by George Case
Vigorelli Velodrome, Milan, July 5, 1971
Led Zeppelin’s lone show in Italy ended in a full-fledged riot between fans and police and military units. The melee was impending anyway and wasn’t the band’s fault, but they did have to escape the venue after only twenty minutes while tear gas and clashing bodies filled the stadium. Zeppelin vowed never to play the country again, and never did.
Stadthalle, Vienna, June 26, 1980
The senseless lobbing of firecrackers and other small incendiaries from the floor has been the bane of rock ’n’ roll performers for years, and Led Zeppelin were on the receiving end of their share. “Whoever threw that firecracker deserves to be jerked off by an elephant,” Robert Plant scolded San Diego attendees in 1973, and explained Jimmy Page’s withdrawal from a Chicago stage in ’77, “Jimmy has a bout of gastroenteritis which isn’t helped by the firecrackers, so we’re gonna take a five-minute break.” (The band never came back on and the cancellation was probably due more to Page’s drug issues.) “We’re used to rowdy crowds,” Plant said in a ’77 interview, “but this is crazy…. We’ve all been hit by [Frisbees] onstage, but the crackers are much worse; scares the hell out of us.” In Vienna, on the band’s final tour, a firecracker struck Page while he was playing “White Summer” and he again walked off; crowds were often out of hand for these European shows. Zeppelin only resumed playing Vienna after an announcement chastised the anonymous idiot.
It Might Get Loud: Led Zeppelin’s Concert Sound
Though the band never made it to the Guinness Book of Records like the Who, nearly all reports of Zeppelin’s audio impact when performing attest to their high volume. Many of their first witnesses were put off by the noise and said so. New Musical Express writer Keith Altham told manager Peter Grant the group “were far too loud” for the English club where he saw them in 1968, as did the manager of London’s Marquee, John Gee: “I thought they were overpoweringly loud for the size of the Marquee.” “When Led Zeppelin came on and played at a good ten times the volume of everyone else, the audience nearly freaked completely,” was Disc magazine’s report from the Pop Proms concert of 1969. North American critics could be just as deafened. According to reporter Carl Bernstein (later of Watergate fame) in 1969, Led Zeppelin “rarely came in below the maximum decibel level, resulting in a sound that—no matter how good the fingerwork—became boring.” Other unsuspecting listeners were left covering their ears.
Many acts from around the same period—the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the MC5, and the notoriously earsplitting Blue Cheer—had found that sheer decibels could become part of the concert experience for young fans who wanted an all-out bodily assault. Before, British Invaders like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were dismayed by the thousands of “screamagers” who drowned out the equipment that had served them in small theaters and clubs but which couldn’t cut through ten or fifteen thousand pairs of healthy lungs. The next generation of rockers was determined not to be subject to the same indignity: When you came to see them, you’d better listen. No excitable high school student could outperform Eric Clapton’s Marshall stacks or Keith Moon at maximum overdrive.
Led Zeppelin came armed with John Bonham’s God-given might and the high wattage of their speakers, and in some smaller indoor venues they might have had more amplification than the space required. Today many experienced concertgoers cite bands other than Zeppelin as the loudest they’ve ever heard—AC/DC, Motörhead, Kiss, Metallica—but a typical Led Zeppelin show in a 20,000-seat arena probably came in at a good 100 db. By comparison, the Who’s record-setting volume was 126 db. A jet aircraft at close range will register at about 130 db, a level likely to cause hearing damage to the unprotected ear. To this date, no surviving members of Led Zeppelin have complained of auditory injury and, as of 2010, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones are still appearing live and loud.
Sometimes I’d Roll It: Led Zeppelin as Jam Band
The members of Led Zeppelin have often talked of their spontaneity in live settings. “Nothing was ever static,” Jimmy Page told Guitar World in 2005. “Other bands at the time weren’t able to do that; they didn’t have
Page’s mystical dragon suit was one of his most striking stage costumes.
