These early North American dates include: Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, As Long As I Have You, Dazed and Confused, White Summer / Black Mountainside, How Many More Times.
Led Zeppelin (unbilled) open for Vanilla Fudge. Early tour itinerary listed Vancouver as their North American debut date, instead of Denver.
Vancouver Sun Looks Back (12-28-12)
Jim Allan has impeccable '60s cred. He was one of the founders of The Retinal Circus, Vancouver's premier psychedelic nightclub, which brought in acts like The Doors and The Grateful Dead at the dawn of their careers. He later managed Spring (who had a local hit with Country Boy Named Willie), did a stint as business manager for Terry Jacks and the Poppy Family, and co-owned the Granville Book Company.
But everyone has skeletons in the closet. And Allan's can be found on a Led Zeppelin website, where he trashes the quartet in a review of their first Vancouver appearance on Dec. 28, 1968.
The newly formed Zeppelin were opening for Vanilla Fudge at the Pacific Coliseum. The 22-yearold Allan was a stringer for the Columbian in New Westminster, where his submissions appeared under a column called Teen Talk.
"Later I had my own column, Pop-pourri," Allan recalls. "Oh God. This was 1968."
Allan was not impressed with Led Zeppelin's singer Robert Plant, who he dubbed "a farce."
"His Mick Jagger singing style, tossing his head from side to side and strutting about the stage, left me quite cold, " he wrote. He had mixed feelings about guitarist Jimmy Page ("he had flashes of brilliance but they were too few and too far between"). And while Allan dug John Bonham's drum solo ("extremely good in spots"), overall he found the drum legend "wasn't consistent in his efforts."
He ended the Zep part of the review with "Led Zeppelin went over like a Led balloon." Then he went on to praise the Vanilla Fudge, who he found "sensuous."
"I remember being a Vanilla Fudge fan, and liking them a lot," he recalls. "But Led Zeppelin ... they weren't the ones filled with hot air, it was me."
Led Zeppelin would survive his negative review, coming back to play to ecstatic Vancouver crowds in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1973.
The Vancouver Sun (12-28-12)
Support act: The Trials of Jason Hoover (unbilled), Led Zeppelin (unbilled), for Vanilla Fudge (headliner). Early tour itinerary listed Vancouver as their North American debut date, later changed to Denver.
Popscene: "The group that appeared with Vanilla Fudge, "Mad Zeppelin", proved to be a total surprise. They are as beautiful individually as the Fudge are as a unit.Each personality of the Zeppelin is distinctive to the border of conflict with his colleagues. A drummer who can drum with incredible expression, the first of the sensitive bare-handed drivers that I have seen: a guitarist who performs Carlos Montoya in a ten gallon hat, and a singer named Robert who sings Joan Baez; using a cry of a dozen banshees to punctuate his feelings; and a bass player named John Paul Jones. Their sound could be blues oriented, but there were so many twists in the grain, such a variety of influences lying particularly covered by the heavy beat, that it defied description or comparison. Call it music and describe it all as a new country and a good one." [B. McLeod / 12/30/68]
Vancouver Sun Looks Back (12-28-12)
Jim Allan has impeccable '60s cred. He was one of the founders of The Retinal Circus, Vancouver's premier psychedelic nightclub, which brought in acts like The Doors and The Grateful Dead at the dawn of their careers. He later managed Spring (who had a local hit with Country Boy Named Willie), did a stint as business manager for Terry Jacks and the Poppy Family, and co-owned the Granville Book Company. But everyone has skeletons in the closet. And Allan's can be found on a Led Zeppelin website, where he trashes the quartet in a review of their first Vancouver appearance on Dec. 28, 1968.
The newly formed Zeppelin were opening for Vanilla Fudge at the Pacific Coliseum. The 22-yearold Allan was a stringer for the Columbian in New Westminster, where his submissions appeared under a column called Teen Talk. "Later I had my own column, Pop-pourri," Allan recalls. "Oh God. This was 1968."
Allan was not impressed with Led Zeppelin's singer Robert Plant, who he dubbed "a farce." "His Mick Jagger singing style, tossing his head from side to side and strutting about the stage, left me quite cold, " he wrote. He had mixed feelings about guitarist Jimmy Page ("he had flashes of brilliance but they were too few and too far between"). And while Allan dug John Bonham's drum solo ("extremely good in spots"), overall he found the drum legend "wasn't consistent in his efforts."
He ended the Zep part of the review with "Led Zeppelin went over like a Led balloon." Then he went on to praise the Vanilla Fudge, who he found "sensuous."
"I remember being a Vanilla Fudge fan, and liking them a lot," he recalls. "But Led Zeppelin ... they weren't the ones filled with hot air, it was me."
Led Zeppelin would survive his negative review, coming back to play to ecstatic Vancouver crowds in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1973. [The Vancouver Sun (12-28-12)]
These early North American dates include: Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, As Long As I Have You, Dazed and Confused, White Summer / Black Mountainside, How Many More Times.
