47 (41) Robert Plant £70m (£70m)
As comeback concerts go, Led Zeppelin’s reunion at the O2 Arena must rank as one of the most successful - certainly in terms of the interest it created.
About 20 million fans rushed to get tickets to the concert when they went on sale in September. Concert-goers were attempting to register to go into a random ballot for the £125 tickets at a rate of 80,000 a minute. Demand also crashed the O2 Arena’s website.
The reunion was the first time the band had performed together for 19 years. The concert was held as a tribute to the late founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun. Ertegun, who died in 2006 aged 83, signed Led Zeppelin to the label in 1968.
Birmingham fans got the chance to see Robert Plant, aged 59, perform for rather less than £125. In the autumn he was a guest performer at Bev Bevan’s Brum Rocks concert which marked the reopening of Birmingham Town Hall.
As well as linking up with his former band members in Led Zeppelin, he continues to tour with his current band, Strange Sensation. He also won the Royal Swedish Academy of Music’s Polar Music Prize and was nominated for a Grammy in 2006.
Robert Plant had a Black Country childhood (born in West Bromwich, brought up in Halesowen) and a promising career as a chartered accountant. He pursued his music career unprofitably to begin with, subsidising his income with a variety of jobs.
In 1968, Jimmy Page recruited Robert Plant as lead singer for his new band. They were joined by drummer, the late John Bonham (whose son Jason, currently drummer with Foreigner, played drums at the O2 Arena gig) and John Paul Jones.
Led Zeppelin have since sold more than 300 million albums worldwide. In 1995 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
