1. Since I've Been Loving You
2. Black Dog
3. Dazed and Confused
The group continued through set, Heartbreaker, Since I've Been Loving You, Black Dog, Dazed and Confused.. with small fires erupting among the audience. Despite pleas from Robert Plant begging the crowd to calm down, the chaos continued. "We went on for another 20 or 30 minutes, but every time the audience would stand up for an encore, there'd be loads of smoke!", Page recalled. "So we just kept on saying repeatedly 'Stop lighting those fires, please!'. But then we suddenly realized that it wasn't smoke from fires - it was bloody tear gas that the police were firing into the crowd. It wasn't until one canister landed about 20 feet from the stage (during Dazed and Confused) and the wind brought it over to us that we realized what was happening." The band stops playing, about several minutes into the song after tear gas lands close to the stage [sample audio clip], causing screams from the crowd and chants of "BASTA!... BASTA!" (enough) pleading to the police to stop.
They began throwing stones and police quickly charged toward the crowd in an attempt to disperse them. They returned less than 10 minutes later. By all accounts, it was a small number of youths who ruined it for all, inciting the crowd and police over-reaction that would escalate the situation to a full scale riot. Police retaliated forming a line of military jeeps where the battle moved towards the other side of Vigorelli. Police once again launched tear gas and spread out around the whole perimeter of Vigorelli. All hell broke loose by 11:30pm.
"We were still playing in a cloud of tear gas but it was hopeless, so we said 'Blow this, let's cut it really short.' We did one more number and went right in to Whole Lotta Love and the whole crowd jumped up.", said Page. "By this point there'd been about 40 minutes of tear gas attacks and finally somebody heaved a bottle at the police. It was not entirely unexpected since the crowd had been getting bombarded for no reason - but of course
the moment a bottle went up, that's what the police had been waiting for."
Choking and gasping for air, desperate fans began fleeing - some towards the stage. The band had seen enough and fled the stage. Thick clouds of tear gas and smoke blocked their only passageway as they attempted to find a way out, with a steady succession of gas bombs still exploding. Locking themselves in a small room backstage, they tried to catch their breath. Realizing some of their equipment was still on stage, in the middle of the ensuing riot roadies braved the war zone again to salvage what was left, including Bonham's drums who was certain they were now destroyed. An assortment of projectiles including Molotov cocktails, bottles and stones were thrust into the air.
"The roadies had to be carried off in stretchers, just for trying to save the gear", recalls John Paul Jones. "The police had cordoned off all the audience around the back and there was a big line of policemen holding them there.
The only way they could move was forward on to the stage - about 10,000 kids were forced up through the stage. It was a war." police block access to the stadiumAfter an hour of waiting in their barricaded backstage room, armed officers provided an escort back to their hotel. Fans were still fleeing the area, hanging onto passing trucks and running in the streets. It was already evident that only a small group of youths were responsible for sparking the entire incident, and police overreactions fueled the incident to a war-like fiasco. By the end of the evening, an estimated 40 people were injured, 16 arrested, 4 cars vandalized and the Vigorelli Velodromo sustained an enormous amount of damage. With the morning light, local people began understanding the scope of the event.
Needless to say, Led Zeppelin's first tour of Italy was their last, with the Milan riot marking the worst concert violence of their career
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I'm ashamed of my homies treating a nice English band this way. How rude and dangerous.
Plus they missed Whole Lotta Love... That makes life a drag, drag, drag.
francescaemc2 3 years ago 7
There's tear gas then Phil Collins! Heavy.
francescaemc2 3 years ago