Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin 's performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert "wasn't very clever".
Page spoke at The Times and at The Sunday Times ' Cheltenham Literature Festival , where he was interviewed by an audience of 1,200 people about his book Jimmy Page: The Anthology.
Referring to the contribution of drummer Phil Collins , who performed at the Live Aid concert in London before crossing the Atlantic the same day to play drums alongside Tony Thompson for Led Zeppelin in Philadelphia, Page was quoted in The Times as saying: “We had two hours of rehearsal, not even that, and the drummer just couldn’t get the beginning of ‘Rock and Roll’. We were in serious trouble, so that wasn’t very smart.”
Page spoke more positively about the Led Zeppelin reunion day in 2007. “A lot could have gone wrong and I didn’t want to be the one to make the mistakes, but you prepare for these things and when you get on stage, you go into a trance. My hair was standing on end the whole time, so I think it was an excellent show. Unfortunately, it was just a show,” he said.
Phil Collins told his side of the Live Aid story to Classic Rock in 2017. According to him, Jimmy wanted to rehearse, but Collins had already heard the song before and thought he could play it easily. When he demonstrated it on the drums, Jimmy Page said he wasn't sure.
“So I talked to [co-drummer] Tony Thompson , because I’ve played a lot as two drummers and it could be a disaster, and I said, ‘Let’s stay out of each other’s way and play simply,’” Collins said.
