Led Zeppelin go on trial in US over plagiarism claims

Robert Plant (left) and Jimmy Page (right) have been called to the case as defendants. Credit: PA

A Los Angeles court will try to decide whether the members of Led Zeppelin themselves ripped off the riff to Stairway to Heaven.

The band's guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant, who was born in West Bromwich, are named as defendants in the lawsuit brought by the trustee of guitarist Randy Wolfe, better known by his stage name Randy California, from the band Spirit.

The trial is set to get underway later today.

Attorneys for the trustee contend that 1971's Stairway to Heaven copies music from the Spirit song Taurus, which Wolfe wrote in either 1966 or 1967.

Robert Plant (left) and Jimmy Page (right) have been called to the case as defendants. Credit: PA

Page, Plant and their bandmate John Paul Jones are all expected to testify at the trial, though Jones has been dismissed as a defendant in the case.

Led Zeppelin and Spirit performed at some concerts and festivals around the same time, but not on the same stage.

U.S District Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled in April that evidence presented in hearings made a credible case that Led Zeppelin may have heard Taurus performed before their song was created.

It is not the first time the band have faced legal action and accusations of plagiarism, in 1985 they were sued by Muddy Waters over their famous hit Whole Lotta Love, while in 2010 Jimmy Page was sued by American folk singer Jake Holmes over the song Dazed and Confused.

So do the songs sound similar? Listen to both of them below and judge for yourself...