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Earls Court - an eye-witness account


Victor

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I've mentioned in a few posts that I'd seen Led Zep at the final night of the Earls Court concerts, and I've had a few messages asking me to expand, to put into words what it was actually like to go and see them, I did do a write up at the time, when I was 16 so bear with me...

 

First I think I need to put a few things in perspective. Back in 1975 there was no YouTube or mp3's. If you didn't see Led Zep in concert then you had no idea what they were like. There were no TV performances, no singles, very little radio play. At that point, no live album. I was fortunate enough to have a handful of bootlegs, so I was aware of how they never played studio versions, and how tracks like Dazed & Confused or Whole Lotta Love had continued to evolve through live performances. If you were a Zep fan, apart from the albums, and bootlegs if you could get them, you collected any snippets or pics from music papers and magazines. So to go from collecting every little item you could get your hands on to the sudden possibility of a full blown concert was absolutely epic. On top of that they were bringing their US gear with them, lights, screen, effects, lasers etc. 1974 had been such a quiet year for Zep fans and suddenly 75 had exploded with Physical Graffiti and a world tour.

 

In those days you couldn't get tickets online, you either had to queue up at the venue box office or send your money off by post. I lived in Northern England about 250 miles from London so my only option was sending off the money for a ticket. On reading that all tickets had sold out within hours I realised there wasn't much hope. Even when an extra two concerts were added, my envelope returned without any tickets. The next option was to buy all the music papers that week and see in the classified ads if anyone had spares for sale. There were quite a few. So off  I trudged to the nearest public phone (hey this was an industrial town in northern England mid 70's...home phones were luxuries!). I rang every single ad, without any success. The very last person I phoned had just sold his, but he said a friend of his might have a couple of spares, I'd have to ring back tomorrow. Fortunately the next day I found that they were going spare. The tickets face value was £2 but these were going for £10 - (a fortune for a 16 year old at the time). I had to get a bus for a couple of hours to Manchester, then a taxi to the guys place to get the tickets. One for me and one for my sis. People I knew thought I was crazy!

 

After months of growing anticipation the day finally arrives. Its a 250 mile journey by bus to London going early morning and arriving in London around midday. It really feels like a pilgrimage. We can see a few London sites, see the concert and sleep in the railway station before going home the next day. We last until 2pm and decide to head to Earls Court and see whats going on. People have already started turning up, and with the increasing crowds we are finally allowed in at around 6pm with 2 hours to wait. Our seats are about half way down the side, fairly high up. So its a good view of the whole stage and the screen above the lights. Seeing John Bonhams drum kit stood centre stage with its triple linked rings symbol on the bass drum suddenly makes you realise what you are about to see. Just that alone feels like seeing a famous landmark or icon that you've only ever seen in pictures. The time passes as more people arrive. The crowd gets louder and more excited. Although the start is scheduled for 8 we all expect the usual delays. At 7.45 a smartly dressed person comes up to the microphone..

 ‘Could you be coming in off the corridors as the show will be starting a few minutes earlier!’

Its like a disaster movie in reverse, everyone comes rushing in screaming and shouting heading for their seats. The tension and atmosphere of anticipation is amazing.

The lights dim and people scream, cheer and whistle, a figure walks on stage in a single light, it is UK DJ Alan Freeman..

‘We’re hear tonight because we share the same taste!’ …another cheer…

‘Ladies & Gentlemen…..LED ZEPPELIN!’…..the audience erupts.

Then darkness, a drum is hit, a bass note twangs. My heart is loud!  Then in the darkness drums...John Bonham beats out the opening of ‘Rock & Roll’…the lights go up in a blaze with the opening chords...most of the audience look as if they are propelled from their seats . Robert Plant bare chested with his golden mane and Jimmy Page in his shiny black dragon suit gliding and strutting about the stage. John Bonham hits his drums so hard that the reverberation through the stage is picked up through the mics. I’ve never heard any band with a drum sound like this. The drum ending of Rock & Roll gives everyone a glimpse of what is to come later and the final notes became the opening to ‘Sick Again’.

‘Good Evening!’ shouts Plant, ‘Good evening!’ roars the crowd.

Plant chats between most of the tracks. He explains how all songs start 'Over the hills and far away'. His vocals are not the high pitched Houses of the Holy version, they are roared out much lower and actually works better

Then ‘In my time of Dying’, with skullcrushing power! The ending is a showcase for Robert Plant as he wails through ‘Don’t you make my dying!!’, louder and louder.

