Awesome Sam! Thank you!

Awesome Sam! Love 1980

Jones himself in an interview commented the GX-1 was too cumbersome for the venues. The band also had a good amount of apathy about rehearsing the new material.

Awesome! Not as many Berlin photos as there are from the other nights. Thank you Sam

It would have been quite similar to the preceding Euro tour, along with Carouselambra definitely added, potentially Wearing and Tearing, and another early days song such as Misty Mountain or Celebration Day. Hot Dog would have been dropped. Encores would follow the Euro tour pattern. This is a realistic type of setlist.

Hannover 80 is excellent. Bonham is really into it. Jimmy struggles on the second solo in Berlin - makes it a little tough. Zurich is also quite good.

06/26 - Bonham is back to form - first half of ALS has a ridiculous tempo and the fills are exquisite. Second longest STH and longest of the LA run. It’ll Be Me is the real treat - Plant sings at the highest tone he can maintain.

06/25, to me, simply has the best atmosphere and vibe of the run. As I stated earlier Bonham is less bombastic but his subtle contributions on the night are delicious. Like you said his fills at the beginning of SA are less intense, but the two quick successive snare snaps he does to mimic Page’s guitar notes is sublime. I can’t agree on Plant however - he is simply full of energy and at the peak of his cock-rock voice. His howls at the beginning of the guitar outro solo in SA are the best he ever did them. Vocals on SIBLY, TUF, ALS, all excellent. But hey, anybody who loves Zeppelin so much and enjoys nitpicking every aspect is great by me.

I’m interested to hear your upcoming thoughts on 06/25. May have been Plant’s best night of the run - just listen to the vocals on SA. Also Jimmy plays very well. Bonham however is slow on tempo throughout the show (no where near the problems of San Diego, but noticeable nevertheless to a super fan), but it adds a laid back groove to everything and the fills at the end of Kashmir and the longest MD of the run indicate he was very present that night. Interestingly Plant welcomes Bonham back during his comments on 06/26, just like he did on 06/21 after the San Diego debacle, indicating the band knew Bonham was dragging a little.

Yes, the front facade matches. I believe Plant checked out and left shortly after the 07/03 show and was Chauferred during the night to Munich. He found Mannheim to be quite boring. Jones and Bonham departed the following day and as you stated Jimmy on 07/05.

I agree about after 09/25 - "the patches have already come off the jackets" I heavily seek out photos of the band members between 07/07 and 09/25 - don't ask me why, it just interests me. I have a couple of Bonham and two of Plant on 09/17. Do you have any in your archive that you wouldn't mind sharing with me here or in a PM? Thanks again

Thank you Steve. Something just made me think it was after the tour but very likely before 1980/09/25. Please let me know what you find

Steve, Sam, I was hoping you may be able to help me identify the date and location of this photo. I love the '80 tour and this shot likely was taken at that time. It could however be later in the year after Plant's return to England in July as his hair seems a little longer than during the tour. There are a few photos from September '80 of Plant where it can plainly be seen he was growing his hair out again, perhaps to assume a slightly scaled down but still rock-God like presence for the upcoming America jaunt. Thank you for any help you can provide!

Try TUF, Vienna ‘80

I listen to one to two 1980 shows a week. Seems crazy but whatever floats your boat... I also listen to at least one 1977 show a week, then likely one 1972 show and one 1975 show a month. After that sprinkle a little '69 occasionally...

SIBLY is consistently played below average on this tour, however Brussels, Hannover and Munich's versions seem to rise above. The other end of the spectrum finds both Mannheim performances and Berlin. Tea for One or I'm Gonna Crawl would have served better by this point.

Does anyone know why there seemingly are so few offstage photos of the band during the L.A. Forum run? There are a good number of offstage shots taken in New York earlier in the month. Is it just me? Surely there are photos from the after show party on the 23rd in the hills. What about the 26th - I wanna see Joney's strawberry tart dammit!?

1977/04/28 is the best show outside of LA that year in my opinion, and is clearly stronger than 06/25.

^^ Pontiac MI 1977/05/01 in the early hours of the morning

I think Seattle is the video soundtrack. The debate goes back and forth. Either way I think it's too dry

1977/06/07 New York, specifically NQ. I'm 99% sure Jonesy plays a brief snippet of Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind", which came out the year before. Very cool.

You rang... I firmly believe 6/25 is a subpar performance from Bonham. He is clearly off with regard to energy and his playing is a 1/4 step or 1/2 step slow. This is why SA and NQ from this night never get off the ground. I'll be the first to admit that the OOT is the longest known Forum performance (the recording of 6/26 is incomplete) and is an impressive version and the end of Kashmir is quite strong, but overall he is not playing like he should. Plant comments twice the next night that on 6/26 its "nice to have John Bonham back with us" and then later "Bonham was suffering from another case of food poisoning". ALS from 6/25 lacks the incessant creative fills and overall aggressive pace of the other Forum version. I'm not saying its bad, his playing is still much better than San Diego. But he's off. Has everyone besides Sue listened to 6/22 and 6/26? 6/25 is way way off from those, not to mention 6/21 and 6/23.

I agree it's silly, but for a time that's how they were differentiated

1977/04/27 was titled "Destroyer" 1977/04/28 was titled "The Destroyer"

Be on the lookout for a new version of this classic boot, in this case titled "The Destroyer" (which used to signify 1977/04/28 but in this case means 1977/04/27). Said to feature much improved sound (I'm not sure how it could get much better) it perhaps may feature more tape and less gaps (don't anyone hold their breath yet though). There will be three versions with different covers released on the old Tarantu... label, so for the hardcore collectors this will be a pain in the butt.