[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour]

On 8/7/2020 at 8:31 PM, High-hopes Hailla said:

Like others have said, these are incredible photos, and they bring these shows I've been listening to for years to life in a whole new way! Pretty damn amazing, man.  It really is like finding buried treasure to be able to see them after all this time. And yeah, the quality of the shots themselves is pro-level to be sure. I could easily see some of these on a legit live album cover if Jimmy ever decided to have a go at these shows. We're lucky to have your shots. Thanks.

Super kind words. Thanks. It's been a real joy to discover them and share them. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

8 hours ago, Strider said:

I have the same complaint...not enough shots from behind the drums showing the audience along with the band. That guy (Barry ?) who photographed the March 27, 1970 L.A. Forum got some good ones. But that's about it.

Earls Court is the worst. From the antiseptic soundboards and the photographs, it would seem there was no audience at all.

Neal Preston has a few from 1975 and 1977. Primarily the shots from Detroit 1975 of Jimmy at the lip of the stage and you can see the front rows of the crowd...you can even see a guy hoisting a pint of some booze in tribute. There is also a great shot by Preston taken from the side of the stage at the L.A. Forum 1977 during "No Quarter". The stage is covered in fog and the entire Forum crowd is bathed in blue light as Jimmy looks at Neal while puffing on his cigarette.

Unfortunately, these type of photos are few and far between in the Led Zeppelin catalogue. Unlike the Rolling Stones, who have many of these types of photos in their history. Whether it was the Stones being more encouraging to the photographers and allowing them to hang around behind the amps more or the photographers themselves showing more initiative and creativity by seeking some place other than the photo pit to take their photos, you get more of a band/audience dynamic from Rolling Stones photos than Led Zeppelin photos.

Funny you should mention shots at Stones shows. That's my other favorite band and some of the other shows where investing time paid off with great seats. I was front row at the Forum for the '75 show too. There was a photographer from the LA times who took this great shot from the corner of the stage, and she missed me by about 2 seats. I tried to find other shots that may have included me, but no luck. Oh well.

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

10 hours ago, Sherry78 said:

Thanks so much! I will do a pencil drawing and dedication to you! I am 40 and female but truly still my very favorite band! Thanks again, great shots!

Wow. Very cool. As I mentioned to someone else, I shared these freely and happily. But I'd rather that they or their derivatives don't become commercial products. But if you feel like sharing here, I can't wait to see what you come up with.  

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

16 hours ago, ledzepfilm said:

Which 1971 and 1972 gigs were you at? Particularly there are not many photos of the band at the Forum on August 21, 1971. If you've got a gallery of those, that'd be a treasure trove.

Phenomenal shots, by the way! Can't imagine how awesome it was to see them live from that perspective.

I'm pretty sure I went on 8/22/71 based on what they're wearing in these pictures. There's a video of that night with a picture that seems to match their clothes in these. Of course, if they wore the same things both nights than I can't be sure. These are the slides I found from that night and they were mixed in with my '75 shots. Super frustrating that I can't find the rest. As for '72, it was June 25, as I'm pretty sure that was the only show in L.A. that year. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour]

10 hours ago, elgimpo said:

A little tribute.. love the photos!

if anyone wants printer ready high ress images drop me a pm (If that is OK with the photographer...)

 

 

 

 

The one hesitation I had in sharing these is that someone else would use them commercially. I'm sure I could have taken the real hi res images and sold prints etc. But what I really wanted to do was share them with other fans for their enjoyment. I love what you're creativity, but I won't grant permission for anyone to sell these or any variation of them. That's just not in the spirit of how and why I shared them. Thank you for respecting that. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

4 hours ago, Strider said:

You must have seen Neal Preston down there taking photos? Do you remember the shutter speed you used? How fast a film did you use...800 or higher?

It was slide film, may 64. So I had to shoot at 1/60. I don't recall any photographers, but I know some were there. I'll tell you this... I'd pay a fortune for a decent shot from behind the amps showing me at one of these shows. I've been on the hunt for a long time. Kind of my holy grail. Pretty sure it's not out there... but I'll never stop looking!

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

2 hours ago, Strider said:

Damn....that is low. I took a camera to Judas Priest in 1984 and all I had was a roll of 200 and only three of the 36 shots turned out halfway decent. The rest was a blurry mess.

