In this issue:

Dave Lewis at Earl's Court

May 24th is Queen Victoria’s birthday. We officially celebrate “Victoria Day” on the Monday closest to that date. It has become the unofficial start of our summer and one we all look forward to. As usual, it’s hot this holiday weekend - which is most welcome and kind of amazing when you realize it snowed two or three times earlier this month.

Everyone who has a cottage or camp heads out of town to open it up for the summer and traffic is a total nightmare. Just as it must have been 35 years ago in London when Led Zeppelin performed five concerts over two weekends in May at Earl’s Court.

How’s that for a segue, eh?

Last March, Led Zeppelin author and expert Dave Lewis and I were on the phone for three hours talking about our favourite band and the music. In honour of Earl’s Court (and because you sometimes razz me for never talking about Zep beyond 1970), I’m going to share with you our conversation about Dave’s experiences at Earl’s Court. He was there for all five performances: Saturday/Sunday, May 17/18 and Friday/Saturday/Sunday, May 23/24/25, 1975. The concerts featured the state-of-the-art stage show that Led Zeppelin had used on the band’s U.S. tours.

This interview has never been published, in whole or in part, anywhere before. You’re the first to read this exclusive excerpt from it and I hope you’ll enjoy Dave’s account, too. Then I’ll talk a bit about one of the legendary boots of Earl’s Court, a vinyl pressing called No Quarter.

DAVE LEWIS: I made up my mind in 1975 that wherever they [Led Zeppelin] were going to play in England, I was going to go. So, had they done a thirty day tour, I would have done the thirty days [laughs from Lewis and Reddon] although I don’t know how I would have afforded it!

So when they chose the five days at Earl’s Court, I had to be there all five nights. It was an incredible week. There aren’t many weeks when you have a Saturday/Sunday and you see Led Zeppelin – and then see them again the next weekend for another three dates! That was amazing.

I was in the second row for the Saturday May 24 show, an unbelievable thrill. On the final night we had a great view, face on to the stage. I got very lucky that night. It wasn’t premeditated, but I got to meet them [the members of Led Zeppelin].

My girlfriend at the time came with me to the shows. Looking back, it was a real rite of passage experience. After they left the stage, there was no way we wanted to go home. We didn’t want it all to end.

By the side of the stage, there was a back-cloth. The big lights would come off and the encore where the light bulbs would spell out “Led Zeppelin” would flash on. There was a log of black cloth. The great thing about May 25 was they did extra encores – Heartbreaker and Communication Breakdown.

When Black Dog and Whole Lotta Love were finished and we thought that might be it, I said, “Let’s go down to the front anyway and just see what happens.” And they came back on. Those extra encores were truly stunning.

I remember Robert said something like, “I don’t know what to play.” And the cameraman goes, “Communication Breakdown. Communication Breakdown!” And Robert looks down on the guys and they say,“Yeah, yeah, okay, let’s do that.”

So we were really close to all that. This back-cloth was, in fact, a sort of a doorway with people going through and there was a security guard there. Luckily, we didn’t get thrown out of the place and we were able to hang out there awhile. We moved around a bit. If they ask you to leave, you know, that’s it. But by sheer luck, the security guys who were meant to be on this door behind the cloth weren’t there. So we just walked through, and found ourselves in the backstage area at Earl’s Court!

The dressing room caravans and limos and such-like were there. We just literally walked over, and in the front of one of them, was Robert and his then-wife Maureen. It was just unbelievable. Not more than 45 minutes earlier, they’d been on stage doing Communication Breakdown, and right there sitting on the limousine, was Robert Plant! And let’s face it, in those golden god days he was really something. It was like meeting somebody from another planet [laughs from Lewis and Reddon]!

So that was wonderful and then there was a party inside Earl’s Court, which they all went to and then we saw Jimmy, Jonesy and Bonzo go into the party. But we knew they had to come out because that was the only way; there was only one exit. So we stayed ’til four in the morning waiting.

We just hung out around the Earl’s Court area. There were a few other fans milling around but no security to check you out. So about 3am in the morning, I went for a walk around the arena and went through an entrance that took me right onto the stage area. I recall standing on the stage in the dark, walking past JPJ’s piano which was still there. It was just an unbelievable moment.

So all this was going on. Eventually, they all came out from the party and we saw them again. More handshakes and I got their autographs – it was the culmination of my devotion to the band up to that point. When I came back, I began writing down my notes from the show and this would eventually flower into the Earl’s Court Relived feature that formed the centrepiece of the first Tight But Loose.

Seeing Led Zeppelin five times in the space of a week unsurprisingly had a profound effect on me. As I’ve commented before, it was the moment my life switched into colour after the previous 18 years had been viewed in black and white.

I’d been a very enthusiastic fan before then. For me, after Earl’s Court, Led Zeppelin was now a way of life – and nothing much has changed in the intervening 35 years…

No Quarter

This single-disc bootleg is one of the “holy grails” as far as Led Zeppelin bootleg vinyl goes. One of the reasons it’s so scarce, according to legend, is that many copies stored in a garage after production were destroyed by fire.

This album contains a fragment of Led Zeppelin’s performance at the band’s second Earl’s Court Arena appearance on May 18, 1975. It’s definitely one of the earliest bootleg vinyl releases of the Earl’s Court concerts to have come out over the years; however, I have found conflicting information as to when it came out: 1975 or ’76? Perhaps only the bootlegger knows for sure!

The recording is of European origin and has artist’s renderings of Led Zeppelin on both the front and back covers. It’s unusual to have a back cover with such an artistic bent but this beautifully coloured cover release does.

The songs captured on this recording are mostly of No Quarter, which takes up all of Side 1 and features John Paul Jones’ outstanding grand piano solo (the same piano Dave Lewis was so thrilled to be alone with on stage!).

Side 2 contains the acoustic set of Going to California with That’s the Way and Bron-y-Aur Stomp rounding out the flipside. The labels are as black as the vinyl. Someone handwrote “Side 1” on mine in pencil but left blank the label on Side 2.

It’s commonly held that all bootlegs are of very poor sound quality. Not true! The exceptionally fine quality of this stereo recording, No Quarter, proves it.

Please note: The manufacture, distribution and sale of unauthorized and/or unlicensed recordings is illegal. Enzepplopedia Publishing, Inc. does not produce, distribute or sell such material nor endorse those who do. Any reference, discussion or image presented here is intended solely for the purposes of historical research and context.

THE WAIT IS OVER!

This year’s first edition of Dave Lewis’ Tight But Loose magazine is now available. Dave’s publication has been THE source for all things Zeppelin since 1978.

Click here for subscription details: http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/tblweb09/?page_id=1469

Reminders

Want to learn about Led? Visit Learn-about-Led.com

Order Sonic Boom Volume 1 here.

And don't forget to tell us what's YOUR favourite Led Zeppelin album!

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