led zeppelin first tour

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Led Zeppelin Perform First Concert As ‘The New Yardbirds,’ On This Day In 1968 [Video]

Today marks the 52nd anniversary of  Led Zeppelin ‘s first-ever public performance. Billed as “The New Yardbirds,” the quartet was assembled as a means of fulfilling tour contracts put together by Jimmy Page ‘s then-main band, The Yardbirds , long after Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton had both left the group. Zeppelin’s first show took place at  Gladsaxe Teen Club in Gladsaxe, Denmark (near Copenhagen), in front of 1,200 curious fans who were interested in checking out Page’s new version of the popular blues-rock outfit.

Eager to press the boundaries of the British blues revival, it was Page who took the crumbling Yardbirds and put together a new lineup. Bassist/pianist/mandolinist  John Paul Jones was an obvious choice for the band, as the talented multi-instrumentalist was a well-known and respected session musician in England at the time. Though Page wanted Terry Reid to front the new band, Reid was unavailable and suggested Band Of Joy singer Robert Plant for the job. Plant eventually agreed to join and brought John Bonham along from his previous project.

Related: Just How Much Of Led Zeppelin’s Music Was Stolen?

“I knew this was going to be great … We locked together as a team immediately,” said Jones in an early interview in regards to their first rehearsals. Just a few weeks after playing together for the first time, the band made their live debut in Denmark. A local news outlet reported, “Their performance and their music were absolutely flawless, and the music continued to ring nicely in the ears for some time after the curtains were drawn after their show. We can therefore conclude that the new Yardbirds are at least as good as the old ones were.”

While footage of that fateful day isn’t in circulation, the band returned to Denmark a year later with some new music. They were now known as Led Zeppelin, a name that reportedly came from Keith Moon and John Entwistle of The Who  predicting that the band would “Go down like a lead balloon,” with the band altering the name slightly at the behest of infamous manager  Peter Grant .

The band returned to Denmark the following year in March 1969, where they taped their performance and aired it on TV BYEN . The band played a selection of original tunes that appeared on their debut album, released just two months prior, including “Communication Breakdown”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”, and “How Many More Times”. Relive the performance in full below.

Led Zeppelin – TV BYEN – 3/17/69

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50 Years Ago: Led Zeppelin Play Their First Show as Led Zeppelin

“ Led Zeppelin , the group formed by Jimmy Page after the disbandment of the Yardbirds , make their debut at Surrey University tomorrow,” a short newspaper piece reported on Oct. 24, 1968. “Their manager, Peter Grant, is currently finalizing a six-week American tour for the group. … They have started work on their first LP, which will be released early in the New Year.”

It’s difficult to imagine that anyone who paid seven shillings and sixpence to attend the university’s Great Hall on Oct. 25 knew just what a historic moment they were going to witness. They were probably more interested in meeting new students at the first dance night of the new term.

It wasn’t the first show staged by Page, Robert Plant , John Paul Jones and John Bonham – they’d completed a tour as the New Yardbirds six days earlier – but it was the first time they appeared as Led Zeppelin, the title chosen by Page after a comment by Keith Moon of the Who that a band they’d considered starting would have “gone down like a lead balloon.”

While the crowd may not have been aware how special the evening was, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin all assert that they’d known from the outset that they were going to change the world. In their 50th anniversary book Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin , Page recalled wanting to “manifest what I had learned during my touring and recording time with the Yardbirds.”

“That process led me to Robert Plant," he said. "When I heard him in the Midlands with his band, Obs-Tweedle, I invited him to my house in Pangbourne to introduce him to the material I wanted to do. He was open to those ideas. After a few visits, he talked of John Bonham. … I really felt a profound connection with John’s playing and immediately I knew he would be perfect. I figured the new band would give John Bonham the chance to play and present John Bonham’s playing unlike anything he had experienced before. John Paul Jones called me up soon after and asked if I was putting a band together and did I need a bass player?”

“Our first rehearsal really did feel special,” Jones recalled. “If you’re a bass player, you want to know what the drummer’s like. If the drummer’s no good, there’s simply no point. I immediately recognized in Bonzo a commune spirit and a bloody good drummer. … People had heard great bands but they were going to hear something now that was coming from a totally different perspective.”

Plant agreed: “Jimmy comments that we were all in that rehearsal room and we knew. The actual weight of that knowing is phenomenal; you can spend years almost getting there. … We were all into the idea of opening songs up, which for me and for our own individual flair and gift was an absolute dream. That was the difference from being in a blues band of the time, where you were limited by the form. With Led Zeppelin, we were taking in all sorts of other imagery, even at this early stage. Musically, everything was open. There was a structure, but the structure was prompted and edited according to cues. There would be a kind of signature that advances to another part of the song, that’s how it worked.”

“It’s the attitude,” Page emphasized. “It’s the energy level of it. It’s the intensity. It’s not just a noise, it’s the shape of the noise, the length, breadth and depth of the noise. … We could really flex our musical prowess, to see whether we’d settled on things in the right way or whether it needed to be tweaked, and also how well it was received.”

While it’s not clear what Led Zeppelin played that night, it’s likely  the set included “Communication Breakdown,” “I Can't Quit You Baby,” “You Shook Me,” “Dazed & Confused,” “Babe I'm Gonna Leave You” and “How Many More Times.” Within three months, those songs would appear on the band’s self-titled debut album , and within three years the group be world news, going on to become one of the biggest-selling artists of all time.

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Today in 1968 Led Zeppelin Kicked Off First U.S. Tour

On this day (Dec. 26) in 1968, Led Zeppelin kicked off their first North American tour opening for the band Vanilla Fudge at Denver Auditorium in Colorado.

By Leslie Richin

Leslie Richin

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On this day (Dec. 26) in 1968, Led Zeppelin (not to be confused with “ Len Zefflin “) kicked off their first North American tour opening for psychedelic hard rock band Vanilla Fudge at Denver Auditorium in Colorado. A ticket to see them play would only set you back $5 and the setlist included a surprising eight covers ­and only a few original tracks off the band’s forthcoming self-titled debut album, which peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1969.

