How long we stand Together

In New York City in November 1968, Peter Grant secured a gigantic advance of $200,000 from Atlantic Records, the kind of sums never before received by fledgling bands from a record company.[21] The Atlantic had hitherto favored blues and jazz rock and soul music, but in the late 1960s its management became interested in British progressive rock bands. It is widely believed that the company signed a contract with Led Zeppelin in absentia, only on the recommendation of Dusty Springfield[23]. However, Jimmy Page claimed that Atlantic had long dreamed of poaching him.

October 25, 1968 Led Zeppelin gave their first concert at the University of Surrey, then located in Battersea [35]. In organizing the group's first British tour, Page invested his own savings (very modest) earned in the Yardbirds, and the attendants, as Plant recalled, consisted of one person [17]. The group's concert at the London club "The Roundhouse" on November 9 became a celebratory event: it was timed to coincide with the wedding of Robert Plant

Original text (English)[show]
— Kerrang! No. 1244, 2009. "In the Beginning". Rod Yates
Page himself, when asked by Dave Schulps of Trouser Press about which of the two actually proposed the name, replied: “Moon, no doubt, no matter what Entwistle says about this ... Moreover, I am completely convinced that Richard Cole and asked "Moon" for permission to use the name. It's just that Entwistle was upset that those first Led Zeppelins[~ 3] never took off."

Kerrang! magazine, specifying the chronology of events and the names of the participants, Entwistle mentioned in passing, without confirming his version:
May 1966, IBC Studios, London. Jimmy Page directs the studio session: Jeff Beck's "Bolero" is being recorded. In the control room, he sits down for a smoke with Keith Moon, The Who's drummer, who - along with bassist John Paul Jones and pianist Nicky Hopkins - also takes part in the recording. Bearing in mind the caliber of the musicians around him, Page jokingly suggests that a new band be formed, but with John Entwistle of The Who instead of Jones. Moon is delighted with the idea, but jokingly says the group will collapse like a "lead zeppelin" ("lead zeppelin"). Two years later, while thinking about the band's name, Page thinks of Moon's line. He mentions it as he hurries past manager Peter Grant, who smiles and nods in approval. Grant would later suggest writing the name "Led Zeppelin" to avoid confusion with the pronunciation

It is generally accepted that The Who drummer Keith Moon became an unwitting co-author of the band's name: it was he who suggested that they would fail with such a line-up as a "lead balloon" (lead balloon) "[29][30][31]), after which Page changed its name to Led Zeppelin (in honor of the Zeppelin-type airships). The letter "a" in the word Lead was dropped at the suggestion of Peter Grant: so that (as he stated) "stupid Americans" (eng. thick Americans) did not pronounce the name of the group "Led Zeppelin"[~ 2][23][29][32] . However, later John Entwistle, the bassist of The Who, claimed that this story was nothing more than a legend: the idea actually belonged to him, and that was how (Led Zeppelin) he was going to name his own solo project, which he told Richard Cole, the tour manager ( first The Who, then the Yardbirds), who in turn relayed it to Page

Page invited Plant aboard his own small boat, and across the Thames the musicians told each other about their passions[20]. It turned out that Plant had a deep knowledge of American country blues (his favorite performers were Skip James, Bukka White, Memphis Minnie) and the mythology of the Lord of the Rings (hence Obs-Tweedle - the name of the group). Page was impressed. He played the guitar "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", a song from the repertoire of Joan Baez, and said that he would like to bring out the light and dark sides of this song - in extreme contrast, in a completely new context [22]. After this at Page's house, they explored each other's musical tastes for some time by listening to their favorite records (Buddy Guy, The Incredible String Band, Muddy Waters)

The lead vocalist, Terry Reid (already under contract with manager Mickey Most, it turned out), recommended that Page look to Robert Plant, a Birmingham vocalist known for his bands Band of Joy and Obs-Tweedle. Having attended a concert of the latter in Walsall, Grant and Page immediately sent the singer an invitation to join the new line-up and received his consent [19]. The guitarist was especially shocked at this concert by Plant's performance of "Somebody to Love", a song by Jefferson Airplane[20]. “These primal howls made me eerie. It was the very voice I was looking for. He sang for several years and at the same time remained practically unknown. How this could have happened, I still can’t understand,”[21] he recalled

On July 7, 1968, eight months after the departure of Jeff Beck, The Yardbirds finally broke up. Jimmy Page, who retained both the rights to the name of the band and concert obligations, began to select a new line-up of musicians with the support of manager Peter Grant, who had also worked with the Yardbirds. The first guest was John Paul Jones, bass player, keyboardist and arranger, who by that time already had rich experience in studio collaboration with many famous performers (including The Yardbirds) [6]. He read an article in Disc magazine and, on the advice of his wife, immediately called Page

It remains one of the most successful bands in rock music with over 300 million albums worldwide[10][11][12] and 112 million sold in the US (fourth place)[13]. Seven albums of the group climbed to the top of the Billboard 200.
Ranked #1 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list[14]. Rolling Stone magazine recognized the band as "the heaviest band" and "the best band of the 70s"[15]. In 1995, Led Zeppelin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2005 they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award [5], in May 2006 - Polar Music Prize

Led Zeppelin (Russian Led Zeppelin[2][3], MFA: [ˌlɛd ˈzɛpˌlɪn][4]) is a British rock band formed in September 1968 in London, and recognized as one of the most successful, innovative and influential in modern history[5]. Having created their own sound (which was characterized by a heavy guitar drive, a deafening rhythm section and piercing vocals), Led Zeppelin became one of the leading bands of hard rock[6], played a fundamental role in the formation of heavy metal[1][7] [8], freely interpreting folk and blues classics and enriching the style with elements of other musical genres (rockabilly, reggae, soul, funk, country)