Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1975

Led Zeppelin's 1975 North American Tour was the tenth concert tour of North America by the English rock band. The tour was divided into two legs, with performances commencing on 18 January and concluding on 27 March 1975. It was preceded with two European warm-up shows, performed at Rotterdam and Brussels respectively.

North America 1975
Tour by Led Zeppelin
Poster for Led Zeppelin's concert at Baton Rouge, used to help promote its 1975 North American tour
Associated albumPhysical Graffiti
Start date18 January 1975
End date27 March 1975
Legs3
No. of shows37 (and two European warm-up shows) (38 scheduled)
Led Zeppelin concert chronology

History
Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975.

This tour took place nearly 18 months after the conclusion of their previous concert tour, which was the longest break between concerts yet taken by the band. As a result, some critics have suggested that the band seemed sluggish and rusty upon their return to the stage, with the group lacking dynamics and giving rather 'heavy' performances.[1]

To make matters worse, guitarist Jimmy Page suffered a broken ring finger after slamming its tip in a train door prior to leaving England for this tour. This forced him to take pain killers and to develop a three finger playing technique during the first portion of the tour.[2] In addition, Robert Plant contracted a bad case of influenza early in the tour, causing the cancellation of one show and negatively affecting his singing ability for much of the rest of the tour, leading to some unfavourable reviews.[3] However, toward the end of the tour it was noted that the group seemed to be recovering, leading to some memorable performances.[1][4] Indeed, by the end of this series of dates, Plant himself stated that:

This has been our most successful tour on every level and I had a great time all the way through.[2]

For this stint of concerts, Led Zeppelin employed a much grander light show than had been used on previous tours, featuring a large neon-lit 'Led Zeppelin' backdrop and krypton laser effects for Jimmy Page's violin bow interlude.[5]

One scheduled concert in this tour, on February 4 at the Boston Garden, was canceled by the Mayor of Boston, Kevin White, when fans, who waited in the freezing cold for the tickets, were taken pity on by the stadium owners and were let in inside but rioted and trashed the stadium. A concert at 8 March at the West Palm Beach Speedway in Florida was also canceled following the promoters' failure to make property improvements at the venue.

The concert tour was promoted by the Concerts West firm, and it marked one of the first tours ever where an individual concert promotion firm promoted the whole U.S. tour of an artist or group. The company further established its mark by promoting the band's subsequent 1977 tour of North America.

An image of Katharine Hepburn in Christopher Strong wearing her aviator's suit appeared on the tour poster.

During this tour Led Zeppelin hired The Starship – a former United Airlines Boeing 720B passenger jet, to transport them between cities. This was the second and final time the band used this plane, having initially done so on their previous tour of North America in 1973.

Towards the end of this tour, Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of Charles Manson's "Family", confronted Danny Goldberg, vice-president of the band's record company demanding to speak with Jimmy Page to warn him of "bad energy." Fromme claimed to have foreseen the future and wished to forewarn Page of the imminent danger. She swore the last time this happened, she had seen someone shot to death before her eyes. Goldberg stated that even he couldn't see Page until the following night, to which Fromme responded "tomorrow night will probably be too late." Goldberg persuaded her to write a long note to Page, after which she left. The note was burned, unread.[6] Later that year, Fromme made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.

Cancelled legs

The second leg of the band's US tour concluded in March, and was followed by a series of shows at London's Earl's Court in May 1975. The band had planned to continue touring after a break, with a further round of eight US shows scheduled from August 23 to September 9; this leg would have commenced with two sold out dates at Oakland Coliseum and included a show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in addition to concerts in Tempe, Arizona (Sun Devil Stadium), Kansas City, Missouri (Arrowhead Stadium), Atlanta (Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium), New Orleans (Louisiana Superdome) and Norman, Oklahoma (Lloyd Noble Center).[7] A European tour was also planned for fall, including one scheduled concert in Helsinki. These plans were cancelled when Robert Plant sustained serious injuries from a car accident on the Greek island of Rhodes on August 5. During Plant's convalescence, in the time originally allotted for the tour the band opted to take time off before writing for the Presence album.

Recordings

Audio recordings from many of the tour's shows have been preserved on unofficial bootleg recordings. Several high-quality soundboard bootleg recordings of shows from this tour have surfaced in recent years, including the 12 February Madison Square Garden, 13 and 14 February Nassau County Coliseum, and 16 February St. Louis Arena dates. The recording of the Dallas show from March 5 rivals the quality of officially released recordings, and shows that by the later stages of the tour, the band was playing as skilfully as on previous tours.

