Led Zeppelin draws largest crowd ever (RP interview)

[Cat]

Led Zeppelin draws largest crowd ever

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Fairbanks, AK, June 2,1973

Record-breaking tour audiences and grosses have been claimed by a lot of rock groups — Beatles, Rolling Stones, Three Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad. Now Led Zeppelin is claiming one — biggest audience for one act ever in the United States.

This was May 5 at the Tampa Stadium, the night after the British group started its U.S. lour in Atlanta. Attendance in Tampa was 56,800, with a $309,000 gross. Led Zeppelin is on a 33-concert,

30-city tour, during May and July, with June off for vacation, expecting a total gross of $3 million. The quartet performs without an opening act or intermission, for two and a half hours.

The group has been popular ever since it started in 1968, largely because lead guitarist Jimmy Page was especially well known already from being in the Yardbirds until that group folded.

But if anybody thinks they're blase about playing to such a big crowd as in Tampa, he's wrong. We spoke later by phone with lead singer Robert Plant in New Orleans. He said, "1 Ihink it was the biggest

thrill I've had. I pretend — I kid myself — I'm not very nervous in a situation like that. I try to bounce around just like normal.

"But, if you do a proportionale thing, it would be like half of England's population.

"II was a real surprise. Tampa is the last place I would expect to see high on to 60,000 people. It's not the country's biggesl city. It was fantastic. One would think it would be very hard to communicate;

with 60,000 people some have got to be quite a distance off. There were no movie screens showing us, like in Atlanta. The only thing they could pick on was the complete vibe of what music was being done."

"We've only done eight tours in America. Compared to most English groups that's very few, to do the sort of business and get the attention we have done, last summer when the Stones were in America we were doing a tour concurrent with theirs. We had no coverage. We were beating their attendance,

though.

"And we had a good rapport with the audiences. It's responsible for how well we play. Some groups use a slonified approach. I don't consider that the way to do it. 1 don't mean we shout, 'Come on and clap hands.' But it's like telepathy really. We can feel the audience's enthusiasm; they're there giving the okay to us."

Led Zeppelin hasn't, in the past, sought much press coverage. So why the willingness to talk this year? Plant says, "We've been aware of how well we've been doing for a long time. And I really think some people ought to know what we've done. I'm proud of what we've done and are doing, and

so many more people could dig it. That is Ihe idea.

"But, I like to talk to people without them knowing who I am, to get a picture of what is going on in our society. It's always my ambition to walk down a street and be completely unobserved. If I was

built up to be Elvis Presley, I wouldn't be able to make genuine contact. This attitude has influenced my writing a lot; I've got right to the root of everything, rather than living on the sugary surface of adoration."

Plant and Page write most of Ihe group's songs. Some are a collaboration of all four. Gold albums have been "Led Zeppelin," "Led Zeppelin II,'' "Led Zeppelin III" and "Houses of the Holy," Atlantic, the latter being the best-selling album in Ihe U.S. for the first two weeks of May. The group also has a

gold single, "Whole Lotta Lovin'(sic)." But singles are not a big item with Led Zeppelin. "You can't pick up on what we do in three minutes." Plant adds that some people thought the group was heavy, sexy rock from its hit single. "Now I think they realize there is more. They realize we have subtlety and a spectrum. You can't keep sending out heavy rock all the time.

"Every time we make an album, our musical leanings advance more and more. A person won't be repetitious if he has any artistry at all. It sounds egotistical but I think Ihis group has the most

talented musicians in England. Jimmy Page has played backup wilh innumerable people from Burt Bacharach to the Rolling Stones. He is like the father of the group. Bassist John Paul Jones has done arrangements for people who are world-famous. I came roaring out of the blues and drummer John Bonham used to be like me.

"After bashing out infectious rock, we've started lo level out into an artistically leaning group. There's been no big hype behind it at all. The music sort of seeped through to people. The first album was

sensitive, traditional songs like Joan Baez had done. Since then it has gone from strength to strength. An audience can never anticipate in advance what our next album will be like.

"Live, we do a lot of improvising."

[SteveAJones]

Is the name of the author published?

[Cat]

Is the name of the author published?

No name was given.

[mikezep61]

No name was given.

The AP Newfeatures article was written by Mary Campbell (and distributed to media outlets across the country). It's the same story, but different newspapers slap a different headline on it.

Here's the version on this website:

http://ledzeppelin.com/image/photos-home/m...ampa-73-press-0

Here's a version that I have with another headline:

Newspaper Archive rules CAT!

Mike

[Cat]

The AP Newfeatures article was written by Mary Campbell (and distributed to media outlets across the country). It's the same story, but different newspapers slap a different headline on it.

Newspaper Archive rules CAT!

Mike

It does take a little work to copy and format the articles so they're readable in the forum. You are correct; the same article can be reprinted in many papers nationwide.

[SteveAJones]

The AP Newfeatures article was written by Mary Campbell (and distributed to media outlets across the country). It's the same story, but different newspapers slap a different headline on it.

Thank you, Mike. I've been archiving everything Cat posts. Glad to see I'm not the only one with an appreciation for precision and historical accuracy.