‘Tangerine’ – Plant explains is a song of first love and the chorus is sung by all four of them.

‘Kashmir’! four mirror balls above the stage bathe the audience in multi coloured lights. (In those days you could still smoke in public places and most of the audience do, so the light effects work so much better.) Plant stands in classic pose centre stage. A powerful rendition. Without much pause straight into ‘The Song Remains the Same’ and then the ‘Rain Song’.

Then comes what Plant calls ‘The human part of the show’, three chairs are arranged on the stage. Jimmy with acoustic guitar and JPJ with mandolin. Plant chats about Welsh mountains, honey and lemon drinks, and how loose John Bonham is! They play  ‘Going to California’, ‘That’s the Way’ and ‘Bron-y-aur Stomp’ with the audience joining in that classic handclap. You can see they are all enjoying this.

Darkness, then dry ice bathed in blue and green light provides the atmospheric setting for ‘No Quarter’ unlike the version on TSRTS this one really is JPJ’s solo spot. He sits at a grand piano and plays classical pieces some with a synth? in the background, then just piano that becomes jazzier and funkier till Page and Bonham join in, then  a return to classical piano. Most people have no idea JPJ can play like this and are completely blown away.

If they aren’t completely blown away then they certainly are when ‘Trample Underfoot’ starts.

That is followed by…’Yes! John Bonham…Moby Dick!’

The next half hour is incredible. It’s like watching an automaton, at times you’d think that if this was on film you’d suspect they had speeded parts up. John Bonham is an incredibly visual drummer, he can play fast, complex drum parts but his arms are still raised above his head each time to get full power on the downstrike. The 'hands only' part is equally amazing as he smashes at the cymbals and back elbows the gong. The sounds he gets from the kettle drums reverberate around the hall before the final drums and sticks climax that leaves everybody with mouths wide open.

‘Take a bow John!’ shouts Plant…he stand s and bows and a roar goes up.

‘Take a bow John!’ shouts Plant…he stands again and another roar goes up.

‘Take a bow John!’ shouts Plant…he waves Plant away and downs a pint of beer, another roar goes up!.

The lights go out and the slow unmistakable bass of ‘Dazed and Confused’ starts, Page joins in with a wailing guitar. A purple flare explodes at the back of the stage and Plant roars…’Bin Dazed and Confused for so long its not true!’ This is a track that has grown and grown over the years. A cheer of delight from the audience as Page picks up his violin bow. Purple and Grey smoke begins to rise out of the stage around him. Three green laser beams stream across the hall from the back converging in the smoke on the stage. The guitar begins to shriek loudly! In fact it gets painful its so high pitched and loud! Page stands with bow pointing upwards, the bow crashes down, an iron chord splits the air, the magician points his bow at a corner of the hall from where the chord returns as a single equally loud echo, then over and over he thrashes the guitar. The guitar squeals and moans and the audience sits there mesmerised. 

What can follow that…..’Stairway to Heaven’. Page with his classic double neck, and Plant with his hair bathed in a corona of golden light. Cheers erupt as the first few notes are played, more cheers as …’Theres a lady who sure all that glitters is gold….’

…then as Plant sings  the final line, white lights focus on a huge revolving mirror ball that immerses the audience in a sea of  light.

The show is over but the audience cheer, stamp, scream for a full ten minutes before they come out for the encore…’Whole lotta Love’. Page takes off his guitar to play the theremin for the abstract middle section and Plant joins in with roars and wails.  Multi coloured flares explode above the stage and they tear into Black Dog for a final blistering finish.

Then they are gone, the house lights come up and nobody moves, more cheers and stamping. Slowly a few people begin to file out, but then have to come running back in as the lights go down again…

‘We never do this!’ shouts Plant, as Page starts Heartbreaker, I can hear shouts of ‘Oh yeaaaaah!!!!‘ and ‘fuuuuuckin’ heeell!!!! in the seats near me as Page goes into a frenzy. They finish that and straight into ‘Communication Breakdown’ and the final finish. Its now after 11.45, everyone leaves dazed but not confused.