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Robert Plant

Legendary promoter Barry Fey recalled the band’s first U.S. show in his autobiography, Backstage Past : “The night of the concert, I get on stage to make the announcement to open the show. “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome, direct from England for their North America debut, Led Zeppelin!” There was a smattering of polite applause. Then, Robert Plant let it rip and everybody in the audience was stunned. You didn’t have to be a genius to know Zeppelin was going to be a smash. Oh, my God. People were going crazy!”

Here’s where the collection of songs on the band’s U.S. tour setlist originated:

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1. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” (cover) 

“Don’t you hear it callin’ me the way it used to do?”

Before becoming the infamous rock track on Zeppelin’s debut album, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” began as a folk song written by Anne Bredon in the ’50s. It was recorded by Joan Baez on her 1962 album, Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1 .

2. “I Can’t Quit You Baby” (cover)

“I can’t quit you, baby, so I’m gonna put you down for a while”

“I Can’t Quit You Baby” was written by the immensely influential Willie Dixon and first recorded by Chicago artist  Otis Rush  in 1956. Listen to Rush sing the blues and then follow with Zeppelin’s bluesy-rock version. Regardless of which version you prefer, there’s no denying that both Rush and Plant deliver the vocals.

3.  “Dazed and Confused” (cover) 

“Been dazed and confused for so long it’s not true”

“Dazed and Confused” was written and performed by  Jake Holmes in 1967, two years before appearing on Zeppelin’s debut album. It was also covered by Jimmy Page’s previous band, The Yardbirds , who Holmes opened for. Listen to Holmes’ psychedelic version and follow with the rendition that’s been known to melt a few faces.

4. “You Shook Me” (cover)

“You shook me so hard, baby, you shook me all night long.”

“ You Shook Me ” began as a blues song recorded by Chicago blues artist  Muddy Waters in 1962, co-written by Willie Dixon. It was then recorded by the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart on vocals in 1968, before being recorded for Zeppelin’s debut album in 1969. Zeppelin’s harmonica-turned-guitar solo (at 3:05) is in part responsible for the phrase “getting the Led out.”

5. “ Train Kept A-Rollin'”  (cover)

“I said, train kept a-rollin’ all night long”

First recorded by American jazz and R&B musician Tiny Bradshaw in 1951, “Train Kept A-Rollin'” was yet another song popularized by The Yardbirds (and Jeff Beck) before it was added to Zeppelin’s setlist. It was also previously covered by American rockabilly musician Johnny Burnette in 1956. Interestingly enough, Led Zeppelin’s version left the smallest digital footprint of all — perhaps because it wasn’t until 1974 that Aerosmith , not Zeppelin, brought the song into the hard rock mainstream.

6. “As Long As I Have You” (cover)

“Give me mountains to crumble and I’ll turn them to sand”

An extended version of Garnet Mimms ‘ 1964 song “As Long As I Have You” was performed during both Zeppelin’s U.S. and U.K. tours. Although Mimms version is notably underrated, Zeppelin took the song to another level entirely at the Fillmore West in San Francisco during the band’s second U.S. tour in 1969.

7. “For Your Love” (cover)

“I’d give the moon if it were mine to give.”

To continue the trend of songs performed live by Led Zeppelin post The Yardbirds, here’s “For Your Love,” originally written by Graham Gouldman (later of 10cc) in 1965. Although The Yardbird’s version became their highest charting single in the U.S. (peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 ), Zeppelin delivered the goods during the band’s performance at Hollywood’s world famous Whisky a Go Go in 1969.

8.  “Killing Floor” (cover)

“I should’ve quit you, babe, long time ago”

Prior to making its way onto Zeppelin’s setlist, “Killing Floor” was written by American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist  Howlin’ Wolf in 1964 and performed live by  Jimi Hendrix .

Eventually the song title (as well as the tempo and some of the lyrics) was changed to “The Lemon Song” (included on Led Zeppelin II ) after legal action was taken by Howlin’ Wolf’s publisher.

9. “How Many More Times”

“I can’t get through to her ’cause it doesn’t permit, but I’m gonna give her everything I’ve got to give”

“How Many More Times” was often Zeppelin’s closing number. At 8:29 minutes in length, it’s the longest song on the band’s debut album.

10. “Communication Breakdown”  

“I’m having a nervous breakdown, drive me insane”

Usually a tour opener or an encore song, this classic track is one of the few songs on which Page sang a backing vocal.

11. “Moby Dick” (aka “Pat’s Delight”)

During their first U.S. tour, Zeppelin drummer John Bonham would sometimes solo for upwards of 30 minutes on this instrumental. The original song title was named for Bonham’s wife.

12.  “White Summer/Black Mountain Side”

Another instrumental, but this time Page took the spotlight. During the band’s first U.S. tour, “Black Mountain Side” was combined with The Yardbirds song “White Summer,” which translated into an epic 9-minute solo for Page. Listen to both songs together during Zeppelin’s 1969 show in Paris.

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Led Zeppelin

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December 26, 1968

Led Zeppelin play their first North American show, in Denver, the day after Christmas 1968. Robert Plant, John Bonham and Jimmy Page travel to Los Angeles on December 23rd, while John Paul Jones meets up with them at the Denver show. Peter Grant would join them in San Francisco a couple of weeks later at the Fillmore West.

Playing to unfamiliar crowds, their debut album is released several weeks after arriving in America. By the time they reach California though, the buzz and notoriety about their dynamic and blistering concerts began to spread.

Tour Dates: (Click on date for show info)

