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Led Zeppelin return to play two dates in Montreux, preparing for their upcoming tour of North America. Press: Easy triumph for Led ZeppelinGoogle translation The space of this last weekend, the pop music regained its rights Montreux, bringing back in the city the crowd of the best concerts for the resumption of the crazy evenings of the Casino, it had been called Led Zeppelin.

Led Zeppelin's 1971 North American Tour was the seventh concert tour of North America by the English rockband. The tour commenced on August 7 and concluded on 17 September 1971. It included two warm-up shows in Montreux, Switzerland.

This tour took place just prior to the release of the band's fourth album. The band had hoped to release this album in time for the tour, but various delays prevented this from occurring.^[1]

This was the longest break that the band had from touring North America to date, with their last tour there having taken place almost a year previously. During the interim the hard rock band Grand Funk Railroad had asserted its influence on the American music market, and Led Zeppelin was keen to re-establish their live reputation through this stint of concert performances.^[1]

The new material from the fourth album which was presented by the band on stage was very well received by audiences, which helped to ensure massive sales of that album when it was eventually released in November 1971.^[1]

The tour is also notable for the high frequency of crowd disturbances which occurred at the concerts, including those at New York City, Toronto and Boston, as the bootlegs of these concerts attest.

Before this tour, Robert Plant shaved off his beard, a style which he and the rest of his bandmates had adopted the year before. John Paul Jones followed suit a month later. However, Jones would later grow a beard in late 1972 and keep it until March 1973, and then have a mustache for part of the 1973 North American Tour, and also have a beard from late 1975 to early 1977.

It was on this tour that the notorious 'Folding Chair Incident' took place. On August 26, at the show in Houston, several fans threw folding chairs at the stage in protest to what were perceived as overpriced tickets. No one was injured, and the show continued without any more interruptions.

On this tour, the band grossed $1 million.^[2]

Tour set list[edit]

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

1. 'Walk Don't Run' (only on 22 August)
2. 'Immigrant Song' (Page, Plant)
3. 'Heartbreaker' (Bonham, Page, Plant)
4. 'Since I've Been Loving You' (Page, Plant, Jones)
5. 'Out on the Tiles' (intro) (Page, Plant, Bonham) / 'Black Dog' (Page, Plant, Jones)
6. 'Dazed and Confused' (Page)
7. 'Stairway to Heaven' (Page, Plant)
8. 'Celebration Day' (Jones, Page, Plant)
9. 'That's the Way' (Page, Plant)
10. 'Going to California' (Page, Plant)
11. 'What Is and What Should Never Be' (Page, Plant)
12. 'Moby Dick' (Page, Jones, Bonham)
13. 'Whole Lotta Love' (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

• 'Communication Breakdown' (Bonham, Jones, Page)
• 'Organ Solo' (Jones) / 'Thank You' (Page, Plant)
• 'Rock and Roll' (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham) (On 21 August, 3 September, and 7 September)
• 'Weekend' (Post) (on 21 August only)

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

Tour dates[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcLewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN0-7119-5307-4, p. 64.
2. ^Chris Welch (1994) Led Zeppelin, London: Orion Books. ISBN1-85797-930-3, p. 65.

External links[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN0-7119-5307-4.

Led Zeppelin's 1971 European Tour was a concert tour of Europe by the Englishrockband. The tour commenced on 3 May and concluded on 5 July 1971. It included one concert at Liverpool, England, which was a rescheduled date from their preceding tour of the United Kingdom.^[1] It is possible that other unverified dates in Europe were also performed during this period.^[2]

Though being very short in duration, this concert tour was well known, primarily because of the extremely violent crowd disturbance which took place at the band's concert at the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan on 5 July.^[3][4][5] This festival appearance in front of an audience of 15,000 people was abandoned when hundreds of tear-gas wielding riot police charged into the crowd. The group were forced to leave the stage and many fans were injured. Some of the group's equipment was also damaged in the chaos. The band's singer Robert Plant later recalled:

We went to Milan and the riot troops moved in and tear-gassed the event. We escaped down an access route and the troops pumped canisters at us as we ran. We managed to get in a dressing room and I barricaded the door with the medicine cabinet and got everybody to put wet towels around their heads. Then they broke the windows and popped a couple of canisters in from the street.^[6]

The concert has been described as one of the low points of Led Zeppelin's career, and the band never again returned to Italy.^[7]

Led Zeppelin Montreux Casino 1971 Album

Tour set list[edit]

All track written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, except where noted.

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

1. 'Immigrant Song'
2. 'Heartbreaker' (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
3. 'Since I've Been Loving You' (Page, Plant, Jones)
4. 'Out on the Tiles' (intro) (Page, Plant, Bonham) / 'Black Dog' (Page, Plant, Jones)
5. 'Dazed and Confused' (Page)
6. 'Stairway to Heaven'
7. 'Going to California'
8. 'That's the Way'
9. 'Celebration Day' (from 7 Aug)
10. 'What Is and What Should Never Be'
11. 'Moby Dick' (Bonham, Jones, Page) (on 8 Aug only)
12. 'Four Sticks' (on 3 May only)
13. 'Gallows Pole' (on 3 May only)
14. 'Whole Lotta Love' (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)
15. 'Communication Breakdown' (Bonham, Jones, Page) (on 3 May only)
16. 'Misty Mountain Hop' (Page, Plant, Jones) (on 3 May only)
17. 'Rock and Roll' (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham) (on 3 May only)
18. 'Weekend' (Post) (on 7 August only)

1971 Montreux Casino Fire

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. On 3 May Led Zeppelin played 'Four Sticks' (Page, Plant). This is the only known time it was performed by the original band.^[8] Also played was 'Gallows Pole,' one of only two complete known live performances, the other played later that year on 16 November 1971 at St Matthew's Baths Hall, Ipswich, UK.

Tour dates[edit]

References[edit]

Led Zeppelin Concerts 1971

1. ^Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary
2. ^Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett, (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press, p. 63.
3. ^Led Zeppelin Interview 1971Archived 2012-05-19 at WebCite
4. ^Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary
5. ^Chris Welch (1994) Led Zeppelin, London: Orion Books. ISBN1-85797-930-3, p. 63.
6. ^Nigel Williamson, 'Good Times...Bad Times', Uncut, May 2005, p. 56.
7. ^Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN0-7119-5307-4, p. 63.
8. ^Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN0-7119-3528-9.
9. ^https://www.ledzeppelin.com/event/may-3-1971 The Swiss warm-up shows are considered to be part of this tour according to the official website.

External links[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN0-7119-5307-4.

Led Zeppelin 1971