Robert Plant recently announced that he will have to miss an upcoming show due to the ongoing Led Zeppelin court case. Plant was scheduled to appear at Meltdown Festival next month on June 10th.
This year the festival line-up was curated by Elbow’s Guy Garvy, with Robert Plant set to appear as part of a benefit show, The Ship We’re In, to raise money for The British Red Cross’ refugee awareness campaign.
However, due to the ongoing court case involving Led Zeppelin, he has had to pull out of the festival. The case surrounds Led Zeppelin’s song ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and whether or not the riff of the song is an act of plagiarism.
A statement from a representative of Robert Plant said “It is with great disappointment that Robert must cancel his appearance. Robert has been enthusiastic to help in any way to the increased awareness and support of so many powerless and distraught peoples. Therefore the opportunity afforded at Guy Garvey’s Meltdown was an event that Robert was passionately drawn to.”
Now both Plant and Jimmy Page are due to face trial in Los Angeles in June over claims that their song ‘‘Stairway To Heaven’ (1971) copies the opening chords of Spirit’s song ‘Taurus’ (1967). The case was due to begin on May 10th, but it has now been moved to June 14th which means that Plant has to pull out of the festival.
Photo Credit: Phil King