• December 26, 1968 Denver / United States / Auditorium Arena
• December 27, 1968 Seattle / United States / Seattle Center Arena
• December 28, 1968 Vancouver / Canada / Pacific Coliseum
• December 30, 1968 Spokane / United States / Gonzaga Univ., Kennedy Pavillion
• January 2, 1969 W. Hollywood / United States / Whisky a Go Go
• January 4, 1969 W. Hollywood / United States / Whisky a Go Go
• January 5, 1969 W. Hollywood / United States / Whisky a Go Go
• January 9, 1969 San Francisco / United States / Fillmore West
• January 10, 1969 San Francisco / United States / Fillmore West
• January 11, 1969 San Francisco / United States / Fillmore West
• January 12, 1969 San Francisco / United States / Fillmore West
• January 15, 1969 Iowa City / United States / University of Iowa Memorial Union
• January 17, 1969 Detroit / United States / The Grande Ballroom
• January 18, 1969 Detroit / United States / The Grande Ballroom
• January 19, 1969 Detroit / United States / The Grande Ballroom
• January 20, 1969 Wheaton / United States / Wheaton Youth Center (unconfirmed)
• January 23, 1969 Boston / United States / Boston Tea Party
• January 24, 1969 Boston / United States / Boston Tea Party
• January 25, 1969 Boston / United States / Boston Tea Party
• January 26, 1969 Boston / United States / Boston Tea Party
• January 31, 1969 New York / United States / Fillmore East
• February 1, 1969 New York / United States / Fillmore East
• February 2, 1969 Toronto / Canada / The Rock Pile
• February 7, 1969 Chicago / United States / Kinetic Playground
• February 8, 1969 Chicago / United States / Kinetic Playground February 10, 1969 Memphis / United States / State University
• February 14, 1969 Miami / United States / Thee Image Club
• February 15, 1969 Miami / United States / Thee Image Club

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• February 16, 1969 Baltimore / United States / Civic Center (Baltimore)

Denver, 1968: Led Zeppelin Makes American Debut

Think Denver doesn’t have much rock n’ roll history?

Nearly forty-five years ago, on December 26, 1968, legendary British rock band Led Zeppelin opened for Vanilla Fudge at Denver’s Auditorium Arena.

Believe it or not, Denver was Led Zeppelin’s first stop on their first North American tour.

As the late Denver concert promoter Barry Fey (1938-2013) recalled in his 2011 autobiography , he nearly passed on Led Zeppelin. When Ron Terry (agent for Vanilla Fudge) approached Fey about adding Led Zeppelin as an opener to the already sold-out Vanilla Fudge show, Fey refused. It wasn’t until Vanilla Fudge offered $750 of their own money to pay for half of Led Zeppelin’s performance fee that Fey reconsidered.

Rocky Mountain News music critic Thomas MacCluskey reviewed the December 26 show and recounted the way Led Zeppelin played their set with a series of emphatic adverbs: “powerfully, gutsily, unifiedly, inventively, and swingingly.”

MacCluskey went on to describe the performance of each band member. While he was impressed by guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones, MacCluskey had fewer kind words for singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham:

• Robert Plant: “a cut above average in style, but no special appeal in sound”
• Jimmy Page: “exceptionally fine…used a violin bow on the guitar strings in a couple of tunes…”
• John Paul Jones: “solid, involved, contributing”
• John Bonham: “a very effective group drummer, but uninventive, unsubtle, and unclimactic in an uneventful solo"

​Led Zeppelin returned to Denver less than two years later on March 25, 1970, and played to a crowd of 11,500 at the Coliseum. MacCluskey’s review of the band’s performance was more positive this time around, with the critic noting a marked improvement of Plant’s vocals and Bonham’s drumming.

Looking for more Denver rock n’ roll history? A great place to start is the Western History Subject Index —a large, digitized index of newspaper articles relating to the history of Denver, Colorado, and the American West. While this index provides newspaper article citations (meaning you won't be taken directly to the article of your choosing), full-text articles are available in several DPL newspaper databases or on microfilm in DPL’s Western History and Genealogy Department .

My girlfriend and I were

My girlfriend and I were there in 1970. Zep played for three hours. Of all the concerts I attended in the 60s and 70s, it was the grooviest!

Very groovy! Thanks for

Very groovy! Thanks for posting, Marc!

I was 13 years old and the 70

I was 13 years old and the 70 concert was my first. I sat in section ZZ and still have my half ticket. It was an incredible evening!

What an awesome memento, John

What an awesome memento, John! Thanks for sharing!

I sat near the front and my

I sat near the front and my ears rang for a whole day after that gig. It was epic but it was loud!!

Epic indeed! Thanks for

Epic indeed! Thanks for sharing, Dave!

I was at the 1968 concert and

I was at the 1968 concert and I remember the third band that performed then- Spirit, with front man Randy California. They played a great set, including their hit "Fresh Garbage". Also, the drummers from each band played extended solos, perhaps in response to Ginger Baker of rock group Cream who displayed incredible drumming some months before at this same venue.

I was also there, and it was

I was also there, and it was amazing - and so unexpected since we were there to see Vanilla Fudge and Spirit.

Ditto Stephen! Holiday break

Ditto Stephen! Holiday break 1968. The old auditorium. Wintry night. Came for Spirit. Stunned by LZ!

I remember as if it was

I remember as if it was yesterday....which is amazing in itself!!

Must have been a pretty

Must have been a pretty amazing night, indeed!

Dear All, anyone of you saw

Dear All, anyone of you saw the following rock gigs played in Denver during the Seventies ? BLACK SABBATH 27 February 1971 (with MOUNTAIN) and 18 October 1971. TRAFFIC, JOHN MARTYN and FREE 29 January 1973. DEEP PURPLE 3 & 4 April 1974. TRAFFIC and GENTLE GIANT 8 October 1974. GENTLE GIANT 3 & 4 February 1975 Ebbett's Field. RAINBOW and PAT TRAVERS 30 March 1981.

Any memories to share ? Who knows if vintage press is available for those gigs ! Thanks for your kindly attention !

All The Best,

Poor guys did sing in our

Poor guys did sing in our elevation. Been at concerts where singer asked the audience “how the heck do you breathe here?!”

We were blown away, when they

We were blown away, when they were introduced everyone said “Who are they?

I was working security for

I was working security for Barry Fey, I was there when Barry Fey said yes to Led Zeppelin. Vanilla Fudge paid Led Zeppelin. Got to meet the band and party with them.

Did you know of any LED

Did you know of any LED ZEPPELIN gig planned in August / September 1975 in Denver (exact gig date still a mistery for all LED ZEPPELIN gig collectors) ? Seems so according to Swan Song press release dated 8 August 1975 anyway this gig was cancelled with all LED ZEPPELIN gigs planned for Summer 1975 when Robert Plant was hurt in a car accident in Rhodes Island 4 August 1975. Thanks for your memories !

Thanks for reading and

Thanks for reading and sharing this information about the lost Zeppelin shows!

