In early 1970, Led Zeppelin prefaced their fifth U.S. tour, on which they made the jump from small concert halls to large arenas, with another visit to Scandinavia and The Netherlands followed by a full-scale jaunt through the rest of Europe, trying out the new material from Led Zeppelin II and getting in shape for the upcoming 28-city trek through America. In May 1970, they again warmed up for the huge Bath Festival date-their most important in England up to that point-with a one-off show in Iceland. Immediately following Bath, they prepared for the next U.S. trek by playing a few dates in Germany.

1971 found the band preparing to go on the road again, prefacing a lengthy European campaign with two dates at the K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen. The June 6th, 1971 show in Copenhagen is in some ways the most unique Zeppelin performance ever captured on tape. While the band would occasionally try new material out on an audience, it was rare that they would preview songs as far in advance of an album's release as they did here, playing fully six of the eight new songs destined to appear on the fourth album six months later. It is also unusual to hear two songs-in this case "Gallows Pole" and "Four Sticks"-played only one time and then never performed again.

The show starts with a powerful "Immigrant Song," with Robert's voice strong and hitting all the high notes. Page's solo indicates some inspired improvising to come, and as they move into "Heartbreaker," this becomes a reality. Immediately following "Heartbreaker," something goes wrong down in the crowd, and Robert starts shouting "Woah! Stop, stop!," then goes on to comment that "we want to do a concert of music and we cannot do it if there's a lot of people running around." Whether there was an altercation between members of the audience or with security is unclear, but after a brief break followed by applause from the crowd, whatever was wrong seems to be rectified, and the band launch into a careful rendition of "Since I've Been Loving You," followed by "Dazed & Confused."

After a fine version of "That's The Way" to conclude the acoustic set, Robert says "We're gonna try something that we have never, never tried before, and, uh, there's every chance it will fall apart. If it does then we'll stop and start again. Right?" A smattering of applause follows, and then he says slightly off-mic, "Have we done this one before? Ah, jeez, Sorry!" He's obviously been informed by the band that "What Is & What Should Never Be" is actually the next song. A few more "good evenings" to loosen up the crowd, a powerful version of "What Is. . .", and then the real fireworks begin.

"This is a thing. . . I was saying we'd never done before. Seems we had to come 'round to it, so. . . so here we go. This hasn't even got a title yet, but we'll think of one as the night goes on." Jimmy hits a staccato chord once or twice and everything pauses as the audience chuckles and applauds, prompting Robert to remark, "For your entertainment. . ." One can envision Page looking back at Bonham and Jones, tentatively setting up the intro with eye contact. . . and making a false start. Then he begins again, a staccato, minor-chord intro totally different from the main riff of the song. After two bars the rhythm section falls in, lays on the riff for about 12 more bars, and then with a few big cymbal crashes from Bonzo they launch into the familiar "Four Sticks" riff and take off from there, propelled by Bonham's feverish, relentless tom tom patterns.

Jones is on bass, so the synthesizer lines from the studio version are absent, but Page substitutes them with bar chords on the bridge sections, and the effect is surprisingly close to the familiar album take despite a few fudged slide-ins where the wrong chords are hit. Robert sings the lyrics identically to the finished version, for the most part at the same high pitch as the album, though on the really high notes he goes down rather than reach for them.

For the one-time refrain where the whole song goes up a notch before returning to the last verse, Page plays the synthesizer melody with chopped power chords, punctuated by Bonzo with absolutely brutal pounding on the toms and the familiar cymbal crashes. The end section following the last verse features some quick soloing by Page and some "Oh, oh's" by Robert, and then it all comes to a very abrupt (but tight) end. Seemingly a bit uncertain of how the whole thing came off, Robert immediately says, "You should really hear that. . ."

Barely pausing for a breath of air, Page launces into the opening riff of "Gallows Pole" on the 12-string electric, no doubt the doubleneck. The audience doesn't catch it until Robert comes in with the vocals, but then the song is received appreciatively. Rather than the slow build of the album take, bass and drums come in quickly, pounding down on the first "gallows pole" refrain, and starting into the fast rhythm on the second verse, then slowing back down a bit as if no one is sure exactly what to do where!

The whole performance sounds very unrehearsed, with only Robert certain of where he is in the song and the rest of the band following his lead and in several cases, making the changes a bit late. Page attempts a finger-picked solo on the 12-string which actually sounds pretty good, with Jones cooking along with the bass line and Bonzo still sounding a bit tentative in the background-perhaps the only time that description can be applied to him! Page attempts to pick things up towards the end with some faster single-note soloing, and the song is concluded with a quick four-bar run through the main theme and a very together ending. They may not have known the whole song, but they sure knew how they wanted to end it!

These two performances constitute about ten minutes of some of the most unusual live Zep you could hope to hear, and though "Gallows Pole" might best be described as 'for fans only,' "Four Sticks" is truly stunning, and from this point on the concert takes off into one of those legendary Zep flights.

One can only wonder what happened the next night, and the next. . . Did they do "Four Sticks" again? "Gallows Pole?" It's actually very likely that they did, and for all we know they might have even previewed "When The Levee Breaks" and "Battle Of Evermore" for those European audiences, introducing the entire fourth album in a live setting. On the other hand, they might never have played these songs again, and we may never even know. We can only be thankful that someone was rolling a tape at this incredible gig, and that it has survived the years to provide this glimpse into an historical evening.