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Love it. I think the thing we're missing, even with the home system cranked up, is how loud Zep must have been - I see that theme in all the eyewitness reviews, yours included. I sorta understand, not having seen Zep live, but I did see April Wine a couple years ago when they played a small venue... now, I play my music LOUD, at home and in the car, but nothing prepared me for the punishing volume of that show (done by a couple of 60-somethings, mind you). By contrast, my memory of seeing Tom Petty in a stadium does not register as anything unusual for a live experience. So, it seems, basically, that for those who have seen them Zep registered louder than just about anyone. Which is pretty amazing, given how they mostly played huge venues where it's not so easy to fill an arena with sound...

Thanks so much for sharing the memories!

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47 minutes ago, Boogie Chillen 82 said:

Love it. I think the thing we're missing, even with the home system cranked up, is how loud Zep must have been - I see that theme in all the eyewitness reviews, yours included. I sorta understand, not having seen Zep live, but I did see April Wine a couple years ago when they played a small venue... now, I play my music LOUD, at home and in the car, but nothing prepared me for the punishing volume of that show (done by a couple of 60-somethings, mind you). By contrast, my memory of seeing Tom Petty in a stadium does not register as anything unusual for a live experience. So, it seems, basically, that for those who have seen them Zep registered louder than just about anyone. Which is pretty amazing, given how they mostly played huge venues where it's not so easy to fill an arena with sound...

Thanks so much for sharing the memories!

PA systems in the '70s were not very efficient at producing bass. In order to get the low end to kick you in the chest back then, bands had to feed a lot of power to the speakers. When they did that, the guitars and other instruments had to be cranked up as well so the bass didn't overwhelm them. Because of that, you ended up with a lot of extremely loud concerts in that era. And playing really loud shows also eventually became some sort of badge of honor, and bands would turn up the volume even more than necessary so they could proudly proclaim that they were the loudest band in the world.

Now that PAs can easily generate a thumping low end with less power, bands are able to turn down the rest of the instruments too, so concerts don't need to be as loud as they were in the '70s. Current bands have also seen what extreme volume did to the people in earlier bands (think Brian Johnson), so they have an incentive to not play as loudly now so they can still hear when they get old. As for April Wine, they may just like being loud, or their sound person may have not have been on the ball when you saw them.

Edited by SteveZ98
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8 hours ago, Victor said:

 

I've mentioned in a few posts that I'd seen Led Zep at the final night of the Earls Court concerts, and I've had a few messages asking me to expand, to put into words what it was actually like to go and see them, I did do a write up at the time, when I was 16 so bear with me...

 

First I think I need to put a few things in perspective. Back in 1975 there was no YouTube or mp3's. If you didn't see Led Zep in concert then you had no idea what they were like. There were no TV performances, no singles, very little radio play. At that point, no live album. I was fortunate enough to have a handful of bootlegs, so I was aware of how they never played studio versions, and how tracks like Dazed & Confused or Whole Lotta Love had continued to evolve through live performances. If you were a Zep fan, apart from the albums, and bootlegs if you could get them, you collected any snippets or pics from music papers and magazines. So to go from collecting every little item you could get your hands on to the sudden possibility of a full blown concert was absolutely epic. On top of that they were bringing their US gear with them, lights, screen, effects, lasers etc. 1974 had been such a quiet year for Zep fans and suddenly 75 had exploded with Physical Graffiti and a world tour.

 

In those days you couldn't get tickets online, you either had to queue up at the venue box office or send your money off by post. I lived in Northern England about 250 miles from London so my only option was sending off the money for a ticket. On reading that all tickets had sold out within hours I realised there wasn't much hope. Even when an extra two concerts were added, my envelope returned without any tickets. The next option was to buy all the music papers that week and see in the classified ads if anyone had spares for sale. There were quite a few. So off  I trudged to the nearest public phone (hey this was an industrial town in northern England mid 70's...home phones were luxuries!). I rang every single ad, without any success. The very last person I phoned had just sold his, but he said a friend of his might have a couple of spares, I'd have to ring back tomorrow. Fortunately the next day I found that they were going spare. The tickets face value was £2 but these were going for £10 - (a fortune for a 16 year old at the time). I had to get a bus for a couple of hours to Manchester, then a taxi to the guys place to get the tickets. One for me and one for my sis. People I knew thought I was crazy!

