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how many of you actually saw zepp in concert and when{pre 1980 only}

ledbagelz

By ledbagelz
in Led Zeppelin Live

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Zepulon

Zepulon

Posted
Posted

Well, I never saw them as I was born after they split, but my dad saw them in Greensboro, North Carolina on May 31, 1977. He says it was a show he'll never forget. The closest thing to Zeppelin I've seen was the tribute band Zoso, who I saw last weekend. They were good, but I'm sure it doesn't compare to the real thing. My dad's so lucky!!

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Mister D

Mister D

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Posted

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada November 4, 1969. I was working for the band Copper Penny who opened for Led Zeppelin doing their stage lighting.

We arrived about 5:00 PM and and unloaded our band equipment from our bus(didn’t every band have a bus back then :D ) at the back doors of the auditorium.

Equipment was strewn all down the corridor leading to the stage area. I’m about 50 feet from the back door and hear someone not to happy about stepping over and around band gear, he’s cursing a bit, finally look back and see it’s Page coming down the aisle.

He gets just behind me and says “Do you know the way to the dressing rooms?”

I point the way and he goes on cursing a bit more :unsure: .

Plant was in a better mood, Bonham was ill, and Jones didn’t say much.

Page’s amp blew up and he had to use our guitar players amp head.

I think our guitar player grabbed a few Page guitar picks as payment(so he says) ;) .

A guy from Revenue Canada waited till Zep got paid and demanded Peter Grant pay a tax before they left for Kansas City.

After the gig I went to the front of Auditorium box office and took down two of the concert posters, gave one to our keyboard player and kept one for myself.

1969....what a year.

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SuperDave

SuperDave

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Posted

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada November 4, 1969. I was working for the band Copper Penny who opened for Led Zeppelin doing their stage lighting.

We arrived about 5:00 PM and and unloaded our band equipment from our bus(didn’t every band have a bus back then :D ) at the back doors of the auditorium.

Equipment was strewn all down the corridor leading to the stage area. I’m about 50 feet from the back door and hear someone not to happy about stepping over and around band gear, he’s cursing a bit, finally look back and see it’s Page coming down the aisle.

He gets just behind me and says “Do you know the way to the dressing rooms?”

I point the way and he goes on cursing a bit more :unsure: .

Plant was in a better mood, Bonham was ill, and Jones didn’t say much.

Page’s amp blew up and he had to use our guitar players amp head.

I think our guitar player grabbed a few Page guitar picks as payment(so he says) ;) .

A guy from Revenue Canada waited till Zep got paid and demanded Peter Grant pay a tax before they left for Kansas City.

After the gig I went to the front of Auditorium box office and took down two of the concert posters, gave one to our keyboard player and kept one for myself.

1969....what a year.

What an experience! Thanks for sharing. What did you think of the show?

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Mister D

Mister D

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What an experience! Thanks for sharing. What did you think of the show?

I thought it was a pretty good show despite the fact it was a short set with encore probably due to Bonham being ill.

A lot of the local guitar players and musicians came to see Zep, guitar players mostly to see Page.

I think I'd just bought Led Zeppelin II that week and they were really in their first year and not yet the huge band they would become.

Things are always pretty hectic getting ready for gigs like this.

At that time Copper Penny was playing about 20 gigs a month so it's a wonder I can still remember a lot of those gigs, sometimes band members will remember things that happened that I'd forgot and we have a good laugh :D

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SuperDave

SuperDave

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I thought it was a pretty good show despite the fact it was a short set with encore probably due to Bonham being ill.

A lot of the local guitar players and musicians came to see Zep, guitar players mostly to see Page.

I think I'd just bought Led Zeppelin II that week and they were really in their first year and not yet the huge band they would become.

Things are always pretty hectic getting ready for gigs like this.

At that time Copper Penny was playing about 20 gigs a month so it's a wonder I can still remember a lot of those gigs, sometimes band members will remember things that happened that I'd forgot and we have a good laugh :D

Thanks for sharing!

