18strings Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators sam_webmaster Posted July 31, 2020 Administrators Share Posted July 31, 2020 Great photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WD52 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Fantastic! Thanks for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Phone Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Outstanding, thank you so much for sharing those Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgeholder Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 great shots! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAJones Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 There are some magazine cover quality shots in this batch. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnOsbourne Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Outstanding, like Steve says, these are professional quality. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paplbojo Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Wow. I cannot even imagine. Question - how loud was it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Awesome, thanks for sharing. Really crazy to see new stuff pop up after all these years especially with this high quality. Looks professional. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reids Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 😎👍🙏 Thank you for sharing R😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticks of Fire Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) Hoarder! Just kidding, you’re awesome! I love photography. Hard to get good lighting with slide film but you did really well! Edited August 1, 2020 by Sticks of Fire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvlz2 Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Excellent photos, thanks so much 18strings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strider Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Gold mine is an understatement. How fortunate they weren't lost or damaged sitting in that attic all these years. How lucky for us we get to see these tremendous photographs. Sincere thanks, 18strings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hometown38 Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Fantastic pics ..what a great discovery ...what a great view you had ...thank you for sharing 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeplz71 Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Love these pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattius Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Excellent Pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozoso73 Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Incredible!! Its amazing after all these years people are still finding things like this in their attics. . THX for sharing:):) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VioletVernet Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 What treasures! Thanks for sharing. And no, I do not think it was crazy to camp out for three days to get tickets to see Zeppelin! I'd do it in a heartbeat but alas I was born too late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
18strings Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clyde devins Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 Awesome attic find !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo_fan Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 15 hours ago, VioletVernet said: What treasures! Thanks for sharing. And no, I do not think it was crazy to camp out for three days to get tickets to see Zeppelin! I'd do it in a heartbeat but alas I was born too late. I hear ya...why couldn't I be a '55 instead of a '95 😒 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcczep Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 $8.75 for a ticket...boggles the mind. The pics are priceless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
18strings Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
18strings Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZ98 Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 1 hour ago, 18strings said: 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. With inflation, $8.75 in 1975 is $41.93 today. Assume $1.25 in taxes and box offices fees and that $10.00 is equal to $47.92 today. So US$50 or so to see a band of Zep's stature doesn't sound bad. However, getting those seats meant sleeping out for a few days and being lucky enough to be at the front of the line. Assuming you couldn't do that but still wanted to see the band, you were probably looking at paying at least double that price from a scalper, so $20, which is almost $100 today. Still a bargain when the Stones and other big bands now charge five times that. The thing is, the reason they can do that is because their main audience today is old people who have the money to pay that much for a seat. Back in Zep's day, the tickets were mostly going to young people, and they typically don't have as much money as older people. So if Zep tried to charge $100 back then (around $500 today), they'd have been playing to mostly empty arenas because their primary audience couldn't afford to see them. Inflation calculator: https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1975?amount=8.75 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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