Saw Zep in the Students Union hall at Manchester Uni in the spring of 1971. Now I like my rock to be good and loud, but it was a low-ceilinged hall, and it really was deafening. We were also packed in like sardines, and it was unbelievably hot. Glad to have been there, though. Historic. True to form, Bonzo picked out some heckler in the crowd with his drumstick and told him to “belt up!”. I think for two shakes he would have like to have gone down there and sorted him out.
Very jealous of anyone who saw the Earls Court gigs. The footage of them playing acoustically on the triple DVD is simply celestial. Plant's voice is a miracle. I was puzzled as to why I didn't go to those, and then I realised — I was far away in Africa at that point, backpacking for a year around the continent.
That was some spring in 1971. About a month later, I saw the Stones, who hadn't toured for about two years I think, at the Free Trade Hall.
