Jimmy Page & Robert Plant appear at Stairway to Heaven trial

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have appeared in court in Los Angeles to refute claims they borrowed from another track for their seminal masterpiece ‘Stairway To Heaven’.

The music legends are accused of plagiarism by the estate of late Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe (aka Randy California) who cite the alleged similarities between the 1968 Spirit song ‘Taurus’ and the 1971 Led Zeppelin track.

Wearing three-piece black suits and with their hair pulled back in ponytails, Page and Plant looked relaxed as they took to their seats opposite Randy Wolfe trustee Michael Skidmore who filed the lawsuit.

Proceedings opened with the jury of four men and four women and the rammed-to-the-rafters public gallery listening to every note of ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and then the song it allegedly ripped off.

Francis Malofiy, representing Wolfe’s estate told those gathered on the eighth floor of the Edward Roybal federal building: “This was a song that Randy California had written for the love of his life, Robin. That was her sign, Taurus.

“Little did anyone know it would fall into the hands of Jimmy Page and become the intro to ‘Stairway to Heaven.’”

Mailfoy added that Page and Plant were "incredible performers, incredible musicians but they covered other people's music and tried to make it their own.”

He also said that the entire case could be summed up in just six words “give credit where credit is due.”

In response, Page and Plant’s lawyer Robert Anderson rubbished the claims saying the pair "created Stairway to Heaven independently without resort to Taurus or without copying anything in Taurus".

Saying there was no proof Page and Plant had heard Taurus before penning Stairway to Heaven at a remote cottage in Wales, Mr Anderson played a piano version of Taurus that was allegedly different from the Led Zeppelin track.

Mr Mailfoy countered with videos of guitar interpretations of both songs in a bid to prove their similarities.

Mr Anderson also told the courtroom that the sequence of notes at the start of ‘Taurus’ that the entire case hinges on is a "descending chromatic line” and “something that appears in all kinds of songs".

In fact, he argued that such a progression “goes back centuries” and is so “commonplace” that it doesn’t warrant a need to be protected by copyright.

Presiding over proceedings, Judge Klausner urged that formalities should be observed throughout the case and told lawyers to stick to protocol.

Both Page and Plant are expected to give evidence at the trial, which is expected to last five days.

Randy Wolfe’s estate are reportedly seeking compensation of around £28million for the alleged plagiarism.