Coming out of 1972s tours, which sold out immediately without any advertising (one series of shows on the British Isles would sell out all 120,000 tickets in one day!), Led Zeppelin - and Peter Grant in particular - still felt they were the biggest band in the world, but nobody knew that. The American press was actually afraid of Zeppelin, given their hedonistic reputation as homicidal maniacs.
The band hired PR consultant Danny Goldberg (who also represented Frank Sinatra) to further promote the tour, and booked a number of large stadium venues. On May 4th, they broke Three Dog Night's record in Atlanta with a 49,000 crowd at Braves Stadium; the following night at Tampa Stadium, they played to 56,800 fans (breaking the single band record set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965), and grossed $309,000. From Danny's efforts, when this tour broke box office records across America, it was splashed all over the media. Danny also produced some embellished quotes from people such as the Mayor of Atlanta. In total, this tour grossed over $4,000,000. Goldberg continued to do his job exquisitely, and got them the chance to be on the cover of Rolling Stone - the very outlet that had slagged them for so many years. Naturally, the band turned the offer down.
On-stage, Led Zeppelin's shows were developed further from those performed on previous tours, with the introduction of dry ice, laser effects, backdrop mirrors, hanging mirror balls and Catherine wheel pyrotechnics. Their dress attire also took on a more flamboyant nature - in particular by Page's hummingbird jacket and Jones' Spanish matador jacket.
It was also during this tour that Led Zeppelin hired for the first time The Starship - a former United Airlines Boeing passenger jet. Flying on their own plane, Led Zeppelin were now no longer required to change hotels so often. They could base themselves in large cities and travel to and from concerts within flying distance. After each show, the band members would be transported direct by limousine from the concert venue to the airport, as depicted in the concert film, The Song Remains the Same.
This tour changed the role for Jones on stage. During live performances of No Quarter, Jones would showcase his skills as a pianist, frequently improvising on keyboards and playing parts of classical music. Performances of the song easily lasted twice the length of the studio version. Jones would also stretch his wings, playing electric piano, organ, Mellotron... contributing to the sounds coming from the stage as equally as Page and Bonham.
Bonham's split personality was becoming more pronounced and noticeable. Mild-mannered, charming and lovable while sober, "The Beast" would emerge with just the start of alcohol, and the start often led to 20 Black Russians. On one occasion, he did exactly that, and pounded back 10 instantaneously to start his binge, normally finishing his binge with some sort of fist-fight.
The two legs of their 1973 US tour continued with crazy events such as a brawl in Boston against a Teamsters union goon squad, continued death threats on Page (who had also badly injured his hand before the 2nd leg of the tour), and picking up drag queens on Bourbon St. But the big story of this tour came from the series of shows at Madison Square Gardens, but we'll save that for the The Song Remains The Same discussion.
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Topic: The Led Zeppelin Discography Discussion: v. Everything still turns to gold (Read 55948 times)