Letz Zep Press Release

Question: How do you pay tribute and do justice to one of the greatest rock and roll bands on the planet and cram over 7 hours worth of incredible material into just one live show?

Answer: Letz Zep – One of the best internationally credited Led Zeppelin tribute bands which have more than 30 festivals behind them and have had the privilege of sharing the stage with artists of the stature of OZZY OSBOURNE, Dr. Feelgood, Saxon and Uriah Heep.

Members Billy Kulke (vocals), Andy Gray (guitars), Shaun Herd (bass, keyboards & mandolin) and Simon Jeffrey (drums) take fans on a 2-hour journey that has been praised as ‘like listening to the true Led Zeppelin’ (Amsterdam Melkwig).

Since their inception in 2014, Letz Zep have mastered the Led Zeppelin experience, performing a hit laden show featuring all the much loved classics such as ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ ‘Immigrant Song’, ‘Dazed and Confused’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Kashmir’, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Black Dog’ and many, many more.

Billy Kulke (the uncanny Jimmy Page look-a-like), says Letz Zep originally began as a hobby but the band loved playing the Led Zeppelin catalogue so much, they began to take it seriously.

“We did it for our own entertainment because we thought it would be fun,” Kulke admits. “But we kept on getting more and more people to shows.”

It wasn’t until Robert Plant saw the band live that things really started taking off for the act.

“When I was growing up, people always said I look like Robert Plant,” confesses Kulke. “I thought, yeah, there is a slight resemblance, he does look a bit like me,” he laughs.

Plant’s reaction to seeing Letz Zep live was, “I walked in and saw me.”

Jimmy Page has also attended a gig by Letz Zep when he invited he band to join him after the show. He complimented the band on the performance.

”That was ambitious, but you pulled it off”, said Jimmy about the set Letz Zep performed in his presence.
”I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about your band, we have a lot of mutual friends so stay in touch” Jimmy continued, ”You have captured the spirit of Led Zeppelin concerts, you really are very, very good.”

Since then the tribute band have played shows in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Russia, Poland. Italy, Belgium, Holland, Andorra, Malta, Greece, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, Hungary, Latvia, Croatia, Serbia, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, the list goes on…. and on! Taking in over 40 countries on SIX continents.

Led Zeppelin have such a vast back catalogue of songs and albums that the hardest part of any Letz Zep show is deciding the set list.

Kulke confesses that Letz Zep change the running order of songs for each tour, depending on where they are playing. If it’s a country they’ve not performed before, it tends to be a more hit-laden set and when they return later, they tend to perform the more lesser-known tracks. “Songs that people don’t expect, but equally love,” says Kulke.

A Letz Zep show is designed to take the fan on a sonic journey. For Kulke, the acoustic part of the show is a personal highlight.

“It kinda shows that it’s not all power and bombast. You can sit there and you can entertain 2000 people sitting on a stool just singing gently. I think that’s important.”

Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling music artists of all time; their total record sales are estimated to be between 200 to 300 million units worldwide. They achieved eight consecutive UK number-one albums and six number-one albums on the US Billboard 200, with five of their albums certified Diamond in the US. Rolling Stone magazine described them as “the heaviest band of all time”, “the biggest band of the Seventies”, and “unquestionably one of the most enduring bands in rock history”. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995; the museum’s biography of the band states that they were “as influential” during the 1970s as the Beatles were during the 1960s.

For Letz Zep, the members are under no illusions of the legacy of their heroes but also aim to bring the best to audiences each night.

All four members possess the considerable musical ability required to a completely convincing recreation of Led Zeppelin in their prime, complete with the ‘tight but loose’ trademark element so essential to the raw excitement of a Led Zeppelin concert

Described in Kerrang! Magazine as ‘Better than a Led Zeppelin Re-union’, and by Warners music who released the original Led Zeppelin records as ‘Europe’s best tribute to Led Zeppelin‘ – Letz Zep are the closest to the real thing any Led Zep fan will appreciate.

“The reaction from the people in the crowd is amazing,” admits Kulke. “Especially when we perform ‘Stairway to Heaven’, you see grown men crying. They thought they’d never hear songs like this live and it really means a lot to people and that’s where I get my pleasure from.”

Letz Zep have earned their international reputation. Don’t miss their first ever Australian shows!

LED ZEPPELIN Approved Tribute Band, LETZ ZEP (UK) Tour Australia for the First Time Ever!

“I walked in, I saw me” (Robert Plant)
“That was ambitious, but you pulled it off” (Jimmy Page)

Celebrating the music of The World’s Greatest Ever Rock Band their set includes Stairway to Heaven, Immigrant Song, Black Dog, Kashmir, Rock and Roll, Whole Lotta Love, Dazed and Confused + Loads More!

Both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have attended LETZ ZEP shows. They were so impressed by LETZ ZEP they invited them to perform at the official launch party of LED ZEPPELIN’s ‘Mothership’.

LETZ ZEP possess the considerable musical ability required to produce a completely convincing recreation of LED ZEPPELIN in their prime, complete with the “tight but loose” raw excitement that was the trademark of a Led Zeppelin concert… “If you close your eyes you would think it was Led Zep themselves”

Don’t Miss Out On This LED ZEPPELIN Tribute Tour. Buy Your Tickets Online Today.

Led Zeppelin Bio

While Led Zeppelin have gone down in history and infamy as the world’s greatest rock band, Led Zeppelin’s humble origins date back to 1966, when London-based session guitarist, Jimmy Page replaced Paul Samwell-Smith as bassist in The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds also featured guitar legend Jeff Beck. The Yardbirds began to disband in 1968, with Page & Beck looking to form a new supergroup, which would also feature The Who’s rhythm section of Keith Moon and John Entwistle. The group never eventuated, but Beck, Page & Moon did record a solitary song entitled “Beck’s Bolero” – featuring future Led Zeppelin bassist, John Paul Jones.

After the Yardbirds broke up following a show in Bedfordshire, the band were still committed to several performances in Scandinavia. Jimmy Page and Yardbirds bassist Chris Dreja reached an agreement to perform the remaining dates under the name “The New Yardbirds”. Page originally tried to recruit lead singer Terry Reid, who declined the position but suggested Robert Plant, singer for the group, Band of Joy. Plant accepted the job and brought with him Band of Joy drummer, Jon Bonham. When Chris Dreja dropped out of the tour, Jimmy Page brought in Jon Paul Jones from the “Beck’s Bolero” session.

The New Yardbirds, now consisted of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Jon Bonham and John Paul Jones. They first jammed in the basement of a record store in London. The first song they played together was the blues song, “Train Kept A-Rollin’” popularised by Johnny Burnette. Before leaving for the Scandianvian Tour the group performed on a recording session of the P.J Proby album, Three Week Hero. The track, entitled “Jim’s Blues”, was the first studio recording to feature all four members of the future Led Zeppelin, with Plant playing harmonica as opposed to singing.

Following the Scandinavian tour, The New Yardbirds began recording their debut album. After the record was finished, the band were issued a cease and desist letter from original Yardbirds bassist Chris Dreja, stating the name “The New Yardbirds” was only approved for the remaining Yardbirds tour dates. The origins of the name Led Zeppelin remain hazy, but allegedly the name dates back to the original Page, Beck, Moon & Entwistle project. Someone had suggested the project would fail to take off, like a “lead balloon”. The band dropped the “A” from Lead at the behest of manager Peter Grant, who didn’t want people to mis pronounce the word as “leed”. The word “balloon” was replaced by Zeppelin, a tougher and more robust word for airships that had been used until the second world war.

As legend goes, Led Zeppelin signed to Atlantic for what was reported to be the biggest debut recording deal for a new band at that time. This deal would give the band total autonomy in creative and business decisions and the group formed the company Superhype to handle publishing rights. The Superhype name appeared on the initial pressing of the first Led Zeppelin album but would then be replaced by Warner Brothers on subsequent pressings. The name Superhype would not appear on a Led Zeppelin release until their untitled 4th album, three years later.

Although the band’s first UK tour was initially still billed as “The New Yardbirds”, they would perform their first show as Led Zeppelin on the 25th October at the University of Surrey in Battersea. The band’s self titled debut album was released in the US in January 1969, peaking number 10 on the Billboard Chart. The album would be released in the UK in March, where it peaked at number 6. According to Stephen Erlewine at allmusic.com, Led Zeppelin’s debut album took “… the heavy distorted electric blues of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Cream to an extreme” creating “a majestic, powerful brand of guitar rock constructed around simple, memorable riffs and lumbering rhythms.” To this day, Led Zeppelin’s debut album is considered a landmark in rock ’n roll and an early influence on the then rapidly emerging heavy metal genre.

