KASHI_RECO

58 years ago today, on October 25, 1968, Led Zeppelin played their first show under their new name, in the Great Hall of the University of Surrey on Battersea Park Road in London. The gig is often listed as Guildford, where the university was moving, but an office memo from Jimmy Page's own collection puts it in Battersea: arrive by 8 pm, one 50 minute spot, a fee of £175. The name was so new that some printed material still said The New Yardbirds, and the banner outside read "Tonight! The Ex-Yardbirds" with "Led Zeppelin" in smaller letters underneath. Page had pulled the band together that summer after The Yardbirds split, and Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham first rehearsed with him on August 19, 1968. They toured Scandinavia in September as The New Yardbirds, then cut their debut album at Olympic Studios in London in about 36 hours of studio time, paid for by Page and manager Peter Grant. 🎈 In November 1968 Grant landed a $143,000 advance from Atlantic Records, the biggest deal of its kind for a new band at the time. Would you have paid to see the Ex-Yardbirds that night? 🎈

50 years ago today, on October 20, 1976, Led Zeppelin's film The Song Remains the Same had its world premiere at Cinema I in New York, fitted out with a quadraphonic sound system for the night. The concert footage came from three nights at Madison Square Garden in July 1973, mixed with a fantasy sequence for each of the band. It took three years, two directors and a lot of the band's own money to finish, and Peter Grant called it "the most expensive home movie ever made." London got its premiere two weeks later, on November 4, at the Warner West End in Leicester Square. ⚡ Best performance in The Song Remains the Same? ⚡ 👇️