 

After months of growing anticipation the day finally arrives. Its a 250 mile journey by bus to London going early morning and arriving in London around midday. It really feels like a pilgrimage. We can see a few London sites, see the concert and sleep in the railway station before going home the next day. We last until 2pm and decide to head to Earls Court and see whats going on. People have already started turning up, and with the increasing crowds we are finally allowed in at around 6pm with 2 hours to wait. Our seats are about half way down the side, fairly high up. So its a good view of the whole stage and the screen above the lights. Seeing John Bonhams drum kit stood centre stage with its triple linked rings symbol on the bass drum suddenly makes you realise what you are about to see. Just that alone feels like seeing a famous landmark or icon that you've only ever seen in pictures. The time passes as more people arrive. The crowd gets louder and more excited. Although the start is scheduled for 8 we all expect the usual delays. At 7.45 a smartly dressed person comes up to the microphone..

 ‘Could you be coming in off the corridors as the show will be starting a few minutes earlier!’

Its like a disaster movie in reverse, everyone comes rushing in screaming and shouting heading for their seats. The tension and atmosphere of anticipation is amazing.

The lights dim and people scream, cheer and whistle, a figure walks on stage in a single light, it is UK DJ Alan Freeman..

‘We’re hear tonight because we share the same taste!’ …another cheer…

‘Ladies & Gentlemen…..LED ZEPPELIN!’…..the audience erupts.

Then darkness, a drum is hit, a bass note twangs. My heart is loud!  Then in the darkness drums...John Bonham beats out the opening of ‘Rock & Roll’…the lights go up in a blaze with the opening chords...most of the audience look as if they are propelled from their seats . Robert Plant bare chested with his golden mane and Jimmy Page in his shiny black dragon suit gliding and strutting about the stage. John Bonham hits his drums so hard that the reverberation through the stage is picked up through the mics. I’ve never heard any band with a drum sound like this. The drum ending of Rock & Roll gives everyone a glimpse of what is to come later and the final notes became the opening to ‘Sick Again’.

‘Good Evening!’ shouts Plant, ‘Good evening!’ roars the crowd.

Plant chats between most of the tracks. He explains how all songs start 'Over the hills and far away'. His vocals are not the high pitched Houses of the Holy version, they are roared out much lower and actually works better

Then ‘In my time of Dying’, with skullcrushing power! The ending is a showcase for Robert Plant as he wails through ‘Don’t you make my dying!!’, louder and louder.

‘Tangerine’ – Plant explains is a song of first love and the chorus is sung by all four of them.

‘Kashmir’! four mirror balls above the stage bathe the audience in multi coloured lights. (In those days you could still smoke in public places and most of the audience do, so the light effects work so much better.) Plant stands in classic pose centre stage. A powerful rendition. Without much pause straight into ‘The Song Remains the Same’ and then the ‘Rain Song’.

Then comes what Plant calls ‘The human part of the show’, three chairs are arranged on the stage. Jimmy with acoustic guitar and JPJ with mandolin. Plant chats about Welsh mountains, honey and lemon drinks, and how loose John Bonham is! They play  ‘Going to California’, ‘That’s the Way’ and ‘Bron-y-aur Stomp’ with the audience joining in that classic handclap. You can see they are all enjoying this.

Darkness, then dry ice bathed in blue and green light provides the atmospheric setting for ‘No Quarter’ unlike the version on TSRTS this one really is JPJ’s solo spot. He sits at a grand piano and plays classical pieces some with a synth? in the background, then just piano that becomes jazzier and funkier till Page and Bonham join in, then  a return to classical piano. Most people have no idea JPJ can play like this and are completely blown away.

If they aren’t completely blown away then they certainly are when ‘Trample Underfoot’ starts.

That is followed by…’Yes! John Bonham…Moby Dick!’

The next half hour is incredible. It’s like watching an automaton, at times you’d think that if this was on film you’d suspect they had speeded parts up. John Bonham is an incredibly visual drummer, he can play fast, complex drum parts but his arms are still raised above his head each time to get full power on the downstrike. The 'hands only' part is equally amazing as he smashes at the cymbals and back elbows the gong. The sounds he gets from the kettle drums reverberate around the hall before the final drums and sticks climax that leaves everybody with mouths wide open.

‘Take a bow John!’ shouts Plant…he stand s and bows and a roar goes up.

‘Take a bow John!’ shouts Plant…he stands again and another roar goes up.

‘Take a bow John!’ shouts Plant…he waves Plant away and downs a pint of beer, another roar goes up!.

