TBL LED ZEPPELIN JANUARY 1975 SNAPSHOT…

DATE: SUNDAY JANUARY 12 1975:

VENUE: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

VORST NATIONAAL

Setlist: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/When The Levee Breaks/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/The Wanton Song/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/In My Time Of Dying/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – Black Dog/Communication Breakdown.

Snapshot Notes: The second warm up date for their forthcoming US tour – the previous night they had played Rotterdam. Before the show Robert conducted an interview backstage with Bob Harris for broadcast the following Friday (January 17th) on BBC2’s Old Grey Whistle Test.

There were five previews aired from the forthcoming Physical Graffiti set – Sick Again, Kashmir, The Wanton Song (which would only be performed on a few of the opening US dates), Trampled Underfoot and In My Time Of Dying. They also included an arrangement of the never before played live When The Levee Breaks – this again did not last for too many performances on the US tour. With Page possibly dealing with a recently damaged finger (see more on this below), the set was less than two hours in length with little improvisation – Dazed And Confused and Moby Dick were both absent – rare omissions for the time. Robert Plant was also beginning to struggle with an oncoming cold. Presentation wise these two warm up warm-up dates were performed with a relatively simple stage set up for the final time.– the US tour will see John Bonham’s drums mounted on a rostrum and a major new light and laser show.

These dates were announced in the UK press at the end of 1974, but I somehow missed this info – – in fact I did not know the gigs  had taken place until a week later such was the low key nature of the gigs – oh for the internet back then! If I had known, I would have made an effort to go for sure!

Snapshot Listen – how it sounded today:

It’s Time To Travel Again (Diagrams of Led Zeppelin)

The January 12th Brussels show exists on a fair to good audience recording that I have on the Diagrams of Led Zeppelin CD It’s Time To Travel Again.

Here’s my overview of how it sounded today:

Given the physical frailties of Robert’s voice and (possibly!) Jimmy’s injured finger, once they get in their stride there are some fine performances. The set is a quant one with the notable omission of Dazed And Confused – along with the Rotterdam gig the night before, it was the first time this Zep I standard had not been played live in a Zep performance since their inception. There’s no Moby Dick either making for a much shorter performance than was the standard.

Sick Again kicks in after Rock And Roll and Robert plays it safe on the vocal histrionics. Jimmy is equally tentative on Over The Hills And Far Away with none of the expansive solo improvisation that will be a highlight on the US tour and Earls Court shows.

Their onstage rustiness is evident early on – amply demonstrated by Bonzo going into the intro of When The Levee Breaks when he should have been readying for Over The Hills – where’s that confounded written set list!

When The Levee is duly performed (‘’here’s one we always enjoyed and we’ve finally got around to playing’’). Bonzo is spot on but it’s a rather ponderous plodding arrangement – it will not last too many outings on the US tour. ‘’Jimmy Page steel guitar’’ proclaims Robert at the close.

The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song are fairly perfunctory performances while the new Kashmir is initially a little hap-hazard. Robert loses the lyrics early on but they recover well for the final ‘’Let me take you there’’ sequence which prompts both Page and Plant to up their game.

‘’Another song of lust, a little habit I picked up after meeting Phil Carson (NB: Atlantic Records exec)– one of my idols’’ is Plant’s tongue in cheek intro into The Wanton Song – this works really well with Page now suitably animated in his playing – it’s a shame it was to fall off the setlist after a few performances in the US.

No Quarter is very much a 1973 arrangement with no extended grand piano section – which might be just as well as the crowd seem impatient and slow hand clap as the chorus comes back in. Before that, Jimmy gets into some very delicate and pleasing wah wah effects.

Two back to back Physical Graffiti previews follow: Trampled Underfoot is fast and furious and In My Time Of Dying is a valiant performance given the physical restraints. Both of these of course will come good with a few more performances

Finally…’’A song from not too long ago …what you might call a permanent favourite ‘ as Plant explains.

So come in Stairway To Heaven – now elevated to the main setlist closer. From the slightly extended strummed intro though to the crescendo ending, this performance strongly hints at the majesty this piece will attain ahead. It’s a great performance and worth the price of admission alone with Plant adlibbing away (note he still sings ‘’Dear lady’’ and ‘’Your Stairway’’ tonight – this will change to ‘’Dear people’ and ‘’Our Stairway’’ during the US tour). As for Jimmy, he delivers that long and winding jittering solo with sheer intent – a solo that will further develop and extend in the coming months and reach something of a zenith in Earls Court come May. It’s already very evident how much they have moved this piece on from the 1973 tour.

