MAGE MUSIC: On This Day 11 March

Friday, March 11, 2016

On This Day 11 March

Whole lotta love for Led Zeppelin means gigantic venues

1971 11 March On This Day Led Zeppelin at Southampton University, England

1970 Led Zeppelin - Hamburg, Germany at Hamburg Musikhalle (day 2)
1971 Led Zeppelin - Southampton, England at University of Southampton, West Refectory
1975 Led Zeppelin - Long Beach, CA at Long Beach Arena (day 1)
1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - New Orleans, LA at U.N.O. Lakefront Arena (day 2)

1971:

The "Back to the Clubs Tour" was less than a month (05 March - 01 April), but it wasn't an easy month for the band. The reasons were noble but the experience was less than so.

Before:
"The audiences were becoming bigger and bigger but moving further and further away. They became specks on the horizon and we were losing contact with people - those people who were responsible for lifting us off the ground in the early days. We are playing those clubs like the London Marquee for exactly the same amount as we did in the old days, as a 'thank you' to those promoters and the audiences alike. By doing this we will be able to tour the entire of Britain and not just those cities who are fortunate enough to contain large venues. We will establish contact with tour audience and re-energise on their reaction while they have a chance to see a group which the accepted tradition would be appearing only at high prices in large auditoriums."
~ Jimmy Page, Record Mirror, Feb. 1971

During:
In his book, Stairway to Heaven, Richard Cole quotes Jimmy Page as feeling less noble as they waited to go on stage at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle, "Once you have played in the big places, these small clubs are murder. It's nice to be near the audiences, but you forget how small the dressing rooms are. At this point in our careers, I think we're entitled to more luxury than this."

Additionally, Led Zeppelin was just too famous by this time for a small club tour. Thousands of fans flocked to the venues but were shut out of the shows because there just was no room for them.