Robert Plant and a host of musicians came together last Saturday night (Oct. 21) for The Cancer Platform at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, England. The live show was developed by the Cancer Awareness Trust and organized by former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor.
The last time Plant sang the song in front of an audience was back in 2007 at London’s O2 Arena, later released as the Celebration Day concert film. Additional guest appearances by bassist Guy Pratt, WHAM! star Andrew Ridgeley, drummer to the stars David Palmer (Rod Stewart, ABC, The The), Brit- and Ivor Novello-nominated singer Ella Henderson, the inimitable Katherine Ryan, broadcaster Nina Nannar and many more.
Robert Plant (with Andy Taylor at right) at Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire, October 21, 2023
The event was organized by Andy Taylor, who having been diagnosed with stage four metastatic prostate cancer, and not given much of a future in terms of survival, revealed to Rockonteurs podcast hosts Pratt and Gary Kemp "I'm starting my nuclear therapy. I've been having tests and scans and all kinds of far-out science stuff… so the stage I'm at – which was stage four – like sh*t, basically, this therapy came into the UK only recently. It's very, very new."
Andy Taylor - Series 4 Episode 33 | Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt - Podcast
Taylor's bandmates in Duran Duran — Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor — had broken the news of their friend's cancer illness at the 2022 Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. More recently, the band (in the midst of a US tour) played a one-off benefit in August at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, California in his honor.
Duran Duran onstage at North Island Credit union Amphitheater, Chula Vista, CA 08222023
Plant, along with Taylor, played three Led Zeppelin classics, "Thank You," "Black Dog" and "Stairway To Heaven." while the gathered guests reacted joyfully to the 1971 masterpiece, Plant has previously commented in 2019 on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio show, "Lyrically, now, I can't relate to it, because it was so long ago. I would have no intention ever to write along those abstract lines anymore. I look at it and I tip my hat to it, and I think there are parts of it that are incredible. The way that Jimmy [Page] took the music through, and the way that the drums reached almost climaxed and then continued... It's a very beautiful piece. But lyrically, now, and even vocally, I go, 'I'm not sure about that.'"
