daviebhoy Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 On the friday night before the gig Tommy Vance rock show sitting round the tents with what sounded like 1000 radio's all blasting Zep out in to the night sky and everyone singing along.What a f***ing night and then kicking the fences down at about 3 in the morning and a mad charge to get a pitch to sit on.Falling asleep and waking up to the DJ playing Freebird and a guy sitting next to me rolling the fattest joint I'd ever seen in my life and falling in love with a girl in front of me who had the best tattoo I've seen in my life.THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then they hit the stage and it was the fastest 3 hours of my life, honestly it flew bye.Then about 3 in the morning after the gig trying to put a tent up again and sitting in stunned silence at what we'd just seen and being unable to sleep due to too much adrenaline and booze and the sound of Pagey's guitar still ringing in my ears.F**k I wish I was going to the O2 just for that sort of buzz again. I'm just an aging rocker LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazz Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 On the friday night before the gig Tommy Vance rock show sitting round the tents with what sounded like 1000 radio's all blasting Zep out in to the night sky and everyone singing along.What a f***ing night and then kicking the fences down at about 3 in the morning and a mad charge to get a pitch to sit on.Falling asleep and waking up to the DJ playing Freebird and a guy sitting next to me rolling the fattest joint I'd ever seen in my life and falling in love with a girl in front of me who had the best tattoo I've seen in my life.THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then they hit the stage and it was the fastest 3 hours of my life, honestly it flew bye.Then about 3 in the morning after the gig trying to put a tent up again and sitting in stunned silence at what we'd just seen and being unable to sleep due to too much adrenaline and booze and the sound of Pagey's guitar still ringing in my ears.F**k I wish I was going to the O2 just for that sort of buzz again. I'm just an aging rocker LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, it was an awesome day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andmoreagain Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 That Friday night was a wonderful time...This thread brings it back-I was a naive 17 yr old at the time and I remember vividly Vance closing his Friday Rock Show with Freebird-At the time I was curled up next to a fire barely awake-long journey/beer....and the feeling of anticipation was immense...wonderful time erm Im an ageing rocker now too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mor7mx Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 Wish I'd been born then XD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIBLY Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 The footage from The Knebworth camp site on the DVD still brings a lump to my throat. The fence was being charged pretty regularly a long time before it went down. But the assaults just kept bouncing off. I'd just settled down in my sleeping bag when it happened again but this time peolpe were climbing it. I leapt out of my bag, threw it up over the barbed wire and up and over I went. Shredded my bag when I pulled it down though. The run to the actual arena nearly killed me. I hadn't been out of school long but the fags and booze were already taking their toll. I was literally coughing spays of blood when we reached the gate. The Marines couldn't have done it quicker! The pushing and swaying outside the arena could have been dangerous but you could take both feet off the ground without fear of falling over. They let us in before dawn - for our safety I think. We went down to a central position near the front and crashed out. Waking up and looking up the slope at this mass of Zepaholics was just an amazing site. It was supposed to be 200,000 but it looked way more than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetTheLedOut Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 The footage from The Knebworth camp site on the DVD still brings a lump to my throat. Yeah, it's not the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragster Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Wow, what a cool read!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzfan715 Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Thanks for sharing. I wish I could've been born in time to have been there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIBLY Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 We actually left Brum on the Wednesday. Four of us thumbing in 2 pairs. Graham and I got a lift straight away down the M6 and then another straight away straight into Stevenage. Barry & Ian didn't get there until the next day. We walked into a little village near the site and camped in a children,s play area. We'd arranged to be at The Station on the hour every hour until we were reunited. Graham said as we walked beack into Stevenage 'Ian'll be easy to spot he always stands out'. This was usually true, someone with his hair and scuffyness did stand out in out little corner of Warwickshire. In Stevenage that early August it was conventionally dressed people that stood out! We met them easily and went back to the playground. We spent all our time in a pub called the Lyton Arms which was the same place the stage crew were drinking. We were told that band weren't sound checking but they were going to play a tape to balance the sound. I just didn't believe it. As we were walking down to the pub on Friday Morning we heard the opening bars of Nobody's Fault But Mine coming from the site. That's no tape we said in unison and we were off - running over fields, jumping ditches and diving through hedges. We got into the arena at it's furthest point from the stage. Skinting down you couldn't tell who was on stage. Then we saw the sunlight glinting off Bonham's cymbals and we were running again. There they were just bringing NFBM to it's end. We were then treated to In The Evening for the first time because ITTOD which was supposed to be out before Knebworth was (in typical LZ style) delayed until afterwards. We were then approached by a very large gentleman and told to get out of there. Which we meekly did. Looking back, I can't believe we went so easily. If I'd have known how little time they had left I might have tried bribary! The pub was close enough to hear the rest of the SC from anyway. This was the first time Jason played with the band as he took John's stool for a couple of numbers. The only time John ever watched his band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archilles can't stand Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 4/11/79 i queued to buy tickets for 24 hours in shaftesbury avenue. (should do that today and that would sort out who really wanted tickets) I have memories of arriving at around 5am on the day of the gig, people milling around everywhere. Most things after that are pretty much a blur. I have snap shot memories of the day, Chas and Dave (Gertcha), Fairport (matty Groves), and then darkness. I remeber letting of fireworks before the encore and I vaguely remember someones sleeping bag catching fire....whoops. I DO REMEMBER WAKING UP IN A DITCH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archilles can't stand Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 4/11/79 KNEBWORTH I queued to buy tickets for 24 hours in shaftesbury