TMD unearths the holy grail of heavy metal: the actual historic newspaper review of LED ZEPPELIN’s debut show in the U.S. — turning back the Rock N Roll clock over forty one years ago! Zeppelin first started off touring Scandinavia as The New Yardbirds in September 1968. People in the audience were unhappy when they realized this wasn’t the original Yardbirds… though once the band played the crowd immediately became mesmerized by their highly inventive sound. Heading back to England, the group switched their name to Led Zeppelin and went to work fast on recording its self-titled debut album, though the record did not get released until January 1969. Zeppelin next played a handful of shows in the United Kingdom and then made their way to North America.
The tale gets more fascinating. As the story goes, Denver, Colorado music promoter Barry Fey nearly became famous for being the guy who would not book Led Zeppelin!
“About 10 days before the show, I got a call from the agent saying, ‘Barry, I want to add an act to our show,’ ” Fey explains. “I said, ‘Ron (Terry), all the tickets are sold.’
“He said, ‘You’ve got to do this for me, Barry, this is a big, big act. Their name is Led Zeppelin.’ I thought it was a joke.”
Fey turned down Terry, until the agent flashed some cash.
“Ten minutes later Ron called back and said ‘Vanilla Fudge is going to give you $750, and if you give $750 of your own money, we still can put Led Zeppelin on the show.’ ” Fey gave in.
The big night was December 26, 1968 at the Denver Auditorium Arena.
It’s said that the unsuspecting audience at the concert had absolutely no idea that this new ‘heavy metal’ band from Britain was added to the gig. This historic night marked Led Zeppelin’s smashing American debut…
and the birth of heavy metal music as we know and love it today.
“I got up on the stage and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm Denver welcome to Led Zeppelin,’ ” Fey recalls. “They started playing, and it was incredible. It was an unbelievable show; people were gasping. That was a big day in Denver history.”
Behold the first newspaper review of Led Zeppelin’s debut gig in America!
Rocky Mountain News Music Critic Thomas MacCluskey had the honor of typing the historic account of the
incredible moment in music history. In his write up he notes, “Robert Plant – a cut above average in style, but no special appeal in sound.”
http://www.ledzeppelin.com/
Thank you for sharing this
Rock on
Wow, John Bonham got a bad review? It must have been a bad night for him because he was one of the best drummers in rock history.