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How was August 11th at Knebworth?


Trashbag

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I was born after this time, unfortunatly, but I'm looking at these bootlegs, and there leaves a lot to be desired, especially Jimmy. But I can't imagine how it was actually being there in person. How was the actual experience?

I was 14yrs old when my older brothers took me to knebworth. I'd never seen so many people in one place. The attmos was electric. I'd not really listened much to led zep before then, i guess i was a little bit young. I thought there were brilliant and was hooked. I made two friends there, which after all these years, We're still friends. In fact i e-mail one just today.

I was not so sure about the suits, shirts and slacks. Not exactly rock n roll. You no that gig held the record for highest audience. Until that W***ker Robbie williams. If there tour again i think they should do Knebworth again and regain that acollade.

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I've only just seen this topic after posting in the who's seen Zep Thread, here's what I put there (sorry if you've already read this in the other thread)................

Not being one of the lucky few who got to attend the reunion this week, has had me thinking back to being a 14 year old and going to my first gig, which just happened to be at Knebworth on the 11th August 1979, I remember it being a lovely hot day (at least I think it was) & being excited at going to my first gig with a mate & his Dad, and yet at the same time being a little daunted as I'd never seen so many people in one place which made it kind of scary. I loved Southside Johnny, Todd Rundgren & even Chas & Dave (I know!!!!) Neither Commander Cody or the New Barbarians did anything for me, but it was just a great day all leading up to the main attraction and when Zep came on & played for 3 hours I was just blown away, I just enjoyed every second of it and it all just seemed to fly by. Thats 28 years ago now and I've got less hair which is also greying, but the memories are still nice, but whats more I can relive it by listening to the great sounboard recording & DVD's that are available.

Graham

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I was born after this time, unfortunatly, but I'm looking at these bootlegs, and there leaves a lot to be desired, especially Jimmy. But I can't imagine how it was actually being there in person. How was the actual experience?

It's funny but I hear people knock these shows, but having attended the 2nd & now hearing both on CD in Sounboard quality I think they were fabulous performances, yes there were imperfections but nothing that detracted from them as great shows. The songs were trimmed down with no excessive solo's and the band were clearly enjoying it and these 2 shows were better than anything from either the 1977 or 1980 tours., but thats just my humble opinion.

Graham

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The 11th was not near as good as the 4th in my opinion. Quite a few blunders. But then again, the 4th was near perfect, so it's not fair to compare the other shows to that one. Also the 4th had a lot more energy, I thought.

Now with that said, the 11th is still a fun listen.

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I thought it was flawed but a great experience. I was 15 and it was the one and only time I ever got to see Zeppelin live. To be at the front of the huge crowd when they came onto the stage was so exciting.

Soon after, I bought a vinyl bootleg recording of the show that was simply awful in sound quality and I sold it on again.

But nothing can take away the memories and watching the LZ DVD and the Knebworth concert DVD (of the 4th August show) keeps them fresh.

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It's weird cos I was at the aug 11th show and i was 14 and a half years old, was very taken aback by the amount of people there, the lasers, a hotdog cost a £1 that was robbery this was 28 years ago! but after that I was hooked, i never got o2 tickets but am hoping for a tour a few nights at the NEC will do.

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I was not so sure about the suits, shirts and slacks. Not exactly rock n roll.

Who wore a suit?

Oh and it was August 4th that held the records, not 11th. And no way did Robbie get 250, 000 people there. Fuck the 'official' records.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've only just seen this topic after posting in the who's seen Zep Thread, here's what I put there (sorry if you've already read this in the other thread)................

Not being one of the lucky few who got to attend the reunion this week, has had me thinking back to being a 14 year old and going to my first gig, which just happened to be at Knebworth on the 11th August 1979, I remember it being a lovely hot day (at least I think it was) & being excited at going to my first gig with a mate & his Dad, and yet at the same time being a little daunted as I'd never seen so many people in one place which made it kind of scary. I loved Southside Johnny, Todd Rundgren & even Chas & Dave (I know!!!!) Neither Commander Cody or the New Barbarians did anything for me, but it was just a great day all leading up to the main attraction and when Zep came on & played for 3 hours I was just blown away, I just enjoyed every second of it and it all just seemed to fly by. Thats 28 years ago now and I've got less hair which is also greying, but the memories are still nice, but whats more I can relive it by listening to the great sounboard recording & DVD's that are available.

I must be really lucky. I saw both knebworth gigs AND i got tickets for the O2.

But i've never seen a decent dvd of them from Knebworth.

Can you give me a clue as to where to look?

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The more I watch the Knebworth show- the more I really like it. I think it was so much better than any of the 1980 shows. I like the setlist and I think these shows get an unfair amount of abuse. I wish they had done more shows in 1979. This was not bad considering they had such a long hiatus since 1977 with their live playing. Some parts of it were still brilliant(even though not as fluid as their past live performances). I liked the edge and rawness of this show.

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It's funny but I hear people knock these shows, but having attended the 2nd & now hearing both on CD in Sounboard quality I think they were fabulous performances, yes there were imperfections but nothing that detracted from them as great shows. The songs were trimmed down with no excessive solo's and the band were clearly enjoying it and these 2 shows were better than anything from either the 1977 or 1980 tours., but thats just my humble opinion.

Graham

Maybe i'm writing before i even finish reading the tread..but hey..never attended the shows (i was 2 in march of '79 and in the USA) i thought the august 4, 1979 knebworth show was very good..soundboard recording of it, to me, is just so much better than HTWWW and TSRTS live albums. less solos, more energy and songs. I see how u might not like the 1977 shows (even though I love how they did the acoustic set...black country woman was always a underrated song!)...but the '80's tour?! From what i've heard..the 80's tour was even more trimmed down with no solos, and their energy and fire was even more so than knebworth! like knebworth was just a warm-up for what they did in Europe, '80. my god the 6-30-80 Frankfurt concert was just amazing! high power, and train kept a rollin'...very good...if we have soundboard quality recordings of knebworth (8-4-79) and '77 and '80 shows..damn shame there's not a boxed set of these out mixed and making us happy.

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The more I watch the Knebworth show- the more I really like it. I think it was so much better than any of the 1980 shows. I like the setlist and I think these shows get an unfair amount of abuse. I wish they had done more shows in 1979. This was not bad considering they had such a long hiatus since 1977 with their live playing. Some parts of it were still brilliant(even though not as fluid as their past live performances). I liked the edge and rawness of this show.

i love the knebworth 8-4-79 show!! but from what i've heard from the 80's concerts..even better! although i will say knebworth they sounded more traditiional zeppelin, the 80's tour they were trying to be like "wearing and tearing." but hey i love the 4-27-69 show..sitting and thinking..great, simple blues song..but so zeppelin! anyways, don't knock the 80's concert. the knebworth festival was so good..but so was the 80's..just completely different..that's what made zeppelin who they are..NEVER 2 albums/tour dates sounded exactly the same!

"the price to nowhere has increased a dollar more"

i wonder if they were talking about the price of GAS when they wrote this lyric?!

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I wasn't necessarily knocking the '80s shows. There were some good moments- I have some of them on bootleg. But Jimmy was painful to listen to at times(especially in SIBLY-which had no emotion in it and sounded so thin- like they were playing in a lounge). Just taking one look at him then- you can see that he was not in good shape. The Zurich show from then was decent, and I even like the Manheim show. But you are right, I think the 79 shows sounded more like traditional Zep. I'm just more partial to 79 than 80, that's all.

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