Courtesy of Duane Roy
the musical freedom and the freedom of collective spirit.” “Anybody could take anything anywhere, and we’d all follow,” agreed John Paul Jones in Bass Player. Many audience recordings from the Zeppelin years capture bits and pieces from dozens of unlikely songs in their sets: Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillun,” the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie,” Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely,” plus lyrical or musical quotations from Johann Sebastian Bach, Francis Scott Key, James Brown, Bob Marley, Isaac Hayes, and the Woody Woodpecker theme. Medleys of Elvis Presley hits dropped into the middle of “Whole Lotta Love” were standard.
That said, Led Zeppelin were not really doing the same thing as the Grateful Dead or later groups like Phish. The Dead and their followers took improvisation to far-flung realms of drug-inspired possibility, while Zeppelin usually stuck to a regular complement of their own songs that were occasionally embellished with unexpected departures but which then returned to the original rendition. Jam bands are also known for their cross-country caravans of listeners who accompany them to each performance, where they are free to make their own recordings of the night’s set and trade them with other aficionados. Led Zeppelin and its management often heavily suppressed any unauthorized taping from the stands, and rather than playing outdoor fairs and tribal gatherings mostly stayed inside halls, arenas, and stadiums. Zeppelin did some outstanding jams, but they were not a jam band as the term is today understood.
Walking Side by Side: Led Zeppelin’s Road Crew
Immortalized in rock songs from Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” to Motörhead’s pummeling “We Are the Road Crew,” the gangs of chauffeurs, stagehands, bodyguards, and other assistants who did the heavy lifting of concert productions are nearly as legendary as the artists who employed them. They lived the rock ’n’ roll life without the rock ’n’ roll money and the rock ’n’ roll fame—seeing the world, partying hard, wrecking hotels, and hearing hundreds of gigs from close range. As the shows got bigger in the mid-1970s, the number of people required to set up and take down equipment and basically ensure the smooth running of touring operations grew. Led Zeppelin’s road crew began as just a single manager and his helper, but by the end of the band’s life had expanded to a complex hierarchy of technical and personal support. Some were friends and confidantes of the musicians, themselves with performing experience, while others were strictly lighting and sound staffers who had little contact with the stars (like those from the Dallas-based Showco team). Most worked for a variety of other acts, working year-round and internationally while their different bosses took time off. A full roster of the Led Zeppelin’s road crew would name the following.
• Richard Cole: Road manager, 1969–79
• Jerry Ritz: Road manager, Scandinavia, 1968
• Phil Carlo: Road manager, 1980
• Billy Francis: Assistant road manager, 1980
• Kenny Pickett: Road crew, 1968–69
• Clive Coulson: Road crew
• Henry “The Horse” Smith: Road crew
• Sandy MacGregor: Road crew
• Patsy Collins: Road crew
• John “Magnet” Ward: Road crew
• Joe “Jammer” Wright: Road crew (guitar tech)
• Ray Thomas: Road crew (guitar tech)
• Tim Marten: Road crew (guitar tech, 1977–80)
• Brian Condliffe: Road crew (bass and keyboards tech, 1975–79)
• Andy Ledbetter: Road crew (bass and keyboards tech, 1980)
• Mick Hinton: Road crew (drum tech, 1971–75)
• Benji LeFevre: Road crew (vocal technician)
• Jeff Ocheltree: Road crew
(drum tech, 1977)
• Ian “Iggy” Knight: Road crew (lighting director, 1975–77)
• Dennis Sheehan: Robert Plant’s personal assistant / driver
• Rick Hobbs: Jimmy Page’s personal assistant / driver
• Dave Northover: John Paul Jones’s personal assistant / driver
• Rex King: John Bonham’s personal assistant / driver
• B. J. Schiller: Road crew (sound mixing, 1977)
• Brian Gallivan: Tour assistant (1977)
• Mitchell Fox: Tour assistant (1977)
• John “Biffo” Bindon: Tour assistant (1977)
• Dr. Larry Badgely: Tour doctor (1977)
• Dave Moulder: Tour assistant (1980)
• Steve Jander: Laser technician (1977–79)
• Donnie Kretzschmar: Showco engineer (1972–79)
• Rusty Brutsche: Showco engineer (1972–79)
• Kirby Wyatt: Showco engineer (1972–79)
• Gary Carnes: Showco engineer (1977)
• Allen Branton: Showco engineer (1972–79)
• Joe Crowley: Showco engineer (1972–79)
• Tom Littrell: Showco engineer (1979)
• Larry Sizemore: Showco engineer (1979)
• Martin Bushnell: Eidophor projectionist (1979)
• Alan Hogarth: Eidophor projectionist (1979)
Took My Chances on a Big Jet Plane: The Starship and Caesar’s Chariot
In 1973, 1975, and 1977, Led Zeppelin traveled to their concert dates around America by private airliner. These lavishly appointed aircraft—the Starship for ’73 and ’75, and Caesar’s Chariot in ’77—were leased by the band for speed, comfort, and privacy. “Yes, it was extravagant, pretentious, and snobbish,” admitted Richard Cole, who’d clinched the $30,000 deal to get the aircraft in 1973, in Stairway to Heaven. “But the band felt they had earned it.”
