drowan
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This photo of the of the Led Zeppelin 10/12/69 Lyceum Ballroom concert in London shows five guests "stage-right" admiring the band's music. Can any Zep fans, particularly fans living in London at the time, or familiar with the London music community connected with Led Zeppelin in 1969, identify any of these admiring lads??? The fellow on the far right of the assemble guests in the picture is wearing a coat and tie. The fellow on the left with his left hand on his hips looks like a fellow musician almost studying either Jimmy Page's guitar playing or Bonzo's drumming!! See the whole Italian article with these photos posted on Page 13 of the Carnegie Hall Led Zeppelin forum posting accessible via the link below:
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Sam: Here is the promotional poster/handbill (below) for the Lyceum Ballroom concert in London referenced immediately above - see Italian music review of that LZ performance and the accompanying spread of crisp B&W photos put into a collage. Four days later from this 10/12/69 gig, Led Zeppelin headed to Heathrow Airport with Chris Welch to play at Carnegie Hall in NYC as the first stop of a long North American Tour: 19 shows over 14 nights in 12 cities. The only city during that tour that Zep played in for consecutive nights (3 evenings) was San Francisco at the Winterland Ball Room which was the end of the tour. Five of those 14 nights, including Carnegie Hall in NYC, involved playing two shows a night (NYC, Chicago, Springfield (MA), Toronto and Kansas City.
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Sam: Thanks for this intriguing article with great accompanying B&W photos! My favorite is the picture of the band shot from the side of the stage, showing "Zep guests and admirers" in the background gawking at the band. Can any of these stage-side guests be identified? The image of them is pretty sharp, including one of them in a tie and jacket! Based on the picture caption, I am assuming these photos were taken at the Lyceum Ballroom on 10/12/69 in London right before the band took off for the US with Carnegie Hall in NYC on 10/17/69 as their first stop? Correct? Fascinating coverage! As always, thank you so much for this visual treat!!
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This retrospective rock music writer's (Hugh Jones) excerpt below about Chris Welch's "Melody Maker" newspaper almost-exclusive, first-hand review of LZ's 10/17/69 Carnegie Hall concert puts that huge, ground-breaking performance for the band in the context of Zep's meteoric rise as a heavy metal, mind-blowing force to be reckoned with as 1969 ends that decade and the US and the UK music scene enters the 1970's two and a half months later. (Side note: Jimi Hendrix as of year-end 1969, will live only another nine months into 1970 when he finally dies choking on his vomit while asleep in bed in a corner of London in September of 1970.): “10/25/69: Led Zeppelin At Carnegie Hall by Chris Welch. A superb, vividly rendered description of Welch's trip to America with Zep for the opening of their fourth U.S. tour at Carnegie Hall in New York. Notable in part because this concert (of which no recording exists) was a milestone in the band's career and yet it is seldom discussed-and according to Welch, "Summertime Blues" was played as an encore! Cover: unknown.” Source: Hugh Jones, Proximity Led Zeppelin Collector’s Journal, Volume 9, No. 29, April 1998. The B &W still photo (below) helps illustrate the phenomenal range of LZ's playing styles. From the emotionally charged and chilling hard rock sound of "Dazed and Confused" (see the live clip on the preceding Forum page in this string), to the quiet calmness of "Black Mountain Side", perfectly captured in this intimate mid-song photo of Jimmy shot in Detroit on Saturday night, October 18 - the day after the Carnegie Hall Friday night concert!!! LZ's frenetic touring pace in 1969 also was so typical of the band's early days during 1969...Imagine wrapping up a New York City Friday night show that ends well after 2 AM and then quickly departing to Detroit for another killer Saturday night show!! Adrenaline and exhilaration was essential to keeping the band energized throughout this relentless pace of one night, single-gig shows, going city-to city almost daily. The grand-scale road show infrastructure and logistics operations had yet to became the norm as arena rock, multiple night gigs in major cities started to dominate later tours. One of the more amazing aspects of the Carnegie Hall one-night stand was that despite their incredible emerging success, the band substantially avoided debuting anymore than two songs from their yet to be released LZII album. Of their entire playlist of 9 songs (excluding encores) that first night of the Fourth North American Tour in NYC, only "Heartbreaker" and "Moby Dick" from LZII were showcased. Hard to believe that the band and Grant chose to do that, given how good the songs on LZII turned out to be. Five days later on 10/22/69, we all rushed out to the record stores, grabbed the new album, donned the headphones, and finally dropped the needle on that freshly pressed vinyl. Same effect as five days earlier, it blew our mints times two!!!
