Click here to view the 1972 Australian tour programme (flipbook)

Press Review: LED ZEPPELIN unleashed their Blitzkrieg last Friday night with a ferocious firepower that would have done the S.S. "Deathshead" Panzer Division proud.

A roar went up from the crowd at 2 minutes past 8, as the group—Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant—took the stage and blasted into the "Immigrant Song". Suddenly the hours of waiting, the discomfort, the hype and rip-offs in the form of posters, T-shirts and high ticket prices were all forgotten. Page made a few volume adjustments and "Heartbreaker", "Black Dog" and "Celebration Day" followed. These songs are typical Zeppelin. That is riff-based songs with the bass and guitar playing in unison at maximum volume. Sure it's formula rock and it is not particularly progressive, but then the group does not have any pretensions to being "progressive" or "experimental" like the heavy German groups "Amon Duhl 2" and "The Can". Their aim is simply to generate excitement and this they do extremely well.

A change of pace was provided by "Since I've Been Loving You"—a slow 12-bar blues with an unusual chord change at the end of each sequence. Page played his odd twin-necked Gibson (a 12-strung neck and a 6-strung neck attached to the same body) and Jones dropped his bass and played organ and electric piano. A good atmospheric number which illustrated Robert Plant's amazingly powerful voice, and stamina that would put a marathon runner to shame. Indeed, his voice appeared to become increasingly stronger as the night wore on.

The acoustic set which followed and included "Travelling to California", "That’s the Way", "Tangerine" and "Bron your Stomp" was not received with much enthusiasm by the crowd. Perhaps such numbers weren't expected from such a heavy group, even though most of these tunes appeared on side two of "Led Zeppelin 3".

With the return of the electrics we were treated to the Indian influenced piece "Dazed and Confused" in which Page extracted some extraordinary sounds out of his Les Paul by using a violin bow. In "Stairway to Heaven", possibly the best track on the fourth Zeppelin L.P., Jones played keyboards once more and Page utilized his double-necked Gibson to great effect. This tune had an incredible build-up and showed Zeppelin in a more melodic mood than usual. "Rock 'N Roll", "Out on the Tiles," "What is and Should Never Be" (the last using slide) revealed Page's amazing speed and dexterity and the white-hot excitement he can extract from his guitar. He does not have the ability to develop and extend a solo logically as Zappa, for example, can do so effectively. Rather he relies on piecing together isolated phrases which range from growling bass runs to high pitched screams in the treble. "Moby Dick" saw drummer John Bonham swing into action. His solo was most remarkable as he used his bare hands to hit not only the skins of the drums but the metal cymbals and the huge gong which stood behind him. He is not a particularly "technical" drummer but is a powerful propelling force in the group and his solo was rightfully applauded as one of the high spots of the evening.

The audience leapt to its feet as "Whole Lotta Love", with a medley of John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun", the Everly Brothers' "Hello Mary Lou" and "Let’s Have a Party", pushed the show to an ever higher peak. Howling Wolf's "Going Down Slow" came next and the show closed with an encore of "Communication Breakdown."

Overall, a most remarkable concert.

[HENRY JACKSON. COURTESY ROBERT RAYMOND & RADIO HAURAKI, 1972]

Press Review: A Special Report: Fear & Led Zep In New Zealand

RAY COLBERT- AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Robert Raymond is: an Australian, a qualified lawyer, sun-tanned, pleasant-mannered and a promoter who has taken up residence in Remuera, a very plush suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, and from there he has brought over Tom Paxton, Creedence Clearwater, Mary Hopkin, Mungo Jerry, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and a few others I've probably forgotten -- all this in less than six months, to a country which is veritably Townshend's Teenage Wasteland. Or was, up until less than six months ago.

