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Why did they not play at woodstock


John Bonham Fan

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On 12/24/2009 at 9:34 AM, bigzepfan said:

: Led Zeppelin performed at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ the weekend of the Woodstock Festival (on Sat, 8/16/69)"

 

 

I recently saw a show that had the biggest of certain items in the world. The largest pipe organ is in the convention hall in Atlantic City, NJ. I thought to myself as I was watching it how cool would it be to hear JPJ jamming on that!!! One of the stacks were like forty feet tall or someting crazy like that. Wonder if they ever played there?

The organ you're referring to is located in Ocean Grove, NJ, the town next to Asbury Park. It would be AMAZING to hear JPJ play on that thing!

I grew up near there and we referred to Ocean Grove as "Ocean Grave" because everyone that lived there was so freaking old. Also, all summer, there is a tent camp revival in "God's Square" right outside the Great Auditorium where the organ is housed. 

I had no idea that Zep played Asbury Park - if the tent camping bible thumpers were around, that would have been quite a culture clash!

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Woodstock was a cluster F at the time, a complete mess. Most bands were never paid (regardless of contract), and the ones that were received pay far below what they would normally get. The venue was moved several times with the final site being confirmed just a few days prior to the show. As said above it only became a "thing" years after the event. 

Monterey Pop, Newport Jazz, even Isle of Wight were all much more significant, and professionally done events compared to the shitshow Woodstock was. I knew about four people who attended Woodstock and they all said the same thing: If you enjoy pissing and shitting in an open field and not eating for several days while being rained on, Woodstock was heaven, otherwise, it was a waste of time with a few exceptions (Country Joe, Hendrix, Sly, & Santana). Even the Who's set was dull compared to their typical gig. 

Grant was 100% correct in not having Zep play, there was no money in it and he would have had zero control.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/22/2019 at 5:32 PM, PeaceFrogYum said:

Woodstock was a cluster F at the time, a complete mess. Most bands were never paid (regardless of contract), and the ones that were received pay far below what they would normally get. The venue was moved several times with the final site being confirmed just a few days prior to the show. As said above it only became a "thing" years after the event. 

In the early '80's, I was a teenager and worked at a hardware store. One of my co-workers was a guy in his mid to late 30s. He was the first person I ever met who had thousands of records in his collection, most of which were rock music. He also went to tons of concerts and would tell us about the times he saw Hendrix, the Stones, and a bunch of other people I would love to have seen. The best story of all was the weekend in August, 1969 when  he went to the first day of Woodstock, which was a reasonable drive from our area. He left that same day when he realized it was a cluster and drove home. The next night he went to see Zep at the Oakdale Theater in CT. I saw his stubs and his record collection, so I'm sure it wasn't just some older guy trying to impress the kids. Imagine that, getting to see Zep and Woodstock in the same weekend. 

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1 hour ago, SteveZ98 said:

In the early '80's, I was a teenager and worked at a hardware store. One of my co-workers was a guy in his mid to late 30s. He was the first person I ever met who had thousands of records in his collection, most of which were rock music. He also went to tons of concerts and would tell us about the times he saw Hendrix, the Stones, and a bunch of other people I would love to have seen. The best story of all was the weekend in August, 1969 when  he went to the first day of Woodstock, which was a reasonable drive from our area. He left that same day when he realized it was a cluster and drove home. The next night he went to see Zep at the Oakdale Theater in CT. I saw his stubs and his record collection, so I'm sure it wasn't just some older guy trying to impress the kids. Imagine that, getting to see Zep and Woodstock in the same weekend. 

Quite the weekend, indeed!  And what a great move to come home early and see August '69 Zepp instead!

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7 minutes ago, Bonzo_fan said:

Quite the weekend, indeed!  And what a great move to come home early and see August '69 Zepp instead!

I remember that his biggest complaint was the lack of food, although apparently the whole event was pretty chaotic. He also said the traffic getting there sucked, although apparently the ride home was much better because he was  headed in the opposite direction from the crowd.

He was also the first person who told me that Oakdale was a tent back when Zepp played there, not a regular building, and the stage was round and rotated during the show. Apparently there were a few other theaters like that back then. It must have been hard for the crew to set up the gear and get the sound right with the stage spinning like that. The Oakdale is still around, although the tent was taken down a long time ago and replaced with a large building. The area where the tent was located is now the lobby. I saw Gary Clark, Jr. there and it was cool walking through there thinking that Zepp played there way back when.

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On ‎2‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 6:59 PM, SteveZ98 said:

I remember that his biggest complaint was the lack of food, although apparently the whole event was pretty chaotic. He also said the traffic getting there sucked, although apparently the ride home was much better because he was  headed in the opposite direction from the crowd.

He was also the first person who told me that Oakdale was a tent back when Zepp played there, not a regular building, and the stage was round and rotated during the show. Apparently there were a few other theaters like that back then. It must have been hard for the crew to set up the gear and get the sound right with the stage spinning like that. The Oakdale is still around, although the tent was taken down a long time ago and replaced with a large building. The area where the tent was located is now the lobby. I saw Gary Clark, Jr. there and it was cool walking through there thinking that Zepp played there way back when.

Where I live we have a concert hall which is in the round with the stage in the middle. It is my favorite place to see a gig as it is small (only seats 2,650), has great acoustics, and every seat is a winner. Of course this in 2019 and not 1969 so all of the technical issues they may have had in 69' have long been worked out. The PA in the place is everywhere and only a few monitors on stage for the band. I can imagine back in the day with a revolving stage, no PA (amps on stage) , so the music gets louder, then softer, and louder as the stage rotates around.

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