Stones, Zeppelin, Black…

Stones, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, those were the days. Saw Black Sabbath, and Humble Pie at a roller rink with cardboard admission 🎟️ No seats just pushing back and forth

I was at fillmore east when…

I was at fillmore east when led zeppelin opened up for iron butterfly. amazing show, zeppelin played their first album which was released the following monday, and their entire second album which they were recording when they were done, it seemed nobody cared about iron butterfly

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Watch Led Zeppelin Play One of Their First Concerts in 1969

In the U.S., Led Zeppelin’s self-titled debut album was only three months old—and it wouldn't be released in the U.K. for another two weeks.

Ever want to know what an early Led Zeppelin concert experience was like? We've got you covered.

Here, you can check out some vintage, high-quality video from a March 17, 1969, Led Zeppelin TV appearance.

The band—Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham—was on a tour of the U.K. and Scandinavia when it visited TV-Byen studios in Gladsaxe, Denmark, to play four tracks from the new album. You can check out one of these, their blistering performance of "Communication Breakdown," above.

Page is playing his 1959 Fender Telecaster, a gift from Jeff Beck and a holdover from Page’s Yardbirds days. Page fans are in luck, because there's lots of close-up camera work during his guitar solos, including his enjoyable “Communication Breakdown” Tele-shred workout. Enjoy!

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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas , was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron , a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums . He now plays in two NYC-area bands.

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Hear Led Zeppelin’s First Recorded Concert Ever (1968)

in Music | April 29th, 2014 11 Comments

It’s Decem­ber, 1968. You’re a teenaged kid in Spokane, Wash­ing­ton, keen to see Vanil­la Fudge —or “The Vanil­la Fudge,” as the pro­mot­er calls them—at G onza­ga University’s Kennedy Pavil­ion, and… what’s this? The open­ing act is “Len Zef­flin?” Who the hell is that?

Maybe you’re hip, like Bob Gal­lagher, who knew Jim­my Page from the Yard­birds and looked for­ward to catch­ing his new band. Maybe not. Maybe, like Ker­ry Whit­sitt, you’re hop­ing “the first band wouldn’t stay on stage too long.” You know how it is… open­ing bands….

But then Page, Plant, Bon­ham, and Jones take the stage, and like Jeff “Tor” Nadeau, you look around to find the house “uni­ver­sal­ly mind-blown” by “the most stun­ning and awe­some sound ever.” And like Ker­ry, you don’t “want them to leave the stage—ever!”

These then-teenage fans’ rem­i­nisces of this his­toric show, only the fifth of Led Zeppelin’s first U.S. tour, come cour­tesy of the Zep­pelin web­site’s descrip­tion of the mis­tak­en­ly billed “Len Zefflin”’s ear­li­est record­ed con­cert , which you can hear in its entire­ty above, thanks to an enter­pris­ing young stu­dent who brought his tape recorder.

The band’s first album— Led Zep­pelin —wouldn’t hit stores for anoth­er three weeks. The kids haven’t heard any­thing like this before: Bonham’s explo­sive fills, Plant’s high-pitched har­mo­niz­ing to “Page’s pipe-wrench riffs.” By the time Zep­pelin left the stage, Bob Gal­lagher and his bud­dies were “flab­ber­gast­ed.” And “when Vanil­la Fudge came on, they were so sleepy. It was like, after that, psy­che­delia was dead and heavy met­al was born, all in a three-hour show.” Poor Vanil­la Fudge.

The raw, two-track tape record­ing of that frigid win­ter show has cir­cu­lat­ed for thir­ty years in var­i­ous boot­leg forms, but it’s new to Youtube, new to me, and maybe new to you too. Lis­ten to it and see if you can’t con­jure some of those lucky audi­ence-mem­bers’ awe in that moment of dis­cov­ery, when heavy met­al was born from the blues. The full track­list of the show is below. For the full expe­ri­ence, see the Youtube page to read a tran­scrip­tion of Robert Plan­t’s between-song stage pat­ter.

01 — Train Kept A Rollin’ [0:00] 02 — I Can’t Quit You [2:32] 03 — As Long As I Have You (incl Fresh Garbage / Shake / Hush) [9:15] 04 — Dazed And Con­fused [17:52] 05 — White Sum­mer [27:43] 06 — How Many More Times (incl The Hunter) [34:31] 07 — Pat’s Delight [50:07]

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Led Zep­pelin Plays One of Its Ear­li­est Con­certs (Dan­ish TV, 1969)

Whole Lot­ta Led Zep­pelin: Live at the Roy­al Albert Hall and The Song Remains the Same–the Full Shows

Decon­struct­ing Led Zeppelin’s Clas­sic Song ‘Ram­ble On’ Track by Track: Gui­tars, Bass, Drums & Vocals

Josh Jones  is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at  @jdmagness .

by Josh Jones | Permalink | Comments (11) |

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Comments (11), 11 comments so far.

This is the GREATEST band of ALL time!!!!! I was 15 when this event took place…

A lucky find indeed! I blenched at the sound quality…then kept it on while I ‘did some stuff’. By the third track, I was hooked and hun­gry for more. Such sen­su­al music! Such a con­flu­ence of influ­ences! Wow!

And I used to think that Robert Plan­t’s voice was annoy­ing…

My DAD was 18 when this took place and I think LZ is the GREATEST band of ALL time.

To quote Kloster­man:

“But Zep­pelin is far and away the most pop­u­lar rock band of all time, and they’re pop­u­lar in a way the Bea­t­les and Stones can­not pos­si­bly com­pete with; this is because every straight man born after the year 1958 has at least one tran­si­to­ry peri­od in his life when he believes Led Zep­pelin is the only good band that ever exist­ed. And there is no oth­er rock group that gen­er­ates that expe­ri­ence.”

I am enjoy­ing the tepid/­mind-blown applause almost as much as I am enjoy­ing LZ’s performance…We are lis­ten­ing to the birth of a musi­cal genre all its own…astonishing stuff

The qual­i­ty is pret­ty great for a fan made reel to reel record­ing done over 40 years ago. It is unfor­tu­nate that there are no cir­cu­lat­ing record­ings of Led Zep­pelin’s first tour in Europe while they were billed as the New Yard­birds ear­li­er in 1968 but those record­ings may still come to light one day. Remem­ber John Lennon’s Quar­ry­men record­ing from the 1957 con­cert where he met Paul McCart­ney, sur­faced some years back and is now owned by Cap­i­tal Records. Same for a Doors con­cert record­ing from Feb­ru­ary 1966 which is still wait­ing to be released. All that said, Led Zep­pelin sounds has always been a great inter­pre­ta­tion of Black Amer­i­can ver­nac­u­lar; the Blues, Zyde­co and Jazz. When Amer­i­can teenagers were obliv­i­ous to Black music in the 1950s and ear­ly 1960s most British teens were informed and armed with work­ing class blues.

