Led Zeppelin United Kingdom Tour Spring 1971

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United Kingdom Spring 1971

Poster for Led Zeppelin's concert at Southampton University, used to help promote its 1971 "Back to the Clubs" tour
Concert tour by Led Zeppelin
Locations United Kingdom
Start date March 5, 1971
End date April 4, 1971
Legs 2
Shows 13 (14 originally scheduled)
Led Zeppelin tour chronology
North America Summer 1970
 United Kingdom Spring 1971
 Europe 1971

Led Zeppelin's Spring 1971 United Kingdom Tour (also known as the Back to the Clubs Tour) was a concert tour of the United Kingdom by the English rock band. The tour commenced on March 5 and concluded on April 4, 1971.

Contents

[edit] Overview

For this tour, the band decided to mainly perform at the smaller clubs that they had originally played earlier in their career, rather than large arenas and auditoriums. This decision was made to reward those fans who had been loyal to them from the start of their career. The small, more intimate size of the venues, and the correspondingly smaller ticket sales and gate receipts, was offered as proof that Led Zeppelin wasn't preoccupied with making money, but genuinely endeavoured to create a connection with their audiences when performing on-stage. However, as the tour progressed, it became evident that this intention was somewhat mitigated by the fact that thousands of fans who wished to see the band were shut out of shows because of the scarce availability of concert tickets.[1]

The Belfast concert on March 5 featured the first public performance of their now-legendary song "Stairway to Heaven", which was played at nearly every subsequent Led Zeppelin show. One scheduled concert from the tour, at Liverpool University, was canceled and rescheduled to take place during the band's subsequent tour of Europe.

During this period the band members began to experiment with their stage attire, introducing strange caftans and garments and growing longer hair and beards, which gave them a very fashionable appearance.[1]

[edit] Tour set list

A fairly typical set list for the tour was:

  1. "Immigrant Song" (Page, Plant)
  2. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
  3. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  4. "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  5. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
  6. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)
  7. "Going to California" (Page, Plant)
  8. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant)
  9. "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page, Plant)
  10. "Moby Dick" (Page, Jones, Bonham)
  11. "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

[edit] Tour dates

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Luis Rey (1997) Led Zeppelin Live: An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes, Ontario: The Hot Wacks Press, p. 136.

[edit] Sources

  • Keith Shadwick, Led Zeppelin : the story of a band and their music, 1968-80. ISBN 0-8793-0871-0.
  • Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
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