Between 1968 - 1980 Led Zeppelin performed over 500 concerts in every corner of the world, establishing themselves as the most popular live rock attraction of their era. This book explores in great detail the concert history of one of the most successful bands of all time.Every known Led Zeppelin concert ever played is logged, together with set lists, first hand reviews and group anecdotes.Chronicles how the group developed from one-night pub gigs at the Fishmongers Arms in London to record-breaking stadium appearances of the late Seventies and their final UK shows at Knebworth.Includes masses of rarely seen concert ticket stubs, posters, reviews and unpublished photos.Full appendices of the solo careers of the ex-members, including full coverage of the Jimmy Page-Robert Plant Unledded/No Quarter world tour - bringing the story full circle.
As an avid fan of Led Zeppelin, I treasure this book. Dave Lewis has put both tremendous time and effort to create an exhausting encyclopedia of Led Zeppelin concerts throughout their history.
The concerts are broken down chronologically, by tour. Listed are the dates, locations, venues and songlists (in order) with plenty of interesting tidbits of information regarding each show (when available). Lewis offers a synopsis of each tour and details changes in songlists, equipment ... and even attire. My favorite part is the listing of the songs within songs (the changing medleys w/in marathon songs like "Dazed and Confused" and "Whole Lotta Love"). If that isn't enough, there are several informative articles that detail specific topics from the construction of "Stairway to Heaven", John Paul Jones' Mellotron to Zep's touring plane, the "Starship" (it even has a cutaway diagram of the interior).
If you are a serious collector of Led Zeppelin's live music and want a definitive resource, i heavily recommend this book. If you just plain enjoy the band and its music, this book will provide you plenty of entertainment. For serious fans, I'd also recommend Dave Lewis' other Zeppelin books: "Celebration" and "Celebration II" ... nothing I've found encompasses the band, it's music and history like these books.
This is an extremely informative book, the kind of thing that a fan interested in detailed Led Zeppelin trivia should enjoy poring over. Unfortunately, the whole book is littered with spelling and grammatical mistakes, which can get kind of annoying for an author who has just recently been editing a book! And for a real fan, some of the critical opinions of the group as quoted in the book range from annoying, ridiculous, and hurtful. But the multitude of pictures are a real bonus!
Dave Lewis is the man to read on Zeppelin , having seen the band , and having his excellent ' tight but loose ' mag and website . This is a complete concert diary from beginning to end . This version , small format replaces the original larger format book from the nineties