This is far from Led Zep­pelin’s first show. It is how­ev­er, at least at this point, the ear­li­est show avail­able in record­ed for­mat. Their first show was in Copen­hagen Den­mark on 9/7/1968.

OMG. Some­one clean up this audio. It’s all over the place. Blown out vs. crys­tal clear (with the vol­ume turned low).

I saw them Oct 1969 Boston Garden.I was 17, and to this day, after lost count of how many con­certs, that show left an indeli­ble impres­sion of sheer ecsta­sy, raw rock­ing bluesy chills, nev­er for­get it.

this is freakin awe­some! great to hear it!! i real­ize the sound qual­i­ty sux but that is all we had back in the day. and it real­ly does­nt both­er me :) <3

Thank you for shar­ing this , I was born in 64 and I first heard a lep­plin album when I was 12, the neigh­bors lent me 3 albums at the time with my first lil record play­er I had some 45,s and my broth­er gave me my first album( help) of the 3 my neigh­bors lent me was zeps first album, once I played it , I fell in love with it , I talked my neigh­bors into let­ting me keep the zep album , I wore it out I played the Bea­t­les no more , been a zep fan ever since,

About 6 months after this show LZ was get­ting ready to release their 2nd record — they played the Mer­ri­weath­er Post Pavil­ion — (about mid-way between Bal­ti­more & Wash D.C.) — they were still open­ing for more estab­lished bands — (but not for much longer) — and on that warm, late May evening — they opened up for The Who (for the first & only time) — who were pro­mot­ing their new record “Tom­my” — LZ went over so well the crowd prac­ti­cal­ly would not let them leave the stage — and Pete Town­shend was report­ed­ly not very hap­py about it ..

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"I stood right at the front and watched. There was hardly anyone there": Behind the scenes at Led Zeppelin's first UK show, told by the people who saw it

When people turned up to a Newcastle ballroom, they expected to see The New Yardbirds. Instead, they saw the future of rock'n'roll

The announcement of a Yardbirds gig at Newcastle’s Mayfair Ballroom on October 4, 1968 barely caused a ripple of interest in the North East, let alone elsewhere. After a string of Top 10 hits a few years earlier, their career was on a downward slide and they were perilously close to becoming yesterday’s men.

What the people of Tyneside didn’t know was that the band had actually split up a few months earlier. But rather than cancel a Scandinavian tour, guitarist Jimmy Page had taken the opportunity to relaunch the band with singer Robert Plant , drummer John Bonham , and noted session player John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards.

And so the few dozen people who turned up at the Mayfair for what was supposed to be the first date of The Yardbirds’ UK tour were in for a surprise. After sitting through support bands Downtown Faction, the Junco Partners and New York Public Library [the latter a late replacement for Terry Reid], the audience found themselves confronted with an unfamiliar group. Although they didn’t know it, they were witnessing the first British gig by the band that would become Led Zeppelin .

Jimmy Page: We originally thought that by calling ourselves the New Yardbirds we would be able to keep a sort of continuity from the early days of the old group.

Brian Greenaway [Mayfair manager, 1966-71]: It all exploded in the 1960s. Friday night we’d often get 2,500 people in. It would be heaving. We had some really big names on, people like The Who.

Fraser Suffield [promoter]: I promoted a lot of shows in the 60s and early 70s at the Mayfair. I booked the Yardbirds gig in early 1968 via the Sherry-Copeland Agency. The tickets were 10/6 [about 52p] to get in. I’ll have probably paid around £75 or £100 for the band.

Bob Sargeant [keyboard player, the Junco Partners]: For these Mayfair gigs there would usually be a national band, an up-and-coming national band and two local supports. The Juncos followed Downtown Faction, New York Public Library followed us and the New Yardbirds followed them. Terry Reid was on some of the adverts, but he didn’t play.

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Terry Reid: Fantasia and I were on Cream’s farewell US tour and couldn’t do the gig. We had a lot of juggling around with dates about then.

Tez Stokes [guitarist, New York Public Library]: We got the gig the week before the show. We only found out we were supporting The Yardbirds when we got there.

Ray Laidlaw [drummer, Downtown Faction]: Downtown Faction were a progressive blues band, and the Five Live Yardbirds album had been a huge influence on us. The Yardbirds had changed a lot since then but, I was still mildly interested to see them.

Fraser Suffield: I hadn’t met The Yardbirds before, so when they arrived I introduced myself. I didn’t think: “This isn’t the band I booked”.

Tez Stokes: We’d met Jimmy Page years before, when he was in Neil Christian’s Crusaders. He was a very well-respected guitar player, but very quiet, reserved and shy. John Paul Jones I met when he was the bass player with the Tony Meehan Band. He stayed with us that night, because he had a meeting the next morning with [producer] Mickie Most

Charlie Foskett [audience member]: The day before, I’d taken my Ampeg upright bass into Barrett’s music shop in the centre of Newcastle, to see if they’d be interested in buying it. It was like a stick with a point on one end and machine heads on the other. While I was there, in walks John Paul Jones. I didn’t know who he was, but the shop guys are going: “That’s him!” That’s him who?”. 

They knew him from his session work and that he’d be playing the Mayfair the following day. He had a go with my bass, and starts playing the bass line to Whole Lotta Love, although of course none of us knew it then. It sounded total rubbish on an upright bass. The strings were a couple of inches off the fretboard, making it really difficult to play. I told him it sounded great. It didn’t at all, but I wanted to flog it. He gave me £14 and left the shop with it under his arm.

Charlie Harcourt [guitarist, the Junco Partners]: Before the gig, either the band or their roadie asked if they could borrow our organ. They didn’t seem very well prepared. We told them no, they should have brought their own.

Bob Sargeant: I don’t remember John Paul Jones playing keyboards that night. That’ll be the reason why. I must have been in the bar when they asked, because I’d have said yes.

