How Led Zeppelin Conquered America

When Led Zeppelin arrived in North America at the end of Nineteen Sixty-Eight, they were virtually unknown. Less than a decade later, they were filling enormous stadiums, travelling by private jet and setting attendance records.

Between Nineteen Sixty-Eight and Nineteen Seventy-Seven, their North American tours charted an extraordinary transformation — from an unknown British band opening shows to one of the biggest live acts in the world.

From Unknowns to Headliners

Led Zeppelin played their first North American concert on the twenty-sixth of December, Nineteen Sixty-Eight, at Denver Auditorium Arena, opening for Vanilla Fudge.

Their debut album hadn’t even been released in America yet.

The band’s combination of Jimmy Page’s guitar, Robert Plant’s vocals, John Bonham’s drumming and John Paul Jones’s bass immediately gave them a formidable live sound. Songs including Dazed and Confused became opportunities for extended improvisation, allowing Zeppelin to offer audiences something very different from simply reproducing their records on stage.

Word spread quickly.

Within months they were returning to America, this time headlining many of their own shows. During Nineteen Sixty-Nine alone, Led Zeppelin completed three North American tours while their first two albums established them as one of rock’s fastest-rising bands.

Led Zeppelin built their American reputation through relentless touring during Nineteen Sixty-Nine.

The Shows Became Bigger

As their records became more successful, the venues grew with them.

By the early Seventies, Zeppelin concerts had developed into lengthy performances built around improvisation and extended versions of songs such as Whole Lotta Love, Dazed and Confused and Moby Dick.

The release of their untitled fourth album pushed them into another league. Stairway to Heaven became central to their concerts, while demand for tickets increasingly moved the band towards arenas and stadiums.

Then came Nineteen Seventy-Three.

At Tampa Stadium in Florida, Led Zeppelin performed before approximately 56,800 people, surpassing the attendance figure associated with the Beatles’ famous Shea Stadium concert.

The transition was complete. The band that had arrived in America as an opening act was now capable of filling stadiums.

Life Aboard the Starship

Their success changed life away from the stage as well.

For their Nineteen Seventy-Three American tour, Led Zeppelin travelled aboard a Boeing seven-oh-seven nicknamed the Starship. The customised aircraft became one of the defining symbols of Seventies rock excess, allowing the band to travel between concerts without enduring conventional commercial flights and airport routines.

By now, stories about hotels, parties and the behaviour of the band’s travelling party were becoming almost as famous as the concerts themselves.

But the scale of the operation continued growing.

The Starship became one of the most recognisable symbols of Led Zeppelin’s American touring years.

Record-Breaking Crowds

Led Zeppelin returned to North America in Nineteen Seventy-Five following the release of Physical Graffiti. Kashmir and Trampled Under Foot joined a catalogue already filled with songs audiences expected to hear.

Two years later, the scale became even greater.

In April Nineteen Seventy-Seven, Led Zeppelin performed at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan before more than 76,000 people, setting a record at the time for attendance at a single-act indoor concert.

But the Nineteen Seventy-Seven tour was also increasingly troubled. The atmosphere surrounding the band had become darker, and an ugly backstage incident at Oakland Coliseum resulted in arrests.

Then something happened that made everything else irrelevant.

The Tour That Never Finished

In July Nineteen Seventy-Seven, Led Zeppelin arrived in New Orleans preparing for another enormous concert.

Robert Plant then received the news that his five-year-old son, Karac, had died suddenly in England.

The remaining dates were immediately cancelled and Plant returned home to his family.

Led Zeppelin never toured North America again.

The band’s story continued for another three years, but when John Bonham died in Nineteen Eighty, the remaining members decided that Led Zeppelin could not continue without him.

Their American journey had lasted less than nine years. In that time, they had gone from playing before audiences who barely knew their name to performing in front of more than 76,000 people in a single stadium.

The full documentary tells the story of Led Zeppelin’s North American tours — the performances, records, excess, violence and tragedy that accompanied their rise from unknown newcomers to rock’s biggest live attraction.