| Tech Note |
Our introduction to the summer festival circuit begins with members of the audience telling others to sit down. Plant's long, wailing intro to I Can't Quit You Baby causes someone in the crowd to remark "he's good." Page plays a bit of Joe Cocker's With a Little Help From My Friends during the last verse.
Bonzo is going wild during the guitar solo in Dazed and Confused. Plant fights with the volume of his mic throughout You Shook Me. Plant's introduction of Page at the beginning of How Many More Times is met with a big cheer from the crowd. Plant is almost completely absent from Communication Breakdown. The set ends with a nasty Long Tall Sally played at breakneck speed.
A mix of two sources. The first has Page in front and is quite bright. Plant sounds like he's singing through a transistor radio and is less audible as time goes by. This source is used until the end of Communication Breakdown. The second source which finishes the show is more muffled, but Plant is loud and clear.
Led Zeppelin closed out the final night of the festival with this extremely gutsy and intense performance. The audience was rowdy after as the Zeppelin was reported to be not performed and Plant announced: "A lot of people though that we weren't gonna come here today. There was a lot of talk thtat everyone was ill and bad. There was nothing wrong with us at all and we intended on playing. That's what we've come to America for. We were coming in the first place so don't get any hassles about what we were gonna do and what we weren't. We hope you'll enjoy everything we do tonight and have a ball". Robert's voice is so powerful it wreaks havoc on the recorder! The band is definitely on and Jones and Bonham hit some unreal highs throughout the show, as does Jimmy as well. Some great harmonica soloing from Robert as well and two riotous encores cap this great show.
From Underground Uprising:
06-Jul-69 Rhode Island
Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rhode Island, July 6, 1969
CD : The Train Kept A Rollin', I Can't Quit You (the recorder's microphone rustled around in the beginning and in the middle), Dazed & Confused, You Shook Me (the recorder's microphone rustled around near the beginning), How Many More Times (includes The Hunter, The Lemon Song) (the recorder's microphone slightly rustled at the beginning of the guitar solo, contains some digital static near the end), Communication Breakdown, Long Tall Sally
The recording used for this release is good, clear and close to the speakers. It is an outdoor recording, so the sound does "breathe" in places. There is also a fair amount of high end tape hiss emitted from the left channel. Plant's vocals are very prominent for most of the recording with Page's guitar pushed to the rear and the rhythm section somewhere in the middle. The beginning of The Train Kept A Rollin' includes shouts of "sit down" from the audience. Shouts of "louder" are also heard throughout, especially before You Shook Me. The PA is finally fixed in the middle of You Shook Me. The volume of the recording increases slightly at this point, but it's due to the better balance of the instruments. From this point through How Many More Times the recording is very good. The balance of the instruments change during Communication Breakdown and Long Tall Sally. The drums are up-front with the guitars in the middle and the vocals pushed to the rear. (Brian Ingham April 97)
Review: Great Zeppelin Closed Newport, Despite Ban!
For the first and last time, British groups may have suffered as a result of the 16th annual Newport Jazz Festival, held last weekend in Newport Rhode Island.
The three day event attracted a record crowd of some 80,000, the heaviest attendance figures of 25,000 coming on Friday night, which was devoted entirely to heavy rock. It also attracted the attention of the local authorities who, because of the tension and near riotous situation which prevailed on the same Friday night, demanded that Led Zeppelin be cancelled from the final bill on Sunday, and subsequently revoked the permission given for the opening concert on the Blind Faith tour.
Getting down to the festival itself for the first time, promoter George Wein was persuaded to run rock acts. If I recall, the first show he booked into this category was English ñ Jeff Beck, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, John Mayall and Led Zeppelin - was the count of UK acts.
Beck, Ten Years and Jethro all appeared Friday, along with Roland Kirk and Blood Sweat and Tears. Beck had the responsibility of closing an incredible show which was literally a six-hour swing through the best in rock.
Excitement caused tension, tension provokes trouble with the local authorities and Newport, hardly used to rock, told George Wein to cancel Led ZeppelinÃs appearance on Sunday, ìin the interest of public safetyî!
Wein announced the Zeppelin would not appear owing to the illness of one of the group. They showed up on Sunday anyway, following a knockout performance at the Atlanta Pop Festival and at 1am Monday morning, proceeded to go on stage and completely destroy the audience.
It was a strange situation for the Zeppelin to be in. Jimmy Page told me: ìYou donÃt blow a date like this one. Not after all that. The Newport Jazz Festival was far too important to us to just cancel out and IÃm very upset at the whole thing. Wein should never have announced once of us was ill.î
That wasnÃt all. Johnny Winter was given an hour and a half on stage .Other acts ahead of Jimmy seemed to ignore the time limit set on their performances. Page was uptight, but when he went on stage, that crowd out there was ready and waiting, and Led Zeppelin was prepared to sock it to me ñ regardless of the unfortunate set of circumstances.
With the ZeppelinÃs close, so the 16th annual Newport Jazz Festival came to an end. (J. Harris, July '69)
BETTER than Woodstock! Smaller, GREAT bill, all three nights rocked!! Newport was a beautiful venue, more so than being in the woods! Led Zeppelin was the perfect ending. THIS type of show will never happen again, EVER!
Richard Peck |
