Whole Lotta Love ~ Bring it on Home

1995-07-15
The Cornwall Coliseum
Cornwall


101. Egyptian intro
102. Whole lotta love
103. Bring it on home
104. Ramble on
105. No quarter
106. Gallows pole
107. Hurdy gurdy solo
108. Yallah (with orchestra)
109. Since i`ve been loving you
110. The song remains the same

201. Friends
202. Calling to you
203. Four sticks
204. Kashmir
205. Blue jean baby jam
206. Black dog
207. In the evening

In some ways, the hideous entertainment multiplex modestly named the Cornwall Coliseum is an ideal Led Zeppelin venue. It squats grimly on a granite beach a matter of feet from the Atlantic ocean. It is featureless, implacable, massy yet compacted, as if dropped on Cornwall from a great height: corrugated concrete blocks set against black cliffs and a riffing sea.

Perfect, you'd have thought, not only as a metaphor for Zeppelin's most inhospitable music but also as the setting for a memorable entrance: Robert and Jimmy, horned and cross-gartered, in the prow of a Viking longship driven hard up the beach like a sword into the maw of Gossips' niterie.

If only. Sadly, the realisation of such a coup would ask unanswerable questions of the chaps' security operation. And besides, how keen are the chaps going to be to plug in their Gibsons while gartered in sopping thongs? In the event, we had to make do with the group appearing gingerly from behind a curtain of green and vermillion light to the sound of chugging Arab modes. It was bathos, but it was good bathos.

The same went for the rest of the show. P&P's solution to the problem of being too young to die but old enough to worry about it is to take their heavy business lightly. They came with a full complement of Egyptian drummers, but not the orchestra scheduled for later shows, eschewing theformal solemnity of last year's do in favour of all-out Arabian crunch- rock.

Indeed, they went off at the deep end with a somewhat perfunctory "Whole Lotta Love", during which Plant essayed the occasional bottom-clench and hair-toss before leaving it to his accomplice to make an unspeakable racket with his Theremin thing. This contraption has been around since the early days. It's constructed out of a black toolbox, Meccano, some gaffer tape and the gear-stick off an old tractor and it sounds like an earthquake. Page played it like a laid-back traffic policeman waving his arms at an intersection, looking chuffed to bits while the tarmac cracks and suppurates all about, belching black vapour and the smell of testosterone.

"Since I've Been Loving You" was pretty torrid, too, as was "Four Sticks", which snicked the vibe up a gear from the pervading matey languor. "Kashmir" was the clincher, though, being long, hot and cinematic. Guitars swelled and bellied like sails, Arab drums lurched and swayed: Viking sea-dogs rode ships of the desert. Page grinned afterwards like a 12-year-old.

There remained an element of restraint in Plant's demeanour, however, which may have been the product of a 47-year-old's natural angst at having to clench his bottom in front of strangers or may simply have been from the effort of making his voice soar more freely than at any time since his original separation from his pallid chum. It brought a lump to the throat rather than to the trousers.

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Music

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• conneyfogle

[myfavouritepastime]

Was there too and too was expecting a kinda laid back gig. It was a fantastic show with a great twist wih the Eygptian orchestra. I was up in the Gods and from there it looked like an empty hall below, someone else who was there said it was packed out could anyone who was there confirm?

[AQUARIUS57]

@MacBruce1 @MacBruce1 its egyptian music for the female singer OmKalthum

[AQUARIUS57]

@MacBruce1 its egyptian music for the female singer OmKalthum

[AQUARIUS57]

@MacBruce1 its egyptian music for the female singer OmKalthum

[soryong1]

Conneyfogle, you are a legend. Me and my wife were at this gig, it was a hot day and nearly everyone at the gig stayed on the nearby campsite. We were expecting a mellow unplugged performance and got a full blown rock show!

I am now watching this with my 12 year old son, can't believe someone had footage.

Many thanks

[MacBruce1]

Does anybody know the name of this Islamic tune at the intro? I love it, and have been looking for it for 12 years!

[PAULOcbi]

didnt know that, I do know that Freddie Mercury refused the surgery,and I guess he died of AIDS b4 his throat went too bad, thanx!

[bshaun2]

@PAULOcbi  If they aren't removed it greatly increases the chance that they may become malignant. Which in most cases requires the voice box to be removed.

[PAULOcbi]

Plant should never have had surgery on his throat polyps,evry singer that gets the surgery loses their range immediately,