Tour Over Europe 1980

History

This was the first series of concerts performed by the band since their shows at Knebworth almost a year before. Singer Robert Plant was reluctant to tour the United States, and the band wanted to avoid some of the negative press attention which had dogged them in the United Kingdom, so as a compromise Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant decided to schedule a short European tour. He hoped that being on the road again would rejuvenate Plant's enthusiasm for touring, which would eventually inspire Plant's desire to tour the U.S again.

The band performed rehearsals for the tour at the Rainbow Theatre and Victoria Theatre in London, and then at Shepperton Studios, Middlesex.

During this tour the band played small venues with a scaled-down PA and a modest stage and lighting setup. As such, it had a much more low-key feel than had been witnessed on recent tours. The set list was also shorter at approximately two hours in duration, with some of the band's lengthier songs such as "No Quarter" and "Moby Dick" being discarded. A limited amount of material from the band's most recent album In Through the Out Door, was also performed. The set for these concerts opened with "Train Kept A-Rollin'" which had not been a regular feature of their live sets since 1969. Press coverage of this concert tour was minimal.

Generally speaking, there was a playful and generous spirit about the tour, with guitarist Jimmy Page even handling some of the stage introductions himself for the first time in the band's twelve-year career. However, some on-stage problems were also experienced. The 26 June show at Vienna was interrupted during "White Summer", as Page was hit in the face by a firecracker. The organizer stepped up and talked to the audience, and asked the person responsible to come to the stage to have a word with him. After a delay, the band returned to play "Kashmir" and finish the show. The 27 June show at Nuremberg came to an abrupt end after the third song when John Bonham collapsed on stage and was rushed to a hospital. Press speculation arose that Bonham's problem was caused by an excess of alcohol and drugs, but the band claimed that he had simply overeaten.

The poster of the tour announced a second concert at Berlin, on 8 July, but this show was never performed. Had the second concert been performed, thus it would have been their final concert. The final full-length concert Led Zeppelin played until 2007 was on 7 July, with "Whole Lotta Love" being the final song performed at this gig.

In an interview, bass player John Paul Jones recalled of this tour:

Morale was very high. We were in really good spirits. We were stripped down a lot, musically, and as an act, we remember back to what we were doing. Punk kind of woke us up again. "Oh yeah, I remember what we are supposed to be doing here." It was about to go for a change of gears and round two ... By the time John [Bonham] died, we all had sorted it out and were ready to go again. He died in rehearsals for an American tour.

Audio bootlegs

All the shows of the tour were released by the bootleg label Tarantura on a 26-disc box set, and as separate releases during 1996 and 1997. Most of the shows are complete and are sourced from soundboard recordings; just the Rotterdam show is missing the first four songs and the Vienna and Munich shows are sourced from audience recordings. There is, however, a complete audience recording of the Rotterdam show in existence.

Video

On Led Zeppelin's website, there are 8mm films featuring parts of the Rotterdam, Zürich and Munich shows.

Tour set list

1. "Train Kept A-Rollin'" (Bradshaw, Kay, Mann)
2. "Nobody's Fault but Mine" (Page, Plant)
3. "Out on the Tiles" (intro) (Bonham, Page, Plant, ) / "Black Dog" (Jones, Page, Plant)
4. "In the Evening" (Jones, Page, Plant)
5. "The Rain Song" (Page, Plant)
6. "Hot Dog" (Page, Plant)
7. "All My Love" (Jones, Plant)
8. "Trampled Under Foot" (Jones, Page, Plant)
9. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Jones, Page, Plant)
10. "Achilles Last Stand" (Page, Plant) (not performed on 26 June or 7 July)
11. "White Summer"/"Black Mountain Side" (Page)
12. "Kashmir" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
13. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)

Encores: