Jimmy Page / Black Crowes: Live at the Greek

Herald rating: * * *

TVT/Festival

Review: Graham Reid

What do rock legends do when they get old? Well, in Mr Page's case, they do it all over again.

But to be fair to Jimmy, age 56 and formerly of the fairly famous Led Zeppelin, he certainly conjured up the spirit of his younger self when he joined the Black Crowes at the Greek Theatre in LA late last year for what sounds like a tribute to his former band.

Over this enhanced double disc, which comes with live footage — and which favours Led Zep tracks by 14 to six, the balance being blues covers, Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well, the Yardbirds' Shapes and so on — Page plays like a man possessed. He is certainly committed to making a very powerful noise in the company of a stadium-shaking band which knows this material intimately.

Crowes' singer Chris Robinson is a more than adequate Robert Plant substitute on the Zep material which doesn't stray too far from the blueprint laid down all those years ago. He yelps just fine, thank you.

In that sense it's hardly an essential addition to any collection (other than Zepp completists who can file it alongside Page's soundtrack to Death Wish II) but it does fairly fly off the disc in places.

Page shreds Sloppy Drunk, Nobody's Fault But Mine and Heartbreaker, and Crowes' plank spanker Rich Robinson, who fires off life-threatening slide in places, never sounds awed by the Old Boy.

In fact this sounds like a very natural coupling, just a shame they didn't extend the contract into something a little more demanding and unfamiliar.

So a minor but rowdy addition to the catalogue of both parties — and it's at parties it will be best appreciated.