Fraser Suffield: Some bands had rider requirements as long as your arm. The New Yardbirds weren’t one of them.

Ray Laidlaw: This was in the days before riders really came in. If you were lucky you might get a crate of beer. All four bands were in the same dressing room, which was a large, disused bar at the side of the stage. We were all milling around, coming and going.

Bob Sargeant: I’ve got a vague memory of talking to Jimmy at the bar before they went on. He was the only one I spoke to.

Charlie Harcourt: The Mayfair had a revolving stage, so one band would be setting up at the back while the other was performing. When that band finished their set, the stage would turn and the other band would arrive.

Ray Laidlaw: The revolving stage meant you couldn’t put your gear on stage until just before you were about to go on. There wasn’t room. The corridors backstage were full of gear.

Charlie Foskett: There wasn’t much of a feeling of anticipation before the New Yardbirds went on, although it was crowded around the stage.

Ray Laidlaw: I don’t recall the gig being that well attended. The Yardbirds were old news by that point . The Mayfair was a bit like a club, and some people would go no matter who was on.

Tez Stokes: I stood right at the front and watched. There was hardly anyone there. Some people were sitting in the balcony, looking down.

Bob Sargeant: The bands were expected to be playing when the revolving stage came round. It was usually a 12-bar or something, before they started their set.

Charlie Foskett: Zeppelin weren’t playing when the stage came round, they were farting around. Jones was on the left side in front of a silver-fronted Fender Bassman amp. He hit a note and the cloth on the front of the amp wobbled, which I thought was cool. Page posed about with his Les Paul. They weren’t using monitors, all of that came later. the riser, which had the amps, waiting for someone to go: “One, two, three, four”. That came pretty quickly.

Bob Sargeant: They were good. Very indicative of what they’d become as Led Zeppelin. I can remember thinking: “Who’s that bloke singing?”.

Charlie Foskett: A lot of the audience went: “Where’s The Yardbirds? Who’s this?”. It wasn’t The Yardbirds, it was another band.

Fraser Suffield: When the band got into it, I thought they were very impressive, with lots of promise.

Charlie Foskett : After five minutes it was: “This is great!”. Everybody had forgotten about The Yardbirds. Nobody knew the name Led Zeppelin then, of course, so it was: “Yeah, this is the New Yardbirds!”.

Ray Laidlaw: Because they’d only been playing together for a few weeks, they didn’t have a presence. When you see a band with feel or atmosphere to them, you come away thinking you’ve really seen something. I didn’t get that with them, because at the time they didn’t have it. There was no chemistry.

Charlie Foskett: I thought the band were terrific. The first thing was the energy. Everything was a bunch of riffs. Page’s guitar was ripping away. I’ve heard better soloists, but he was a great showman, a walking skeleton with skin-tight bell-bottom jeans, the hair and tons of posing.

Ray Laidlaw: I wasn’t very impressed with Robert Plant. He was a bit fey. I was more interested in the mechanics of the band. Bonham was pretty damn good. John Paul Jones kept himself in the background, and Jimmy Page was a fantastic player. But the band wasn’t finely tuned.

Bob Sargeant: I thought the material they did was similar to what was on Jeff Beck’s Truth album.

Ray Laidlaw: Page was basing it on the Jeff Beck Group. He knew how successful they’d been in the US, and was using that as his model. I wouldn’t be surprised if after each gig he’d go through it with the band: a little more of this, a bit less of that, polish that, drop this number, bring that one in. Like managing a football team.

Bob Sargeant: There was a track on Truth called You Shook Me , with Rod Stewart singing.The New Yardbirdsdid that number at the Mayfair.They also did Shapes Of Things , the old Yardbirds hit. And they played Communication Breakdown, and a couple of other songs that turned up on the first Zeppelin album.

Charlie Foskett: I was very much into their overall noise and energy along with the visual thing. They really had their chops together. It was as loud as the gear would allow it to be at that point, and full throttle, including the couple of Yardbirds hits they did. The discerning music lovers were glued to it.

Tez Stokes: Jimmy Page did an extended guitar solo sitting down. The sweat was pouring out of him. As a guitarist myself I was watching very closely, picking up tips. I was very impressed.

Ray Laidlaw: I was thinking that this was the latest version of The Yardbirds, and some of it was really good and some of it wasn’t. I didn’t go away telling people that The Yardbirds are back and they’re fantastic. It was all part of the progressive blues thing that was happening then, where maybe they’d make a couple of albums and that would be it. To me they didn’t warrant any more credence than any of the many other John Mayall-influenced bands that were knocking about.

John Porteous [Tyneside record dealer]: My friend, the late John Gourley, was Newcastle’s top Yardbirds collector. He goes to the Mayfair that Friday night expecting to see the Keith Relf line-up. The band comes on, and he watches three or four numbers. He then goes to the front desk, says the band on stage aren’t The Yardbirds, demands his money back and leaves. Quite a few others did the same.

Fraser Suffield : I didn’t receive any complaints from the Mayfair manager about people wanting their money back. When people were leaving I got no adverse comments about them not being the band they were expecting.

Charlie Foskett : After the last song, it was a case of: “Thank you and goodnight!”. The stage revolved and they were off. I did think they had it, and that it could happen for them, given half a chance.

Fraser Suffield : After the gig I went backstage to pay the money to the band themselves. They didn’t have a manager with them.

Brian Greenaway : Once a band had been paid they’d be away. They tended not to stay overnight. They’d be in the van and back to London.

Jimmy Page : We realised we were working under false pretences. The thing had quickly gone beyond where The Yardbirds left off. We all agreed there was no point in retaining the ‘New Yardbirds’ tag, so when we decided to change the band’s name.

Ray Laidlaw: It only dawned on me three or four months later that Led Zeppelin were the people I’d seen. If they had to stand or fall by the performance that night they probably wouldn’t have been signed. It was okay, but not the entity with the mighty presence that Zeppelin became very soon after

What happened next?

After several more gigs, Page renamed the band Led Zeppelin. UK university and club dates were followed by a US tour and the release of their eponymous debut album. Downtown Faction evolved into the band Lindisfarne. The Mayfair was demolished in 1999 to make room for a car park.

