Borland is a surprisingly good guitarist given the shite he had to work with.

The who are pretty unfuckwithably good. Come on.

Oof. Wait, is the bass player gone too?

Also, bit harsh on the whole crew at peak.

Well, massive pass for not still being great. I file them next to all the great 60s/70s UK groups. Listen and be thankful for the peak, if they manage something halfway good any time after, congrats, but they can happily pootle about with their cash and have earned it.

See also, led zep, Beatles, Queen and the half a dozen other bands from that era I'm forgetting.

Not everyone can do a Bowie.

Robert Plant has done some great stuff since Zep folded. Raising Sand is a fantastic album. I'd still go to see the Stones if I had the chance. All those brands have earned their cash but I'll only listen to recent stuff if they do something decent, which is rare. They can do the nostalgia tours but I have no interest.

Kow wrote:

Robert Plant has done some great stuff since Zep folded. Raising Sand is a fantastic album. I'd still go to see the Stones if I had the chance. All those brands have earned their cash but I'll only listen to recent stuff if they do something decent, which is rare. They can do the nostalgia tours but I have no interest.

And plant must have turned down loads of cash to reform

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Raising Sand is great, I was thinking more bands that have kept on going as a unit (or reformed) long after their respective heydays, rather than solo/collaboration stuff.

I think the Stones are some kind of weird exception to everything. There can't be many rock n roll bands that have kept plugging away that still maintain some shred of credibility.

A couple of friends of mine went to see them play a small rehearsal gig in Dublin a few years ago, just to say they had seen them. They weren't expecting much but they said the band blew the roof off the place, couldn't believe it.

Kow wrote:

A couple of friends of mine went to see them play a small rehearsal gig in Dublin a few years ago, just to say they had seen them. They weren't expecting much but they said the band blew the roof off the place, couldn't believe it.

Aye, I'd much rather have seen them in a small club, because much as they pretty much defined the stadium show, their music doesn't really translate to that sort of venue.

Led Zeppelin have reformed several times with Bonhams son on drums for various one off gigs.

They've only labelled themselves Zeppelin a couple of times though. They don't want to go full reunion, they know they can't. His son is a shadow of the drummer Bonham was anyway, they've needed two drummers at once to fill his shoes. I wouldn't go to see them either, despite Zep being possibly my number one band of all time.

I guess Zeppelin have been canny with the back catalogue and never really needed the cash. Endless re-masters, box sets and live albums. Big cash cow. 
What complicates things is that Robert Plant sold his share of the rights to the original Zep back catalogue back in the early 80's, a decision I dare say he's lived to regret, but it's unclear if he gets royalties for any of the legacy stuff they've released since then (of which their is a fucktonne).
Still, he's had a successful solo career, so he's never exactly been strapped for cash.

I'd say the royalties for radio plays of Stairway to Heaven alone would be a sizeable income.

Kow wrote:

I'd say the royalties for radio plays of Stairway to Heaven alone would be a sizeable income.

Well, details of the deal are impossible to ascertain, as is who he sold his rights to, and it was a complicated affair. It might actually mean he doesn't receive royalties from physical sales of the ten original Zep albums, but what is known is that he still retains his portion of creative control on how the catalogue is used. It probably made sense at the time, but yeah, if he'd had a crystal ball he obviously wouldn't have been so quick to sell.
Zep are no mugs though. That one time they reformed in 2007 for the big show in London, well that happened to coincide with their entire catalogue being made available digitally for the first time. Now digital rights wouldn't even have existed when Plant sold up, so that probably opened an entirely new can of worms.