Registration Extended For Red-Hot Zeppelin Tix

Organizers of the Led Zeppelin-headlined Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert on Nov. 26 in London have extended the registration deadline in the wake of "unprecedented demand" for tickets.

The ballot has now been extended from a midday Sept. 17 close to midday Sept. 19, after the Web site set up to handle ticket registrations received 89.5 million attempts in a 12-hour period today (Sept. 13).

"The Web site has been receiving over five million hits per hour since the press announcement 24 hours ago," said show organizer Harvey Goldsmith. "The service provider is doing their best to keep the site running and has moved it to a server on its own."

Since confirmation Wednesday of the one-off Led Zeppelin comeback at London's O2 Arena, the online service has had 80,000 requests each minute, at one point causing the system to crash, according to a spokesman.

Just 18,000 tickets, priced at $250, will be distributed to applicants on a lottery basis, capped at two tickets per household.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Goldsmith admitted 852 corporate tickets, priced upwards $2,000 each, would be held aside to cater particularly for interest in the U.S.

Zeppelin will play "all the big numbers" in a "meaty" set of roughly two hours, Goldsmith said. The Who's Pete Townshend, Bill Wyman, Foreigner's Mick Jones and Paolo Nutini are also on the bill.

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