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Who opened for Zep in the early years?


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Ok, the weirdest thing happened to me today. I was in a restaurant, and this older guy who turned out to be a musician started talking to this lady who happened to have a guitar with her for some reason. Apparently he was the drummer for a band who toured with Zep. I think he said they were on their first American tour, and at some point they traded off with CCR as the opening act. I think. Now I'm getting confused, lol. Also, he was originally from Seattle but moved to San Diego quite a while back. Problem is, when he said the name of the band, I couldn't hear it! Anybody have any idea who this could be? Just a list of bands who opened for Zep period would be helpful.

Iron Butterfly is the only San Diego band I could think of from the '70s who were halfway popular, but I looked them up and this guy definitely wasn't Ron Bushy. They could have still been in Seattle at that point, though, so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. I found a list of bands from Seattle, but wowzer there's a ton of them, and I'm not exactly familiar with the Seattle scene, apart from the early '90s, of course.

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Sandy Denny with Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull opened for Led Zeppelin in August, 1969 when I attended this concert in Anaheim.

gamespot.com/pages/unions/read_article.php?topic_id=23263837&union_id=1286

September 4, 1970 - Today, after playing to 20,000 fans at the L.A. Forum, Led Zeppelin appear with Fairport Convention at the Troubadour in L.A. to a crowd of only a few hundred. The bands share instruments. Richard Thompson, guitarist for Fairport Convention plays Page's Les Paul, but FC's drummer, Dave Mattacks is hesitant to let Bonham play his drums because of Bonham's reputation as a very powerful drummer. Bonham sits down at the kit and steps on the bass pedal. Mattack watches in horror as his bass drum flies forward a half a foot. After the jam session which lasted almost three hours, the drum heads need a good changing and the toms need a good tuning. After the jam session, Bonham retires to Barney's Beanery, an after-hours bar, where he engages in a drinking contest with Janis Joplin.
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Who opened for Zep in the early years?

Sally

Shelia

Samantha

Sarah

Arms opened wide :D

:rolleyes:;) Thanks for the info, eternal light! Hehe, good story. Man, I would've killed to be there for the Bonham-Joplin drinking contest!

Shoot, I thought I found it there for a minute. The guy was talking about playing with Zep, The Doors, Ike & Tina Turner, and It's a Beautiful Day, and they all played at the Seattle Pops Festival in 1969 along with a band called Blacksnake. I thought maybe the guy said Black-something, but I wasn't sure enough to say anything about it. Well, turns out the drummer is dead, so I guess he's not living in San Diego. Plus he spoke with a stutter, apparently, and this guy didn't have one. Darn it, it was all going to work out so well! I can't imagine who it could be!

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Sandy Denny with Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull opened for Led Zeppelin in August, 1969 when I attended this concert in Anaheim.

gamespot.com/pages/unions/read_article.php?topic_id=23263837&union_id=1286

I wouldn't have cared much for Tull but to see Sandy Denny with Fairport open for Zep - THAT would have been amazing, to say the least!

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When Bob Costas was hosting the show "Later" on NBC in the late 80's early 90's he had James Taylor on as a guest. James Taylor claimed to have opened for Zeppelin in 68' or 69', but I'm not sure if was at an individual gig or at a festival situation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a pretty comprehensive list. I mentioned before and this (apparently) confirms what I said, but the James Gang with a young Joe Walsh on guitar did open for Led Zeppelin on a few dates. It seems that Jimmy Page was taken with Joe Walsh because they became friends soon after.

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