Led Zeppelin United Kingdom Tour Spring 1971

Led Zeppelin's Spring 1971 United Kingdom & Ireland Tour (also known as the Back to the Clubs Tour) was a concert tour of the United Kingdom & Ireland by the English rock band. The tour commenced on 5 March and concluded on 1 April 1971.

United Kingdom & Ireland Spring 1971
Tour by Led Zeppelin
Poster for Led Zeppelin's concert at Southampton University, used to help promote its 1971 "Back to the Clubs" tour
Location
  • United Kingdom
  • Ireland
Associated albumLed Zeppelin IV
Start date5 March 1971
End date1 April 1971
Legs2
No. of shows13 (14 originally scheduled)
Led Zeppelin concert chronology

Overview

For this tour, the band decided to mainly perform at the smaller clubs that they had originally played earlier in their career, rather than large arenas and auditoriums. This decision was made to reward those fans who had been loyal to them from the start of their career. The small, more intimate size of the venues, and the correspondingly smaller ticket sales and gate receipts, was offered as proof that Led Zeppelin wasn't preoccupied with making money and instead endeavoured to create a close connection with their audiences when performing on-stage.[1] However, as the tour progressed, it became evident that this intention was compromised due to thousands of fans being shut out of shows because of the scarce availability of concert tickets.[2]

The Belfast concert on 5 March[3] featured the first public performance of their now-legendary song "Stairway to Heaven", which was played at nearly every subsequent Led Zeppelin show. One scheduled concert from the tour, at Liverpool University, was cancelled and rescheduled to take place during the band's subsequent tour of Europe.

During this period the band members began to experiment with their stage attire, introducing strange caftans and garments and growing longer hair and beards, which gave them a very fashionable appearance.[2]

Tour set list

A fairly typical set list for the tour was:

  1. "Immigrant Song" (Page, Plant)
  2. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
  3. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  4. "Out on the Tiles" (intro) (Page, Plant, Bonham) / "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
  5. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
  6. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)
  7. "Going to California" (Page, Plant)
  8. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant) (on 1 April only)
  9. "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page, Plant)
  10. "Moby Dick" (Page, Jones, Bonham)
  11. "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
5 March 1971BelfastNorthern IrelandUlster Hall
6 March 1971DublinIrelandNational Stadium
9 March 1971LeedsEnglandLeeds University
10 March 1971CanterburyUniversity of Kent
11 March 1971SouthamptonSouthampton University
13 March 1971BathBath Pavilion
14 March 1971Stoke-on-TrentTrentham Gardens Ballroom
16 March 1971LiverpoolLiverpool University
18 March 1971Newcastle upon TyneMayfair Ballroom
19 March 1971ManchesterManchester University
20 March 1971BirminghamStepmothers Club
21 March 1971NottinghamBoat Club
23 March 1971LondonThe Marquee
1 April 1971Paris Theatre (BBC concert)

References
  1. Chris Welch (1994) Led Zeppelin, London: Orion Books. ISBN 1-85797-930-3, pp. 62-63.
  2. Luis Rey (1997) Led Zeppelin Live: An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes, Ontario: The Hot Wacks Press, p. 136.
  3. Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary

Sources
  • Keith Shadwick, Led Zeppelin : the story of a band and their music, 1968-80. ISBN 0-87930-871-0.
  • Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
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