The lights go out and the slow unmistakable bass of ‘Dazed and Confused’ starts, Page joins in with a wailing guitar. A purple flare explodes at the back of the stage and Plant roars…’Bin Dazed and Confused for so long its not true!’ This is a track that has grown and grown over the years. A cheer of delight from the audience as Page picks up his violin bow. Purple and Grey smoke begins to rise out of the stage around him. Three green laser beams stream across the hall from the back converging in the smoke on the stage. The guitar begins to shriek loudly! In fact it gets painful its so high pitched and loud! Page stands with bow pointing upwards, the bow crashes down, an iron chord splits the air, the magician points his bow at a corner of the hall from where the chord returns as a single equally loud echo, then over and over he thrashes the guitar. The guitar squeals and moans and the audience sits there mesmerised. 

What can follow that…..’Stairway to Heaven’. Page with his classic double neck, and Plant with his hair bathed in a corona of golden light. Cheers erupt as the first few notes are played, more cheers as …’Theres a lady who sure all that glitters is gold….’

…then as Plant sings  the final line, white lights focus on a huge revolving mirror ball that immerses the audience in a sea of  light.

The show is over but the audience cheer, stamp, scream for a full ten minutes before they come out for the encore…’Whole lotta Love’. Page takes off his guitar to play the theremin for the abstract middle section and Plant joins in with roars and wails.  Multi coloured flares explode above the stage and they tear into Black Dog for a final blistering finish.

Then they are gone, the house lights come up and nobody moves, more cheers and stamping. Slowly a few people begin to file out, but then have to come running back in as the lights go down again…

‘We never do this!’ shouts Plant, as Page starts Heartbreaker, I can hear shouts of ‘Oh yeaaaaah!!!!‘ and ‘fuuuuuckin’ heeell!!!! in the seats near me as Page goes into a frenzy. They finish that and straight into ‘Communication Breakdown’ and the final finish. Its now after 11.45, everyone leaves dazed but not confused.

Victor - great write up. Where are you from (I’m a scouser). I couldn’t go to Earls Court cos I was only 5 months old 😀. Must be awesome to have this gig as such a good quality bootleg. I reckon no quarter from this show is fantastic 

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6 hours ago, Xolo1974 said:

Victor - great write up. Where are you from (I’m a scouser). I couldn’t go to Earls Court cos I was only 5 months old 😀. Must be awesome to have this gig as such a good quality bootleg. I reckon no quarter from this show is fantastic 

I'm from Halifax originally, now down in Essex by the coast near Frinton.

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9 hours ago, gibsonfan159 said:

Jealous, for sure. Did you get a chance to see them at Knebworth?

Yes I saw them on the first date 4th of August. All the video clips miss out what a clear day it was... especially during Jimmy Pages violin bow solo there was a full moon over the stage, it was almost as if they had planned this!

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10 hours ago, Boogie Chillen 82 said:

Love it. I think the thing we're missing, even with the home system cranked up, is how loud Zep must have been - I see that theme in all the eyewitness reviews, yours included. I sorta understand, not having seen Zep live, but I did see April Wine a couple years ago when they played a small venue... now, I play my music LOUD, at home and in the car, but nothing prepared me for the punishing volume of that show (done by a couple of 60-somethings, mind you). By contrast, my memory of seeing Tom Petty in a stadium does not register as anything unusual for a live experience. So, it seems, basically, that for those who have seen them Zep registered louder than just about anyone. Which is pretty amazing, given how they mostly played huge venues where it's not so easy to fill an arena with sound...

Thanks so much for sharing the memories!

I dont think there was much concept of health & safety in those days or any rigid regulations on sound level limits. I remember seeing an interview with Jack Bruce (I think) about Creams initial US concerts. They didnt want to be like a Beatles concert where you couldnt hear them because of the screams, so they had to drown out the audience.

The first band I ever saw live was Black Sabbath in 1972 in the Bradford George Hall (smallish venue in UK) and I was in shock at how loud it was! The audience had packed the empty area between the stage and the front row, when the first riffs came out of the speakers at the side of the stage it was like a physical force blasting people back! 

Edited by Victor
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On 2/23/2018 at 6:18 PM, SteveZ98 said:

PA systems in the '70s were not very efficient at producing bass. In order to get the low end to kick you in the chest back then, bands had to feed a lot of power to the speakers. When they did that, the guitars and other instruments had to be cranked up as well so the bass didn't overwhelm them. Because of that, you ended up with a lot of extremely loud concerts in that era. And playing really loud shows also eventually became some sort of badge of honor, and bands would turn up the volume even more than necessary so they could proudly proclaim that they were the loudest band in the world.

