So Sunday was a good day & I had great plans on getting back to this on Monday - but....... oh well, I will now fill you in on how the Led Zeppelin 'Earls Court' Monday went. But first the history lesson !!
Ok - first off, go back to 1975. Led Zeppelin had announced they were going to play 5 dates at Earls Court & - as expected - the tickets sold out in hours. Living 150 miles from London, I hadn't tried to get any (tickets) - the backwater, I called home at the time, meant I had no chance & this was well before the introduction of the Internet etc etc....
I had heard some good reports from the USA on how the shows went there - including some live tapes from Montreal - so I knew it was going to be a special set of concerts.... but, as I say - I had no hope of going. Well - that was until a group of us were in Taunton on the afternoon of the 24th.
There, in the window of best record shop around, was a small advert. "For sale 2 Led Zeppelin Tickets 24/5/75" along with a phone number. So there we ( a friend & myself) were - less than 5 hours to show time, 150 miles from Earls Court with 2 tickets.... & we went for it !!
We got the next train to London, jumped the taxi queue at Paddington station (the transport system was on strike) & got to the concert at 8:20..... just as the band were blasting thru' 'In My Time Of Dying'. We were there, in the concert & it was brilliant - the seat was kind of rubbish, but we were there !!
The set list went like this:
1) Rock & Roll
2) Sick Again
3) Over The Hills & Far Away
4) In My Time Of Dying
5) The Song Remains The Same
6) The Rain Song
7) Kashmir
8) No Quarter
9) Tangerine
10) Going To California
11) That's The Way
12) Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
13) Trampled Underfoot
14) Moby Dick
15) Dazed & Confused
16) Stairway To Heaven
17) Whole Lotta Love/Black Dog
I won't go on & on - but it was a fantastic show... especially, when you take into account, I didn't have a ticket only 5 hours earlier !! You can find live recordings of the show all over the place - DO NOT buy them tho' - selling bootlegs is illegal, so don't get involved..... but, if you check out the Led Zeppelin DVD, there are some tracks from Earls Court on that !! Just try & get the volume up & enjoy the show.......
So, on Monday (this week) - I played the whole concert end to end.... Yep, I'm sad - but it was pretty good to hear it all again !! 'No Quarter' - for me, rates as one of their best ever.
Of course, 2 things were missing on Monday. There was an England V Scotland match on that day, way back in '75 - so after the show, there were 100s & 100s of Scottish fans around - all of them were really cool & we got on well.... the other thing ? Because the concert finished at about midnight, we missed our train home & had to wait around until 6am for the first ride out of London - that wasn't so good........ we eventually got home about mid day on the Sunday - very tired, but really happy with the whole trip !!!
BUT, the spookiest thing of the whole show, I only found out a year or two later..... The population of the World is about 6 billion give or take & Earls Court held about 18,000 for each concert. What is spooky about that ? Well, there - in the 18,000 that night - was a guy from Bermuda, who in 1978 became my Brother-In-Law when I married his Sister. How weird is that - out of the Worlds population, the 2 of us were in the same building & we didn't know it !!!
The marriage - after 10yrs - didn't take & my ex Brother-in-Law passed away a few years back - BUT he was a great friend to me over the years (I miss him) & we often talked about that evening back in '75....... it was spooky !!!
Anyhow, enough of '75 - if anybody is reading this - I'm sorry to have gone on & on about it.. it was just one of those nights you never forget.... well, I won't anyways !!! Especially with all the Zeppelin stuff I have around me !!!
Bringing us up to date... today's music of choice has been The White Stripes 'Under Great Northern Lights' & Korpiklaani 'Karkelo'..... if nothing else, check out the latter - they rock, they are kind of mad - but they rock !!
& with that all in mind - I will away....... it looks like it's going to be another hot day - so enjoy it while you can & take care World.... that is IF anybody is reading this ????????
Bye bye
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