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Strider

Strider

Posted
Posted

Hmmm, I thought I had already responded to this but I don't see my post anywhere, so maybe I goofed and was thinking of the old board before everything changed.

Yes, ledbagelz, I saw Led Zeppelin pre-1980...here's the list of shows that forever seared their way into my mind and soul:

1972

1. June 25, 1972 Los Angeles(Inglewood) Forum, California...just shy of my 10th birthday...MY HEAD EXPLODES FROM THE THRILL AND EXCITEMENT!

2. June 27, 1972 Long Beach Arena, California...so great on the 25th I just had to see them again!

1973

3. May 31, 1973 LA Forum, California...Happy Birthday Bonzo!

4. June 2, 1973 Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, California...thank goodness for relatives in the Bay area!

5. June 3, 1973 LA Forum...the last Thank You!

1975

6. March 12, 1975 Long Beach Arena...still my favourite 75 show...release the soundboard NOW!

7. March 24, 1975 LA Forum...ran away from home for these Forum shows...not as good as Long Beach but still plenty heavy!

8. March 25, 1975 LA Forum...my first time taking quaaludes...also drunk on southern comfort and oj.

9. March 27, 1975 LA Forum...who let that skank Linda Lovelace on stage? The first appearance of the BLACK DRAGON PANTS! 4 straight days of partying were taking their toll on me by now...but while by 75 cracks were beginning to show, who can ever forget the impact of hearing Kashmir for the first time or the smoke curling up Jimmy's legs during the bow segment?

1977

10. June 21, 1977 LA Forum...a fucking week full of Zeppelin and NO WORRIES about school nights! Kashmir! Do you hear me? FUCKING HELL KASHMIR EXPLODES ON THIS TOUR! Forget Stairway...Kashmir is now the song everyone most wants to hear!

11. June 23, 1977 LA Forum...yep, the famous BADGEHOLDER night...Moonie the Loon in the house...sadly the last time most of us would see him.

12. June 25, 1977 LA Forum...3 shows in...so far everything is EPIC!

13. June 26, 1977 LA Forum...right about now I was wishing their setlist was more varied from night-to-night...at least we get a cool encore: It'll Be Me!

14. June 27, 1977 LA Forum...maybe not the best of the LA run but it would prove to be the last ever show LZ would perform in LA, so at least I can say I was there...turned 15 a month later.

So there you have it...14 LZ concerts in 5 years.

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Knebworth Wreck

Knebworth Wreck

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Posted

I saw them at the Kings Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1973,

then at Earls Court in London 1975

and finally at the famouse Knebworth Park, England, festival (the first concert) in 1979. (Todd Rundgren's Utopia had come on before LZ)

I also saw the original Band of Joy, but I was a only 15 at the time and can't remember much of that concert as I had got a bit drunk before hand. That was 1967 I think. Oh well shit happens and I am fast becoming an old git.

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Roxie

Roxie

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Posted

So there you have it...14 LZ concerts in 5 years.

I also saw the original Band of Joy, but I was a only 15 at the time and can't remember much of that concert as I had got a bit drunk before hand. That was 1967 I think.

Strider - :notworthy: You are very lucky indeed!

Knebworth Wreck: How many people can say that?? Very very VERY cool! B)

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SuperDave

SuperDave

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I saw them at the Kings Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1973,

then at Earls Court in London 1975

and finally at the famouse Knebworth Park, England, festival (the first concert) in 1979. (Todd Rundgren's Utopia had come on before LZ)

I also saw the original Band of Joy, but I was a only 15 at the time and can't remember much of that concert as I had got a bit drunk before hand. That was 1967 I think. Oh well shit happens and I am fast becoming an old git.

Wow that's amazing. Quite a concert history you have.

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Strider

Strider

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Strider, you are one lucky guy for getting to see Zeppelin all those times!

(but did I read this right- you were on 'ludes & drunk on Southern Comfort at 13 years old??)

