Led Zeppelin Scandinavian Tour 1968
{{Short description|1968 concert tour by Led Zeppelin}}
{{Infobox concert
| concert_tour_name = Scandinavia 1968
| image = Scandinavia68.jpg
| image_caption = Poster for Led Zeppelin's concert at Gladsaxe (billed as "The Yardbirds"), used to help promote its 1968 Scandinavian tour
| artist = Led Zeppelin
| location = {{hlist|Denmark|Sweden|Norway}}
| start_date = 7 September 1968
| end_date = 17 September 1968
| number_of_legs = 1
| number_of_shows = 10 (11 scheduled)
| last_tour =
| this_tour = Scandinavia 1968
| next_tour = United Kingdom 1968
}}
The English rock band Led Zeppelin staged a concert tour of Scandinavia in September{{nbsp}}1968. The shows marked the band's first concert tour, though they were billed under the name "the Yardbirds".{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-48746287 |title=Led Zeppelin: Pictures show first concert, in 1968 |work=BBC News |date=15 July 2019 |access-date=16 July 2019}}
Overview
Led Zeppelin's debut tour was an outstanding contractual commitment left over from The Yardbirds. The band's first concert at Teen Club, a school gymnasium in Gladsaxe, Denmark, was performed exactly two months to the day after The Yardbirds' final concert.Mick Wall (2008), When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin, London: Orion, p. 47. The band's manager, Peter Grant, later said of this first concert: "Standing by the side of the stage, it was obvious that there was special chemistry."Ian Fortnam, "Dazed & confused", Classic Rock Magazine: Classic Rock Presents Led Zeppelin, 2008, p. 41.
Guitarist Jimmy Page recalled that "the tour went fantastically for us, we left them stomping the floors after every show."Dave Schulps, [http://www.iem.ac.ru/zeppelin/docs/interviews/page_77.trp Interview with Jimmy Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820054853/http://www.iem.ac.ru/zeppelin/docs/interviews/page_77.trp |date=2011-08-20 }}, Trouser Press, October 1977. According to singer Robert Plant:
{{quote|We made no money on the first tour. Nothing at all. Jimmy [Page] put in every penny that he'd gotten from the Yardbirds and that wasn't much. Until Peter Grant took them over, they didn't make the money they should have made. So we made the album and took off on a tour with a road crew of one.[http://www.iem.ac.ru/zeppelin/docs/interviews/pp_75.rs Interview with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, January 1975]}}
Plant also recalled the following:
{{quote|In Scandinavia we were pretty green; it was very early days and we were tiptoeing with each other. We didn't have half the recklessness that became for me the whole joy of Led Zeppelin. It was a tentative start.Mat Snow, “Apocalypse Then”, Q magazine, December 1990, p. 77.}}
For these early shows, the band was billed as the "Yardbirds" or "New Yardbirds", despite the fact that Jimmy Page was now the only surviving link with the previous band. Page later said:
{{quote|We realised we were working under false pretences, the thing had gone quickly beyond where The Yardbirds had left off. We all agreed there was no point in retaining the New Yardbirds tag so when we got back from Scandinavia we decided to change the name [of the band]. It was a fresh beginning for us all.Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. {{ISBN|0-7119-5307-4}}, p. 12.}}
Tour dates
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue and opening acts |
| scope="col" style="width:12em;"| Date
! scope="col" style="width:10em;"| City ! scope="col" style="width:10em;"| Country ! scope="col" style="width:16em;"| Venue ! scope="col" style="width:10em;"| Opening Act(s) |
|---|
| bgcolor="#DDDDDD" |
| rowspan="2"|7 September 1968
|rowspan="5"|Denmark |Gladsaxe Teen Club |Fourways, Bodies |
| Brøndby
|Brøndby Pop-Club |The Day of Phønix, The Eyes |
| rowspan="3"|8 September 1968
|Reventlowparken |Beatnicks |
| Roskilde
|Fjordvilla |LadyBirds (es), Beauty Fools |
| Køge
|Teaterbygningen |
| 12 September 1968
|rowspan="2"|Stockholm | rowspan="5" |Sweden |
| 13 September 1968
|Inside |Bernt Staf, Bertil Bertilsson |
| 14 September 1968
|Ängby Park |Kenneth Staags with Hayati Kafé |
| 15 September 1968
| |
| |
| 16 September 1968
|rowspan="2"|Oslo | rowspan="5" |Norway | |
Setlist
The setlists of the earliest shows are sketchy, as no recordings of these shows exist.
A likely setlist for this tour consisted of:
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. {{ISBN|0-7119-5307-4}}.
External links
- [https://www.ledzeppelin.com/timelinebrowse Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)]
- [http://www.bootledz.com/setlists.htm Led Zeppelin concert setlists]
- [http://www.teenclubs.dk/Led_Zeppelins_first_gig.html Led Zeppelin's first concert ever - 7 September 1968 at Gladsaxe Teen Club]
- [http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117377988734231201134.0004565272f0bb08afb8a&ll=57.314657,14.567871&spn=8.970175,19.6875&z=6 View in Google Earth]
{{Led Zeppelin}}