I once turned down the chance to see rock legends Led Zeppelin play at a packed indoor stadium in Seattle during their last, crazy, sell-out tour of the United States in 1977.

D’oh! Thirty-five years on, I wasn’t going to miss out on possibly the next best thing when I heard tribute act, Hats Off To Led Zeppelin, were playing just down the road at York Barbican on Friday night.

There was a disconcertingly small audience – the auditorium was barely a quarter full- but those who turned up were not disappointed as the band took them back to the 70s with authentic renditions of Led Zep classics such as the hypnotic Kashmir before winding up with the spellbinding Stairway to Heaven.

Lead singer Peter Eldridge, from the West End production of We Will Rock You, may have long straight hair rather than Robert Plant’s tangled mass of curls, but shut your eyes and it is Plant performing before you.

And Jack Tanner, from the world tours of Thriller Live and Dancing in the Streets, does a very credible Jimmy Page on guitars.

Completing the line-up was Simon Wicker as the late drummer John Bonham and Kevin Oliver Jones playing John Paul Jones on keyboards.

It’s probably no surprise that the band – whose name is a reference to the Led Zep song Hats off to (Roy) Harper - is so good, as their manager is Warren Grant, none other than the son of Zeppelin’s legendary boss, the late Peter Grant.