Click here to view the North American '75 Tour Programme (flipbook)

The two concerts in Vancouver are almost cancelled, due to a strike by radio station CKLG-FM. 3-18-75: "CUPE local 1004 (Canadian Union of Public Employees) at the PNE and two other unions involved would have boycotted the concert if CUPE local 686, representing the CKLG strikers, had so wished. But CUPE spokesman Ole Johnson said the concert is “definitely on. We felt it was in the best public interest to allow the concert to be held," he said, “We aren’t intertested in hurting the over 20,000 people who have already bought tickets."

PRESS REVIEW: The familiar strains of Rock and Roll cut through the acrid Coliseum air and Led Zeppelin’s sixth Vancouver appearance is underway. Zeppelin’s current tour is proving the most successful in rock history and the drama of a rock event hangs heavy. A $250,000 light show complete with laser beaming to the far reaches of the Coliseum makes it even more difficult to separate the music from the spectacle.

Between songs, Robert Plant amuses with an apology for the band’s abortive performance the last time they were in town. A line of that fine white powder turned out to contain LSD and he found himself “admiring the wonderful light show and trying to remember the name of the band”. The result was an uncharacteristically short 70 minute performance. He dedicates Kashmir to this state of mind.

Plant’s patter ranges from surreal to pure tongue-in-cheek: “tonight we shall cleave from the musical limb…” This was his way of explaining that the format of the concert was to give a taste of the band’s history – material from all six albums was featured. The amplification factor was the highest ever experienced in the Coliseum – the level hovering just below the pain threshold and it was a testament to the remarkable defense mechanisms of the human system that one because accustomed to.

Halfway through the set, Plant announces it’s time to go backstage for a “blow job” and Bonham takes the cue for his perfunctory drum solo. Bonham’s rendition of Moby Dick has no doubt been lambasted in every publication on the continent and unfortunately I have no choice but to add to the criticism. Twenty-five minute drum solos by anyone – and there are certainly greater drum talents – simply don’t work, even with all the special electronic effects in the world at his disposal. To put it simply, it wasn’t very musical.

The band’s tour de force, Dazed and Confused, was built into a 25 minute jam – even incorporating verses from Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock. Page’s stinging guitar complemented Plant’s primal blues to perfection. As expected, Stairway to Heaven, Zeppelin’s masterpiece, drew the biggest response and Plant, his voice no longer quite what it once was, responded with a philosophical delivery. He obviously understands the significance his audience places in the often obscure lyrics and he plays with the phrasing for effect.

Other memorable additions to the Zeppelin repertoire from Physical Graffiti included In My Time of Dying, featuring some space flavoured slide by Page.

Page’s guitar was up to its usual exemplary standards – he leans a bit more heavily on various electronics (fuzz, echo, etc.) for various effects these days but always manages to maintain a tasteful balance. He has always been an innovator going back to his Yardbird days and enjoys skirting the peripheries of accepted sounds and forms. (-CMS, March 1975)

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Press Review (2):  Don Stanley notwithstanding, the back-to-back Led Zeppelin concerts last week were two of the heaviest rock evenings in recent memory. Plant, Jones & Bonham - admittedly - have changed little over the group's six-odd years of existence, but Jimmy Page - Mr. Rock Guitar – still manages to bring a touch of entertainment magic to the otherwise jaded world of rock •n• roll.

And Mr. Page was in fine form for both Zipper shows - heavy on Wednesday, intellectually smooth on Thursday, with an unending supply of riffs, all guaranteed to inflict physical punishment upon the assembled masses. The high points, speaking in terms of both show’s totality, can be broken down into a few songs, the sound system and the visual pyrotechnics.

Where to start. The songs worth remembering are No Quarter, Talkin' About Love (Trampled Under Foot), Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven and Whole Lotta Love. Of those, Kashmir is easily the best song the Zep have composed since the frenetic early days, and Talkin’ About Love(Trampled Under Foot)  is the quintessential Led Zeppelin: a basic, heavily rhythmic line allowing Plant's voice the option of soaring on its own over the holocaust below.

Stairway to Heaven has lost most of its "pretty" qualities, with Page delivering a blistering sole, and the best thing about No Quarter is the trading, jam-style, of licks between Page and Jones, who isn't that great a piano player, although he fills well on moog, mellotron and organ.

The sound system was easily the loudest ever to shake the Coliseum's roof. Surprisingly, the acoustics were passably clean, especially from medium range (75 to 150 feet), and it's obvious most of the group's travel expenses come from shipping the mountain of equipment needed to deliver the watts.

The visuals. Something very rarely considered in a major North American tour, and that's mainly because of the enormous cost of air shipping the necessary equipment around. No longer do more spotlights hold the interest - the well-equipped rock group of the 1970s must travel with fixed spots, dry ice machines, choreographed following spots and anything else they can muster to generate the all-important mass audience interest.

Led Zeppelin, not to be outdone, and with a reputation to re-bolster, has come up with a unique first on this tour: laser beams which shoot out from the stage, across the audience, to blink out against the concrete wall of the Coliseum. Laser beams – three of them - which changed colour and more importantly , tight, about an inch in diameter, for the 300 feet of darkness they shattered while Page, bathed in dry ice and top lit by purple spotlights, played his guitar with a violin bow, creating otherworld electronic sounds, laser beams, also, tend to glow when excited by gaseous substances - like dry ice fumes - and the result was a liquification of light spreading out from the stage as the gas billowed from stage out over the audience's head.

The shows, just over three hours on Wednesday and three and a half hours on Thursday, were fantastic. And relentless. And heavy. And just what Rock is all about. [R. Mcgrath / Richmond Review / 3-26-75]