Led Zeppelin United Kingdom Tour Winter 1971

United Kingdom Winter 1971

Concert by Led Zeppelin
Poster for Led Zeppelin's concert at the Wembley Empire Pool, used to help promote its Winter 1971 U.K. tour
Associated album	Led Zeppelin IV
Start date	11 November 1971
End date	21 December 1971
Legs	1
No. of shows	15
Led Zeppelin concert chronology

Led Zeppelin's Winter 1971 United Kingdom Tour was a concert tour of the United Kingdom by the English rock band. The tour commenced on 11 November and concluded on 15 December 1971.

It has been suggested that this tour confirmed the status of Led Zeppelin's supremacy in the United Kingdom rock marketplace.^[1] Taking place immediately after the release of the band's fourth album, all tickets sold out despite going on sale less than a week before the commencement of the tour. Second shows at Wembley and at Manchester needed to be added after fans queued for up to eighteen hours in order to secure a ticket.^[1]

This tour is particularly notable for the two concerts performed by the band at the Wembley Empire Pool, Wembley Park, dubbed the "Electric Magic" shows.^[2][3][4] These five hour shows included bizarre vaudeville circus acts with plate spinners, trapeze artists and performing pigs which were dressed in policeman's uniforms.^[5] The concerts also incorporated supporting acts such as Stone the Crows, which was a rare event for Led Zeppelin at this point in their career.^[1] A colour poster was sold to fans at the concerts for 30p, which is now a rare and highly sought-after collectible. An altered version of the poster was created for a two coloured silk-screen t-shirt print in 2010 for an official Led Zeppelin t-shirt.^[6]

This was the first concert tour on which the band visually projected the "four symbols" which adorned (and is a variant title for) their fourth album onto their stage equipment. Jimmy Page's "Zoso" symbol was put onto one of his Marshall amplifiers, John Bonham's three interlinked circles adorned the outer face of his bass drum, John Paul Jones had his symbol stenciled onto material which was draped across his Fender Rhodes keyboard and Robert Plant's feather symbol was painted onto a side speaker PA cabinet. Plant's feather symbol was the only one not used in subsequent Led Zeppelin concert tours, and Jones' symbol was removed after the Japanese Tour in 1972.^[1]

Tour set list

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

1. "Immigrant Song" (Page, Plant)
2. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
3. "Out on the Tiles" (intro) (Page, Plant, Bonham) / "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
4. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
5. "Rock and Roll" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
6. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)
7. "Going to California" (Page, Plant)
8. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant)
9. "Tangerine" (Page)
10. "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" (Page, Plant, Jones)
11. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
12. "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page, Plant)
13. "Celebration Day" (Jones, Page, Plant)
14. "Moby Dick" (Bonham) (on November 13 and 20 only)
15. "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

• "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page)
• "Thank You" (Page, Plant)
• "Gallows Pole" (Page, Plant) (on 16 November only)
• "Weekend" (on 13 and 16 November and 2 December only)
• "It'll Be Me" (on 2 December only)

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

Tour dates

References

External links

• Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)
• Led Zeppelin concert setlists

Sources

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