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Led Zeppelin concerts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From September 1968 through the summer of 1980, English rock group Led Zeppelin performed hundreds of concerts around the world.
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Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Led Zeppelin was one of the world's most popular live music attractions, making numerous concert tours of the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe in particular. They performed over 600 concerts[1], initially playing small clubs and ballrooms and then, as their popularity increased, larger venues and arenas as well. Between the years 1968 and 1971 they made no fewer than nine tours of North America. Many critics attribute the band's rapid rise as much to their tremendous appeal as a live act as they do to the quality of their studio albums.
From the early 1970s, the commercial and popular drawing power of Led Zeppelin continued to increase, and as a result the band began to embark on major stadium tours which attracted even vaster crowds. During their 1973 tour of the United States, they played to 56,800 fans at Tampa Stadium, Florida, breaking the record set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965. Similar crowds were drawn on the Led Zeppelin’s subsequent US tours, and they continued to break attendance records (in April 1977 they played to 76,229 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome, Michigan, a world record attendance for a solo indoor attraction). It is for these reasons that Led Zeppelin, as much as any other band or artist in this era, is widely credited for helping to establish what has come be known as stadium rock.
Led Zeppelin also performed at several Music festivals over the years, including the Atlanta International and the Texas International Pop Festivals in 1969, the Bath Festival in 1970, the "Days on the Green" in Oakland, California in 1977, and the Knebworth Music Festival in 1979.
Led Zeppelin’s reputation as a compelling live act is often attributed to the tight understanding and musical chemistry achieved between all four group members, combined with a shared willingness to experiment on-stage, which resulted in dynamic, unpredictable performances. As is noted by Led Zeppelin experts Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett:
| “ | Led Zeppelin live was an extraordinary animal. From the very beginning no two performances were alike. Such was the creative spark between the four that the basic structures of their songs were repeatedly reworked, extended and improvised on, making their studio counterparts almost unrecognisable.”[2] | ” |
Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, live versions of their song repertoire often incorporating elements of James Brown, Stax and Motown-influenced soul music and funk (favourites of bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham). The quartet also loved American rock and roll, being inspired by the exuberant styles of Fats Domino and Little Richard. Led Zeppelin would additionally perform rockabilly songs originally made famous by Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran.
Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings which continue to be prized by collectors and fans. In addition, footage of Led Zeppelin concerts has been released officially on the band's 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same, and on the Led Zeppelin DVD (2003). However, unlike other artists of the era such as The Who and The Rolling Stones, comparatively little official concert footage exists of Led Zeppelin. This is largely because of the successful efforts of manager Peter Grant to limit the exposure of the band to television appearances, in order to encourage fans who wanted to see the band to attend Led Zeppelin concerts.
Since Led Zeppelin disbanded following the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, the surviving members of the band have reunited together on-stage on just a few occasions. On July 13, 1985 the three performed at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, for a short set featuring drummers Tony Thompson and Phil Collins. They reunited again in May of 1988, for Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary concert, with Bonham's son, Jason Bonham, on drums, and then on January 12, 1995 for Led Zeppelin's induction into the United States Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For this latter event, the members played a brief set with Aerosmith's vocalist, Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry, along with Neil Young and Michael Bell.
The surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited in aid of the Ahmet Ertegun education fund for a show at The O2 in London on 10 December 2007, with Bonham again filling in on drums. While Robert Plant made his position regarding a subsequent reunion tour known to the Sunday Times ("The whole idea of being on a cavalcade of merciless repetition is not what it's all about"), he also made it known that he could be in favour of more one-off shows in the near future: "It wouldn't be such a bad idea to play together from time to time."
- Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)
- Led Zeppelin concert setlists
- Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
- ^ http://ledzeppelin.alexreisner.com/tourdates.html
- ^ Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press, introduction.