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While at the concert Carnegie Hall concert on the evening of October 17, 1969, my close friend, Jerry Birdsall, decided "mid-concert" to walk up the isle from our 10th row seats on the floor, plant his two elbows on the surface edge of the stage bracing the camera (completely unimpeded by security or even "shell-shocked" Carnegie Hall ushers) and shoot away at the band with his brand new 35 mm Nikon. This is one of my favorite photos that Jerry shot of Jimmy Page (below) with his foot positioned on the wah-wah pedal, drawing his bow across his guitar generating haunting heavy metal guitar string moaning during the instrumental interlude of "Dazed and Confused". To put it simply, the whole audience was absolutely "blown away" while this searing guitar-wailing enveloped the intimate setting of this high-ceilinged concert hall (with almost perfect acoustics). The "performance version" of Dazed and Confused played in the hall that night (either by design or default - only Jimmy knows for sure) was so true and well executed to the original LZ I vinyl recording, that if you grab the original album song tonight, put on your headphones, crank up the volume big time and close your eyes while you listen...that is so close to what we heard that night sitting in the 10th row. The only difference was we were also watching in disbelief and amazement! It was an awesome, emotionally driving, multi-sensual, heart-pounding, mind-blowing experience - a total adrenaline high! This LZ I tune was only the fifth song into the set and the concert went on for another hour and a half non-stop as the one and only bill of the night!!! P.S. Notice in this shot that by the fifth song into the set, Bonzo was already stripped down to the waste, so he could cool off a little while he pounded away with mind-boggling intensity on his drum set...you could feel the stunningly amplified rapid-fire percussion blasts literally pounding on your chest !!!!!!!!
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Jimmy Page's own words below says it all!!! 1969 (50 years ago) was an incredible year for Zep and the Carnegie Hall concert on October 17, 1969 was an incredible night that year!! Caption: Photos (above and below) shot by Jerry Birdsall with a Nikon (Nikkormat -image of camera below) camera loaded with high speed B&W film with no flash from the 10th row on the floor right on the isle at the early show. Photographer was 15 years old that day in 1969; 65 years old today (live and kickin') as of today's posting!!
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Anniemouse: Yes, a performance definitely worth a swig or two!!!
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Anniemouse: Yes, the sound was loud and intense for this relatively small venue despite not having the scale of equipment one might see at a concert in Madison Square Garden (NYC) or an outdoor event. Keep in mind that rock concert promoter, Howard Stein, put this show together and hired a seasoned sound manager, Jack Weisberg. Jack was a sophisticated sound engineer who also designed sound boards of varying scale and complexity. There was a supplementary sound system complementing the band's amps that is not visible in these photos. So yes, there was plenty of volume! In contrast, the Carnegie Hall management was somewhat intimidated by this intense heavy metal scene. They managed to turn the stage power off several times insisting that the frenzied crowd had to get down off the arms of the chairs before the concert could proceed any further. The fans obliged, the concert resumed, but 10 minutes later many were back up on the mahogany arms. Oh well...the management finally realized it was futile on that front.
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Here's what the view from the "upper" balcony is like at Carnegie Hall. It's a fantastic venue for a rock concert with great acoustics and an intimate view of the stage from many vantage points! We were in the tenth row from the stage on the left isle of the floor (just visible at the bottom edge of the picture) and were just blown away like all the rest of the fans that night!! The view from the floor that night is in B&W! This concert photo was taken during the encore when many fans had their jackets slung over their backs not sure if the band would opt to keep playing on. Though the concert took place fifty years ago, the image in our minds is as vivid as yesterday. The rock world changed forever for many of us that night...and five days later we went out and bought our freshly pressed LZII vinyl LP's at local record stores on the first day of its release! Rock on!!!