I was running with an older crowd at those 1975 LA Forum gigs, and they were all drinkers and stoners...they kept trying to get me to take various stuff, and except for a hit off a joint or hashpipe now and then, I mostly refused all the various other drugs they tried to get me to take.

But there was this one sun-kissed girl who I had the hots for, and she kept saying the Zep show would be far out on ludes. She finally wore down my resistance, and so she wouldn't think I was a wimp, I told her, okay, I would try some and she gave me a tab of Rorer 714. I was still kind of worried, though, so I sneakily broke the tab in half and downed it with a slug of Southern Comfort and OJ that someone had snuck in a Bota bag.

It was the first and LAST time I ever took a lude...I just didn't like the effect it had on me. I was not someone into "downer" drugs. I liked the natural buzz from marijuana and hash...didn't like the idea of snorting something up my nose so I stayed away from coke for the most part. Later, as I got into high school, I would try mushrooms and LSD at various Pink Floyd and Zeppelin concerts, and liked the euphoric hallucinagenic-high they gave me.

So, during the 80's and 90's(which was my prime partying period), I mostly stuck to these four drugs: marijuana, hash, mushrooms, LSD...with an occasional peyote bud or Ecstacy tab(during the rave-era)thrown in for good measure.

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trombone hoota

trombone hoota

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Posted

^ That's a iBadge of Honor in my book. I followed a similar path, except for the 'X' part. I never cared for amphetamines but had my rounds with them.

It's great to have tasted the experiences many of our influences in music and life shared too. The lifestyle enlightens and gives creedence to observations one might have in that direction. Other's can only speculate from the outside.

Right On Strider !

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chef free

chef free

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I finally got to see my favorite band on what was to be their last show in the US. I had heard all about the Kezar (in Golden Gate Park)'73 show, so loud that rock shows were banned from this venue (complaints poured in from a local hospital seven miles away!) I had tickets to the Oakland '75 shows: canceled due to Plant's car crash. So in 1977 I bought tickets to the second Oakland show, it was to be a "Day on the Green", Bill Graham's summertime tradition of ramming about 65,000 people into the Oakland A's/Raiders stadium for 8-10 hours of drunken sweltering in the sun.

But of course disaster struck and the tour was postponed (due to Plant's laryngitis), but so what? I was going to see my heroes live on stage, I could wait a couple extra weeks, I'd been waiting for four years already!

Some friends of mine had gone to the Saturday 7/23 show and they were PSYCHED! It was so hot that they were trying to score tix for Sunday. We showed up early to get a good spot on the outfield close to the stage. I think the supporting bands were Judas Priest and Rick Derringer.

We waited and waited for the Zeppelin as the set break dragged out longer and longer. The crowd was getting restless. Bill Graham came out on stage and gave us some BS about Jimmy "having trouble with his double guitar" but no one was buying it. As the heat of the day (and all the booze) wore on the crowd became increasingly ugly. Some tweaker sitting in front of us kept turning and staring at us, he finally spun around and shouted "If you guys don't stop doing that I'm gonna kick your asses". We had no idea what he was talking about. And still no Zeppelin!

What we didn't know (hey, this was way before the internet!), was that the day before, during Pagey's solo, Peter Grant's 11 year-old son Warren attempted to take a Led Zeppelin sign off one of the back stage trailers. Well, the (notorious) Bill Graham security thugs didn't take kindly to this and gave Warren the "treatment". When Grant found out he and Bonham took said security guards into one of the trailers and returned the favor, by all accounts beating the holy shit out of these guys.

There was no problem with equipment, the band was holed up in the bar of the Mark Hopkins hotel in San Francisco, telling Graham's people they weren't playing.