Now that PAs can easily generate a thumping low end with less power, bands are able to turn down the rest of the instruments too, so concerts don't need to be as loud as they were in the '70s. Current bands have also seen what extreme volume did to the people in earlier bands (think Brian Johnson), so they have an incentive to not play as loudly now so they can still hear when they get old. As for April Wine, they may just like being loud, or their sound person may have not have been on the ball when you saw them.

The great thing about seeing Zeppelin in 70's, even if you were in the nosebleed seats, you got the awesomeness of the sound. I learned early on, to stuff tissue in my ears, which made it possible to hear the notes better, particularly if you were sitting close to the stage getting the direct blast of the stage monitors.

To contrast, when I saw P&P I was shocked, that sitting in balcony in the back of Reunion Arena in Dallas, that the sound pressure level in the hall was actually *less* than what I experienced  when I listened to "Led Zeppelin" favorites at home. After experiencing "Kashmir" at 1977 volume levels, the 90's "Kashmir" experience was quite underwhelming.

When bootleggers re-mix concerts, no matter how loud the bass input is, to mimic what it was like at a Led Zeppelin concert, the guitar --always-- has to ride above the rest. Always.

What I do know, is that anyone that got to experience a Led Zeppelin concert in-the-flesh, got more than any film or recording can portray. So, while all I have to go on from the EC and Knebworth shows are tapes and video.... I know that "being there" was so much more satisfying.

The highlight of the Dallas 1975 show was D&C. And TU and TSRTS were also awesome. The final Dallas encore with "Heartbreaker," was the Cherry on Top!!

As to Robert singing in a lower register --- I couldn't give a Flying Fuck !!!! I never was about "that high pitch of Robert sends me to the moon and I've got have it forever!!!"

Thanks for your details about how you got tickets, and how you go to the show. Someday, I might indulge, and write about the details of my Zep going experiences. There was no one tell back then. No internet. No fourm. No FB. No Twitter. Probably a good thing for LZ and their offstage lives!

 

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4 hours ago, The Rover said:

The great thing about seeing Zeppelin in 70's, even if you were in the nosebleed seats, you got the awesomeness of the sound. I learned early on, to stuff tissue in my ears, which made it possible to hear the notes better, particularly if you were sitting close to the stage getting the direct blast of the stage monitors.

To contrast, when I saw P&P I was shocked, that sitting in balcony in the back of Reunion Arena in Dallas, that the sound pressure level in the hall was actually *less* than what I experienced  when I listened to "Led Zeppelin" favorites at home. After experiencing "Kashmir" at 1977 volume levels, the 90's "Kashmir" experience was quite underwhelming.

When bootleggers re-mix concerts, no matter how loud the bass input is, to mimic what it was like at a Led Zeppelin concert, the guitar --always-- has to ride above the rest. Always.

What I do know, is that anyone that got to experience a Led Zeppelin concert in-the-flesh, got more than any film or recording can portray. So, while all I have to go on from the EC and Knebworth shows are tapes and video.... I know that "being there" was so much more satisfying.

The highlight of the Dallas 1975 show was D&C. And TU and TSRTS were also awesome. The final Dallas encore with "Heartbreaker," was the Cherry on Top!!

As to Robert singing in a lower register --- I couldn't give a Flying Fuck !!!! I never was about "that high pitch of Robert sends me to the moon and I've got have it forever!!!"

Thanks for your details about how you got tickets, and how you go to the show. Someday, I might indulge, and write about the details of my Zep going experiences. There was no one tell back then. No internet. No fourm. No FB. No Twitter. Probably a good thing for LZ and their offstage lives!

 

I think the 'high register' made him totally unique. It made him sound at times quite inhuman, animalistic, unearthly, and those albums Zep 3 to Houses and parts of P.Graff were unbelievable. Having said that, if someone asked me for my favourite vocal album ever, I think I'd have to head for the LA Forum in 1973 in which he didnt sing high register. I'm sure its a topic thats been covered before somewhere, but its still abit of a mystery to me why at that still young age he had to switch vocal styles. I'm assuming that the volume he used to sing at, the high register 'strain', and the fact he didnt do a vocal warm up before shows, night after night had something to do with it, but it just seemed such a dramatic change from 72 to 73? 

