Robert Plant would rather listen to wailing Berber music than reform Led Zeppelin.

The 'Black Dog' singer dissolved the rock band after the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980 and despite frequently being approached about reforming with the group's remaining surviving members - Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones - for a full tour he always turns them down.

The musician insists he is more interested in working on other projects - such as playing with nomadic Berber and Tuareg musicians from the tribes of North Africa.

He said: "It's almost as if people can't see that I have other projects. It's like a woman with white heels and a pencil skirt passing by will attract my eyes, but most will miss it completely.

"But yes, some shrieking Berber music, blues musician Charley Patton, paying your own way to the Sahara to sing - it's insane. But if you want to play with the Tuareg, you've got to get there."

Long-haired Plant - who has a particularly large vocal range and is able to hit particularly high notes - also said the people of the tribes viewed him in a particularly strange way when he went to sing with them, and they weren't too sure of his gender.

He added: "A radio presenter interviewed some of the Tuareg guys and asked them what they thought of me. They said they weren't really sure whether I was a woman or not.

"The whole idea of it was great, their response wasn't that the songs were good, but about the gender of the guy singing them."