Encores: A brief Whole Lotta Love that segues into Black Dog and a strident Communication Breakdown with a chugging mid-section (‘’I don’t need…I don’t want’’) and gig number two of 1975 is over.

In the coming weeks in America , Plant’s voice will initially become weaker and Page’s finger injury will deem that How Many More Times temporarily replaces Dazed as the violin bow showcase. The stage setting will become more extravagant and the light and laser show ever striking. The audiences will become increasingly crazy, and a double album called Physical Graffiti will create a fervent rush at record stores across the land.

This night in Brussels is a quint and fascinating transitory performance – the health problems may be evident but inspired by their new material, this slightly tentative Led Zeppelin are very keen to make their mark in 1975.

And make their mark they will do as you will read in the next TBL Led Zep 1975 Snapshot…

To be continued…

Dave Lewis – January 13,2022. 

Jimmy s Injured Finger:

It was well documented that Jimmy injured his finger – shutting it in a train door in early 1975 – it’s difficult to pin point the actual date it happened – I was under the impression it was just before the Rotterdam and Brussels dates but I could well be wrong. here are some thoughts on the topic from TBL contributor Andy Crofts

The 1975 finger thing, I couldn’t resist a quick word about that. It is frustrating, because it’s very hard to square all the reported facts.

You are right that it is simplest to assume that it happened pre-Brussels, but the Rolling Stone interview from March 75 is equally clear that it happened ‘just a week’ before the US tour started, and JP had only one rehearsal to work out how to play everything. Both Keith Shadwick and Mick Wall back this up in their books, although neither gives a proper reference, maddeningly.

The Brussels gig is weird, because they don’t play Dazed And Confused  and How Many More Times -or Moby Dick for that matter, which I’d have thought ideal if the guitarist is unwell! But… JP plays very well in Brussels (this initially surprised me when I started listening), RP doesn’t make any mention of fingers onstage (which he does do on later US gigs), and the Bob Harris interview with him the same day doesn’t touch on it either. I also can’t help shake the feeling that they would just have cancelled those warm-ups had JP done his finger in immediately prior.

My take is that initially they never intended to play Dazed And Confused in 1975. They had other stuff in the set, like Levee and Wanton, and potentially others too; the setlist from the disputed Minneapolis rehearsal tape is an indicator here (I don’t believe this can be from 1973, but that’s a whole other argument!). So that’s why it’s not played in Brussels. They get to the US and realise they don’t like Levee, and need more material to fill the gap. This needs to be familiar to the audience, which won’t have heard the new stuff yet. The unrehearsed Dazed And Confused is considered a stretch too far, given the by-now broken finger, so they have a go at How many More Times for a few nights… equally unrehearsed, but it worked quite well when they did it impromptu in Southampton in 1973. Putting my guitarist’s hat on, I don’t see how a shortish Dazed And Confused is necessarily harder on the fingers than How Many More Times (something else that’s always bothered me about that part of the story), but the latter is certainly easier to pick up if you haven’t played it for a while.

All this squares the known and reported facts, and also makes sense of Jimmy’s other comment in Rolling Stone, that he wants Dazed And Confused back in the set ASAP… he preferred playing that to How Many More Times , which was probably a bit old-fashioned for him by 1975.

There’s another possibility of course, which is that the Brussels tape is incomplete, and other songs were played… it does seem very short. But I don’t think so. It’s maddening not to have anything from Rotterdam or indeed Minneapolis to compare it with.

Oops, I’ve written an essay. These nitpicking things are interesting in an ubergeek kind of way, and I think it’s fascinating how things which may not be quite right become accepted fact, just through repetition. I think Led Zeppelin simply started with one set list in 1975 and abandoned it in the face of their US audience. A shame. I’ve recently been reading about Cream’s experiences in the US, and they were the same; lots of parallels actually. Jimmy’s finger is ultimately a red herring, because – painful or otherwise – he plays very well throughout Jan 75.

Many Thanks Andy for those comments.