Tour Over Europe 1980

This was the first series of concerts performed by the band since their shows at Knebworth almost a year before. Singer Robert Plant was reluctant to tour the United States, and the band wanted to avoid some of the negative press attention that had dogged them in the United Kingdom, so as a compromise Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant decided to schedule a short European tour. He hoped that being on the road again would rejuvenate Plant's enthusiasm for touring and eventually inspire Plant's desire to tour the U.S. again.[1]

The band performed rehearsals for the tour at the Rainbow Theatre and Victoria Theatre in London, and then at Shepperton Studios, Middlesex.[1]

During the tour the band played small venues with a scaled-down PA and a modest stage and lighting setup. As such, it had a much more low-key feel than on recent tours. The set list was also shorter, at approximately two hours, with some of the band's longer songs such as "No Quarter" and "Moby Dick" discarded. Material from the band's most recent album, In Through the Out Door, was also limited. The concerts opened with "Train Kept A-Rollin'," which had not been a regular feature of their live sets since 1969. Press coverage of the tour was minimal.[1]

Generally speaking, there was a playful and generous spirit about the tour, with guitarist Jimmy Page even handling some of the stage introductions himself for the first time in the band's twelve-year career.[2] However, some on-stage problems were experienced. The 26 June show at Vienna[3] was interrupted during "White Summer" when Page was struck in the face by a firecracker. The organizer stepped up and talked to the audience, and asked the person responsible to come to the stage to have a word with him. After a delay, omitting "Black Mountain Side", Page and the band returned to play "Kashmir" and the rest of the show. The 27 June show at Nuremberg[4] came to an abrupt end after the third song when John Bonham collapsed on stage and was rushed to a hospital. Press speculation arose that Bonham's problem was caused by an excess of alcohol and drugs, but the band claimed that he had simply overeaten.[5]

The tour's poster listed a second concert at Berlin, on 8 July,[6] but this show was never performed. The final full-length concert Led Zeppelin played until 2007 was on 7 July,[7] with "Whole Lotta Love" being the closing number at this gig.

In an interview, bass player John Paul Jones recalled of this tour:

Morale was very high. We were in really good spirits. We were stripped down a lot, musically, and as an act, we remember back to what we were doing. Punk kind of woke us up again. "Oh yeah, I remember what we are supposed to be doing here." It was about to go for a change of gears and round two ... By the time John [Bonham] died, we all had sorted it out and were ready to go again. He died in rehearsals for an American tour.[8]

1. "Train Kept A-Rollin'" (Bradshaw, Kay, Mann)
2. "Nobody's Fault but Mine" (Page, Plant)
3. "Out on the Tiles" (intro) (Bonham, Page, Plant, ) / "Black Dog" (Jones, Page, Plant)
4. "In the Evening" (Jones, Page, Plant)
5. "The Rain Song" (Page, Plant)
6. "Hot Dog" (Page, Plant)
7. "All My Love" (Jones, Plant)
8. "Trampled Under Foot" (Jones, Page, Plant)
9. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Jones, Page, Plant)
10. "Achilles Last Stand" (Page, Plant) (not performed on 26 June or 7 July)
11. "White Summer"/"Black Mountain Side" (Page)
12. "Kashmir" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
13. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)

Encores:

• "Rock and Roll" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
• "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)
  • Performed on 17, 20, 26 & 30 June; on 2 & 5 July (with Simon Kirke on second drum set) and on 7 July
• "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
  • Performed on 17, 21 & 29 June
• "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page)
  • Performed on 18, 23 & 24 June and on 3 July
• "Money (That's What I Want)" (Gordy, Bradford)
  • Performed on 30 June (with Philip Carson on bass guitar)

The tour was pushed back a month. The original itinerary consisted of:

The dates performed were:

• Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)
• Led Zeppelin concert setlists
• View in Google Earth

• Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.