This Day in ’95: Page and Plant Kick Off Their No Quarter Tour

23 years ago today, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant blew the minds of Led Zeppelin fans around the world by kicking off their first-ever world tour as a duo.

The origins of the Page-Plant duo can be traced specifically back to 1994, when Plant was offered the opportunity by MTV to do an Unplugged concert. As far as how the two actually began discussions of Page taking part in the proceedings, it’s a little murky, since Page recalls being contacted by Plant’s management and invited to see Plant perform in Boston, whereas Plant has said that he was surprised by Page’s presence at his Boston gig. Whichever version is accurate doesn’t ultimately matter, though, as the end result was that the two old comrades in arms decided to go Unplugged.

After taping three performances – one in London, one in Wales, and one in Morocco – during August 1994 and combining the best bits into a single installment of the series, the resulting program was so well-received that it was released as an album in November 1994: NO QUARTER: JIMMY PAGE AND ROBERT PLANT UNLEDDED. In turn, Page and Plant were still enjoying working with each other enough to take their show on the road, bringing along with them an impressive array of musicians, including Porl Thompson of The Cure. The tour kicked off at the Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Florida in February 26, 1995, and the reception was generally rapturous.

To give you an idea of what things were like on that day, we’ve dug up an MTV News piece about the start of the tour, which should send you back in time nicely.