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Americans that saw Zep in 1980


Tony Harden

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I'm too young to have saw Zep live but I have talked to different people who did. 

I have talked to: two people that saw Zep in '68, two that saw them in '70, three that saw them in '73, two that saw them in '75, and eight that saw them in '77; with the different people having seen them across three different cities on the '77 tour.  The one thing that all of these different shows had/have in common is that they were all in the USA.

I actually talked to somebody a few days ago that saw the the Berlin '80 show.  He was in the US Army at the time and was stationed in Germany.  For all of the criticism that this show has gotten my friend's only complaint was that he couldn't believe there was no bow solo.  I told him that there was no bow on the '80 tour. 

I am definitely blown away at talking to someone that actually saw the band in '80 and at their last concert. 

I have thought about this before but it came to a head here.  It seems to me, and I beg opinions here, that there were more Americans that saw Led Zep on the '80 tour than anyone would ever believe.  I have wondered if maybe 20% of the crowds at the '80 were Americans.  I know that's a large number but still...  It seems to me even at the very end of their career that Led Zep could bring us Americans in, and even from the other side of the world.  What do you guys think?

    

 

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Hi Tony,

From what I have heard, it was more like 70% of the crowd were Americans at the Europe 80' gigs, at least the ones in Germany. Something else most people do not realize, the shows always sound much different at the gig vs. a bootleg of the show. I have only seen a handful of bad shows due to playing (Van Halen in 84', Aerosmith in 90', .38 Special in 94') and a few due to either bad acoustics or tech trouble with the gear. The fact is, unless you really, really are sucking bigtime the ambience of the hall will mask most mistakes. Of course it is also typical for most people to only really remember either their favorite song or the last song played, as long as those are good most will walk away and think it was a killer show.

As much flack as the 80' tour gets, the fact is most of it is just BS. The majority of the gigs were played well and a good portion were played excellent with Page turning in some of the best performances in his career. Heartbreaker in Rotterdam, most of the ALS's, and what I consider one of the best WLL ever, Berlin. If anything the weak link on the 80' tour was Bonzo, but not really bad, just somewhat subdued compared to prior tours. It seems that many fans think every show should have been played at the intensity of Japan 71', Europe 73', or NY & LA 77' otherwise forget it. Back in the 60's & 70's if a band lasted 3-5 years it was considered long term. For Zep to have lasted 12 was a damn miracle of the time and they are but human, they are gonna play some less than stellar shows here and there...ever band has, especially those who stick around for a while.

 

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Tony, not sure how old you are but until recently, the U.S. always had a significant percentage of its military personnel stationed across Europe at many U.S. bases from the end of WW II to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Germany, in particular, had a heavy U.S. military presence. 

There is no question many U.S. servicemen and their families attended Led Zeppelin's 1980 European tour. 

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10 hours ago, Strider said:

Tony, not sure how old you are but until recently, the U.S. always had a significant percentage of its military personnel stationed across Europe at many U.S. bases from the end of WW II to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Germany, in particular, had a heavy U.S. military presence. 

There is no question many U.S. servicemen and their families attended Led Zeppelin's 1980 European tour. 

Those German shows must have had the shortest haired audience members in the groups live playing history.

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16 hours ago, Strider said:

Tony, not sure how old you are but until recently, the U.S. always had a significant percentage of its military personnel stationed across Europe at many U.S. bases from the end of WW II to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Germany, in particular, had a heavy U.S. military presence. 

There is no question many U.S. servicemen and their families attended Led Zeppelin's 1980 European tour. 

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I am 49.  I will be 50 in July 2017.  I was 12 when Led Zeppelin performed the Berlin 1980 show!!

 

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