Meanwhile, back in Oaktown the situation continued to deteriorate. People shouting obscenities, throwing things, some people were actually LEAVING! Things hit rock bottom when some drunken asshole standing at about second base chucked his empty fifth of Jack Daniels towards the stage. Being no Willie Mays his throw didn't make it anywhere near the stage. We watched in horrified silence as the bottle tumbled through the air and nailed some poor little blonde chick square in the back of the head. Down she went amid a chorus of boos. They carried her out over our heads on a stretcher.

Things were getting so bad that even the tweaker left!

At last Led Zeppelin took the stage. Page looked totally pissed, Bonham wore very large sunglasses, and Jonesy stood stock still with a blank look on his face. Their performance seemed short, perfunctory and completely unremarkable.

There you have it, my one and only time of seeing my favorite band. It sucked.

CODA: Well, it didn't totally suck since I had always wanted a US Army field jacket and the tweaker forgot his so I took it and wore it for the next ten years! There were even some roaches in the pocket!

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SuperDave

SuperDave

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I finally got to see my favorite band on what was to be their last show in the US. I had heard all about the Kezar (in Golden Gate Park)'73 show, so loud that rock shows were banned from this venue (complaints poured in from a local hospital seven miles away!) I had tickets to the Oakland '75 shows: canceled due to Plant's car crash. So in 1977 I bought tickets to the second Oakland show, it was to be a "Day on the Green", Bill Graham's summertime tradition of ramming about 65,000 people into the Oakland A's/Raiders stadium for 8-10 hours of drunken sweltering in the sun.

But of course disaster struck and the tour was postponed (due to Plant's laryngitis), but so what? I was going to see my heroes live on stage, I could wait a couple extra weeks, I'd been waiting for four years already!

Some friends of mine had gone to the Saturday 7/23 show and they were PSYCHED! It was so hot that they were trying to score tix for Sunday. We showed up early to get a good spot on the outfield close to the stage. I think the supporting bands were Judas Priest and Rick Derringer.

We waited and waited for the Zeppelin as the set break dragged out longer and longer. The crowd was getting restless. Bill Graham came out on stage and gave us some BS about Jimmy "having trouble with his double guitar" but no one was buying it. As the heat of the day (and all the booze) wore on the crowd became increasingly ugly. Some tweaker sitting in front of us kept turning and staring at us, he finally spun around and shouted "If you guys don't stop doing that I'm gonna kick your asses". We had no idea what he was talking about. And still no Zeppelin!

What we didn't know (hey, this was way before the internet!), was that the day before, during Pagey's solo, Peter Grant's 11 year-old son Warren attempted to take a Led Zeppelin sign off one of the back stage trailers. Well, the (notorious) Bill Graham security thugs didn't take kindly to this and gave Warren the "treatment". When Grant found out he and Bonham took said security guards into one of the trailers and returned the favor, by all accounts beating the holy shit out of these guys.

There was no problem with equipment, the band was holed up in the bar of the Mark Hopkins hotel in San Francisco, telling Graham's people they weren't playing.

Meanwhile, back in Oaktown the situation continued to deteriorate. People shouting obscenities, throwing things, some people were actually LEAVING! Things hit rock bottom when some drunken asshole standing at about second base chucked his empty fifth of Jack Daniels towards the stage. Being no Willie Mays his throw didn't make it anywhere near the stage. We watched in horrified silence as the bottle tumbled through the air and nailed some poor little blonde chick square in the back of the head. Down she went amid a chorus of boos. They carried her out over our heads on a stretcher.

Things were getting so bad that even the tweaker left!

At last Led Zeppelin took the stage. Page looked totally pissed, Bonham wore very large sunglasses, and Jonesy stood stock still with a blank look on his face. Their performance seemed short, perfunctory and completely unremarkable.

There you have it, my one and only time of seeing my favorite band. It sucked.

CODA: Well, it didn't totally suck since I had always wanted a US Army field jacket and the tweaker forgot his so I took it and wore it for the next ten years! There were even some roaches in the pocket!

Thanks for the first hand account Chef Free. Very interesting. Didn't realize how bad it was in the crowd. Just knew about the backstage stuff.

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