In their first year under the moniker Led Zeppelin, the band toured extensively in both the USA and the UK, before releasing their second album, Led Zeppelin II. The album was recorded while on tour in America at various studios. Reaching number one in the charts in both the UK and the USA. Heavier, bluesier and more direct than the first record, Led Zeppelin II is still regarded as a quintessential rock record and one of the greatest albums of all time.

The opening song of Led Zeppelin II, “Whole Lotta Love”, would become one of Led Zep’s signature songs and was performed at every concert from June 1969 onwards. It would eventually be re-recorded by The Collective Consciousness Society, this version would become the theme song to the BBC TV show Top of the Pops, ensuring it was well known by all music fans in Britain.

The song “Heartbreaker” from Led Zeppelin II proved to be hugely influential. Eddie Van Halen credits the song as being the inspiration behind his own signature “tapping technique” which inspired thousands of guitarists in its own right. Guitar icon, Steve Vai describes the song as being “defiant, bold and edgier than hell.” And calls it “the definitive rock guitar solo”. Even Nirvana covered the song at their first ever show in March of 1987.

In 1970, Page & Plant went into seclusion in a remote cottage in Wales to write the third Led Zeppelin album, Led Zeppelin III. What would emerge from these writing sessions was far from what anyone could have possibly anticipated. Influenced by folk and Celtic music, Led Zeppelin III surprised fans, divided critics yet would still achieved transatlantic chart topping success.

Led Zeppelin III’s opening song, “Immigrant Song” became one of the band’s most popular songs. Witten about the Viking invasions of England, inspired by a tour of Iceland, the song was released as a single in the US and became a top 20 hit. Lester Bangs described it in Rolling Stone as having “bulldozer rhythms” and praised Plant’s “double tracked wordless vocal crossings echoing behind the main vocal like some cannibal chorus wailing in the infernal light of a savage fertility rite.” The song became iconic in Japan as the entrance theme music for legendary pro-wrestler Bruiser Brody.

As Led Zeppelin continued to grow from success to success, the band also began to embrace excess after excess. The band members started wearing flamboyant clothing. Their stage shows began to encompass complex light shows, including mirror balls and lasers – and perhaps most famous of all Led Zeppelin began travelling in their own private jet, nicknamed The Starship. Tales of outlandish, lewd debauchery began to resonate out of the Led Zeppelin camp as the band would rent out entire sections of hotels for their own private exploits and parties. One famous story involved Jon Bonham riding a motorcycle through a rented floor of The Continental Hyatt House hotel in Los Angeles, while another involved the destruction of a hotel room at the Tokyo Hilton. While the truth to some of these tales may have become the subject of myth and exaggeration over time, their legend lives on and is etched deep into the mythos of Led Zeppelin.

In 1971, Led Zeppelin released their fourth album, breaking from their numeric tradition – the album was released as untitled and is now referred to either as Led Zeppelin IV or Untitled IV or due to the four symbols appearing on the record sleeve, Zoso or Four Symbols. The four symbols appearing on the album are supposed to each symbolise a member of the band.

Led Zeppelin IV went on to become the band’s best selling record and with over 37 million copies sold world wide, Led Zeppelin IV is one of the best selling records of all time. As of 2006 the album has sold 23 million copies in the United States alone. The album, contains the iconic “Stairway to Heaven” – which despite never having been released as a single, was the most requested and played song on American radio in the 1970s. Despite being banned from guitar stores the world over, “Stairway to Heaven” was voted number three in 2000 by VH1 on its list of the 100 Greatest Rock Songs. In 2004, It placed at 31 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All time.

While being marginally over shadowed by the anthem status of “Stairway to Heaven”, Led Zeppelin IV also contained Led Zeppelin signature songs like “Black Dog”, which was a top 10 single in Australia and “Rock ’n Roll” which featured The Rolling Stones’ pianist Ian Stewart. In 1972, rock critic Robert Christgau described “Rock ’n Roll” as “simply the most dynamic hard-rock song.” From 1972 till 1975, “Rock ’n Roll” was Led Zeppelin’s opening song of every set and for the band’s final tour, it became an encore unto itself. It was the final song Led Zeppelin played at their lone reunion show at the O2 Arena in London in 2007.

