Curious.......

["fireclown fabulosa" <fyrclwn@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

although i've never heard any real facts, reasons, or first-hand accounts of 
why the WiC tour ended,
all i have ever heard is that Plant caused the tour to end/decided he didn't 
want to tour anymore/etc. sometime in the beginning of '99.  (thus, screwing 
Zep fans everywhere, and hurting Pagey's feelings, blah, blah, blah)  BUT, i 
found this review of the very last concert, and i gotta say, it sounds to me 
like it was an already decided, "done deal" type of thing.....like at some 
point earlier in the tour they had decided to end it in '98.

here's the review:

Sadly enough the last concert of this fascinating tour.

Setlist: Intro, Wanton Song, Heartbreaker, WIAWSNB, Clarksdale, No Quarter, 
WTWWY, Going to California, Tangerine, Gallows Pole, Heart in your hand, 
BIGLY, Most High, HMMT incl Fever
Encore 1: WLL incl. a short The train kept a rolling, Thank you
Encore 2: Rock and Roll

Review: For the last gig of the tour there were 9000-10000 people at the 
Festhalle in Frankfurt. The first highlight was the solo in Heartbreaker. I 
think it was a little bit longer than I have heard it before. Plant meant 
that this is 'a very, very, very, very important evening.' And that after 
'ten months of travelling through 17 countries all over this world, tonight 
is the last night'. Walking into Clarksdale was introduced as 'Walking into 
Clarksdale somewhere near Heidelberg'. They played very well and sound was 
very good. Through HMMT they played an excellent version of 'Fever'. I don't 
know if this was planned because Jimmy looked a little bit stunned at Robert 
when he started to sing it. Before HMMT Robert said that 'While the 
Transglobal Underground (the support act) is on its way to play there music 
somewhere else this is some psychedelic jazz'. For the encores they played 
WLL with a long Theramin section and a short 'The train kept a rolling' in 
it.After that the played 'Thank you' ( very nice version). After this song 
Robert said 'Thank you' to all the guys in the team. He named nearly 20 of 
them by their firstname. Rock 'n' Roll was the worthy end of another 
brilliant show and tour. After the show everyone on the stage hugged each 
other. And as they already stood in line to bow, Robert and Jimmy got out of 
the line laughed and hugged them again.

here's the link:  http://www.jens-mattfeld.de/ledzep/frankfurt.htm

anyway, with the "this is the end" announcement at the beginning of the 
show, Jimmy laughing & etc., and the evidently planned playing of "Thank 
You" at the end, followed by the thanking & naming of the crew......well, it 
certainly doesn't sound to me like there were any surprises for anyone 
involved in the tour.  ......well, except for the inclusion of "Fever".  ; )

sooooooo.........does anyone actually KNOW what happened (and i mean, 
verifiable with FACTS, not assumptions and suppositions), or is it just 
another case of the rumormongers just assuming that Plant was the party 
pooper?   yes, i have read interviews were Plant says he was starting to 
hate the huge venues and "dark, dank concert halls", and said that he wanted 
to go back to the smaller venues again.......he also said that after the NQ 
tour, but still went ahead with WiC, so i'm not sure that is a viable 
argument for why the tour ended.  personally, i think that after touring 
Europe, the USA, and Europe again, they were probably just plain tired---ALL 
of them, and ready for some down time.

anyway, not looking for a fight here, just wanting to know what REALLY 
happened, as opposed to the opinions-which-read-as facts i've heard about 
this.  that review really surprised me, so i'm just wondering if there's any 
other stuff out there on the tour's end that we haven't heard about.