| Orchestra or Band | Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham) |
| Set List | 'We're Gonna Groove',
'I Can't Quit You Baby, Heartbreaker',
'Dazed and Confused',
'White Summer' 'Black Mountainside',
'Since I've Been Loving You',
'What is and What Should Never Be',
'Moby Dick',
'How Many More Times' (medley incl. 'Boogie Chillen', 'Bottle Up 'n Go', 'Move On Down The Line', 'Leave My Woman Alone', "Lemon Song"),
'Whole Lotta Love',
'Communication Breakdown',
Hammond Organ solo - 'Thank You' (John Paul Jones),
'Bring It On Home',
'C'Mon Everybody',
'Something Else',
'Long Tall Sally' (medley incl. 'Whole Lotta Shakin' 'Goin' On, Move On Down The Line') |
| Performance Notes | Led Zeppelin's debut headline show at the Royal Albert Hall.
The set lasted almost two hours without an interval and included two 15 minute encores.
John Bonham played a fifteen minute rendition of 'Moby Dick'.
The concert was recorded by director Peter Whitehead and released in 2003 on DVD.
Fans committed £170.00 worth of damage to the Hall (RAH Council minutes) and contributed to the Hall's decision to ban Rock and Pop concerts in 1972.
Guests attending the event included John Lennon, Germaine Greer, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.
"Albert Hall was a massive gig for us, and we really wanted to do the best we could. It was a magic venue. It was built in Victorian times, and you're in there thinking about all the musical history that has preceded you. On top of that, it was something of a homecoming for John Paul Jones and I, because we had both grown up around there. So we were all really paying attention to what we were doing."
(Jimmy Page, Guitar World, 2003)
"...the whole of the audience stood on their feet, and at least half the audience jigged and jogged like normally only the dance-freaks do."
(Top Pops Music, 1970)
The audience, "completely destroyed the ever-weakening argument about British reserve."
(New Musical Express, 1970)
"
it was just like it was at the Albert Hall in the summer [at the 1969 First London Gala Pop Festival], with everyone dancing around the stage. It was a great feeling. What could be better than having everyone clapping and shouting along? Its indescribable; but it just makes you feel that everything is worthwhile."
(Jimmy Page, New Musical Express, 1970)
"For 10 years, rock and roll had been working towards something that would combine the extraordinary capacities of electronic instruments with the anarchic energy of youth, and there in the Albert Hall on January 9, 1970, [we] found it
the sound came up to me with a force that pummelled me breathless. No other band ever managed to make a sound like that. It was certainly loud, but it was also driving, pushing along with incredible energy."
(Germaine Greer, The Telegraph, 2007) |