Led Zeppelin - in pictures

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page practise their calisthenics while John Paul Jones keeps well clear Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis

It's got to be Whole Lotta Love, hasn't it, from the way Jimmy Page is eyeing that theremin through the dry ice in 1977 Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis

Jimmy Page talks with the band's manager Peter Grant – the relationship between the two of them was crucial to Zeppelin's success – aboard the band's private jet, known as "the starship". Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis

John Bonham takes out his aggression on his kit at the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles, California, June 1973 – one of the shows that has gone down in Zep history as among their very best. Photograph: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

Robert Plant waits at a counter in a US airport in May 1969, already attracting looks – though possibly not of admiration – from other passengers. Photograph: Charles Bonnay/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

The "Golden God" Robert Plant cedes to spotlight to Jimmy Page in 1975. Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis

Led Zeppelin's "starship" jet at Oklahoma City airport in 1977. The band The Myriad Arena in the city on April 3. Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis

Robert Plant on stage in 1975, perhaps having just invited the audience to squeeze his lemon until the juice runs down his leg. Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis

The band perform for a massive crowd in Kezar stadium, San Francisco in June 1973. On that year's US tour, Zeppelin broke the Beatles' record for the largest attendance at a single-band show. Photograph: Neal Preston/Corbis

A stone henge themed stage set at the Oakland Coliseum concert on 23 July 1977 in California, the show that signalled the end of their golden age. The band had to flee California after Peter Grant and John Bonham were charged with assaulting a security guard backstage, and Robert Plant's five-year-old son died of a respiratory infection soon afterwards. Photograph: Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images