Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1971

Led Zeppelin's 1971 North American Tour was the seventh concert tour of North America by the English rock band. The tour commenced on August 7 and concluded on 17 September 1971. It included two warm-up shows in Montreux, Switzerland.

North America 1971
Tour by Led Zeppelin
Poster for Led Zeppelin's concert at the Hollywood Sportatorium, used to help promote its 1971 North American tour
Associated albumLed Zeppelin IV
Start date7 August 1971
End date17 September 1971
Legs1
No. of shows26 (including two European warm-up shows)
Led Zeppelin concert chronology

This tour took place just prior to the release of the band's fourth album. The band had hoped to release this album in time for the tour, but various delays prevented this from occurring.[1]

This was the longest break that the band had from touring North America to date, with their last tour there having taken place almost a year previously. During the interim, the hard rock band Grand Funk Railroad had asserted its influence on the American music market, and Led Zeppelin was keen to re-establish their live reputation through this stint of concert performances.[1]

The new material from the fourth album which was presented by the band on stage was very well received by audiences, which helped to ensure massive sales of that album when it was eventually released in November 1971.[1]

The tour is also notable for the high frequency of crowd disturbances which occurred at the concerts, including those at New York City, Toronto and Boston, as the bootlegs of these concerts attest.

Before this tour, Robert Plant shaved off his beard, a style which he and the rest of his bandmates had adopted the year before. John Paul Jones followed suit a month later. However, Jones would later grow a beard in late 1972 and keep it until March 1973, and then have a mustache for part of the 1973 North American Tour, and also have a beard from late 1975 to early 1977.

It was on this tour that the notorious "Folding Chair Incident" took place. On August 26, at the show in Houston, several fans threw folding chairs at the stage in protest to what were perceived as overpriced tickets. No one was injured, and the show continued without any more interruptions.

On this tour, the band grossed $1 million.[2]

Tour set list

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

  1. "Walk Don't Run" (only on 22 August)
  2. "Immigrant Song" (Page, Plant)
  3. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
  4. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  5. "Out on the Tiles" (intro) (Page, Plant, Bonham) / "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  6. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
  7. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)
  8. "Celebration Day" (Jones, Page, Plant)
  9. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant)
  10. "Going to California" (Page, Plant)
  11. "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page, Plant)
  12. "Moby Dick" (Page, Jones, Bonham)
  13. "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

Tour dates
Date City Country Venue
European warm-up shows
7 August 1971 Montreux Switzerland Montreux Casino
8 August 1971
North America
19 August 1971 Vancouver Canada Pacific Coliseum
20 August 1971 Seattle United States Seattle Center Coliseum
21 August 1971 Inglewood The Forum
22 August 1971
23 August 1971 Fort Worth Tarrant County Convention Center
24 August 1971 Dallas Memorial Auditorium
26 August 1971 Houston Sam Houston Coliseum
27 August 1971 San Antonio Municipal Auditorium
28 August 1971 St. Louis St. Louis Arena
29 August 1971 New Orleans Municipal Auditorium
31 August 1971 Orlando Orlando Sports Stadium
1 September 1971 Pembroke Pines Hollywood Sportatorium
3 September 1971 New York City Madison Square Garden
4 September 1971 Toronto Canada Maple Leaf Gardens
5 September 1971 Chicago United States Chicago Amphitheater
6 September 1971 Boston Boston Garden
9 September 1971 Hampton Hampton Coliseum
10 September 1971 Syracuse Onondaga Veterans Auditorium
11 September 1971 Rochester War Memorial Auditorium
13 September 1971 Berkeley Berkeley Community Theatre
14 September 1971
16 September 1971 Honolulu Neal S. Blaisdell Arena
17 September 1971

References
  1. Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4, p. 64.
  2. Chris Welch (1994) Led Zeppelin, London: Orion Books. ISBN 1-85797-930-3, p. 65.

Sources
  • Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
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