What's in a name?
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
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| 1971 13 September On This Day Led Zeppelin at Berkeley Community Theater |
- 1968 Led Zeppelin (as Yardbirds) - Stockholm, Sweden at Inside Club
- 1971 Led Zeppelin - Berkeley, CA at Berkeley Community Theatre
“It has been up and down for the Yardbirds. A couple of years ago, they were on top. For a while, a lot of people thought that the Yardbirds would lead the developing English pop but their efforts led nowhere.The question is, would the review have been the same if the band billed as Yardbirds was already known by their proper name, Led Zeppelin, or even The New Yardbirds? Would the volume have been the only thing the reviewer managed to comment on?
The members changed and the Yardbirds currently touring Sweden have very little in common with the original line-up. It is not only the line-up that has changed. The style of music is different, as is the quality - only the name is the same.
Friday night they played the Inside. They were so loud it almost hurt. Sometimes playing loud has an important role in pop, but here it was just superficial effect”.
~ Stockholm Daily News Press Review: 9.14.1968 (transcription:LZ The Press Reports, 1997)
And another question: what would the Stockholm Daily News reviewer say today?
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| 1968 Led Zeppelin at Inside Club, Stockholm (as Yardbirds - not even "new") |
1971:
"...loud, boisterous and very deafening..." (Oakland Tribune) Perhaps the problem was that Led Zeppelin was always meant to play humongous venues - to play to the world, not to a small crowd in a high school theater. Perhaps Berkeley was too cool for Led Zeppelin, too much in love with what they considered their own house band, the Grateful Dead. Whatever the reason, today it seems incredible that the audience was so unresponsive.
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| 1971 Led Zeppelin, Berkeley (G Smith photo) |
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| 1971 Review of Led Zeppelin's Berkeley show |
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♪ Led Zeppelin (Berkeley CA at Berkeley Community Theater, 13 September 1971) 
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