He looks like a nice guy and I like his smile

I listened to the ‘Four Runes’ album as I read your in-depth Led Zeppelin cover feature [MOJO 337]. I’ve been a Zep fan since the mid ’70s, introduced to many great bands by my older sister. I saw Zep at Knebworth on August 4, 1979 and have seen Robert Plant as a solo artist a few times over the intervening years. I met Jimmy Page at Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus and John Paul Jones at a Julie Felix in-store gig. I blagged my way into Percy’s Somerset House afterparty a few years ago but, just as he was coming downstairs from his dressing room, security felt my collar – I almost got the third signature on my original Knebworth programme. Close but no cigar; chucked out into the July evening rain.

Last Wednesday, while browsing in Rough Trade East, I bumped into the erstwhile rock god doing his Christmas shopping. During a brief chat, Plant said the Knebworth show on August 4, 1979 was better than August 11, but both were shit. I was 16 and it was one of my favourite gigs of all time and well worth sleeping rough for. I congratulated him on his new collaboration with Alison Krauss and he said he is immensely proud of their latest record.

They say never meet your heroes and that was probably true for Jimmy Page, but JPJ and Planty were real gentlemen and generous with their time. Bruce Marsh, Newbury Park