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8 hours ago, The Rover said:

The great thing about seeing Zeppelin in 70's, even if you were in the nosebleed seats, you got the awesomeness of the sound. I learned early on, to stuff tissue in my ears, which made it possible to hear the notes better, particularly if you were sitting close to the stage getting the direct blast of the stage monitors.

To contrast, when I saw P&P I was shocked, that sitting in balcony in the back of Reunion Arena in Dallas, that the sound pressure level in the hall was actually *less* than what I experienced  when I listened to "Led Zeppelin" favorites at home. After experiencing "Kashmir" at 1977 volume levels, the 90's "Kashmir" experience was quite underwhelming.

When bootleggers re-mix concerts, no matter how loud the bass input is, to mimic what it was like at a Led Zeppelin concert, the guitar --always-- has to ride above the rest. Always.

What I do know, is that anyone that got to experience a Led Zeppelin concert in-the-flesh, got more than any film or recording can portray. So, while all I have to go on from the EC and Knebworth shows are tapes and video.... I know that "being there" was so much more satisfying.

The highlight of the Dallas 1975 show was D&C. And TU and TSRTS were also awesome. The final Dallas encore with "Heartbreaker," was the Cherry on Top!!

As to Robert singing in a lower register --- I couldn't give a Flying Fuck !!!! I never was about "that high pitch of Robert sends me to the moon and I've got have it forever!!!"

Thanks for your details about how you got tickets, and how you go to the show. Someday, I might indulge, and write about the details of my Zep going experiences. There was no one tell back then. No internet. No fourm. No FB. No Twitter. Probably a good thing for LZ and their offstage lives!

 

Please do! :)

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Nice one, Victor!!! 🍺

How lucky for you and your sister to score tix for the final night! By the way, how did your sister enjoy the show? Did she make it all the way through? Unlike T. Rex or Slade, you needed stamina for a Led Zeppelin concert.

So, I take it you didn't go home quibbling over a few bum notes by Jimmy Page? 😏

I do have one more question. Did you find the video screen above the stage distracting or a help? Did you find yourself watching the stage or the video screen more?

One other thing...in the EC DVD you see a girl holding up a scarf clearly misspelled 'LED ZEPPLIN'. Were they actually selling that scarf at the concert?

Thanks for the epic ride through the last EC night.

Edited by Strider
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55 minutes ago, Strider said:

Nice one, Victor!!! 🍺

How lucky for you and your sister to score tix for the final night! By the way, how did your sister enjoy the show? Did she make it all the way through? Unlike T. Rex or Slade, you needed stamina for a Led Zeppelin concert.

So, I take it you didn't go home quibbling over a few bum notes by Jimmy Page? 😏

I do have one more question. Did you find the video screen above the stage distracting or a help? Did you find yourself watching the stage or the video screen more?

One other thing...in the EC DVD you see a girl holding up a scarf clearly misspelled 'LED ZEPPLIN'. Were they actually selling that scarf at the concert?

Thanks for the epic ride through the last EC night.

Yes she loved it, we were both Zep fans from quite an early age, she would have been 19 at the time, and we'd been fans since Zep 2 came out. In fact its still one of the things we talk about now, and our kids go 'Oh they're off again!'. 

When its that loud you don't notice bum notes, and especially with how much their music changes night after night if you did hear anything amiss you'd assume that it was just another version. I think at the time they could have played everything wrong and it would still have sounded amazing!!

The screen was great as you could see their expressions or fingerwork but I kept looking from stage to screen and back.

Yes I've seen that scarf! They were selling allkinds of unofficial crap outside Earls Court, I cant believe how anyone could be so stupid as to buy a scarf with a misspelling!  

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On 2/23/2018 at 10:16 AM, Victor said:

So off  I trudged to the nearest public phone (hey this was an industrial town in northern England mid 70's...home phones were luxuries!).

Nothing illustrates the dreariness of Dennis Heath's England in the 1970s better than this sentence.

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2 hours ago, Strider said:

Nothing illustrates the dreariness of Dennis Heath's England in the 1970s better than this sentence.

Haha I was born in 74. I remember the weekly pilgrimage (every Sunday) to the phone box in the cold, grey and pissing rain to call my relatives in Portsmouth (I grew up in Liverpool). 

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13 hours ago, Strider said:

Nothing illustrates the dreariness of Dennis Heath's England in the 1970s better than this sentence.

Yes! I remember the joys of the 3 day week, the power cuts, the dustbin mens strike!.......no central heating, no fridge!

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