MAGE MUSIC: On This Day 23 July

Thursday, July 23, 2015

On This Day 23 July

Things don't always go the way you think they should.

1985 23 July On This Day - but these events didn't actually happen on this day

1966 The Yardbirds - Buxton, England at Buxton Pavilion Gardens Ballroom
1973 Led Zeppelin - Baltimore, MD at Baltimore Civic Centre
1977 Led Zeppelin - Oakland, CA at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
1979 Led Zeppelin - Copenhagen, Denmark at Falkoner Theatre
1985 Robert Plant with Jimmy Page appearance - East Rutherford, NJ
1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Birmingham, England at NEC Arena (day 2)

1973:

The famous scene in The Song Remains The Same, with Peter Grant venting his rage at the venue's promoter, was taken at the Baltimore Civic Center concert on this date.

1977:

Led Zeppelin's huge Stonehenge backdrop for the Oakland 23-24 concerts was the basis for some funny stuff later on. Black Sabbath had commissioned a Stonehenge stage set for their 1983 Born Again tour (Stonehenge is the second track on the Born Again album). That band couldn't use the stage set because it had been mistakenly constructed too big to haul around. Coincidentally, at the same time the writers of This Is Spinal Tap created a scene with a Stonehenge set that turns out to be way too small to use. The two didn't copy each other (a 20-minute cut of the movie with that scene dates from before the Black Sabbath tour). Thus, we might conclude that both were inspired by Led Zeppelin at Oakland.

1977 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Oakland

1977 Led Zeppelin's Stonehenge backdrop at Oakland

1979:

This was Led Zeppelin's first concert in almost two years. It was kept low-key -- tickets were actually available to purchase at the door -- because it was a warm-up for Knebworth.

1985:

The On This Day post for July 23 is incorrect - let's blame it on the webmaster and not Jimmy Page (why not!). The Firm played Meadowlands (Brendan Byrne Arena) in East Rutherford, NJ on May 9th. Les Paul was introduced onstage. The video for The Firm's Satisfaction Guaranteed (in which Les Paul played the bartender), was filmed in New York City on May 11, 1985. The band returned to England shortly after.

Jimmy Page did join Robert Plant onstage in Meadowlands, E Rutherford, NJ for the encores, Mean Woman Blues and Treat Her Right.