Mirror.co.uk is running a LED ZEPPELIN retrospective this week. Day 1 reads as follows:

They were the original monsters of rock - the band whose antics are the stuff of rock legend.

From 1969 to 1980, Led Zeppelin - the British band who virtually invented heavy metal - raised the bar on riotous rock star excess.

They hurled TVs out of a hotel windows. In one drunken rampage they chopped up a room with Samurai swords.

And they got up to all sorts of unprintable shenanigans with a willing groupie and a shark, catfish or red snapper - depending on who you believe.

At the same time, they shattered attendance records at huge stadiums, and sold albums on a monumental scale - four of their nine studio albums have gone diamond.

Now, as they are whipping everyone into a frenzy all over again, we are celebrating this mighty rock band in our exclusive Led Zeppelin week.

The last time Led Zep played together in Europe was in 1980 - just before drummer John Bonham's tragic death.

So there was a worldwide scramble for tickets when they recently announced a one-off reunion show. More than a million people applied for tickets to their show at London's O2 Arena, which has now been postponed until December 10 after guitarist Jimmy Page broke his finger.

The surviving band members are all now in their 60s, so no doubt things will be far quieter backstage than in their heyday, when drugs and alcohol flowed unchecked and lurid tales of sexual excess circulated.

Once Jimmy Page - who was rumoured to travel with a suitcase full of whips - was said to have been "served up" to a group of female fans on a silver platter carried by roadies.

Another time he was chained to a toilet to stop him trashing yet another hotel room. As he said: "As far as the myth goes, there's no smoke without fire.

"When you come offstage after three and a half hours of intensity, it was not really on the cards that you would put your slippers on and have a cup of cocoa. What's the point of staying in a hotel and just ordering room service?"

A "coke lady" would travel with them so the band never had to carry or touch the drug. She would apply cocaine to the nostrils with her little finger, add a touch of snuff, then finish off with a dab of Dom Perignon.

Read more here.

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