Most of these acts would doubtless have made it over here anyway, the difference here being the rapidity in which they have arrived, but where the appearance of Elton John was an eye-brow raiser, the arrival of Zeppelin brought a near-catatonic reaction from the country's rock freaks, who descended on Auckland  from as far away as Dunedin (the other end of the country: about 900 miles) for the open air concert February 25th. Three planes brought the equipment across the Tasman, and from what Raymond would say, it appeared that the whole thing would cost him around $40,000. Seats sold at $3.10 and $4.10 and somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 filled the Western Springs Stadium (a couple of miles from Auckland city and usually used for stock cars and other related entertainment) -- so it seems the genial Raymond did OK. They don't pay lawyers that well over here, that's for sure.

Zeppelin had come from Australia, and in keeping with a number of rock acts who've played there, they didn't have much of a time there. A harrowing raid on their motel in Perth had obviously left it's mark on a still-shaken Jimmy Page at the small party quickly arranged for them the night they arrived. You sensed they were going to play this one through on alcohol before getting back to Sanity. "Australia was really pretty s-----," said Page as his eyes wandered around the room -- the occasional groupie grooving to Sha Na Na (Sha Na Na?), the inevitable media people whom Raymond tactfully remembered to invite, and John Bonham filling the intermittent silences with amusing and loud imitations . . . a chick with "Merlene" knitted across her breasts, was arranging "interviews" (EMI's delightful press liaison girl Louise told me Merlene was "a strange person who read poetry in Wellington -- 500 miles away") and it was later dutifully reported that Merlene had scored two out of four.

Our little group was heavily into the Raoul Duke thing -- those ROLLING STONE issues had just arrived in New Zealand -- as we laid our goodies out on the table (what's more, I'd just flown up from Dunedin to discover that AUCKLAND WERE NOT YET INTO NITROUS OXIDE, and so the gleaming blue 275-gallon cylinder took pride of place in the middle of the table. Something to sustain the stone later in the evening.)

It was a good three hours before starting time when we set off for Western Springs (we began to peak prematurely as the Yugoslav taxi-driver quickly launched into an excited discussion on communes and people-who-live-on-beaches: "Have you seen them?" he roared at us as he snaked dangerously in and out of the lanes. Roger tipped him ten cents at the end and we ran off). Three hours wasn't in any way early and we got some of the remaining good seats on the hill overlooking the stage, perhaps 75 yards away.

We were warmed up with the Allman Brothers' live double album. I don't know how many knew that Duane Allman was dead (I don't know how many knew Duane Allman actually) but the razor-sharp lead guitar came through the superb system with each note crystal clear. Then it was dark, 8 o'clock, and we knew it would be any minute . . .

There had been some publicity on how there would be live animals jumping through hoops, but all that had sort of been forgotten what with all the mind-food fighting for a hold in our heads. But suddenly there was a lion on stage: Plant. I mean we all read the rock magazines over here and the record companies sportingly release just about everything with half a reputation, but we didn't realize that Zeppelin were so loud -- specifically Plant doing the jungle intro to "Immigrant Song." And then Page hitting those chords...most of us had seen Townshend a couple of years before (just about the time the Who were breaking in America) and we'd always thought that  was the way to play chords. But Page has moved along with the times -- and weren't we lucky to see him. On the other side of the world. Wow.

I'll skip the way they put the concert together -- it was exactly the way we expected they'd fill three hours and doubtless exactly the way they'd done it many times before. Suffice to say they played excellently, relative to their records and relative to reviews on how they'd played in the past.

It was really quite a significant evening for New Zealand and for New Zealand rock. On record there are a few bands that still have it over Led Zeppelin for my taste, but working simply on what I have to work on, I can't really see there being much better live rock around -- possibly because Zeppelin came here with a definite mystery thing where say the Stones have been exposed both live and on record live: Zeppelin haven't done anything live and they refuse to be filmed (Two detectives accompanied the NZBC film crew around Western Springs to ensure the cameras would never swing round onto the stage).

Bob Raymond has a lot more goodies planned, and he's moving into records too (a group called Ticket, who have stunned New Zealand by getting their debut album accepted by Ahmet Ertegun for release in America on Atlantic, will probably hit your shores in around six months after Australia and Japan). Winter's coming on now but around say October it gets really nice -really green, you know? But you could always ask Led Zeppelin about that. (RS107) Rolling Stone Magazine, April 27, 1972