I saw Led Zeppelin at the O2 Arena on Monday.

'Nuff said. But seriously, words cannot describe how amazing it was. I mean, I've been brought up on that kind of music since I was a kid and I've been going to music festivals pretty much every year since I was 8 when I went to Cropredy and saw Roy Harper, Vicky Clayton and Fairport Convention, and I've seen literally hundreds of bands.

But when you're stood there watching the very band you've practically grown up with and thought you would never ever see them play live, doing that very thing right in front of you - it's like all you're dreams have come true.

Yes, you might think I'm one of those crazy obsessive fans (I'm really not), but they hold so many of my childhood memories. I can listen to Stairway to Heaven and I'm straight back to a car journey with my parents and brothers on my way to a festival.

Plus I saw Foreigner (the famous I Wanna Know What Love Is which reminds me of when me and my ex used to sit and listen to Magic Fm until the early hours chatting about anything), Paul Rodgers from Free (All Right Now just reminds me of riding in a car with the sunroof back and singing at the top of my voice) and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings who also played at Cambridge Folk festival several years ago and did a fantastic set.

The thing I love about the old bands is that nowadays you don't know who they are until they come out on stage. They come under so many different forms now. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin was in a band called Priory of Brion and played at Cambridge Folk Festival in 2000.

Thanks to my mum and her Google skills, she found out who the line up was, so I got to see him. Again, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...not many people (unless you are huge fans) would know that he is the bass player from the Rolling Stones.

It was a rather strange weekend, the weekend before Led Zepp. My old housemate, Maddog who lives and works in London came up for the Lincoln Christmas Market. We were having a chat in the local on the way home when he mentioned he’d got two tickets. As far as I knew, one was for him and one was for his mate Miles. However, Miles had pulled out at this point so Maddog offered me the ticket.

Of course I said yes without even thinking how I would afford the £125 ticket cost as well as travel to London and back. But that didn’t matter. I was seeing Led Zeppelin - I had one of the most sought-after tickets in the world! Twenty million people applied, only 9,000 pairs were sold, meaning less than 1% of the people that applied actually got a ticket.

No wonder the highest paid ticket was £83,000 by a man in Glasgow at a Children in Need auction! After hearing this, my measly £125 seemed almost excusable.

I felt so proud sitting on the tube with my arm at an angle so my coat sleeve would conveniently slip down revealing my wristband to the other passengers. It was like I was in a secret society. If you saw someone with the same wristband, a quick nod or wink to acknowledge you’d got one also was implicit, followed by a smug smile to any ‘in-betweeners’ that didn’t possess such rarity.

On reaching North Greenwich, home of the O2 arena, we were met by thousands of people taking photos, queueing for merchandise, shouting and general excitement.

We managed to get standing tickets so we ended up twelve rows from the front. We were surrounded by Americans, one of which was a 17-year-old boy who had bought his ticket off Ebay for $7,000 (approximately £3500) and literally had nothing but his clothes with him, no money and no place to stay. But he didn’t care.

The night kicked off with Harvey Goldsmith making a speech about the life of Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records whom the gig was a tribute for after he died last year at a Rolling Stones concert.

On came Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings with Pete Townshend, Ronnie Wood, Paolo Nutini, Paul Rodgers from Free and then Foreigner. But what came next was what everyone had been waiting for. Two and a half hours of Led Zeppelin. Out came vocalist Robert Plant with the same curls and strut, next came bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones without the bowl cut and looking a lot younger than his actual age of sixty-one.

Then came thirty-two year old drummer Jason Bonham, son of the original drummer John Bonham, who tragically died in his sleep in 1980 at aged thirty-two, signalling the end of the band’s 12-year career. Finally out onto the stage came one of the world’s greatest guitarists, Jimmy Page, looking very grey but still as energetic as ever.

They played such hits as Good Times Bad Times, Kashmir, Ramble On, Black Dog, Dazed And Confused, Whole Lotta Love, Rock And Roll, Trampled Under Foot and For Your Life. Plant spoke very little throughout the gig but when he did, it was to pay tribute to Ertegun who he said “ran the best record label in the world”. After they played Stairway to Heaven he shouted “Ahmet, we did it!”

After three encores the gig was finally over. Many in the audience were still left stunned, hoping they would come out just one more time. Many made their way out chattering non stop about what their favourite song was.

Many celebrities had turned out for the event. Near us were Brian May from Queen, Paris Hilton, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Vic Reeves. On the way out Maddog was so set on beating 20,000 people onto the underground, he pushed over Jamie Cullum.

In the last month or so, the music business has seen bands such as Rage against the Machine, James, Van Halen and Crowded House, as well as the legends Led Zeppelin - who supposedly only re-united for the tribute concert - come back. Are these bands going to be as good as they used to be, and are they even doing it for the music?

Maybe they’re just in need of a bob or two, and thought they’d pump out some of their old hits in the hope of gaining a few million. Surely if they’re not earning enough from royalties, that’s a bit of a hint to give it up.

However, Led Zeppelin showed they were just as good, if not better as our predecessors told us. They could still hit the notes; play the riffs and generally just rock out just like the good old days. Welcome back.