Get the Led Out - Ep2510 wk of 3mar

Carol Miller's 'Get The Led Out' Explores The Incredible History Of The Rock Band Led Zeppelin!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Carol Miller. Welcome to our Get the
Letout calendar. On March third, nineteen sixty nine, Led Zeppelin
recorded their trial radio session for the BBC. This enabled
Zeppelin to record four songs from their debut album at
the Playhouse Theater in London. Radio host John Peel had
encountered Jimmy Page twelve months earlier in The Odd Birds.

(00:21):
John's program Top Gear had even broadcast the Yardbirds in
studio performance of Dazed and Confused in the first week
of March sixty eight. Led Zeppelin were reinterpreting Daved and

(00:46):
Confused exactly a year later. At the time, they were
releasing their debut album in the UK fifty years ago.
On March fourth, nineteen seventy five, Led Zeppelin played the
first of two shows at Memorial Unit tourym in Dallas, Texas.
They'd played in Fort Worth the previous night. They were
about to play their final encore at the first Dallas

(01:07):
gig when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant started quoting a
song by The Trons. Their impromptu version of wild Thing
didn't quite come together, so Jimmy settled on playing something
of his own instead, dating back to Zeppelin two Wow
Play You Make mo. On March fifth, nineteen seventy one,

(01:42):
Led Zeppelin played their first show of the year. They
had put off touring until the third month so that
they could concentrate first on songwriting and recording, and they
had done both. While Zeppelin's next album was going to
take most of the year before it could be released,
they wasted no time in playing their new songs live
that began right away at Ulster Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

(02:05):
At least one of the songs had a working title
that would be changed by the time the album was
ready for release. Led Zeppelin initially raised the tempo for
their earliest live performances of the song that they ultimately
renamed rock and Roll. On March sixth, nineteen seventy three,

(02:32):
Led Zeppelin played at the Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm, Sweden.
They had passed over Sweden for the past couple of years,
but now they had multiple tour dates in that country.
Jimmy Page was now in his seventh straight year of
using a violin bow on electric guitar during live gigs.
Fans knew to expect this on stage ritual of Jimmy's

(02:52):
but it was always improvising, so it never quite sounded
the same. In Stockholm, Jimmy played this part of his
violin bow solo and two different octaves. On March seventh,

(03:17):
nineteen seventy, led Zeppelin had already been guests of Montreux, Switzerland,
vacationing for the past week, and now they had one
more thing to do, to play a live show at
the Montreu Casino. They opened with the song Groove by
Benny King. This happened to be the first song mixed
by led Zeppelin's newest crew member, live sound engineer Phil Dutteridge.

(03:46):
Phil's job was to ensure all of led Zeppelin's amplifiers, speakers,
and stacks were in proper working order. Phil was also
responsible for manning both of led Zeppelin's five channel mixers.
Years later, he said of led Zeppelin's audio equipment quote,
I never had my hands on such a big rig.
This is Carol Miller. Thanks for Getting the let Out.

(04:06):
Check back next week for another Get the Letout Calendar podcast.