Led Zeppelin – First US Concert 1969

December 26, 2018 68

Led Zeppelin Open For Vanilla Fudge In First US Concert

December 26, 1969.

Led Zeppelin’s first US tour begins in Denver. They’re the opening act for Vanilla Fudge. A ticket to see them play would only set you back $5.

The British Invasion bands (The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones…) followed the same plan: become wildly popular in their home country, wait for word to spread to America, go there and conquer it. Led Zeppelin is the first to take a different approach, setting their sights on the US from the get-go, long before anyone there has heard of them.

The band is led by guitarist Jimmy Page, known for his work in The Yardbirds and as a top session musician. On bass is John Paul Jones, also established as a session player and great with arrangements. Frontman Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham are relative newcomers bursting with talent.

In September, they toured Scandinavia as “The New Yardbirds,” working up material along the way. In October, they recorded their self-titled debut album, funded by Page and manager Peter Grant, using about 30 hours of studio time at Olympic Studios in London – a remarkable feat of efficiency. In November, they sign with Atlantic Records, who touts them as “the hot, new English group” in a little-seen press release.

As the late Denver concert promoter Barry Fey (1938-2013) recalled in his 2011 autobiography, he nearly passed on Led Zeppelin. When Ron Terry (agent for Vanilla Fudge) approached Fey about adding Led Zeppelin as an opener to the already sold-out Vanilla Fudge show, Fey refused. It wasn’t until Vanilla Fudge offered $750 of their own money to pay for half of Led Zeppelin’s performance fee that Fey reconsidered.

After playing 16 small shows in the UK, Led Zeppelin headed to America over Christmas to kick off their first US tour, starting out as an opening act for Vanilla Fudge, known for their heavy cover of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” On the first show, in Denver, they are third on the bill, behind a mercurial California band called Spirit, whose song “Taurus” sounds very similar to the intro of “Stairway To Heaven,” which Led Zeppelin releases in 1971.

This is the point in the story where you might be expecting to hear about how “Led Zeppelin blew away Vanilla Fudge.” Not so. The show was sold out before Zep was added, and the crowd was there to see the headliner. “When they went on, the audience was yelling, ‘Bring on The Fudge,'” drummer Carmine Appice says. “It was hilarious.

“They were great musicians with a very confident delivery,” Robert Plant adds. “They encouraged us to open it up.”

Vanilla Fudge hold their own, but Zeppelin makes an impression, especially when Jimmy Page plays his guitar with a violin bow during “Dazed And Confused.” They begin building their legend as the tour moves forward, winning over the audience at every stop (at Spokane, Washington, five shows in, they are listed as “Len Zefflin” in adverts). Their debut album isn’t released until January 12, and there are no advance singles. They also buck convention by restricting interviews to local and music-oriented outlets, and rarely performing on TV, where the sound quality is never up to snuff. By the end of the tour in February 1969, word has spread about this hard rock powerhouse.

Songfacts article.