"Super Pop 70" - Recorded and broadcast on Swiss radio.

Press (1): Journal of Montreux March 8, 1970
(Google translation from French)

• Led Zeppelin attracted two thousand youths. But much more if we consider that several hundred more fans could not enter. They waited in vain throughout the afternoon and well into the evening for some of them.

• The poor who had no ticket deployed wealth of imagination to try to force the doors. The stewards discovered potential free riders in unimaginable places: kitchens, windows, roof Casino and even in some pipes! Some street smarts were made ​​badges or invitation cards very well imitated.

• The bidding also in full swing. A permanence, some customers begged offered them a note saying they were willing to pay 150 or 200 francs. In vain, of course.

• No incidents were registered, if not inevitable jostling at the entrance of the Casino. Several personalities (including MM Pouly, municipal, Rochat, municipal, Aney, trustee Veytaux, Gaudard, chief of police) emphasized discipline spectators. One such person was in fact surprised to find that there are happy people who paid thirty-five francs for the right to assoire ground.

• A distinguished guest, the Aga Khan himself, surrounded by a few friends, all amateurs Pop music.

• Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones have stayed nearly a week in Montreux, visiting the area and indulging in the pleasures of snow at Avants. 

• The side effect of such a concert: these bizarre musicians, this long hair customers, which is still looks askance Montreux in various environments, is now beginning to be greatly appreciated not for its intrinsic qualities, but for its revenue. I know for example that a public institution was packed Saturday morning overnight at two hours: the staff has tripled its normal recipes ... Better: is there still, even among the rich, capable consumers as some of these young people tipping up to one hundred ten percent? [Journal de Montreux, 3/8/70]

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TWO THOUSAND FANS  SATURDAY AT CASINO DE MONTREUX "Super pop '70"

[Google translation] The argument that young people desert the theater because the price of seats is too expensive took a serious blow, Saturday night at the Montreux Casino, more than 2,000 spectators had come, fans of pop music, "to listen to the exclusive Swiss concert of Led Zeppelin", rising stars of international charts, for the sum of thirty-five francs the entry.

Whatever the value of the grandiose show on Saturday the word "pop", this price, takes an undeniable comic value. But close this parenthesis here, and come to the concert.
A psychological trick that had been proven in all Montreux concerts so far was to heat the room up to the limit of tension waiting. Setting up all the elements of the sound cathedral of microphones, amps, entangled wires, loudspeakers, musicians' essays, tuning instruments, a whole staging made of mysterious preparations is necessary for the smooth running of a pop party " .

And it takes time Finally, when the orchestra is ready and begins, the room is released and the enthusiasm too long content can explode. So even before the music starts, the audience is conditioned to think Jimmy Page (guitar), John Bonham (drums), John Paul Jones (bass and organ) and the singer Robert Plant. It is a classical training, in the service of an art which is less so, it is the remarkable profession of excellent musicians at the service of an absence of music as it is usually conceived, replaced by a delirium. Incantatory perfectly to the point. A magma of sounds that hit the guts as much as the ears, where there is no paroxysm, or almost, since the intensity is his peak a good two hours.
The public is taken, captured, kneaded, stunned, hypnotized, but deeply happy. It is a happiness of guts, it is true one has not to reflect, everything is telling, all contribute a kind of abatement of which one could only be released by the dance, if it were materially possible.

As it is not, we scream in the moments of respite left by the prodigious guitarist Page, the amazing exhibitions of John Bonham, who is surprisingly close to the drummer of Canned Heat. The excitement goes up a notch when the intriguing, instrumental voice of Robert Plant, whose talent would be even more noticeable if he did not believe himself obliged to accompany a perfect technique of extravagant gestures. Group moderator everything is relative John Paul Jones is perhaps the greatest artist, his role of bassist does not command him to wander to assert a real presence of musician. His comrades in the group find in him a constant and discreet support excellent organist too, he had, to assert a class that no one doubts, one or two remarkable solid.

We may wonder now, after the passage of Led Zeppelin, towards which summits can still lead the pop-music, so much it seems that in this area we do not know yet how far we can go too far ... [Feuille d'avis / March 1970]

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Soundman Phil Dudderidge: "When I arrived, mid-tour, at Montreux to join the Led Zeppelin crew, I found a fairly standard rig for that level of band, similar to those owned by The Who and Pink Floyd, which I had seen at various gigs. The speakers were mostly 4 x 12-inch columns (10 per side), plus two stacks of two 2 x 15s with a small horn on top per side, all driven by 12 100W power amps. And just two WEM five-channel Audiomaster mixers providing 10 channels. I'd never had my hands on such a big rig! Mics were the usual assortment of Shure Unidynes and Unisphere's, the forerunners of the SM57 and SM58." (Performing-Musician interview)

Montreux promoter, Claude Nobs, sparks a close friendship with the band and brings them to perform at the Casino. They would return to play in 1971 and 1972 as well as taking personal holidays to the mountain retreat throughout the decade. One of the perks of playing in Montreux is the availability of the state-of-the-art recording studio, Mountain Studios, connected to the venue, which the band also used.

(The group was never part of the "Montreux Jazz Festival", as they are sometimes erroneously attributed.)