Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1972

infobox concert tour
concert_tour_name = North America 1972

Poster for Led Zeppelin's concerts at San Diego, used to help promote its 1972 North American tour
artist = Led Zeppelin
type = Concert
locations = North America
start_date = May 27, 1972
end_date = June 28, 1972
number_of_legs = 1
number_of_shows = 19 (including two European warm-up shows)
last_tour = Australasia 1972
this_tour = North America 1972
next_tour = Japan 1972

Led Zeppelin's 1972 North American Tour was the eighth concert tour of North America by the English rock band. The tour was divided into two legs, with performances commencing on May 27 and concluding on June 28, 1972. It included two warm-up shows in Europe.

History

Guitarist Jimmy Page considers Led Zeppelin at this point to have been at their artistic peak. ["How the West Was Won" liner notes] However, despite selling out their concerts, the tour had the lowest profile of all of the band's eleven North American concert tours, being vastly overshadowed by the Rolling Stones' tour of the same period, much to the annoyance of Led Zeppelin.Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) "Led Zeppelin: The Concert File", London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4, pp. 76-77.] Luis Rey (1997) "Led Zeppelin Live: An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes", Ontario: The Hot Wacks Press, p. 186.] [http://www.iem.ac.ru/zeppelin/docs/interviews/pp_75.rs Interview with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, January 1975] ] In order to prevent this from happening again, the band's manager, Peter Grant, decided to hire PR consultants to help promote subsequent tours.

During this concert stint the band stopped at New York to mix tracks that had been recorded at Olympic Studios in London the previous month, for their forthcoming fifth album.

According to Led Zeppelin experts Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett, it was at around this period in time that Grant began to implement the unprecedented policy of asking concert promoters for 80% of all gate receipts:

For this tour, and all of Led Zeppelin's subsequent American tours, the band hired Dallas-based company Showco to provide its lighting and sound. [cite book | author= Lewis, Dave| title=Led Zeppelin: The Tight But Loose' Files: Celebration II| edition=1st Edition | location=London| publisher=Omnibus Press| year=2003| pages=p. 32| id=ISBN 1-84449-056-4]

Recordings

Like many other Led Zeppelin concert tours, several of the concerts performed by the band on this tour were recorded by fans as unofficial bootlegs. Some of these were subsequently released on bootleg titles such as "Burn Like a Candle".

In 2003 soundboard recordings from two of the concerts from this tour, at the L.A. Forum on June 25 and the Long Beach Arena on June 27 respectively, were remastered by Page and officially released on the album "How the West Was Won"

Tour set list

This was the last concert tour on which Led Zeppelin included an acoustic section until 1975, when it was revived for their Earl's Court performances. The decision to drop the acoustic set was perhaps made because their live concerts were regularly extending into three hour long marathons (and sometimes up to four and a half hours), which were becoming taxing on all four band members.

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

#"Immigrant Song" (Page, Plant)
#"Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
#"Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
#"Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page, Plant)
#"Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
#"Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)
#"Going to California" (Page, Plant)
#"That's the Way" (Page, Plant)
#"Tangerine" (Page)
#"Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" (Page, Plant, Jones)
#"Dazed and Confused" (Page)
#"What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page, Plant)
#"Dancing Days" (Page, Plant)
#"Moby Dick" (Bonham)
#"Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):
*"Rock and Roll" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
*"Thank You" (Page, Plant)
*"The Ocean" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
*"Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page)
*"Bring It on Home" (Dixon, Page, Plant)

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

Tour dates

European warm-up shows

*27/05/1972 flagicon|Netherlands R.A.I. - Amsterdam, Netherlands
*28/05/1972 flagicon|Belgium Vorst Nationaal - Brussels, Belgium

North America

*06/06/1972 flagicon|United States Cobo Hall - Detroit, MI
*07/06/1972 flagicon|Canada Montreal Forum - Montreal, QB
*08/06/1972 flagicon|United States Boston Garden - Boston, MA
*09/06/1972 flagicon|United States Coliseum - Greensboro, NC
*10/06/1972 flagicon|United States Buffalo Memorial Auditorium - Buffalo, NY
*11/06/1972 flagicon|United States Civic Center - Baltimore, MD
*13/06/1972 flagicon|United States The Spectrum - Philadelphia, PA
*14/06/1972 flagicon|United States Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale, NY
*15/06/1972 flagicon|United States Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale, NY
*17/06/1972 flagicon|United States Memorial Coliseum - Portland, OR
*18/06/1972 flagicon|United States Seattle Center Coliseum - Seattle, WA
*19/06/1972 flagicon|United States Seattle Center Coliseum - Seattle, WA
*21/06/1972 flagicon|United States Denver Coliseum - Denver, CO
*22/06/1972 flagicon|United States Swing Auditorium - San Bernadino, CA
*23/06/1972 flagicon|United States San Diego Sports Arena - San Diego, CA
*25/06/1972 flagicon|United States The Forum - Inglewood, CA
*27/06/1972 flagicon|United States Long Beach Arena - Long Beach, CA
*28/06/1972 flagicon|United States Tucson Community Center - Tucson, AZ

External links

* [http://www.ledzeppelin.com/timelinebrowse Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)]
* [http://www.bootledz.com/setlists.htm Led Zeppelin concert setlists]

References

*Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) "Led Zeppelin: The Concert File", London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.