Yeah, that was the problem. I think I was shooting at 1/60, so you totally get it. I think it was six rolls of 36 over two nights, so 216 shots. About half of them were way too blurry for even the biggest fans. Then another 50 were just bad shots, for a variety of reasons. That left about 60 which were decent including the ones I shared here. Of course these days with digital, you can shoot all you want with no development costs. I was in the pit for the Rolling Stones in Phoenix last year. I probably took 300 shots between my camera and my phone + a handful of videos. So much easier these days. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

12 hours ago, duckman said:

Wow, Thanks for these unexpected treasures...do you remember what kinda gear you used during those days, SLR, lenses...??? (I'm a camera geek you know 🤓)

Yep. I still have the stuff. Honeywell Pentax H1a with a Vivitar 85-205 zoom lens (about a foot long). Keep in mind that there were no metal detectors and no pat downs way back then. I just put it under my jacket and hoped for the best. Still stunned that the security people didn't take it during the show or confiscate my film. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour]

20 minutes ago, gcczep said:

$8.75 for a ticket...boggles the mind. The pics are priceless.

Yeah, concert ticket inflation, especially for great seats has been ridiculous. I think a gallon of gas was something like 60 cents a gallon here in California. Now, it's about $3.50, almost 6X more than it was then. If those spectacular seats were only 6X more now, it would be about $53. Good luck getting nosebleeds for that now. Supply and demand, I guess. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour]

1 hour ago, Bonzo_fan said:

I hear ya...why couldn't I be a '55 instead of a '95 😒

Take from this 66 year old guy... You play the hand you're dealt. You'll get opportunities that I'll never get. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's to recognize special opportunities and pounce on them, because they don't come along too often.

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

Just now, TM said:

Truly some of the best new pictures I’ve seen of the band in the last decade.  Absolutely fantastic, thanks for sharing these

Thanks! The reactions from everyone here are very gratifying. What drives me crazy is that I have more from 71 and maybe 72 somewhere. Not the same seats to be sure, but still. Probably still in the attic at the home I grew up in!

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

20 hours ago, Strider said:

Front row for all three shows? Well done, sir. These photos really capture a special moment in time. I am praying that you have more to share for I have yet to see any "No Quarter" shots with the sea of dry ice or some of Jimmy Page playing the Danelectro or Jimmy's bow solo spectacular. 

Question: How many rolls of colour and how many rolls of black-and-white did you shoot?

Actually front row for 2 shows, second row for the other one. $8.75 per ticket, so crazy by today's standards. I still can't get my head around it. There are quite a few more, but lots of blurs from them moving too fast for my shutter speed, some just out of focus, sometimes they turned their heads, so it's just hair. The ones I posted were the best shots. I shot three rolls of Ektachrome, 36 shots per roll. To be totally honest, they were all shot in color. Some of them just looked better when I removed the color on my computer. Some of them needed virtually no touch up in the computer. Others required a lot of work. Most are full frame, but some were cropped. I'll go back over them and see if there are more that are close to the quality of these. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

On 7/31/2020 at 3:34 PM, hummingbird69 said:

Always love to see photos that weren't taken by all the known photographers.   Great shots!!!   One of them may make my new avatar! as long as there's no problem.

No problem. Happy to share. So happy you and the others here are enjoying them. 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour]

On 7/31/2020 at 4:42 PM, paplbojo said:

Wow. I cannot even imagine. 

Question - how loud was it?

Well, it was a long time ago, but I can tell you this for sure... My ears were ringing for days. But you won't hear me complaining then or now!

 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2]

Here are the other half of my pix.

 

 

[From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour]

Hi everyone,

I was up in my attic and discovered a gold mine... I found the slides I had taken in the final nights of the North American tour in March of 1975.

I was 21 and determined to get great seats to see Led Zeppelin. As crazy as it sounds (and it was), we camped out for 3 nights at the Forum in Los Angeles to be first in line when tickets went on sale for the final 3 shows of their tour. My friends and I had it all planned out. We wanted to be sure to end up with tickets to all three shows, so we each were to buy tickets for a specific date. When the ticket windows opened, I asked for the best possible seats for my date. I was stunned when she handed me Section B, Row 1. Front row, almost dead center. She had no idea why I was yelling and jumping up and down and why there were hundreds of people lined up to get tickets to these shows. Our seats for all three nights were in the first two rows. The top ticket price was $8.75. That was 45 years ago. I snuck my camera in. I was sure they'd confiscate it. Fortunately, they didn't.

This was way before cell phones and digital cameras. I had a Honeywell Pentax with a zoom lens and three rolls of Ektachrome for the first two nights. Real SLR camera. Real slide film. I left my camera home on the final night so that I could totally take in the spectacle. 

I hope you can see these well enough here. I've had to reduce the size of the images to meet the upload limit. I'll divide them over two posts. Here's the first batch. The rest will follow right after this.