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As noted and excerpted from the above quote, "Thousands of teenagers, running in, chasing towards the front of the stage. No one sat down, they just all stood together, whooping and hollering, shaking hands with Jimmy and Robert. Well, we weren't used to this." ---Chris Welch
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More color on the "backstory" of the Led Zeppelin 10/17/69 Carnegie Hall concert and its pivotal contribution to the rising visibility and fame of the band:
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“10/25/69: Led Zeppelin At Carnegie Hall by Chris Welch. A superb, vividly rendered description of Welch's trip to America with Zep for the opening of their fourth U.S. tour at Carnegie Hall in New York. Notable in part because this concert (of which no recording exists) was a milestone in the band's career and yet it is seldom discussed-and according to Welch, "Summertime Blues" was played as an encore! Cover: unknown.” Source: Hugh Jones, Proximity Led Zeppelin Collector’s Journal, Volume 9, No. 29, April 1998. Photo of Chris Welch
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“The group played an incredible 145 shows in 1969, and by the end of the year they had released the blockbuster “Led Zeppelin II” (featuring their breakthrough single “Whole Lotta Love”) and were headlining venues like London’s Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Boston Garden and Detroit’s Olympia Stadium. From there, Zeppelin went on to become one of the most popular rock bands in history, dominating the 1970s, influencing countless thousands of musicians and, according to unofficial estimates, selling more than 200 million albums worldwide.” Source: Jem Aswad, Variety, August 13, 2018
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The day after the Carnegie Hall concert, Led Zeppelin quickly moved on to Detroit (MI) for a Saturday night concert on October 18, 1969:
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Chris Welch wrote in his book about the ascent of Led Zeppelin as a worldwide rock music phenomenon, that he accompanied the band on a flight from London to New York to play at Carnegie Hall on 10/17/69 as the first stop of their Fourth North American Tour of 1969. In preparation for the flight, Chris mentions that he met up with Robert Plant and Bonzo art Euston Station in London:
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Rock music critic and author, Chris Welch, who was one of the first journalists to chronicle the rising success of Led Zeppelin on the concert circuit and the band's rapidly expanding fan base in the US, had this to say about the 10/17/69 LZ Carnegie Hall concert: Source: Interview of Chris Welch by Neil Daniels in 2008 Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20100623065158/http://neildaniels.com/Welch.html Must have been to thousands of gigs and festivals over forty years but the one I remember with most excitement was Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall in 1
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The "Supershow" full length concert feature film was shown at various venues in the US as well and helped establish Led Zeppelin's reputation in the states in the months prior to and after the LZ Carnegie Hall on October 17, 1969. Here is an example of a 1970 screening of the film at Hunter College in New York City: [Note: Hunter College screening premiered on September 17-19, 1970]
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Below is a handbill advertising the Supershow full length concert movie that was filmed in March 1969 (7 months prior to the Carnegie Hall October concert) that featured Led Zeppelin and a number of other bands.
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Correction: I believe "Constellation Overseas, LTD" was a corporate entity formed in 1965 by Peter Grant and was later used in 1969 for concert contracts and recording sessions booked by the band. See the excerpted note below: I have the original August 17th, 1969 show contract paperwork for the Oakdale Musical Theatre concert, signed by LZ manager Peter Grant and Oakdale owner Ben Segal. It states that “Constellation Overseas, LTD.” will be furnishing the services of Led Zeppelin for the show. Constellation Overseas Ltd was incorporated on November 24, 1965 and is now dissolved. There isn’t any director information or really any information at all(not to be confused with the current offshore mining company of the same name). Their address was, Barclays House, 41 Park Cross Street, Leeds LS1 2QH. The building at that address sounds like it could be an office quadplex now and isn’t quite as nice as surrounding buildings. Is this possibly another one of Jimmy’s companies, similar to Superhype or Flames of Albion, etc., etc.?? Even the name sounds like something he would come up with, Constellation Overseas = Superstar Abroad(USA/The World)!?!? It seems like 1965 was when Jimmy was really becoming a highly sought after session musician and may have had the foresight of protecting himself and his ventures, and could have set up Constellation Overseas. Source: CeeJay302 [https://rarerecordcollector.net/2013/08/04/led-zeppelin-and-superhype/] DRowan
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What show or live song are you listening to now?
