Earls Court 1975 were five

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

s performed by the English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

Earls Court Arena Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue just west of central London. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in May 1975.

Overview

The concerts were initially booked for three nights on 23, 24 and 25 May, but due to unprecedented public demand (tickets for the three shows sold out within just four hours), two further dates were added for 17 and 18 May, making total ticket sales 85,000. Noted critic and film director

Tony Palmer Tony Palmer (born 29 August 1941)IMDb: Tony Palmer
Retrieved 24 September 2011 is a British film direc ...

stated at the time in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' that no group in history had ever attracted such an audience in Britain. These concerts took place less than two months following the conclusion of Led Zeppelin's 1975 North American tour. The whole of the band's 40-ton stage and light show was airlifted from the United States for the concerts. A huge

Eidophor An Eidophor was a video projector used to create theater-sized images from an analog video signal. The name Eidophor is derived from the Greek word-roots ''eido'' and ''phor'' meaning 'image' and 'bearer' (carrier). Its basic technology was th ...

screen which showed the action as it was being filmed was also erected above the stage, at a cost of £10,000. This is thought to be one of the first occasions when such a device was used for a rock show in England. It was said that an entire city could be lit by the energy spent in a single concert. Three days of rehearsals took place in order to fix every possible detail or PA problem. The sound at the concerts was managed by

Showco Showco was a sound equipment provider of touring sound reinforcement equipment and services to the concert touring industry. It was based in Dallas, Texas, United States. In 2000, Showco was acquired by Clair Global. Showco was established in 197 ...

. The Earls Court performances were promoted by

Mel Bush Mel, also sometimes referred to as Melanie, is a fictional character played by Bonnie Langford in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. A computer programmer from the 20th century who is a companion of the ...

. In an interview he gave several years after the event, Bush explained: To help promote the concerts, Bush and Grant used advertisements which displayed a train, dubbed the "Zeppelin Express", linked to Earl's Court via the

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

train services of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. It was intended to convey the message that, despite all the concerts being performed in one location, they would be easily accessible to fans from all parts of the country. This image was featured on the concert's official poster (see above, right), the originals of which are now among the most collectible posters in rock history. The posters were produced, together with the design for the concert programme, by Martine Grainey of Peter Grainey Graphics of Bournemouth. Five promotional DJs were given the task of introducing the band on stage at each show. These were Bob Harris (17 May),

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Sc ...

(18 May),

Kid Jensen David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 ...

(23 May),

Nicky Horne Nicky Horne (born 3 September 1950) is an English DJ, who has worked for a variety of radio stations, including Capital Radio. Career Horne worked as a road manager for Emperor Rosko in 1969, before presenting shows on BBC Radio 1, from 19 ...

(24 May) and

Alan Freeman Alan Leslie Freeman, MBE (6 July 1927 – 27 November 2006), nicknamed "Fluff", was an Australian-born British disc jockey and radio personality in the United Kingdom for 40 years, best known for presenting ''Pick of the Pops'' from 1961 to 200 ...

(25 May). All of the shows exceeded three hours in length, with the final 25 May concert clocking in at three hours, 43 minutes and 50 seconds. Footage from the concerts remained unavailable for public viewing for years, until parts of it were eventually released in 2003 for the ''

Led Zeppelin DVD ''Led Zeppelin DVD'' is a double DVD set by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in the United Kingdom on 26 May 2003, and the United States on 27 May 2003. It contains live concert footage of the band spanning the years 1969 to 1979. The D ...

''.

Critical reaction

The Earls Court concerts are considered by some critics to be the best ever performed by the band, and the shows received generally excellent reviews from the music press, including those published in ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

'', ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' and ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

''. Music journalist

Chris Welch Chris Welch (born 12 November 1941) is an English music journalist, critic, and author who is best known for his work from the late 1960s as a reporter for ''Melody Maker'', ''Musicians Only'', and ''Kerrang!''. He is the author of over 40 mu ...

, who attended the performances, recalled years later: According to Led Zeppelin archivist Dave Lewis:

Set list

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

set list A set list, or setlist, is typically a handwritten or printed document created as an ordered list of songs, jokes, stories and other elements an artist intends to present during a specific performance. A setlist can be made of nearly any materi ...

for these five concerts was: #"

Rock and Roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

" (

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Plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

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, Bonham) #"

Sick Again "Sick Again" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin from their 1975 album '' Physical Graffiti''. It was written by singer Robert Plant. The song is about a group of teen groupies, which Plant referred to as "L.A. Queens", with whom the ba ...

" (Page, Plant) #" Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page, Plant) #"

In My Time of Dying "In My Time of Dying" (also called "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" or a variation thereof) is a gospel music song by Blind Willie Johnson. The title line, closing each stanza of the song, refers to a deathbed and was inspired by a passage in the B ...

" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham) #" The Song Remains the Same" (Page, Plant) #"

The Rain Song "The Rain Song" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released in March 1973 as the second track on their fifth album, ''Houses of the Holy''. Recording "The Rain Song" is a ballad of over seven minutes in length. Guitarist J ...

" (Page, Plant) #"

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

" (Bonham, Page, Plant) #"

No Quarter The phrase no quarter was generally used during military conflict to imply combatants would not be taken prisoner, but killed. According to some modern American dictionaries, a person who is given no quarter is "not treated kindly" or "treated ...

" (Page, Plant, Jones) #"

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" (Page) #"

Going to California "Going to California" is a ballad recorded by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released on their untitled fourth album in 1971. In 2012, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked "Going to California" number 11 on their list of the 40 greatest Led Zep ...

" (Page, Plant) #" That's the Way" (Page, Plant) #" Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" (Page, Plant, Jones) #"

Trampled Under Foot "Trampled Under Foot" is a song by English rock group Led Zeppelin. A funk-influenced piece with John Paul Jones on clavinet, it was included on their 1975 album '' Physical Graffiti''. The song was released as a single in several countries an ...

" (Page, Plant, Jones) (incl. " Gallows Pole") #"

Moby Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whit ...

" (Bonham, Jones, Page) #" Dazed and Confused" (Page) (incl. "

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"/"

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") #"

Stairway to Heaven "Stairway to Heaven" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by the band's guitarist Jimmy Page and lead singer Robert Plant for their untitled fourth studio album (often titled ''Led Zeppelin IV'') ...

" (Page, Plant) Encores: *"

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" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant) (incl. "

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") *" Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones) Additional encores on the last show, on 25 May: *"

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" (Bonham, Page, Plant) *"

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" (Bonham, Jones, Page) (incl. "

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Tour dates

Cancelled North American tour dates

A North American tour consisting of 33 dates was planned for August–September 1975, but due to Robert Plant's serious car accident, it was cancelled. Some of the dates the tour would have consisted of include: There were also plans for a trip to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

afterwards, followed by a UK tour in winter 1976 and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in spring; however, these plans were shelved. The band did play a 45-minute impromptu show on 16 December 1975 in

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

.https://www.ledzeppelin.com/event/december-16-1975 Information about the 45 minute show. The band would not perform live again until their next tour in 1977.

Sources

*Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) ''Led Zeppelin: The Concert File'', London: Omnibus Press. .

References

External links

Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)Review of the concert in ''The Times'', 26 May 1975View in Google Earth
{{Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin concert tours 1975 concert tours 1975 in London May 1975 events in the United Kingdom Earls Court