Why Aussie supergroup have been given a Stairway To Heaven hall pass

Led Zeppelin's legendary epic about a lady "buying a stairway to heaven" and whatever a "bustle in your hedgerow" is, can be widely considered one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded.

It's iconic opening riff has become so popular with guitarists that it's jokingly banned from guitar stores, as depicted in 1992 comedy film Wayne's World.

"No Stairway, denied," says Mike Myers' title character Wayne Campbell.

However, Stairway To Heaven will not be denied when the Australian Rock Collective (ARC) reunite next month to perform Led Zeppelin's untitled 1971 classic album, commonly known as IV.

ARC will perform the entire album, including Stairway To Heaven, plus other popular songs from Led Zeppelin.

"Playing Stairway is going to be bit of a treat because naturally as a guitarist, everyone is completely banned from playing that song ever in all guitar stores," ARC guitarist-singer Darren Middleton says.

"So I've got a hall pass for the next month."

IV will be the fifth classic album played by the supergroup of Middleton (Powderfinger), Kram (Spiderbait), Mark Wilson (Jet) and Davey Lane (You Am I).

Previously ARC have performed The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, Neil Young's Harvest and last year they tackled Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

IV is their toughest assignment yet. Besides Stairway To Heaven, the album also includes the rowdy rockers Black Dog and Rock'n'roll, the mandolin-driven folk song The Battle Of Evermore and Americana-flavoured Going To California.

Led Zeppelin weas a blues and hard rock supergroup that revolutionised music from the late '60s to their dissolution in 1980 following drummer John Bonham's death. Their blend of blues, rock and folk and mind-blowing live performances are credited for the popularity of heavy metal and stadium rock.

Leader Jimmy Page is considered one of the greatest guitarists in rock history, Bonham was a drumming titan and Robert Plant is one of rock's most shamanic frontmen.

"I would say so, particularly from the guitar point of view and maybe with the musicality overall," Middleton says when asked if IV is the most challenging album ARC have attempted.

"What we've done with The Beatles and Neil Young was fairly easy, Dark Side Of The Moon was trickier in the density of the sound required.

"Led Zeppelin is very raw and primal and there's lots of timing changes and bits and pieces and the parts themselves."

Middleton has a long appreciation of Led Zeppelin. When he joined Powderfinger in 1992 the Brisbane band regularly performed Zeppelin's Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and No Quarter.

"As a guitar player, everyone is pretty aware of Jimmy Page," he says.

"It's not until you really dig into the Zeppelin stuff that you realise just how good he really was. They all were, individually and collectively, but he's just such a gun."

Ever since the break-up of Powderfinger in 2010, Middleton has continued to work in music, releasing five solo albums. The latest, Novella, is an instrumental record performed on nylon-string acoustic guitar.

But as a solo artist, Middleton missed what first attracted him to joining Powderfinger - the thrill of making a racket with a bunch of mates. The formation of ARC in 2019 filled that emptiness.

"I had missed that, and ARC definitely provides that because we are a band built around friendship, a mutual love of Australian rock songs and a shared love of these artists that inspired our own bands, like Neil Young and Zeppelin etc," he says.

"ARC definitely gives me that thing that I miss when I'm a solo artist, which is the company of other band mates."

ARC is one of several collaborations involving Australian alt-rock bands from the '90s and early 2000s. Last week Powderfinger and Something For Kate frontmen Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey released their first single together, Disconnect.

"Everyone was really focused on getting their own bands to a certain place, I guess [in the '90s]," Middleton says.

"But post-2000s I think it naturally opened up. Also the size of our music scene is quite small, people were like, 'Let's do something better together' and then all these collaborations would start."

ARC are bringing their Led Zeppelin IV tour to Llewellyn Hall in Canberra on June 23. livenation.com.au