LED ZEPPELIN - JUNE 28TH 69/70/72

June 28th 1969 

Bath Festival Of Blues, Pavilion Recreational Ground, Bath.

The penultimate show of a busy 18 day burst of activity in June 1969. 7 gigs, 2 BBC sessions plus a showcase radio show and a quick trip to Paris for a TV show in a circus tent.

Re-establishing live contact back in blighty after a highly successful 22 date US tour, for decades the only live recording circulating was the wonderful BBC Rock Hour performance from the day before. Thankfully, we now have the stunning Newcastle City Hall show from June 20th to enjoy - however poor the recording - and be a testament to their live power and growing confidence.

 Listed as one of the main attractions on a pretty impressive bill, it's likely Zeppelin played a similar hit 'n' run set to the Rock Hour performance :- 

Communication Breakdown/I Can't Quit You Baby,

Dazed And Confused,

White Summer/Black Mountain Side,

You Shook Me,

How Many More Times/Medley

Of course with no audio or video confirmation, and no detailed reviews of the show this is little more than speculation, an educated guess if you like. The one other recorded gig has the band opening with Train Kept A-Rollin' an Communication Breakdown as the encore, plus the addition of Bonzos first showpiece Pat's Delight. To me it's unlikely Bonzo would have played his solo during a probably compact festival set.

Interestingly enough, the two BBC studio sessions the band had recorded on June 16th and 24th featured two of the tracks from the still some time away Led Zeppelin II, and even if only Whole Lotta Love had had 2 (documented) live previews during the previous US Tour - Winterland April 26th and Merriweather May 25th - there was little sign of anything new being played during the UK shows.

There is some cine film of part of the festival in circulation, audio too, but none of it of Zeppelin (yet). Fleetwood Mac may have headlined the show, but by all accounts Led Zeppelin stole it. In Freddie Bannister's revealing 'There Must Be A Better Way' book recalls how he and wife Wendy were in their site office when they heard a 'tremendous commotion' and eventually realised it was the near hysterical response to Zeppelin's set.

As far as Led Zeppelin were concerned, June '69 was an important breakthrough month in England. Home. The 3 nights that ended the tour and promotional activity were crucial and all seemingly impressive performances that would slip into legend.

The Rock Hour set, apart from the kudos of being the band chosen to launch thus new format, brought them into many more homes than any amount of UK gigs would have done. Bath showed them to be head and shoulders above the good and the great of the UK Blues Explosion, adding the 30,000 crowd to their growing band of followers, and the final night of the tour, the Pop Proms and their first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, drew rave audience and press reaction. Job done, Led Zeppelin were on the rise. And just look what happened in exactly a year later...

June 28th 1970

Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music, 
Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet.

The big one. The band knew it. Gee knew it. In 1969 there was a SRO crowd of 30, 000 (although reports at the time estimated the crowd as being only 12,000). Moving to a much bigger site and adding a plethora of top bands from both sides of the Atlantic swelled the attendance to anything from the 130,000 Freddie Bannister quoted to the 150,000+ Melody Maker slipped into their rave review, even as high as 200,000 randomly thrown in to articles and bootleg reviews over the decades.

So, how did Led Zeppelin grow to be 'the hottest Band in the World' in June 1970? After the 1969 performance they went back to work. Hard. 6 (count 'em) days after the Pop Proms they were in Byro, Georgia playing to 40,000 at the second day of the Atlanta International Pop Festival. A tiny fragment of their set - plus a load of great photo's - exists on silent colour cine film by the way. It was the first of 33 shows running up the last day of August when they once again stole the show at the Dallas Pop Festival. There would be two more US tours before Zeppelin returned to Bath, plus 17 shows in Europe and an 8 date January UK Tour in 1970. And Led Zeppelin II.

Their professional pride and collective ego's meant they held success and acceptance in their own country in high regard, the trick was to balance that with the ever growing lure of mass adulation, lunacy and a King's ransom in the US. Already filling stadia coast to coast - they filled the 16,000+ capacity Boston Gardens the same week 'Led Zeppelin II' was released - their rise seemed inexorable and inevitable.

But Gee knew Bath would make an indelible mark on England. With an agreed fee of £20,000, he informed the press they'd turned down an offer of $200,000 to play Yale Bowl and Boston to play Bath. Brilliant strategy and promotion. After the 5th US Tour, there was time to take stock, sit down and plan Led Zeppelin III.

After a warm-up show in Reykjavik, Iceland on Monday June 22nd, where they (probably) premiered Immigrant Song, Led Zeppelin came home to a heroes welcome and produced a legendary performance. Legend has it they came onstage at sunset. Gee was insistent this happen as he'd researched when the sunset was and wanted their entrance to be spectacular, powering onto the stage with the new and unheard thunderous riffage of Immigrant Song as the crimson skies glowed ominously. You can clearly hear Robert changing (making up!) many of the lyrics, even tho' it was recorded almost a month before....

Going as far as to drag the band before them Flock offstage, he achieved his objective. However, the mass of photo's and tiny fragment of footage shows Led Zeppelin performing in clear if diminishing daylight. It's been generally accepted they hit the stage around 8.30 pm. A week after Midsummer night sunset would have been an hour or so after that.

But what of the performance itself? For many a year, we've had a poor but enjoyable audience tape of the show. Annoyingly, the very rare compilation bootleg elpee, that features Heartbreaker and That's The Way (called The Boy Next Door), has a much lower generation version of the same tape and is much clearer. However, recently a better version of the tape has circulated, bringing the performance sharply into focus.

The Set -

Immigrant Song/Heartbreaker

Dazed And Confused

Bring It On Home

Since I've Been Loving You

Organ Solo/Thank You

That's The Way (aka The Boy Next Door)

What Is And What Should Never Be

Moby Dick

How Many More Times (includes Mr Soul/Bolero/Down By The River/The Hunter/Needle Blues/Honey Bee/Long Distance Call/Boogie Chillun'/El Paso Blues/Lemon Song/Need Your Love Tonight/That's Alright Mama

Whole Lotta Love

Communication Breakdown (includes Sing A Simple Song/It's Your Thing)

Long Tall Sally/Johnny B Goode/Rocky Road Blues/That's Alright Mama(reprise)/Say Mama

Two and a quarter hours. Not a mere concert, an event, a communion and a homecoming party. The proto-metal punch of Immigrant Song grabs the attention from the off before a sublime Heartbreaker and an ever expanding Dazed and Confused. Since I've Been Loving You is spine chilling, even if the distorted PA sound and dirgy Hammond Organ sound lessen the drama a tad. And a brief acoustic premier settles down the adrenalin briefly before Bonzo's hammering and a How Many More Times medley to cherish. The last time played as set closer - forget the brief return early in '75 - the classics and obscurities flow on and on, bringing the band and audience into a frenzy.

After that the encores were a rush, Whole Lotta Love brought even more frenzy and madness before a frantic medley of Rock classics closed the show.  

Melody Maker's front page screamed '5 encores for Zeppelin!'. The media was smitten and wasn't afraid to say so. Rightly so, Led Zeppelin were more than pleased with the event. Never fans of festivals due to time and stage restrictions and the mass of artists performing, the gamble really paid off. It would be 9 years before they would play a UK Festival again, once more in collaboration with Freddie Bannister, but that's another story...

On bootleg, we have the original audience tape. The Krishna Sound vinyl compilation elpee and two cassettes. The truly dreadful Magic Market direct cut acetates from Japan Knock Oneself Out Volumes 1 & 2 contain about 60% of the show. Le-Mon released the complete tape, but instead of trying to find a lower generation tape just eq'd and compressed it to hell. Shame. recent CD sets have at least used the better tape, which is widely circulating on free download sites and you tube etc etc

On film, the legendary lost footage, destroyed by Gee with a bucket of water, was lost or hidden. We now know - as indeed I was told decades ago - that Peter Whitehead DID film the festival. There is a chunk of silent footage, including a lot of backstage scenes, and probably the opening tracks before the natural light faded. For now all we have is a short 45 odd second cine clip of Immigrant Song. So far......

The amazing maturity and change on Led Zeppelin over the year between the two Bath appearances is startling. Their sound, stage craft, repertoire and confidence had grown so much. A year in the evolution of Led Zeppelin then is like a whole career growth for almost everybody else. Remarkable. By the time 1970 drew to a close they were recording some of their most innovative and important work. In 27 months they had gone from Good Times, Bad Times to Stairway To Heaven, from powerful yet reverential blues You Shook Me to a complete metamorphosis, even a new language, with When The Levee Breaks.  

June 28th 1972
Community Center, Tuscon, AZ

The final show of Led Zeppelin's 8th US Tour, after 4 Californian shows including the two compiled together for the official 3CD How The West Was Won. Fantastic show, carrying on the unbelievably high performance standard throughout the tour. Slightly shorter than the previous shows, it's also the last time America would see the classic multi-song rock 'n' roll medley.

From a fairly recently discovered audience recording, 
the set list is :-

Drone/Immigrant Song/Heartbreaker

Black Dog

Over The Hills And Far Away

Since I've Been Loving You

Stairway To Heaven

Bron-Y-Aur Stomp

Dazed And Confused (incl Walter's Walk/The Crunge)

What Is And What Should Never Be

Dancing Days

Moby Dick

Whole Lotta Love (includes Boogie Chillun//Let's Have A Party/Stuck On You/Hello Mary Lou/Going Down Slow)

Rock And Roll

Despite no indication or discernible edit, most of the acoustic set performed across the tour in missing, accounting for the shorter set time. Despite that, we're left with a stunning show, full of masterful playing and a sense of complete control over their performance. Knowing this to be the final show before a long awaited return home, everything flows easily.  

Dazed And Confused is stunning, Page testing the rhythm section and Plant with some incredibly slick and interesting playing. By the time we reach the finale, the medley is both stunning and unusual. Stunning for the slickness of playing and ease and confidence as they move from song to song. Unusual as Jonesy plays keyboards, adding an authentic dimension to many of these old classics.

The bootleg CD's are great, a fine enjoyable listen. Also, we have about 4 minutes of silent dubbed colour cine film, blurred but interesting. 

A great show, and a fine way to finish their 8th US Tour in 3 and a half years. The net visit to the US would hail them as superstars, along with dragon suits, lighting effects and a much more standard setlist. The musicality and might of the Zeppelin machine would be greater than ever, but they were no longer anyone's secret crush. Coming out of the shadow of the three ringed circus of the Stones own '72 trek, Led Zeppelin found themselves in the centre of the spotlight, fame and mayhem. The sheer abandon of these summer '72 gigs would never happen again.