Led Zeppelin First U.S. Tour - Miami 1969

[Tecumseh1812]

what i find strange is that when Page was sick on dope for years is when he was writing/composing some of his best music .

[N1k1mon]

@Tecumseh1812 I wrote my best poetry during my worst times... its just that way, you're more inside your soul at those times.

[jakxmon]

why wasnt i born earlier DX

[wblakews]

was Smack the warmup band?

[wblakews]

There was a story about Dean Martin pulling a gun on Jagger and Richards... or wa it a couple of cops on Martin's show?

At bath '71 Plant said how great it was to back in England, that the states was a drag (or hell. nam,nixon, race and assasinations... including humble demonstrators)

[gunsanddrugs]

true

[Cliner97]

And to correct myself on one point, it wasn't a green kit, the kit he was playing on first US tour was black diamond pearl, but very defenitely not the nude shell maple kit as pictured here.

[Cliner97]

Wondering about these pics being from first tour of U.S. Bonham is playing the nude body Maple Ludwig kit in these photos and he didn't get that kit and the Lud endorsement until April '69. They began their first U.S. tour on December 26th '68 and until April '69 he was still using a green sparkle kit with smaller 22" kick as opposed to the 26" he started using in April with the new kit. Just an observation.

[cowboysfan782008]

I heard that story. They also paid the guy off (Some kind of promoter, I beleive)who mistakinly slapped or pushed Peter Grants son at a concert in 77' and was pretty badly beaten by Cole, Bonham, and the fat man himself.

[Zepster77]

These photos are great! At 225 bucks a pop they better be...!

[Snakesonabrain]

Whatever the fuck that was?

[anhacus]

I read they were driving through Alabama one day and stopped to buy something. A couple of rednecks pulled up and spit in Plant's face. Another time Peter Grant beat the crap out of three Navy dudes for giving Page a beating at an airport.

[OhYeah729]

do you know any where i can read htese cool road stories... fights,grupies,drugs?

[anhacus]

Try the Hammer of the Gods at Barnes and Noble. There's another book written by their road manager Richard Cole, but I forgot the name. I'm 50, so I've been reading material about them since the early seventies in magazines. I saw them three times at the Garden in NYC in the seventies as well. I also knew one of their roadies back then.

[OhYeah729]

your awsome man... Im 15 in a band and led zeppelin is real rock and the stuff thats out now

[anhacus]

Thanks. It's hard to make it big in the business. However, if you have great original songs with a great drummer who can keep an awesome beat that's half the battle. You're young enough to give it hell. Good-luck.

[OhYeah729]

thanks man drummers been playing since he was 2 he love bonham and my dads a music enginer!

[anhacus]

Good-luck.

[cowboysfan782008]

I read both and was pretty blown away by Cole's book. If you messed with Zep you took a beating by Cole, Grant, and sometimes Bonham. Jimmy, eh, not so much, but he might put a spell on you.

[anhacus]

Yes, they were truly devastating. Did you know the police were investigating Cole in London for a bunch of strangulation murders of women. They were certain he did it, but they could never pin it on him.

[cowboysfan782008]

No I didn't. Reading his book I wouldn't think so but you never know. Long before his book, from a lot of other stuff I had read, I took him to be a full "thug for hire" type and probly not the sharpest tool. To me Zep is in a class all its own & the mafia thing just adds to there mystic. I don't think they could have survived through the 80's/90's like the Stones did. There a late 60's/70's band

[anhacus]

Yes. Maybe it was better it ended when it did. I don't think Page had any more to contribute in terms of songwriting anyway. They say if you are very talented you only have a certain amount of material to offer, and then it dries up.

[rory5543]

yes i agree but there zeppelin know matter waht they write it will be loved... look at rush for instance there still around and i went there new stuff aint to great but everyone loves that shit because....its rush! so no matter what they will have it all. zeppelin went out on top

[anhacus]

Yes, in 11 years Zeppelin said what they had to say. For one great success there are hundreds of failures, maybe more.

[rory5543]

i hope your not implying that rush is a failure..... because if it is, far from dude

[anhacus]

I don't know how you extracted anything having to do with Rush from that statement. I was referring to the hundreds and thousands of rock bands in the world that failed to make it in the business. Rush is a great band.

[gunsanddrugs]

what we have to watch out for though, as cool as the music was... too much fuckin men in lycra lol...

[rory5543]

oops, when i said "i went" i meant to say i went to a rush concert a few weks ago and there old stuff obviously got the most cheers but people still wanted to see what they had for the new album

[fenderDG6]

i think it was better that it ended too, pages guitar skills were gettign worse, and who knows what they would have produced, it could have been bad there next 3 cds, they wouldnt be the legends they r today...or something like that haha

[anhacus]

Right. You never know. Page's Heroin addiction did a number on his ability to play for quite a while. But they accomplished much, and they are enormously wealthy. By the way, Clapton recently revealed that he can't play that well anymore. He's lost a lot of dexterity.

[anhacus]

In the early days, a fan was running toward the back of Plant in an attempt to get an autograph. Cole did a spinning kick into the guy's mouth, knocking out many teeth. The way it was described was that the air was filled with molars and bicuspids. They later paid the guy for new teeth.

[THEtinybrat24]

that was wicked short!

nice pics.

[notallwhowanderrlost]

I love these photos and I LOVE LED ZEPPELIN!!! = D Thank you so much for posting!

[sds1522]

PLEASE Led zeppelin do a 2008 tour and come to miami

[AscendentInLeo]

Nice