Ian Ravendale began working for BBC's Radio Newcastle's Bedrock show in the 1970s and soon after started writing for local and national music magazines. He's written for Sounds, Classic Rock, AOR, Record Collector, The Word, American Songwriter, Classic Pop, Vive Le Rock, Iron Fist, The Beat, Vintage Rock and Fireworks, and worked with Tyne Tees Television and Border TV.

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How Led Zeppelin Came to Be

By Corbin Reiff

Corbin Reiff

On September 7th, 1968, Led Zeppelin played their first live show ever in, of all places, a converted gym in Gladsaxe, Denmark. They weren’t yet billed under their soon-to-be world-famous name but were instead performing under the guise of the New Yardbirds, a relaunch of the British Invasion blues rockers who’d imploded just months before. The only known quantity among this new lineup was guitarist Jimmy Page , who’d funded the tour through Scandinavia out of his own pocket, but that was enough draw a young crowd to the venue, known as Teen Club. “Their performance and their music were absolutely flawless,” local reviewer Bent Larsen wrote  in the venue’s monthly newsletter, “and the music continued to ring nicely in the ears for some time after the curtains were drawn after their show.”

As far as gigs go, this show, which featured several songs that would ultimately appear on the band’s first album, like “Communication Breakdown,” “Dazed And Confused” and “You Shook Me,” paled in comparison to the marathon runs they would undertake at the Forum in Los Angeles or Earls Court outside of London in the years to come, but the momentousness of the occasion can’t be overstated. It was Zeppelin’s first step in their ascent to the top of rock’s Olympus, and Jimmy Page deserves much of the credit for making it happen.

In the spring of 1968, Page was at a crossroads. The highly touted session guitar ace was once again a man without a band. He’d spent the prior two years or so playing in the Yardbirds, first as a dual-lead foil to his childhood friend Jeff Beck and then as the group’s focal point when Beck decided to split in the middle of an American tour. After another quick run through the States, the band suddenly and unceremoniously called it a day when the different members of the group decided they wanted to pursue other artistic avenues.

Page was understandably disappointed, but he had an idea of how he wanted to proceed. Though the guitarist’s move from complete anonymity in London’s many recording studios working with some of the biggest pop and rock stars of the early Sixties to playing sweaty gigs at universities and clubs across the pond in the U.S. was thrilling, but Page also felt stifled by the creative impulses of the Yardbirds’ manager and producer Mickie Most.

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Most was a strict disciple of the three-minute pop song, and he butted heads with Page, who was taking note of what the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Cream and Jimi Hendrix were doing with the   album format and wanted to replicate it with his band.  Page was especially inspired by a recording session he’d overseen with Beck in May 1966 that produced the song “Beck’s Bolero.” “ The band was John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and myself and Jeff on guitars,”  he told David Fricke in 2012 . “ This session was absolutely magnificent, like a force of nature. Keith was having troubles in the Who. He’s going, ‘We should form a band with this.’” While they were passing around ideas about what they might call themselves, Moon came up with a tongue-in-cheek idea. “We can call it Led Zeppelin,’” Page remembered the drummer saying. “’Because it can only go down, like a lead balloon.’ I thought it was a great name, and I didn’t forget it.”

Beyond his talent, reputation and wealth of experience, Page also had a secret weapon. Peter Grant was a 300-pound former professional wrestler and business partner of Most, who’d taken over the Yardbirds’ day-to-day management in their final years. With that band kaput, Grant recognized that his best chances for success in the industry would lie with the slight young guitarist with the long black hair. His devotion to Page during the next 12 years would be total, and as the guitarist began to think about forming a new band, he knew he could rely on Grant to secure the requisite recording contract and help him conquer America, which they both recognized as rock’s next great frontier.

The first order of business was to find a singer. The Small Faces’ Steve Marriott was a leading contender, but his manager put the kibosh on that idea, threatening bodily harm to Page if he pursued him any further. Terry Reid,  the former singer of the Jaywalkers, and another Mickie Most disciple, was another contender who begged off, but not before recommending a 19-year-old up-and-comer from the Midlands named Robert Plant , who was then fronting a group named Hobstweedle. Page and Grant made the trek north to watch this prospect for themselves.

“[They] were playing at a teacher’s training college outside of Birmingham to an audience of about twelve people,” Page recalled in the Led Zeppelin oral history Trampled Underfoot . “Robert was fantastic and having heard him that night and having listened to a demo he had given me, I realized that without a doubt his voice had an exceptional and very distinctive quality.”

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All that was left was to see if this leonine wailer could get on board with the direction Page wanted to go. Page invited Plant to his boathouse on the Thames, and they spent the afternoon talking about music and playing records. In a serendipitous moment, they put on Joan Baez’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” and excitedly talked about how they could rearrange the song and blow it out. (The cover would appear on the band’s 1969 debut.) Plant was definitely in, but little did Page know at the time that the singer also came with an added bonus.

“I got so enthusiastic after staying down there for a week, I hitched back from Oxford and chased after John, got him on the side and said, ‘Mate, you’ve got to join the Yardbirds,’” Plant said in Trampled Underfoot . “I had nothing to convince him with except a name that had got lost in American pop history.”

The John in question was drummer John Bonham , a lifelong friend and on-and-off bandmate of Plant’s. Bonham was another veritable nobody in the London scene, but Page was taken with his bombastic style from the minute he heard him play. The only catch was, Bonham was currently backing the singer Tim Rose, and making a decent wage out of it too. His wife Pat wasn’t too eager for him to go off on another adventure with Plant either, which made the proposition a tough sell all around. Finally, Grant and Page upped their salary offer, and convinced Bonham to come aboard.

The final piece of the puzzle was to find the right bass player. Fortunately for Page, one of the best in the world fell right into his lap. “ I answered a classified ad in Melody Maker ,” John Paul Jones told Cameron Crowe in 1975 . “My wife made me.” While he’s being a bit flip about the Melody Maker bit, it’s true that John Paul Jones caught wind of what Page was doing, and at the prodding of his wife made the call to get in on it. For the guitarist, who knew and worked with Jones back in his session-player days, the decision to take him up on the offer was a no-brainer. Right off the bat he recognized he’d have a steady hand to help him in the studio, and as the years would show, one of the most dynamic multi-instrumental utility players and arrangers in rock history to help realize his grandest musical ideas.