Led Zeppelin had gone to and from gigs by van and commercial flight in their initial runs, and by their 1972 North American tour they used a small Dassault Falcon eight-seat corporate jet. This was deemed unsatisfactory, so next year they became the first customers of a rental owned by teen star Bobby Sherman and manager Ward Sylvester, formerly a producer of the Monkees TV show. For $600,000, Sherman and Sylvester had acquired a Boeing 720B four-engine jet (serial N7201U), first flown in 1960 as part of the United Airlines fleet, and refinished its interior to suit the lifestyles of high-flying celebrity clientele: shag carpeting, armchairs for up to forty, a bar, an organ, a fake fireplace, a back bedroom with a shower stall, and a video library with the Marx Brothers and Deep Throat on hand to entertain. “It was the Bolivian diamond flake of airplanes,” Zeppelin photographer Neal Preston was quoted. Though the master chamber was supposedly off-limits at key moments of the flight, Jimmy Page repaired there with female company when he chose. “I did like the idea of a horizontal takeoff,” he later said.
In time, other Starship riders included a Who’s Who of music industry figures from the decade: Peter Frampton, the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Olivia Newton-John, and Deep Purple (“The Starship was a great place to join the mile-high club,” reported Purple drummer Ian Paice). Flown by qualified pilots and staffed by professional hostesses named Suzee Carnel and “Bianca,” the Starship represented the ultimate in comfort and convenience for its famous occupants. It eased transport between concerts, as the players and their entourage could bypass the hassle of waiting rooms and baggage checks; kept intrusive fans, unwanted bystanders, and nosy police out of range; and permitted the artists to commute back and forth from hub bases rather than move to new hotels every night. In April 1977, when the Starship was unavailable, a similar Boeing 720-022 named Caesar’s Chariot (N7224U) was subleased by Led Zeppelin from a Las Vegas firm named Desert Palace, and operated by Sinclair Air Services. The two Boeing designs were essentially customized updates of the basic Boeing 707 airframe, a machine first flown in 1954.
Symbolic of the rock lifestyle in all its decadent and cushioned entitlement, the Starship and Caesar’s Chariot also had a utilitarian function as loss leaders. Their operating expenses came to over $2,500 per flight hour, but the planes amounted to an aerial advertisement for their passengers’ success and prestige. Other acts had flown by private plane—borne by a Lockheed Electra L-188A propeller-driven liner, nicknamed the Lapping Tongue, the Rolling Stones undertook a 1972 North American tour that overshadowed Led Zeppelin’s—but Zeppelin upped the ante with the Starship. Featured in The Song Remains the Same as police escorts whisked the band in and out of American cities, the private airplane only added to the allure of mysterious, powerful performers who floated down to earth for a little while before winging skyward once more on a jet-set stairway to heaven. Both the Starship and Caesar’s Chariot were eventually sold by their owners as rising gas prices and a changing music business reduced their viability. The airplanes were decommissioned in 1982 and 1987, respectively, and broken up for parts.
14
How the West Was Won
Led Zeppelin Around the World
Going to California: Zeppelin’s Most Important Sites Worldwide
The most faithful and intrepid Led Zeppelin fans might design their own pilgrimage tour, where the required stops would be as follows.
39 Gerrard Street, Soho, London
The group’s first formal rehearsals took place in a small room at this address (now said to be a restaurant) circa August 19, 1968. By all accounts it went very well and they decided to keep at it.