avenue. (should do that today and that would sort out who really wanted tickets) I have memories of arriving at around 5am on the day of the gig, people milling around everywhere. Most things after that are pretty much a blur, its that rock and roll life style. I have snap shot memories of the day, Chas and Dave (Gertcha), Fairport (Matty Groves), and then darkness, guitars and violin bows!. I remeber setting off fireworks before the encore and I vaguely remember someones sleeping bag catching fire....whoops. I DO REMEMBER WAKING UP IN A DITCH. Oh to be 17 again!.....PS dont tell my parents they still dont know where I was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragster Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanA Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I went to Knebworth for the show on the 11th. I went with 2 friends in a rusty old Ford cortina MK2. We drove down the evening before and got there at 8pm. They were only letting limited amounts of Vehicles onto the site of the A1(M) at J7, so we went crawled slowly around the roundabout three times before being able to get onto the site. I can remember getting little sleep, and going to buy a programme at 3am. I didn't realise at the time that I had bought a bootleg program (with the red cover) and was disappointed when I found out it was not an original programme. That bootleg is now worth more than the official programme! The day seemed to drag on, and then it was all worthwhile. I am convinced I can remember Page smiling on the video screen when his string broke at the end of OTHAFA, but the footage since does not show this. I am sure I remember this though. My friend Tony swore blind that he saw Bonham jump over the drumkit. I don't remember this at all, but then again, he was smoking those strange smelling cigarettes... We then left before the first encore as Tony wanted to avoid the traffic jam leaving. Typical that all the cars were blocked in, and we then had to wait for a couple of hours before getting out of the site anyway. Some things never change! I can remember the toilets, which were really nothing more than wooden cubicles suspended over a huge open pit. Crap in every sense of the word! Was still the best concert I ever went to (I was 18 at the time) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIBLY Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 T'was Plant that jumped onto the stage (but not over the drum kit I don't thinkl) as Jimmy's solo guitar bit led into Kashmir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daviebhoy Posted November 23, 2007 Author Share Posted November 23, 2007 The journey down from Glasgow was terrible on some old rickety bus,ended up with a numb bum,5 of us with money for food and drink for about 1 day that stretched to a a trip to London on the 05/08 and a big adventure on the tube in the big city.Finally got back to Glasgow aound about the Tuesday and had to sleep for about 3 days to get back down to earth. The footage on the dvd doesn't do the crowd justice I guessed at about 250,00 to 300,000 there and the heat was incredible that day too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leddy Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 I wish I were there at that time, it must of been awsome and great to have those memories of seeing Zep !! Coooooooooooool !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledded1 Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 We had to queue all night in the street to get tickets as there were only 100 available from the one shop in our town. The pavement was hard but the atmosphere was good. We started queuing at 5pm and there were people already there. For the first show my wife and best friend went with me and we drove down getting there about 4pm on the Friday. managed to get onto the site ok. The atmoshpere was electric and the excitment around the camp you could smell and taste it. Then we realised that what we could actually smell were the loos. I have said ths before but my wife hated the toilets and refused to use them a second time and so the bushes covered he embarrassement. But once in the concert site it just seemed such a long day waiting. I could have done without other bands but it wasn't to be. Thos eof us wh o were there will know what i felt in those minutes before Zep were due onstage. I have never been so anxious, excited and nervous about seeing a band ever before or since. Well perhaps the upcoming show of course. Ans what wa wonderful evening that was. I had tears in my eyes ( nothing to do with the loo smell ths time) The welcoming roar was mind blowing for me. The time flew during the set and thenit was done, I watch the dvds of it and relive the days and singing you'll never walk alone with tens of thosands of other music fans, The second week I had no car so it was getting a on chartered bus,not a coach just those hard green double seets made of plastic. I went to my mates before getting the bus and he was in a blind panic cos he couldnt find his ticket, my advoise for him had been to put it somewhere safe cos he's hopelessat remembering things. And it was in such a safe place he couldn't remember where it was. So we had to go hoping thathe could get another ticket on he day. No internet print offs to prove it back then. Can't say I enjoyed the bus trip, one guy had bought his strereo but only had a bachman turner overdive tape and thats all we heard. It took me years to listen to you aint seen nothing yet again. The bus only took us to Stevenage and so like many others we haeaded for the shops and off licence for food and drink. It was really funny watching all the people pushing shopping trolleys nicked from the shops along the road to Knebworth. Stayed up late that night and like other ppeople the trees and fences came in handy for firewood. We headed to the show area and my mate was able to get another ticket, £8 on the day. It wasnt as ful as the first week. I remember it rained at one point early in the day before any of the bands came on and we shared our plastic sheeting with a couple of girls from Italy. Ever the gentlmen. I hated the wait even more that day especially the new barbarians who were very late on stage and were fucking awful. Again the anticipation of Zep coming on stage was incredible. The sound system was playing up and not as good as the first week. And then again it was all over in the blink of an eye. Little did I know that would definitely be the last time I would see Zep live. But 28 years later i can still vividly recall the fun and excitement and awe I felt for two days in the summer of 79. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 Wow, you have a better memory than me....I remember waiting all night uptown, but I couldn't remember exactly where I bought the tickets - must have been Shaftesbury Avenue, then! The standout memory for me on 4th Aug 79 was when Jimmy played White Summer/Black Mountain Side, hit the final note, two smoke bombs went off either side of the stage and they launched into Kashmir. Superb. I was so glad when this gig finally came out on the official DVD. I have a bootleg video of Knebworth, but I just can't watch it, the quality is so bad, it started tarnishing my memory of the greatest gigs I ever attended. Having the footage of all those denim-clad teenagers before the gig really brought the memories back. Still can't figure out why they didn't put out (all of) Earls Court as an official release...better then TSRTS in my opinion.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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