MAGE MUSIC: On this day 28 June

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

On this day 28 June

Splish splash takin' a Bath

1969 and 1970 28 June On This Day - Led Zeppelin at Bath Festivals

1969 Led Zeppelin - Bath, England at Bath Pavilion Recreation Ground
1970 Led Zeppelin - Shepton Mallet, England at Royal Bath & West Showground
1972 Led Zeppelin - Tucson, AZ at Tucson Community Theatre
1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Stockholm Sweden at Maritime Museum
2000 Jimmy Page - The Black Crowes - Pittsburgh, PA at Star Lake Amphitheatre

1969:
The Bath Festival of Blues was held at the Bath Pavilion Recreational Ground in Bath, Somerset, England, on 28 June 1969. The headline act was Fleetwood Mac. The festival was produced by Wendy and Freddy Bannister, London club show promoters. All 30,000 tickets were sold out in the first week. Led Zeppelin had only played their first show nine months before, and this was the band's biggest UK audience to date. As we know, things would be drastically different very quickly.
Bath got its name from the hot springs that were shrines in prehistoric times and later developed by the Romans and others into public baths. Bath is said to have been where King Arthur's defeated the Anglo-Saxons.

1970:
The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music was held at the Royal Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England on 27–29 June 1970. Led Zeppelin was the headline act. This location, about 20 mi (32 km) south of Bath, allowed for a much larger crowd. The logistics were not so great - some of the bands' equipment trucks couldn't get to the site due to the country lanes being blocked by cars. Donovan showed up on the stage on Sunday morning, providing an unscheduled 2½ hour performance because the scheduled band wasn't there yet.

Peter Grant had arranged for Led Zeppelin to hit the stage as the sun was setting. They played to an audience estimated at 200,000 for three hours and performed five encores. The show is considered one of the most important performances of their career.

Plastic bags and raincoats were de rigueur in the audience. A bearded Jimmy Page wore a rain hat and his long overcoat during the show.

"ANOTHER ENCORE – at 10:50pm Zeppelin had won. They had made all the hang-ups worthwhile and given the crowd a night to remember – whatever else happened."
~ MelodyMaker, July 1970

1970 Bath Festival (Photo Terry Farebrother)

1970 28 June Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Bath Festival (Photo Michael Putland)

1972 28 June Led Zeppelin at Tucson (Photo D. Ford)

2000:
The venue for this show has changed names over the years. Originally it was the Star Lake Amphitheater and it was called the Post-Gazette Pavilion when the Page/Black Crowes show took place. It is currently named the First Niagara Pavilion. Burgettstown is a suburb of Pittsburgh.