Earls Court 1975: Difference between revisions

Earls Court 1975

Concert by Led Zeppelin
Start date	May 17, 1975
End date	May 25, 1975
Legs	1
No. of shows	5
Led Zeppelin concert chronology
North America 1975 Earls Court 1975 North America 1977

Earls Court 1975 were five

The concerts were initially booked for three nights on May 23,[1] 24^[2] and 25,^[3] but due to unprecedented public demand (tickets sold out within just four hours),^[4] two further dates were added for May 17^[5] and 18,^[6] making total ticket sales 85,000.^[4]

These concerts took place less than two months following the conclusion of Led Zeppelin's 1975 American Tour. The whole of the band's stage and light show was airlifted from America for the concerts. A huge Ediphor screen which showed the action as it was being filmed was also erected above the stage, which is thought to be one of the first occasions when such a device was used for a rock show in England.^[4][7] It was said that an entire city could be lit by the energy spent in a single concert.^[8] Three days of rehearsals took place in order to fix every possible detail or PA problem.^[8]

The Earls Court concerts are considered by some critics to be amongst the best ever performed by the band, and the shows received generally excellent reviews from the music press.

The band played with tremendous fire, possessed by an almost demonic power, amidst clouds of smoke pierced by green laser beams. Jimmy Page flailed his violin bow against the guitar strings, producing eerie, echoing gothic howls. At the time, I wrote in a review that "Robert Plant maintains an essentially human, chatty approach to audiences, almost like a guide taking us through the story of the band, a jester at the wheel of some fearsome juggernaut, offering sly asides and poetic ruminations between moments of terrible power." ... The band enjoyed the Physical Graffiti material far more than the old war horses, and the best moments from the previous albums came in the shape of ballads and acoustic songs.^[4]

All of the shows exceeded three hours in length, with the final May 25 concert clocking in at three hours, 43 minutes and 50 seconds. Footage from the concerts remained in the vaults for years, until parts of it were released in 2003 for the Led Zeppelin DVD.

Set list

For these concerts, the band revived an acoustic section which had been a component of many their concert tours until 1972, when it had been discarded from their set.

The typical set list for these five concerts was:

1. "Rock and Roll" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
2. "Sick Again" (Page, Plant)
3. "Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page, Plant)
4. "In My Time of Dying" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
5. "The Song Remains the Same" (Page, Plant)
6. "The Rain Song" (Page, Plant)
7. "Kashmir" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
8. "No Quarter" (Page, Plant, Jones)
9. "Tangerine" (Page)
10. "Going to California" (Page, Plant)
11. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant)
12. "
    Bron-Yr-Aur (Stomp)
    " (Page, Plant, Jones)
13. "Trampled Under Foot" (Page, Plant, Jones) (incl. "Gallows Pole")
14. "
    Moby Dick
    " (Bonham, Jones, Page)
15. "Dazed and Confused" (Page) (incl. "Woodstock"/"San Francisco")
16. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

• "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant) (incl. "The Crunge")
• "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
• "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
• "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page) (incl. "D'yer Mak'er")

"Heartbreaker" and "Communication Breakdown" were played only on the last show, on May 25th.

External links

• Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)
• Led Zeppelin concert setlists
• View in Google Earth

References

Sources

• Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.