The four men who would comprise Led Zeppelin came together for the first time in a small basement in Gerrard Street in London on August 12th, 1968. It didn’t take very long for everyone to realize they had something special on their hands. “We got together in this small rehearsal room and just played ‘Train Kept a-Rollin’’ which was a number I used to do with the Yardbirds, and I think Robert knew it,” Page said in 1990 . “At the end of it we knew that it was really happening, really electrifying. Exciting is the word. We went on from there to start rehearsing for the album.”

While they continued to rehearse for their upcoming two-week live run through Scandinavia,  an interesting opportunity came up .  Texas-born pop singer P.J. Proby was working on his next album and had booked John Paul Jones for the sessions weeks earlier. Rather than cancel, Jones decided to bring along the rest of his bandmates to help work on the record.  Page was particularly predisposed to lending a hand, having previously worked in the studio with Proby in 1964 on the eccentric singer’s Number Three U.K. hit “Hold Me.”    Thus, the first recordings ever of Led Zeppelin in full flight can be heard  not on their own full-length debut,   but on Proby’s 1969 album   Three Week Hero .

Less than a week later, Plant, Page, Bonham and Jones took off for that first gig in Gladsaxe. “Jimmy Page … has made a great job with the three new men,” Bent Larsen wrote in his review. “They really succeeded.” Larsen closed his write-up with what in hindsight looks like a hilariously massive understatement: “We can therefore conclude that the new Yardbirds are at least as good as the old ones were.”

“I remember everything about that first show ,” Grant said in a 1990  interview . It was so … exciting! Just to be part of it was fantastic. There was never a thought of, God, this is going to sell X amount of records. I thought it could be the best band ever.” 

Zeppelin played another gig in Denmark the next night, hit Sweden a few days later, and finished up the short tour on September 24th in Oslo, Norway. “Everything was  fitting together into a trademark for us,” Plant told Cameron Crowe in 1975 of that early foray.   “We were learning what got us off most and what got people off most, and what we knew got more people back to the hotel after the gig.”

There was hardly time to take a breath when they got back to London however. Page wanted to get Zeppelin into the studio quickly to cut their new record so he could shop the tapes around to several labels. “I wanted artistic control in a vise grip, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the band. In fact, I financed and completely recorded the first album before going to Atlantic,” he told Brad Tolinski in the book Conversations With Jimmy Page .

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“It wasn’t your typical story where you get an advance to make an album,” he added. “We arrived at Atlantic with tapes in hand. The other advantage to having such a clear vision of what I wanted the band to be was that it kept recording costs to a minimum. We recorded the whole first album in a matter of thirty hours. That’s the truth. I know, because I paid the bill.” The reported cost for the sessions came out to be somewhere around £1,782. Atlantic ultimately cut them a check for $200,000 to sign them. It was, at the time, the biggest advance ever given to a rock group in music history.

The rest, as they say, is history. Led Zeppelin  dropped in January 1969, while they band was in the midst of their first tour of America. It became a runaway success, selling millions of copies, and solidifying them as the dominant group in the decade to come. Page’s gamble had paid off.

“So many people are frightened to take a chance in life and there’s so many chances you have to take,” the guitarist told Crowe at the height of Zeppelin’s commercial and cultural zenith. “I’m attracted by the unknown, but I take precautions. I don’t go walking into things blind.”

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The “Phoenix” Led Zeppelin Album That Robert Plant Sang From a Wheelchair

Melanie Davis

Updated: 

A mythological band in both legacy and lyric, Led Zeppelin embodied two beings of lore in the summer of 1975: Icarus, as they came crashing down from their height of fame following the release of Physical Graffiti , and the phoenix, as the band reconvened after the fall, releasing an album that vocalist Robert Plant had to sing from a wheelchair.

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Commercially speaking, the album was one of the band’s worst. However, the obstacles Led Zeppelin overcame to create the record overshadowed poor sales records, speaking to the power and fortitude of the group as a unit.

From a Grecian Holiday to a Hospital Stay

Following the successful release and tour of their 1975 album Physical Graffiti , Led Zeppelin took a short break over the summer before embarking on a U.S. tour at the end of August. Robert Plant opted to go to Greece with his wife, Maureen, and their two children, Karac and Carmen. On the afternoon of Monday, August 4, 1975, Plant was driving his family in a rental car when he lost control and spun off the road.

Everyone in the car survived but suffered serious injuries. Robert Plant had fractures in his ankle, foot, and elbow. His wife had several concussions, a broken leg, four fractures in her pelvis, and facial lacerations. Karac broke his leg; Carmen, her wrist, and both children had multiple cuts and bruises. After the initial shock of the accident wore off, there was another pressing matter to attend to: what was going to happen to the Led Zeppelin tour?

Unsurprisingly, the band canceled the tour. With the crash happening just days before rehearsals were set to begin, there was no way Plant—whose injuries confined him to a wheelchair—would be able to heal in time to perform. After making the difficult decision to cancel their highly anticipated tour, Led Zeppelin turned to the next best thing: the studio.

The “Phoenix” Album Robert Plant Sung From A Wheelchair

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page began co-writing an album to present the rest of the band while Plant rested in Jersey and, later, Malibu, California. After the musicians finished writing, Led Zeppelin set off for Münich, Germany’s Musicland Studio in November, three months after Plant’s car crash. The musician was still in a wheelchair, and the studio (and band) had to plan their recording sessions and instrumentation accordingly.

Led Zeppelin would eventually call their impromptu record Presence —a reference to the gratitude, camaraderie, and, appropriately, presence the band felt with one another as they made the best out of a bad situation. Despite being the band’s least commercially successful album, Presence does feature some popular Led Zeppelin tracks, including “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” and the massive 10-minute opener , “Achilles Last Stand.”

“ Presence was our phoenix,” Plant later recalled to Far Out Magazine . “When you sit in a wheelchair and sing the whole album, the very fact that you’ve sung it is fantastic. We got together in such a short space of time under such odds, not knowing what the outcome was going to be—not of the album but of the future of the band.”

Plant said the doctors were never able to tell him how inactive he might be following the accident. “So, we were just kicking it from the very depths of our determination.”

Photo by Barry Peake/Shutterstock

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