Led Zeppelin’s fifth record, Houses of the Holy was released in March 1973 – completely breaking with the numeric releases established previously. The album featured a controversial album cover designed by the graphic design group, Hipgnosis. The featured greater experimentation musically, with the band embracing the use of mellotron, orchestration and synthesisers. The album contains signature Led Zep songs, “The Song Remains the Same” and “No Quarter”. From 1973, “No Quarter” became a centrepiece song of every Zeppelin concert, being played at just about every show until their final tour. In what had become now a trend, Houses of the Holy topped charts worldwide. The band’s tour of North America in support of the album shattered attendance records, many of which had been previously established by The Beatles. The band’s performances at Madison Square Garden were filmed for the motion picture, The Song Remains The Same, which was released in 1976.

After the success of the Houses of the Holy tour, Led Zeppelin formed their own record label in 1974. Swan Song, named after an unreleased song. The logo for the record label features a mythical winged human being (interpreted as either Apollo or Icarus) and has become synonymous with the group, appearing on t-shirts and assorted merchandise for decades.

In 1975 the band released their sixth record, the double album, Physical Graffiti. As with all previous albums, Physical Graffiti was a commercial success, but so much so that all previous Led Zeppelin recordings re-entered the Billboard 200 charts in its wake. In May of 1975, Led Zeppelin played five sold out nights in Earls Court Arena in London, which at the time was the largest arena in Britain. Physical Graffiti contained the iconic epic “Kashmir” which is still synonymous with Led Zeppelin to this day. John Paul Jones believes the song perhaps best showcases all the elements that made up the Led Zeppelin sound. Led Zeppelin archivist Dave Lewis has declared the song as “arguably the most progressive and original track that Led Zeppelin ever recorded.”, he further remarked “Many would regard this track as the finest example of the sheer majesty of Zeppelin’s special chemistry.”

The band’s subsequent seventh record, “Presence” would mark the beginning of a turbulent time for Led Zeppelin and in hindsight could be seen to be the beginning of the end for the band. Robert Plant was involved in a serious car accident prior to the recording, which forced the band to cancel all touring commitments surrounding the release. As a result, the 10 minute opening track “Achilles Last Stand” was one of the only songs on the album to be performed live. While the album did achieve platinum status, it received a mixed reaction from fans and critics alike and was overshadowed by the release of the feature film “The Song Remains the Same” and its accompanying soundtrack. Many began to feel the band’s excesses had started to catch up to them.

In 1977 Led Zeppelin finally embarked on their first tour in several years, the tour initially set new attendance records but was marked by a series of offstage issues and incidents, tragically culminating with Plant receiving news that his five year old son had passed away from a stomach virus. The rest of the tour was subsequently cancelled and Led Zeppelin’s July 24th show at the Oakland Coliseum in California would be the band’s final ever US performance.

In 1978 Led Zeppelin reconvened in Stockholm, Sweden to record what would become their final album as an active band, In Through the Out Door. The album was largely a reflection of the internal turmoil within the band. Robert Plant was still grieving over the death of his son, Jimmy Page was battling heroin addiction and Jon Bonham was struggling with alcoholism that would tragically take his life two years later. Amidst this internal chaos the band had grown weary of dealing with the typical musical industry drudgery. In Through The Out Door divided critics with some finding its synthesiser influences forward thinking while others seeing as out of touch with the current trends of the punk movement that had swept through England in recent years. Still despite, the mixed response to the record, Led Zeppelin headlined two performances at the Knebworth Music Festival in August 1979, playing to a crowd of over 104 000 people on the first night.

In 1980, a show in Nuremberg Germany came to an abrupt end three songs in, when Jon Bonham collapsed onstage. The collapse was a result of drug and alcohol abuse, but the band claimed he had just overeaten. On September 25th Jon Bonham passed away during rehearsals for an upcoming US tour. The inquest into Bonham’s untimely passing uncovered he had consumed around 40 shots of vodka, after which he had vomited and choked.

On December 4th 1980 a statement to the press read “We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.” Thus officially ending the career of one of the world’s greatest rock and roll bands.

Led Zeppelin blazed a trail for hard rock and heavy metal and the influence and echos of their amps are still being heard four decades from when they first disbanded.