But then we'd all be talking about why Phil Collins walked off Live Aid – so I just stuck it out... I turned up and I was a square peg in a round hole. Robert was happy to see me, but Jimmy wasn't."<ref name="deriso"/>

Led Zeppelin has blocked broadcasts of the performance and withheld permission for it to be included on the DVD release.<ref>{{cite news| url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3534576.stm | title= Zeppelin defend Live Aid opt out |work=[[BBC News]]| date=4 August 2004 | access-date=28 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110075219/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3534576.stm|archive-date=10 January 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Philadelphia (magazine)|Philadelphia]]'' named it "one of the worst rock-and-roll reunions of all time", with Victor Fiorillo writing: "I'd like to be able to blame all of the awfulness on anaemic Phil Collins, who sat in on drums, and Page himself later fingered the [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]] drummer for screwing up the set. But Collins was just the beginning of the bad. Go ahead. Watch and remember. It really ''was'' that terrible."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/06/15/bad-rock-band-reunions/ |title=The 10 Most Painful Band Reunions |work=[[Philadelphia (magazine)|Philadelphia]] |location=Philadelphia |first=Victor |last=Fiorillo |date=15 June 2012 |access-date=4 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106091146/http://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/06/15/bad-rock-band-reunions/|archive-date=6 November 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>