It's been a long time...

...since I posted an entry, and also since Led Zeppelin last played live. I was one of the lucky few (well, 20,000) who made it to the O2 Arena last week to see the rock legends strut their stuff for over 2 hours last week. It made me think about a couple of things which I thought I would post.

- Nostalgia can be very dangerous
I'm almost obsessively nostalgic, often for a time I don't even remember, I tend to listen to old music, watch old films and TV shows and be generally suspicious of the new, and clearly I'm not alone. It is estimated that 20 million people tried to access the website in order to gain tickets for Zeppelin, that's a hell of a lot of nostalgic people. People who wanted the band to deliver an experience they had either seen before or perhaps been told about by their parents. I find the past a very cosy place to live, but end up spending too much of the present worrying about it slipping from me, as heroes and pioneers pass away. I hanker after a time that never existed, and that I certainly never experienced first hand, and that's what made Zeppelin so magical, as though I was allowed a peek into the past - they were nearly that good - to experience it first hand. It's slightly depressing but I'm clearly not alone.

- Nostalgia can be very lucrative
Let us know hope that Zeppelin are able to resist touring and that the O2 arena was truly a one-off event. Surely they don't need the money - but do they need the applause? That is surely what keeps many of them going, if not then the Stones would have retired long ago. The only other act, I think who by virtue of their absence could do what Zeppelin did are Pink Floyd, the will they won't they debates have raged since their brief but hugely nostalgic set at Live8. It is believed that the Floyd or Zep could net over $50m each from a big tour, certainly no-one was complaining at having paid $250 a ticket the other night.

- Nostalgias grip tightens continually
As the past slips further away our desire for it only increases. As with anything (early romances, Carry On films) the bad bits disappear with time and we are left with a rosy view of a time we may not even have been alive during. What a wonderful sunny time 1969 feels like when one looks at the cover of Abbey Road - that album and hence that era, seems to have a palpable warmth to me, while the early 60s feel cold and monochromatic - even though I wasn't alive at the time these feelings seem 100% real to me.

The tragedy of the next generations nostalgia will be figuring out what they have to hold on to. Everything appears so transient and unreal - the physical artifact in all things has been devalued. The 45 or album sleeve of yesterday has been replaced by digital noise. I hope they find something to believe in and which can epitomise their era, much as The Beatles did for the 60s, or Star Wars did for the late 70s. I suppose they have Harry Potter - a truly global phenomenon, let's hope they hold on to those first editions.