Jimmy Page reveals Led Zeppelin were asked to do an Abba-style avatar show

(Image credit: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images)

Led Zeppelin were approached with the idea of staging an Abba Voyage-style virtual performance experience but couldn't agree on whether or not to get involved.

Speaking at the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts in Wales, Jimmy Page says that Zeppelin had been in discussion to do “that sort of thing” long before the idea of Abba's hugely-acclaimed show was revealed, but, according to a report in The Guardian, he admits that he and the band's two surviving members, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones couldn’t agree on whether or not to throw their weight behind the concept, so the project “didn’t really get moving."

Described as "awe inspiring" by The Times, and "jaw-dropping" by The Guardian, the Abba Voyage experience opened on May 27 and is set to run through to October 2 at the purpose-built Abba Arena in East London.

News that Zeppelin's members failed to reach an agreement on a similar style of production will come as little surprise to fans of the band, given the inability of band members to agree on very much for the past decade or two.

Speaking recently to Classic Rock for the magazine's 300th issue, Page said that he's currently "working on various paths and routes of projects" but insisted "I’m not going to say what the projects are."

"There’s various things I’m working towards," the guitarist said. "It’s not just one thing, it’s multiple things, and I don’t want to even give a hint, because if you do… You give a one-sentence sound bite, and then if it doesn’t materialise it’s like: “Why didn’t you do a solo album?” So I don’t want to say what it is that I’ve got planned, because I don’t want to give people the chance to misinterpret it."

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.