Re: TREE IDEA NC 04/07/70

["Dan O'Connor" <jdoconnor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings to Badgeholders everywhere!


At 06:00 PM 6/29/99 EDT, REDTHING2@xxxxxxx wrote:
>Hello Everybody,
>
>I got a tape recently thats a real smoker.It's Dorten Auditorium Raleigh,
>North Carolina April 7, 1970.It's a great show and I would rate the sound a 
>7+.
>Would this be something worth treeing on CDR.Does anyone have this
>on tape or CD and can comment about the title you have.What
>is the sound quality of your version.Any input would be helpfull in my
>decision to tree this.Awsome performance that would fit on 2cd.


Some of you freaks (and you know who you are) might have predicted I'd
chime in with this...

It took a while to find it, and some may question whether it was worth the
effort to do so.  Nonetheless, for those who may be interested in keeping
an accurate recordings list, here's my original post to DG from a couple of
years ago in which I explained how I discovered the correct date for the
1970 Raleigh concert.  Included in this post is the previously-unpublished
local review of this famous early Zeppelin concert.  Additionally, the
venue name has been listed mistakenly for many years as well, so hopefully
this will help clear that up a bit as well.

Steve Zieger (a fine fellow I met in Cleveland at ZepFest '98) has
generously offered to donate a seed for this great show, and I urge someone
to take him up on it.  I also own the originals of "Groove" and as far as I
know, it's the finest version available...  And if there's a finer one,
then PLEASE don't hesitate to contact me about a trade, as it's my
hometown, and you know how that is....  

I'd volunteer to admin the tree, but things with The Levee are just a bit
intense right now and I don't think I'd have the time to be able to put in
the effort it takes to run a successful tree.  Someone here does, though!
I hope someone will step up and do the tree admin honors to help share this
exceptionally performed and recorded (yet sadly incomplete) show with the
great folks on these lists.

Sorry for the length, folks, but I hope you find this blast from the DG
past at least a bit entertaining and informative.

Regards to all,

Dan




Greetings, all!

After hours in the local library squinting at the microfiche reader, I
finally hit the jackpot and discovered the hard evidence I needed that Led
Zeppelin did, in fact, play in Raleigh, North Carolina in April of 1970.

However, for all my fellow anal-retentives, I have a correction of the
commonly listed date of this event.  Some of you may remember my post of a
couple of months ago in which I corrected the venue name where Zep played
in Raleigh in April of 1970.  Now, I must correct the date as well.  Once
and for all, the correct date and venue of Led Zeppelin's April, 1970
concert in Raleigh, North Carolina is:


Dorton Arena, State Fairgrounds, Raleigh, North Carolina--April 8th, 1970.


That's right, April 8th!  I started looking through the microfiche
starting with the April 1st edition of the local paper, the News and
Observer.  There were no advertisements or anything related to the show up
through April the 6th.  I began to get discouraged.  Maybe the date WAS a
big hoax after all, I thought.  Then I began searching the April 7th
edition (the previously listed date of the event), and upon reaching the
entertainment section, I looked down amongst the movie listings and my
heart skipped a beat.  Below an ad for a 9-day engagement by the Charlie
Byrd Quintet ("World's most popular guitarist!") at the Frog and
Nightgown, in a 2 x 2 column-inch ad, there it was...

                An evening with
                 LED  ZEPPELIN
              Performing IN PERSON  <--You mean, not via satellite? :)
                Full 2 1/2 hours
               Wednesday, April 8
                     8 P.M.
              DORTON ARENA--RALEIGH
            Tickets--6.00--5.00--4.00

"It was the 8th!", I said aloud, at a volume unsettling enough to get me a
decidedly unhappy glance from an elderly lady looking up from her issue of
"Quilting Monthly".  "Cheap old bat.  Get a subscription!",  I whispered
back at her.  She didn't like that very much.  It was fairly obvious.

I couldn't jam my dime into the printing machine fast enough.  I pressed
the button, and was mighty disappointed to find that the printout came out
in reverse exposure, rendering psychedelic the accompanying picture of our
boys (a fairly common one, with Bonzo at left, Plant on his left shoulder,
Page hunched over at a level slightly lower than Plant and Bonzo, and JPJ
with his left hand supporting his chin at far right).

I ran hurriedly to the information desk, as if the discovery I had just
made at the microfiche machine would suddenly vanish into thin air while I
was gone.  I summoned a librarian, in her mid-20's or so, over to look at
getting the exposure correct on the machine, to no avail.  She informed me
I'd have to switch machines to get a decent printout.  While she was
looking at the printer, she happened to glance at the screen.  She saw the
ad and stopped what she was doing to stare agape.

