Jimmy Page has said that, on reflection (36 years later), it was a bad idea to get Phil Collins to play drums with Led Zeppelin for the band’s reunion performance at the American side of Live Aid in 1985.
Although it does seem a bit unfair to lay the whole car crash of a performance at Collins’ feet.Speaking to The Times, Page says that it was “really not very clever” to draft in Collins to replace John Bonham, who had died five years earlier. “The drummer couldn’t get the beginning of [set opener] ‘Rock & Roll'”, he goes on, apparently referring to Collins. “So we were in real trouble with that”.This is not the first time Page has blamed Collins’ for the quality of the band’s Live Aid performance, having previously accused him of “bashing.