drowan replied to Misfit's topic in Led Zeppelin Live
The video recording was done on March 18, 1969 at Staines Studios in the UK as part of a larger "staged" concert recording event called "Supershow". It was produced by Tom Parkinson, directed by John Crome and filmed by a privately financed, independent production company call Colourtel TV Productions. In addition to Led Zeppelin, some of the other musicians recorded as part of this show included Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Stephen Stills, Buddy Guy and others. The filmed concert was ultimately made into a full length feature film and was shown in both Europe and the US in 1969 and 1970. There is some more detailed documentation of the Supershow event on the Led Zeppelin website. The link to that site is as follows: https://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/march-18-1969 The Wikipedia link for this concert film recording event is as follows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supershow Here is what Jimmy Page was quoted as saying with respect to this Supershow session: Jimmy Page: "We performed Dazed and Confused with what seemed to be a pretty experienced production team, as the camera angles appeared interesting at the time. They also used some dry ice, which was quite vibey, and we were just part of a number of artists that were to appear on this show - some of whom had not yet recorded and were due to arrive at the building. There was definitely a timeslot for us to do another number, especially as the other artists hadn't arrived, and I suggested to the director that maybe it would be a good opportunity to do Communication Breakdown as a second number, but they declined the offer and said it wasn't necessary!" - jimmypage.com -
June72: Thanks for your effort to correct and clarify the origin and date of this video recording. [I referenced a recording date of "1968" because that was the year (incorrectly) cited in the corner of this You Tube's video recording home page.] I have since done a little research to follow up on your correction and can expand a bit here further. The video recording was done on March 18, 1969 at Staines Studios in the UK as part of a larger "staged" concert recording event called "Supershow". It was produced by Tom Parkinson, directed by John Crome and filmed by a privately financed, independent production company call Colourtel TV Productions. In addition to Led Zeppelin, some of the other musicians recorded as part of this show included Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Stephen Stills, Buddy Guy and others. The filmed concert was ultimately made into a full length feature film and was shown in both Europe and the US in 1969 and 1970. There is some more detailed documentation of the Supershow event on the Led Zeppelin website. The link to that site is as follows: https://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/march-18-1969 The Wikipedia link for this concert film recording event is as follows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supershow Here is what Jimmy Page was quoted as saying with respect to this Supershow session: Jimmy Page: "We performed Dazed and Confused with what seemed to be a pretty experienced production team, as the camera angles appeared interesting at the time. They also used some dry ice, which was quite vibey, and we were just part of a number of artists that were to appear on this show - some of whom had not yet recorded and were due to arrive at the building. There was definitely a timeslot for us to do another number, especially as the other artists hadn't arrived, and I suggested to the director that maybe it would be a good opportunity to do Communication Breakdown as a second number, but they declined the offer and said it wasn't necessary!" - jimmypage.com Once again, thank you June27, for bringing this correction, to our attention. Accuracy is an important part of what this LZ Forum is all about. It is also worth noting that the March 18, 1969 recording date occurred only seven months prior to the 10/17/69 Led Zeppelin concert at Carnegie Hall. This now correctly attributed Supershow video date of 3/18/69 brings the "Dazed and Confused" recording event that much closer to the band's Carnegie Hall October performance date in NYC! DCR
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Editor's Note: A correction is required in this string entry (reprinted above). The Bennie Goodman 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert album was not purchased by John Bonham as his first album at age 15, it was purchased by rock critic and writer, Chris Welch. Welch's first-hand description of John Bonham's on-stage commentary immediately prior to the LZ 10/17/69 Carnegie Hall concert made the tale and significance of this 1938 album tie-in a little hard to follow. But, after re-reading Chris Welch's review and commentary surrounding the Carnegie Hall concert, it became apparent that it was Chris, not Bonzo, who purchased the Benny Goodman 1938 album at age 15. Sorry for the misinterpreted attribution. Just wanted to set the record straight for both Chris' and Bonzo's benefit! DCR
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Here's one of the few photos taken from the stage showing Jimmy Page playing that night on October 17, 1969 at Carnegie Hall. Notice the same band stage hand (shown at the left of this photo with his back to the camera) who was also captured in the B&W photo immediately above. In the background, you can also make out Jonesy (in a red shirt) and two guests behind him watching the concert from the other side of the stage - most likely, Chris Welch, Chris Wood (of Traffic), Eddie Kramer or Lord Sutch.