Bron-yr-Aur Cottage, Outside Machynlleth, Wales
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant together made two 1970 visits to this ramshackle country home where Plant had holidayed as a boy. The first, in May, cemented their personal friendship after a nonstop round of transatlantic and transcontinental touring; it also yielded material for Led Zeppelin III, such as “Friends,” “That’s the Way,” and “Bron-y-Aur Stomp,” as well as “Bron-yr-Aur” and “Poor Tom,” shelved until Physical Graffiti and Coda, respectively. Page’s first child, Scarlet, was also conceived there with his then-partner Charlotte Martin. A second visit in October–November also heard the inception of work destined for Led Zeppelin IV, Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti, including “Going to California,” “The Rover,” “Down by the Seaside,” “Over the Hills and Far Away,” and the immortal “Stairway to Heaven.” Isolated, without electricity, and nestled in the mystical Cambrian Mountains, Bron-yr-Aur helped Led Zeppelin diversify their repertoire from hard psychedelic blues to the unplugged light and shade that made them special. The home is now a private residence and visitors are asked to be considerate.
The Boleskine House, Off B852, Foyers, Scotland
Jimmy Page’s Scottish retreat from 1970 to its sale in the early 1990s, the Boleskine House is chiefly remembered for its connection to the guitarist’s spiritual inspiration, Aleister Crowley. The Boleskine House is neither a mansion nor a castle but, in Crowley’s words, “a long, low building” overlooking Foyers Bay on the southeast side of Loch Ness. Built of stone in the late 1700s, it contains five bedrooms, three bathrooms, plus dining, drawing, and family rooms, and is situated on forty-seven acres of land. Page’s “Hermit” sequence for The Song Remains the Same was filmed there, and the residence is often assumed by fans and fanatics to be where he practiced his own magic rituals; he and others discussed the house’s strange history of suicides and insanity among residents and the unexplained sounds heard within. Page told William S. Burroughs that the Boleskine House “has very good vibes for anyone who is relaxed and receptive,” and also expressed his belief that Loch Ness was indeed home to a mysterious monster.
Crowley owned the Boleskine House from 1899 to 1913 but only lived there between worldwide travels, and Page himself reported in 1976 that “I bought Crowley’s house to go up and write in. The thing is I just never get up that way. Friends live there now.” The remote location and spooky background of the dwelling have imbued it with an aura perhaps inflated beyond its
place in Jimmy Page’s career. No other members of Led Zeppelin ever visited the Boleskine House, and it has since been a bed-and-breakfast establishment and is now a private residence.
Earl’s Court, Warwick Road, London
This 19,000-seat arena was the scene of Led Zeppelin’s English farewell before commencing a period of tax exile—the five shows played to sellout audiences at in May 1975 are considered among the band’s best. As of 2010 there were plans to raze the site and replace it with housing or retail developments, though not until after the 2012 London Olympics.
N1 Road Between Tan-Tan and Guelmim, Morocco
At the foot of Africa’s Atlas Mountains near the country’s southern border along the Sahara Desert, a long drive between these two small cities in 1973 provided Robert Plant with the lyrical impetus for Led Zeppelin’s great “Kashmir.” “It was a single-track road which cut neatly through the desert,” Plant told Cameron Crowe in 1990. “Two miles to the east and west were ridges of sand rock. It basically looked like you were driving down a channel, this dilapidated road, and there was seemingly no end to it.”
Raglan Castle, Castle Road, Raglan, Monmouthshire, Wales
Scene of Robert Plant’s fantasy sequence in The Song Remains the Same, this dilapidated medieval structure in southeast Wales was a good setting in which to depict the haunted visions of “The Rain Song.”
Madison Square Garden, 4 Pennsylvania Ave., New York City
Led Zeppelin performed a total of fifteen shows at the legendary MSG between 1970 and 1977, among them the ones filmed in July 1973 for The Song Remains the Same and a staggering six full houses (the venue seats 20,000) in June 1977. The enthusiastic receptions won here in the 1970s proved the band to be one of the most popular in the nation. The Atlantic Records fortieth-anniversary show was also staged here, where a reunited Led Zeppelin (with Jason Bonham on drums) played several songs.