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Jimmy Page, Jack White vexed by music videogames

Videogames like Rock Band and Guitar Hero may be one of the few bright lights in the flailing music industry, but real-life guitar heroes like Jimmy Page and Jack White are unimpressed.

“If you start with the first track on the first (self-titled Led Zeppelin) album, “Good Times Bad Times,” and you think of the drum part that John Bonham did there, how many drummers in the world can actually play that? Let alone Dad on a Christmas morning? There might be a lot of alcohol to be consumed over Christmas, he still ain’t gonna get it,” Led Zeppelin founder Page told journalists at a Beverly Hills news conference on Friday.

Added White, the frontman for the White Stripes: “I do know it’s depressing to have a label come and tell you that this is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music. That’s like the only outlet now, that you have to put it in a videogame to get it in front of them. That’s a little sad. But I don’t like to tell people what format that they get things in … But I do think there’s a loss of romance.”

The duo, along with U2 axeman the Edge, co-star in the feature documentary “It Might Get Loud,” which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 14. The film, from Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”), depicts each rocker’s romance with his guitar, and climaxes on a Hollywood soundstage where they jam and swap war stories.

“There are a lot of great guitar players who are virtuosos who can be note-perfect and can play extraordinary ways, but only a few I think that are searchers,” Guggenheim said of his casting choices. “We were just trying to find three really fascinating people who are still searching, and still trying to tell their story.”

The Edge is rehearsing for U2′s upcoming world tour, so he was unable to attend the press event. Asked whether the film might inspire more-formal collaborations between Page and White, both were cagey.

Led Zeppelin tour dead for now — Jimmy Page

Led Zeppelin fans praying for good news on a rumored reunion tour would not have been encouraged by guitarist Jimmy Page at a Toronto film festival press conference where he was promoting the documentary film “It Might Get Loud”.

The film, a love letter to the electric guitar, features Page, U2 guitarist The Edge, and White Stripes frontman Jack White discussing their musical backgrounds and jamming with each other on a soundstage.

But with all three rockers assembled in Toronto, the “elephant in the room”, as one reporter put it, was whether recent jam sessions with Page, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer Jason Bonham would lead to a tour.

Page and Jones are founding band members, while Bonham is the son of original drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980.

“We’re not actually really recording. We played at the O2 (concert in London last year). That was our reunion,” Page said, adding “It’s nothing as monumental as what people are speculating and projecting.”

Moderator George Stroumboulopoulos was clearly trying to shield Page from having to answer questions about a reunion, redirecting questions from two reporters on the subject.

Finally, on the third try, Page answered.