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EARLS COURT WEEK ON TBLWEB – MAY 23RD 1975 -35 YEARS GONE – DL RETRO DIARY

23 May 2010 3,351 views No Comment

TURNING THE CLOCK BACK 35 YEARS

FRIDAY MAY 23 RD 1975

TICKET: GALLARY BLOCK 98 ROW F SEAT 6

Ticket Price £1.00

So imagine waking up on a Friday morning with the prospect of over nine hours of live Led Zeppelin in store over the next three days.

Talk about the weekend starts here!

But that was the treat in store as I went to catch the train on Friday May 23rd for EC gig 3. Earlier I’d had a passport photo taken in a booth  in town suitably dressed in Earls Court T shirt – I was due to fly out with my friends to sunny Loret De Mar in a week’s time.

The days in between the first two gigs had been pretty non stop. Tuesday at short notice I went to see Swan Song artists The Pretty Things support Status Quo in Ipswich with the Atlantic rep who called on the WH Smith record department I worked in. Next day he brought in to the shop 30 copies of the limited edition UK Trampled Underfoot single – yet another bonus!. Thursday was spent soaking up the music press with the arrival of the NME and Melody Maker front covers (those cover pics were just awesome!) – The excitement just didn’t stop.

After the frantic pace of attending the two first gigs,  Friday seemed a much more relaxed affair and I took much more in. The weather was good too and beforehand the then girlfriend Fiona and I drank a bottle of wine in Hyde Park. Then it was to SW8. The view this time was the opposite side to last week and we scrambled down a few tiers taking some empty seats. A full on if slightly distant but clear view on Jonesy’s side. From the moment Plant gave out an excited Immigrant Song ”Aha ah” squeal as Bonzo and Jimmy did the usual warm up, well it was so evident they were up for it. Fashion note: For this night only Robert wore the cherry wrap around shirt he’d favoured on most of the ’75 American tour.

”Last week we did a couple of warm up dates for these three nights. We believe that these were the first three gigs sold out, so these must be the ones with the most energy stored up because you’ve been waiting”. That opening Plant speech was met with tremendous applause.

Highlights:  Another truly scintillating Page solo in Over The Hills (one of the very best ever), Plant’s You Shook Me reference at the end of In My Time, the image of Page swathed in blue light up on the screen delicately picking out The Rain Song with such lyrical finesse, Tangerine yet again so moving, the intimacy of the acoustic set and a Dazed And Confused that reverted back to the San Francisco interlude.

This time we did miss the train ( a trend that would continue) and we hung around Kings Cross finally getting back to Bedford at 4.30am. It was now Saturday May 24th and this one was going to be the big one.  Second row seats beckoned. Who needed sleep with that prospect ahead…

To be continued…tomorrow Saturday May 24th 1975

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