Formed by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham from the wreckage of influential blues group The Yardbirds in 1968, Led Zeppelin went on to have one of the most successful and notorious music careers of all time, straddling vast financial success, a massive and loyal following, drugs, alcohol, personal tragedy and an interest in the occult.

Managed by the larger-than-life Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin made several decisions early on in order to stand out from the peers. One of these was to refuse record company demands for singles. Led Zeppelin would be the biggest underground band in the world, they would do few interviews and only appear in public to perform. Their first album - ‘Led Zeppelin' - was released to an unsuspecting world in January 1969, and via some radio airplay but most touring, reached number six in the UK and number 10 in the US album charts.

Despite the lack of singles, a string of songs can be associated with Led Zeppelin, most notably - ‘Whole Lotta Love' from their first album and the anthemic and haunting ‘Stairway to Heaven' from their fourth release. In the UK, Zeppelin topped the album charts eight times; they managed it six in the USA. They were legends and heroes.

By the time of their second album in October 1969, Led Zeppelin had arrived. Their second album (the imaginatively titled ‘Led Zeppelin II') topped the UK and US album charts. The ‘no-singles' policy worked, and throughout the 1970s ‘Zep' (as their fans know them) had hit album after hit album. In Britain they were generally known as the only British band that really made it in America, although many thought that they were American! In the USA, however, they were giants of the album charts and live arena, and monsters offstage.

Whether the stories that were rumoured during and since their tours of the USA were true, whether the band members or the road crew were involved or not, the fact remains that Led Zeppelin became the most notorious group ever, with tales of sexual depravity, decadence, fights, satanic sacrifice and occult occurrences filtering across the USA, in anticipation of the bands arrival in the next city, for the next gig, and for their next raft of girls.

In reality, however, the four members were either married back in England, to one of a community of groupies that existed on the east and west coasts of America at the time, or both. They were also nice guys, generally quiet and amazingly talented musicians and songwriters. In fact, few groups in popular music can claim to have been as richly gifted as Led Zeppelin.

Throughout their massive successes in the US and Europe, Zeppelin maintained quiet family lives back home. It came as a crushing tragedy in 1977 when Robert Plant learnt of the death of his young son Karac, an event that cut short the group's US tour. Tragedy had already befallen the group some months earlier when Plant was involved in a car accident that almost cost him his life, and left him wheelchair bound for some time.

Elsewhere, Jimmy Page's interests with the occult lead to some strange purchases, not least the former property of notorious occultist Aleister Crowley. Drug addiction also haunted the guitarist, while Bonham was a consistently heavy drinker. In 1980 John Bonham was found dead, having choked on his own vomit. He was only 32. The band split almost immediately

Only John Paul Jones could be seen to have avoided any form of tragedy or loss; rumours circulated after Bonham's death that the reason for this was simple - the band had signed their souls to the devil in return for success, but Jones had refused.

It was exactly this type of mystique that enhanced Zeppelin's image and even after splitting they continued to outsell many of their contemporaries. A series of remastering exercises to adapt the original recordings for CD saw a huge rerelease of their material in 1990, while just four years later Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunited for the ‘MTV Unplugged' project ‘UnLedded'. A reunion concert in December 2007 saw Page, Jones and Plant join Jason Bonham, son of their former drummer and friend, for a one of gig at London's O2 arena.

In 1995, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2005 they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. ‘Rolling Stone' magazine ranked the band 14 in their 2004 list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, while the UK Music Hall of Fame inducted Led Zeppelin in 2006.