Europe 1971
Tour by Led Zeppelin
Poster for Led Zeppelin's infamous concert at Milan, Italy, used to help promote its 1971 European tour
Location
  • Denmark
  • England
  • Italy
  • Switzerland
Associated albumLed Zeppelin IV
Start date3 May 1971
End date8 August 1971
Legs3
No. of shows6
Led Zeppelin concert chronology

Led Zeppelin's 1971 European Tour was a concert tour of Europe by the English rock band. The tour commenced on 3 May and concluded on 5 July 1971. It included one concert at Liverpool, England, which was a rescheduled date from their preceding tour of the United Kingdom.[1] It is possible that other unverified dates in Europe were also performed during this period.[2]

Though being very short in duration, this concert tour was well known, primarily because of the extremely violent crowd disturbance which took place at the band's concert at the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan on 5 July.[3][4][5] This festival appearance in front of an audience of 15,000 people was abandoned when hundreds of tear-gas wielding riot police charged into the crowd. The group were forced to leave the stage and many fans were injured. Some of the group's equipment was also damaged in the chaos. The band's singer Robert Plant later recalled:

We went to Milan and the riot troops moved in and tear-gassed the event. We escaped down an access route and the troops pumped canisters at us as we ran. We managed to get in a dressing room and I barricaded the door with the medicine cabinet and got everybody to put wet towels around their heads. Then they broke the windows and popped a couple of canisters in from the street.[6]

The concert has been described as one of the low points of Led Zeppelin's career, and the band never again returned to Italy.[7]

Tour set list

All track written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, except where noted.

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

  1. "Immigrant Song"
  2. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
  3. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  4. "Out on the Tiles" (intro) (Page, Plant, Bonham) / "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  5. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
  6. "Stairway to Heaven"
  7. "Going to California"
  8. "That's the Way"
  9. "Celebration Day" (from 7 Aug)
  10. "What Is and What Should Never Be"
  11. "Moby Dick" (Bonham, Jones, Page) (on 8 Aug only)
  12. "Four Sticks" (on 3 May and 4 May only)
  13. "Gallows Pole" (on 3 May and 4 May only)
  14. "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)
  15. "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page) (on 3 May and 4 May only)
  16. "Misty Mountain Hop" (Page, Plant, Jones) (on 3 May only)
  17. "Rock and Roll" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham) (on 3 May only)
  18. "Weekend" (Post) (on 7 August only)

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. On 3–4 May Led Zeppelin played "Four Sticks" (Page, Plant), the only known times it was performed by the original band.[8] Also played on 3–4 May was "Gallows Pole," two of only four complete known live performances, the third performance occurring later that year on 19 August 1971 at Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada, and the fourth on 16 November 1971 at St Matthew's Baths Hall, Ipswich, UK.

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue
Leg 1 – Denmark & England
3 May 1971CopenhagenDenmarkK.B. Hallen
4 May 1971OdenseFyns Forum
10 May 1971LiverpoolEnglandUniversity of Liverpool
Leg 2 – Italy
5 July 1971MilanItalyVelodromo Vigorelli
Leg 3 – Switzerland (warm-up shows for following tour[9])
7 August 1971 Montreux Switzerland Montreux Casino
8 August 1971

References

  1. ↑ Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary
  2. ↑ Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett, (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press, p. 63.
  3. ↑ Led Zeppelin Interview 1971 Archived 2012-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary
  5. ↑ Chris Welch (1994) Led Zeppelin, London: Orion Books. ISBN 1-85797-930-3, p. 63.
  6. ↑ Nigel Williamson, "Good Times...Bad Times", Uncut, May 2005, p. 56.
  7. ↑ Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4, p. 63.
  8. ↑ Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.
  9. ↑ https://www.ledzeppelin.com/event/may-3-1971 The Swiss warm-up shows are considered to be part of this tour according to the official website.

Sources

  • Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
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