Led Zeppelin – Knebworth - 4th August 1979
Led Zeppelin has always been my band since my brother took me to see them when I was 14 at Earls Court in 1975 where they blew me away with a three hour set. I had to wait 4 years before they returned to the UK to perform at Knebworth demand was so high they ended up doing two shows on consecutive weeks in front of over 200,000 people. Tickets were £7.50.
Back in the pre internet days of the 1970’s buying tickets was as much as part of the process as attending as it was a social event and with only one date announced initially demand to see the biggest band in the world was high, with a number of Record Shops listed as official ticket outlets listed we travelled to London in the early hours by train and queued for hours to get our tickets.
The New Barbarians featuring Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood were announced to perform on the second date and for those if us who attended the first date were treated to Fairport Convention who I really enjoyed and was billed at the time as their farewell concert and over 40 years later they are still going.
American Country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airman were followed by Chas and Dave who were a strange choice to perform at a Led Zeppelin show but I remember they were good fun. This was the second time I had seen Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes having seen them a couple of years earlier supporting Santana at the Crystal Palace Garden Party.
It was wonderful to see Utopia live with their album Ra being one of my favourite albums of the time and to me Todd Rundgren is one of the most underrated musicians and producers of his generation and I spent many hours trapsing around record shops looking for albums he has been involved with.
I was so excited to see Led Zeppelin perform again and the build up to this show was so big that was difficult to see how they could b match the expectation as it turned out the wait before they went onstage was so long that it diffused ant excitement and just wanted them to start. Everything this band was sone on a large scale with aircraft runway lights fronting the stage, complaints about the noise from miles away and twenty one songs going on well past midnight starting with Song Remains the Same and ending with Stairway to Heaven before being called back for two encores, they were just amazing and privilege to gave seen them live not once but twice.
If you were there tell us about your experience?
Buy us a coffee if you are enjoying this series and would like to see more https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151