Re: Just a tinge of 1980 for a few minutes

["Wyatt Brake" <wyattbrake@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I can answer in the affirmative.

I grew up in southwestern New York state, roughly a 90 minute drive
south of Buffalo.  I've met several people over the years who have
claimed that they not only had tickets to see Zeppelin in 1977 when
Karac Plant's tragic demise caused the cancellation of the tour; they
also had either just registered or were preparing to order tickets for
the 1980 tour when Bonham was found dead.

I was born in 1981 and thus obviously did not experience the pain of
either of those events at the time, but I can still imagine what it
must have been like for fans of the band.  Unfortunately I missed out
on the Page/Plant tours of 1995 and 1998 because I was just getting
into the band in the spring of 1998 and still just learning the names
of Page, Plant, Jones, and Bonham at the time.

Luckily, the only bad luck I've had with trying to see any of the
surviving members was the canceled 3rd leg of the Page/Crowes tour,
which wiped out the show in Cleveland I would have seen as part of
Zepfest 2000.  I had already seen the "ZoCrowes" in Pittsburgh during
that summer.

I did feel a tremendous psychological punch to the gut when I saw the
initial email from Nech.  I saw all my plans going down in flames and
the euphoria that I could drum up in my mind every time I pictured
myself in the arena as the guys strolled out on stage just crashed.  I
forwarded the news to my friends and family with the subject line of
"The Cosmic Joke That is My Life" and received several sympathetic
replies from people that know how momentous this is to me.

I had quite a feeling of relief when I learned the date was only being
pushed back and not eliminated.  It has caused some frustration and a
considerable amount of financial wrangling (and the elimination of two
days from our trip, including a planned trip to Edinburgh), but I am
undaunted.  I WILL BE AT THAT SHOW!

Now we just need to make sure Plant doesn't come down with laryngitis,
Jason doesn't fall off any motorbikes, and Jonesy doesn't fall off any
horses while playing masked marauder!

-Wyatt

On 11/5/07, Steve Thomson <zeppelin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> When I first read Nech's post about the broken finger
> last week, until I found out that it was only
> postponed to a clear date a couple of weeks later, I
> felt a very small but familiar sense of the same
> sadness as in September 1980. The evening of the 24th,
> I'd contacted friends who were in university in Ottawa
> and who would definitely be going to the Oct. 17,
> Montreal LZ show, to have them pick up a ticket for
> me. All was right with the world. I was going to see
> Led Zeppelin. Suddenly, the world sucked big time.
>
> This wasn't nearly as tragic and I wasn't going to the
> O2 gig, but the high we Zeppelin fans have been
> enjoying for the past couple of months suddenly seemed
> to evaporate just as quickly for a few minutes anyway.
> I was grateful to hear the show would still go on and
> that Jimmy's injury is (hopefully) not too serious,
> but  it did dissipate some of the magic in the air.
>
> Anyone else feel this way?
>
>
>
>
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