"Led Zeppelin??  Played HERE??!?!?  In 1970??"

"That's right.  I'm a big collector, and I wanted to see if my recording
of the show was dated correctly."

Then she dropped the folder she was carrying and stared at me
open-mouthed.  Her epiglottis bobbed up and down as she swallowed real
hard a few times.  It reminded me of that little bouncing ball over song
lyrics on those TV and film sing-along segments.

"You have a RECORDING of it?!?!?!?!", she hissed at me, even louder than I
had exclaimed earlier.  The old quilting lady was not pleased at all, and
made us aware of that fact with an icy gaze that put frost on the
microfiche reader.

"I'm afraid so.  Pretty tasty.  Wanna copy?"

Her chin hit the floor.  She stammered and blinked a lot.  I amused myself
by counting her dental fillings while she attempted to compose herself.

She couldn't write down her address fast enough.  Her hand shook a lot.
She just handed me the slip of paper and staggered away shaking her head.

The hunt was on to find the review.  I scanned the April 8th edition for
any period-piece articles with interviews of local cops, expecting to show
up in riot gear with fire hoses and billy clubs at the ready to quell any
disturbances that might be caused by these "danged drug-addled hippie
types", but there was nothing of the sort.  Only another ad exactly the
same as the one that had appeared in the previous day's edition.  I wasn't
surprised, because as any of you who have copies of the show could attest,
the audience was calm and quiet that night, which makes the recording even
more of a treat.

On to the April 9th edition.  I looked frantically, and didn't find
anything until I reached the last page of the April 9th edition...

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZEPPELIN IS LATE, LOUD, GOOD
By Gerry Ligon
Raleigh News and Observer
April 9, 1970

Playing to an audience ranging from babes-in-arms to the "over thirty
generation", Led Zeppelin put wings on Dorton Arena and piloted the
audience on a musical tour from blues, to jazz, to boogie, to pure hard
rock.

The performance had a very slow start.  After waiting more than 45
minutes for the show to begin, the patient audience was rewarded with five
minutes of ear-splitting feed back.  In order to avoid the echo within the
arena, which Jimi Hendrix encountered recently, the performers had to
present their music at their maximum volume.  Because of this, the
audience had to adjust to the powerful beat of sound.

However, anyone who arrived for the performance with a negative point of
view had to be somewhat persuaded by the audience's acceptance of the
reverberating sound.  As in most rock concerts, each performer gave his
solo.  Unlike most rock concerts, the audience spent a great portion of
the show saluting the solos in standing ovations.

Undoubtedly, anyone who refuses to listen to any music on his own
phonograph above one-half volume, would not have lasted 30 minutes in the
arena; but those who know how to listen to the rock and jazz of today were
the ones who would not let the performers quit.

If this show is an example of how the music of today will be accepted in
Raleigh, we can expect to see many more concerts of this type in the
future.  The reaction of the audience at last night's performance said so.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once that little piece of rock history had been printed out, I dashed back
to the cabinet for more microfiche to start looking through the September,
1970 News and Observer reel to see if I could find anything about
the purported September 7, 1970 date also reported at Dorton Arena in my
2nd edition of the Rey book.  I searched from the 1st to the 14th and
found no mention of a Zep concert at Dorton arena whatsoever, which was
quite disappointing.

Question:  Can someone with the "final edition" of the Rey book confirm
whether or not he's changed his concert date listing, and if he still
lists the September date as the 7th?  I'll go back some other time and
continue the hunt.  I was kinda squinty-eyed after hours at the reader
trying to find the September date and had to give it a rest.  I also knew
that I had a responsibility to you, dear readers of DG, to get this review
and date correction to you as quickly as possible.

I'm sorry this has run a bit long, but I hope you all enjoyed it.  It was
my pleasure!  Now to go crank up that Dorton Arena show loud enough to
disturb the old quilting lady in the library across town and make the date
change to my list...

Regards from Raleigh, NC, site of the April 8th, 1970 Led Zeppelin show,
                                            ^^^
<<Dan>>


The Levee - A Musical Salute to Led Zeppelin
http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/leonard/849/
Over 30 minutes of music in 42 streaming sound clips from 18 songs
Zep concert recordings list--Rare Zep memorabilia--Zep Song facts
Studio demo recording available now--Clips from it available online