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Led Zeppelin - Knebworth 1979

In years to come, if anyone is daft enough to ask me what was the strangest act that I ever went to see, it would probably be "Chas & Dave" second band up on the 4th August 1979. I must be honest - I can remember hardly anything of this rather parochial pop oddity, other than that Darren (A friend who I went to around 100 gigs with between 1979 & 1985) hated them, so that was good enough for me - I loved them as a point of principle!

Of far more relevance, I saw Fairport Convention for the first (of very many) time at about 11 o'clock that morning. They were only on for about 30 minutes, but that half an hour really did change my life. Over the next 8 years I went to see them around 15-20 times. The line of of Simon Nicol on guitar & vocals, Dave Pegg on bass, Dave Swarbrick on fiddle & vocals & Bruce Rowland on drums was only one of countless line-ups that they employed, but their brand of traditional whimsy, & virtuosity marked me for life - I am still a huge Fairport fan, 21 years later.

The other acts on the bill were "The New Commander Cody Band", "Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes", "Todd Rundgren & Utopia", With "Led Zeppelin" headlining (at least 2 hours late). I have virtually no recollection of Commander Cody, Southside Johnny or Todd Rundgren, although I did buy several albums by the latter two, so I suppose that & must have been fairly impressed.

Anyway, I digress. I had been interested in Led Zeppelin for about three years, ever since an English lesson in school, when as an exercise, everyone in the class had to speak for 5 minutes about something that really interested them. One boy (name completely forgotten) spoke very eloquently about Led Zeppelin (I spoke about Paul McCartney & Wings - I was only 14!). With all the zeal of the truly irritating, I pestered him about this band who I had only heard of and knew nothing about.

I saved up my paper round money, and bought the fourth (untitled) Led Zepellin album. That poor record got played & played until it was almost completely transparent! Darren, who always seemed to have more money than me, bought several other "Led Zep" albums, I taped them all, of course, then by early 1979, there were rumours that they would be playing a big summer festival later that year. Sure enough, that May, tickets, dates & prices were released. Saturday 4th August 1979 was to be the biggest day of my life (up to that point). I was going to see the biggest rock band in the world!

A few days before the big day, it was announced that there was to be a second show, the following week due to the huge public demand. This did I suppose dilute the air of "specialness", but early on the evening of the 3rd, such thoughts were far from our minds as we traveled up to Victoria equipped with rucksacks tent & sandwiches, through the underground & then from Kings Cross up to Knebworth - in torrential rain! - The excitement of the event not quite enough to quell the air of foreboding at the thought of spending a 2 days sitting in a field with inadequate toilets, food etc, all in the pouring rain. However, when we got to Knebworth - a miracle. Not only had it stopped raining, but the railway station was dry, there wasn't a sign that it had rained there at all.

With hopes & hearts soaring, we made our way to Knebworth House (probably on foot) & pitched our tent. There wasn't much sleep to be had that night - the atmosphere was electric and the noise was incessant. However, early the next morning, foolishly thinking that we might be somewhere near the front we made our way into the concert area. Even at about 7am there were 10s of thousands in before us - we seemed to be miles back. Anyway, we settled for what we could get and tried to stretch out & claim as much space as possible - fine for an hour or so until it started to get really crowded and or 3 or 4 square yards became 3 or 4 square feet!

After an interminable 4 hours, the music started, keeping everyone in good spirits through the day, although I could never understand why it should take about 2 hours of total non-activity to prepare the stage for the next band!

Eventually, at 9:45 that night Zep came on to the sound of "The Song Remains The Same", then proceeded with "Black Dog", "Nobodies Fault But Mine"' "Over The Hills & Far Away", "Misty Mountain Hop", "Since I've Been Loving You", "No Quarter", "Ten Years Gone", "Hot Dog", "The Rain Song", "Kashmir", "Trampled Underfoot", "Sick Again", "Achilles Last Stand", "In The Evening", "Stairway To Heaven", with "Rock'n'Roll", "Whole Lotta Love" and "Heartbreaker" as encores.

One particular enduring memory is that during "Whole Lotta Love", Page's guitar solo was played backwards! Then it was all over. After endless pleadings for more encores, we realised that there was to be no more, and after 18 hours of sitting/standing in a spot reduced to 3 or 4 square inches, tired bruised & sore, we started to make our way to the camp site, only to give up in the crowd, found a patch of empty ground & pitched our tent right where we collapsed from the exertions of the day. Everywhere about us, there were bodies of people collapsed / asleep from exhaustion and / or overdoses. Sad to make all the effort to get there, and then to get so out of your head that you miss the whole point of the day.

However, for anyone who was there and can still remember it, Knebworth on the 4th and 11th august 1979 probably remains a pivotal event in their lives. It certainly was for John Bonham who was to die on 15th September the following year - These 2 dates were the last that he ever played in England, and indeed apart from a few low key gigs in Europe in the summer of 1980, the last that "Bonzo" ever played. John Bonham became the second celebrity "hellraiser" drummer to die of substance abuse in just 2 years, after the demise of Keith Moon. The world is a less interesting place without them.