Set list

The new set list included material from the band's recently released album, Physical Graffiti. Songs from that album which were played for the first time on this tour included "Sick Again", "In My Time of Dying", "Kashmir", "The Wanton Song" and "Trampled Under Foot". This was in spite of the fact that the album itself was not released until the second half of the tour. Unforeseen delays in the production of the album's elaborate sleeve prevented its release before the commencement of the tour.[2]

Initially, both "When the Levee Breaks" and "The Wanton Song" were included in the set; the only period during which these songs were played live by Led Zeppelin. Both were dropped after a few weeks. It was also the last time "How Many More Times" was played, being temporarily brought back to replace "Dazed and Confused" which Page was unable to play until his injured finger healed.[2] "Since I've Been Loving You", the other song that Page was unable to play due to his finger injury, was played only three times on the tour: 14 February at Nassau Coliseum,[8] 21 March at Seattle Center Coliseum[9] and 27 March at the Los Angeles Forum.[10]

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

  1. "Rock and Roll" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
  2. "Sick Again" (Page, Plant)
  3. "Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page, Plant)
  4. "When the Levee Breaks" (Minnie, Bonham, Page, Plant, Jones) (Dropped after 21 January)
  5. "In My Time of Dying" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
  6. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones) (only on 14 February, 21 March, and 27 March)
  7. "The Song Remains the Same" (Page, Plant)
  8. "The Rain Song" (Page, Plant)
  9. "Kashmir" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
  10. "The Wanton Song" (Page, Plant) (Dropped after 25 January)
  11. "No Quarter" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  12. "Trampled Under Foot" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  13. "Moby Dick" (Bonham)
  14. "How Many More Times" (Page, Jones, Bonham) (18 January to 2 February) / "Dazed and Confused" (Page) (3 February to 27 March)*
  15. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

* Performances of this song during the first leg of the tour included "San Francisco", while the band switched to "Woodstock" during the second leg. Also when performed, "Mars, Bringer of War", was included

Notes

In Uniondale from 13–14 February, Ronnie Wood joins the band during the encore of "Communication Breakdown"

Tour dates
Date City Country Venue
European warm-up shows
11 January 1975RotterdamNetherlandsAhoy Hallen
12 January 1975BrusselsBelgiumForest National
Leg 1 – North America
18 January 1975BloomingtonUnited StatesMetropolitan Sports Center
20 January 1975ChicagoChicago Stadium
21 January 1975
22 January 1975
24 January 1975RichfieldRichfield Coliseum
25 January 1975IndianapolisMarket Square Arena
29 January 1975GreensboroGreensboro Coliseum
31 January 1975DetroitOlympia Stadium
1 February 1975PittsburghCivic Arena
3 February 1975New York CityMadison Square Garden
4 February 1975UniondaleNassau Coliseum
Replaced cancelled concert at the Boston Garden which was originally scheduled for this date
6 February 1975MontrealCanadaThe Forum
7 February 1975New York CityUnited StatesMadison Square Garden
8 February 1975PhiladelphiaThe Spectrum
10 February 1975LandoverCapital Centre
12 February 1975New York CityMadison Square Garden
13 February 1975UniondaleNassau Coliseum
14 February 1975
16 February 1975St. LouisSt. Louis Arena
Leg 2 – North America
27 February 1975HoustonUnited StatesSam Houston Coliseum
28 February 1975Baton RougeLSU Assembly Center
3 March 1975Fort WorthTarrant County Convention Center
4 March 1975DallasDallas Memorial Auditorium
5 March 1975
8 March 1975 West Palm Beach Palm Beach International Raceway
10 March 1975San DiegoSan Diego Sports Arena
11 March 1975Long BeachCivic Arena
12 March 1975
14 March 1975San DiegoSan Diego Sports Arena
17 March 1975SeattleSeattle Center Coliseum
19 March 1975VancouverCanadaPacific Coliseum
20 March 1975
21 March 1975SeattleUnited StatesSeattle Center Coliseum
24 March 1975InglewoodThe Forum
25 March 1975
27 March 1975

Sources
  • Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
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References
  1. Luis Rey (1997) Led Zeppelin Live: An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes, Ontario: The Hot Wacks Press, p. 302.
  2. Chris Welch (1994) Led Zeppelin, London: Orion Books. ISBN 1-85797-930-3, pp. 71-73.
  3. Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4, pp. 103 ff.
  4. Dave Lewis (2003), Led Zeppelin: Celebration II: The 'Tight But Loose' Files, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-056-4, p. 30.
  5. Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4, p. 103.
  6. Davis, Stephen (July 4, 1985). "Power, Mystery And The Hammer Of The Gods: The Rise and Fall of Led Zeppelin". Rolling Stone (451). Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  7. http://www.ledzeppelin.com/event/august-8-1975
  8. Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary
  9. Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary
  10. Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary
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