Watch Robert Plant sing R&B version Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll with Imelda May

When the first episode of The BBC’s flagship live music show Later… with Jools Holland was broadcast on October 8, 1992 – featuring performances from The Neville Brothers, The Christians, Nu Colours and D’Influence – few would have bargained on it being around three decades later, and yet here we are. 

To celebrate the show’s 30th anniversary, the show left its regular home at the Alexandra Palace Theatre in North London and moved to the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, where a line-up of musicians including Robert Plant – making his eighth appearance on the show – appeared alongside Imelda May, Poppy Ajudha, Richard Hawley, Celeste, First Aid Kit, Seasick Steve, Michael Kiwanuka, Gogol Bordello, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Benjamin Clementine and The Joy.

Plant joined Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra Setlist to perform three songs at the show – recorded on October 5 – including Chuck Willis’s I Feel So Bad, Ray Charles’s Lonely Avenue, and a version of Led Zeppelin‘s classic Rock And Roll, performed with Irish singer Imelda May.     

Now the BBC have released a video of the latter performance, while the whole show can be watched on the BBC’s iPlayer (opens in new tab). Viewers outside the UK will need to get a VPN to access the iPlayer, which will enable therm to change their IP address to a UK one. You can get set up in a matter of minutes – and we recommend using a service like ExpressVPN (opens in new tab).

Over the years, Later… with Jools Holland has played host to a number of rock acts, including Alice In Chains, Alice Cooper, Biffy Clyro, David Bowie, Muse, Blackberry Smoke, The White Stripes, Mastodon, The Cure and The Darkness, but is frequently criticised for having a perceived anti-rock bias. 

“It’s nice to walk down Oxford Street without being recognised,” Joe Elliott told Metro  in 2010 (opens in new tab). “But then again when music magazines write about us they take the piss because we’re not as cool as Johnny Marr, who isn’t as successful as us by a million miles. Jools Holland won’t have us on his show because we’re not cool enough.”   

Source: loudersound.com