Flashback: Remembering Robert Plant’s 21st Birthday Party… in Schenectady

$4 tickets and 2000 people at each show minus $8000 for the band, hmm, I guess the prpmoters made their profit on drinks.

Some interesting comments on Zep’s website.

I was there. My first rock show. There were two show, a early show for under age group and a late show for eighteen and over. I was seventeen. It was great. After the show we went to Howard Johnson’s to call for ride home and the Zep show up to eat at Howard Johnson in a black Cadillac Hearse and Robert Plant gave us the finger. That all it took I was hook on the music. What a show.

I was there at the 1st show, the “underage” show; it was 5 days before I turned 16. I went with a few friends and my mother drove us and picked us up later. Fantastic show, I think only their 1st album had been out at the time and being a guitar player /singer who was playing a few of the songs in a band at the time (Good Times Bad Times and Dazed And Confused I remember we played) it was a mission from the God Of Rock to be there, and what a concert, to actually see and hear live what we heard on our record players was overwhelming; keep in mind this was in the days when there was basically no college FM radio who played this sort of thing, maybe 1 station RPI in Troy NY who played CSNY, Allman Bros. but not Zeppelin, when the first album came out in 68 it was like music from another dimension so I think the RPI’s of the world didn’t know what to make of it, they were probably still pissed at Dylan for picking up an electric guitar, just joking (maybe); Aerodrome I’m guessing probably could accommodate about 1500 to 2000 people and it was packed but for Zeppelin it would have been a small show and in that capital district area I’m surprised there weren’t thousands more hanging outside wanting to get in. I remember the power of it, Page with his violin bow, the guitar solos and Plant with his high bluesy vocal and Bonham’s drumming, just fantastic, we became different more serious musicians after that; and as a side note I remember specifically after the show ended all 4 of them came down into the audience and were mingling with the “underage” people, I shook hands with Jimmy Page (along with nearly everyone there) and he looked at me with his long hair in his eyes and smiled that Jimmy Page smile and shortly after that I was standing near the rest rooms (I think waiting for a friend because we had to get out for the next “18 an older show”) and Plant came up to the ladies room and opened the door and yelled in if there was anyone who wanted to “ball”, I don’t remember if he had any takers. I never had the opportunity to see them again.

I FINALLY have a witness to that experience. I was standing right outside the ladies room when he did it. He had several takers 😉

Thought I should chime in with my two cents as I worked sound and lighting for that gig. Sadly the “sound system” back in those days was a 100watt Bogen amp with volume knobs only and 2 Voice of the Theatre speakers hung by the stage. Amazing, especially when Robert wanted more vocals. Yeah right ! There was a maximum volume and then feedback. That was it !! Seriously ! We did what we could. A little known fact is that about a week or so earlier Rod Stewart made the same request for “more vocals” when the Jeff Beck Group (Truth Lineup) was there, accompanied by Page, Plant and Jones. So imagine Beck, Stewart, Wood, Hopkins, Newman gigging with those friends in tow. I had the pleasure of guarding the bathroom door for the rather shy Mr. Wood, trying to get Jeff to answer some questions into a microphone, which he claimed he was “terrified” of and getting Mr. Plant to do a radio station ID promoting their upcoming show. We worked on the pronunciation of Schenectady for some time until we decided it was futile. All the bathroom stories were true and then some. Before the boys left that night they decided it would be good fun to see how much havoc one could reek on a Pepsi machine with a Les Paul. Amongst my duties at the club was readying the venue for the next show which had me sweeping up the next day. The dressing room was strewn with guitar parts and soda machine guts. I still have one of Jeff’s volume knobs and can’t for the life of me understand why I didn’t claim more. I guess I thought a broken guitar neck was worthless. Silly me. A side note is that Jimmy Page and I coveted each other’s tee shirts and swapped even. Big fun those gigs !