Led Zeppelin Plays Together For The First Time

Led Zeppelin with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham played together for the first time when they rehearsed at a studio in Lisle Street in London’s West End. The first song they played was a version of ‘Train Kept A-Rollin.’

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band that formed in 1968 and consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham.

With their heavy, guitar-driven blues rock sound, Led Zeppelin are regularly cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal and hard rock,even though the band's individualistic style drew from many sources and transcends any one music genre.

Led Zeppelin did not release songs from their albums as singles in the United Kingdom, as they preferred to establish the concept of album-orientated rock.

The group played together for the first time in a room below a record store on Gerrard Street in London. Liner notes by Cameron Crowe for The Complete Studio Recordings. The building has since been torn down, and the area has been converted into London's Chinatown. Page suggested that they try playing "Train Kept A-Rollin'", a rockabilly song popularised by Johnny Burnette that had been given new life by The Yardbirds. "As soon as I heard John Bonham play," recalled Jones, "I knew this was going to be great... We locked together as a team immediately." Shortly afterwards, the group played together on the final day of sessions for the P.J. Proby album, Three Week Hero. The album's song "Jim's Blues" was the first studio track to feature all four members of the future Led Zeppelin. Proby recalled, "Come the last day we found we had some studio time, so I just asked the band to play while I just came up with the words... They weren't Led Zeppelin at the time, they were the New Yardbirds and they were going to be my band."

The band completed the Scandinavian tour as The New Yardbirds, playing together for the first time in front of a live audience at Gladsaxe Teen Clubs in Gladsaxe, Denmark, on 7 September 1968. Later that month, the group began recording their first album, which was based upon their live set at the time. The album was recorded and mixed in nine days, with all costs covered by Page himself.[28] After the album's completion, the band was forced to change their name after Chris Dreja issued a cease and desist letter, stating that Page was only allowed to use the New Yardbirds name for the Scandinavian dates. One account of the band's naming has it that Keith Moon and John Entwistle, drummer and bassist for The Who, respectively, suggested that a possible supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck would go down like a "lead balloon", a traditional joke describing disastrous results. The group deliberately dropped the 'a' in lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent "thick Americans" from pronouncing it "leed". The word "balloon" was transformed into "zeppelin", perhaps an exaggeration of the humour, and to Page the name conjured the perfect combination of heavy and light, combustibility and grace.

The band officially declared they were changing their name to Led Zeppelin on 14 October 1968, and played their first show under the new name at the University of Surrey in Guildford on 25 October. This was followed by a US concert debut on 26 December 1968 before moving on to the west coast for dates in cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco. Led Zeppelin was released in the US on 12 January 1969, while the tour was underway. It didn't appear in their native UK until 31 March 1969. The album's blend of blues, folk and eastern influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the creation of heavy metal music. Plant has commented that it is unfair for people to typecast the band as heavy metal, since about one-third of their music was acoustic. On their first album Plant received no credit for his contributions to the songwriting, a result of his previous association with CBS Records.

Retro History for August 12 The 50s 60s 70s 80s

Retro History For The Decade 1980

1988 Boston Red Sox set AL consecutive home victories at 23
1988 Movie "Last Temptation of Christ" is released
1988 Nelson Mandela is treated for tuberculosis at hospital
1988 Red Sox beat Tigers 9-4 for AL record 23rd consecutive win at home
1988 Richard Thornburgh becomes U.S. Attorney General
1987 Charles Cole climbs 870'Tyrolean Traverse from top of Elephant Rock
1986 Don Baylor gets hits by a pitch for a record 25th time in a season
1986 Red Sox pitcher Tim Lollar gets a pinch-hit single
1985 7th Emmy Sports Award presentation
1985 Baltimore Orioles W Gross and L Sheets are 6th to hit consecutive pinch home runs
1985 Japanese Boeing 747SR crashes, 520 die (worst in-flight toll)
1984 23rd Olympic games close at Los Angeles, California
1984 Braves beat Padres 5-3, features 2 brawls and 19 ejections
1984 Harmon Killebrew, Rick Ferrell, Don Drysdale, Pee Wee Reese, and Luis Aparicio inducted into Hall of Fame
1984 Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Henredon Golf Classic
1983 General Manuel A Noriega becomes commander of Panamanian army
1982 Heavy Israeli bombardement of Beirut
1981 IBM introduces PC and PC-DOS version 1.0
1981 Jon Erikson (U.S.) becomes 1st to triple cross English Channel (38:27)

Retro History For The Decade 1970

1979 "Whoopee!" closes at ANTA Theater New York City after 204 performances
1979 Iran press censors start massive book burnings
1979 Judy wins LPGA WUI Golf Classic Rankin
1978 Arron Marshall completes a record shower of 336 hours
1978 China and Japan sign peace treaty
1977 For 2nd straight day, Oakland's Manny Sanguillen foils a no-hit bid
1977 High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 launched into Earth orbit
1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric flight
1976 Christian militia conquer Palestinian camp Tell al-Za'tar, 2000 killed
1974 Nolan Ryan strikes out 19 and walks only 2 as Angels top Red Sox, 4-2
1974 Yankees Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford become 1st teammates elected to hall of fame on same day
1973 55th PGA Championship: Jack Nicklaus shoots a 277 at Canterbury, Cleveland
1973 Betty Burfeindt wins LPGA Child and Family Service Golf Opens
1973 WPBA National Championship won by Betty Morris
1972 "Funny Thing Happened..." closes at Lunt-Fontanne New York City after 156 performances
1972 "Oh! Calcutta!" closes at Belasco Theater New York City after 1316 performances
1972 Ian and Greg Chappell both scores centuries in same Test Cricket innings
1972 Last American combat ground troops leave Vietnam
1971 Syriam President Assad drops diplomatic relations with Jordan
1970 Curt Flood loses his $41 million antitrust suit against baseball

Retro History For The Decade 1960

1969 Boston Celtics sold for an NBA record $6 million
1968 Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham played together for the first time when they rehearsed at a studio in Lisle Street in London’s West End. The first song they played was a version of ‘Train Kept A-Rollin.’
1967 New Orleans Saints 1st pre-season victory, beat St. Louis 23-14
1965 Elizabeth Lane becomes 1st female British supreme court justice
1965 Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Inc applies for a NL franchise
1964 10th time Mantle switch-hits home run in a game, one goes 502 feet
1964 Mickey Mantle switch-hits home run record 10th and final time in a game
1963 Portuguese dictator Salazar firm on African colonization
1963 Stan Musial announces he will retire at end of year
1962 1st time 2 people in space
1962 Mickey Wright wins LPGA Heart of America Golf Tournament
1962 Russia launches Vostok 4, Pavel Popovich, who lands safely Aug 15
1960 27th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Baltimore 32, All-Stars 7 (70,000)
1960 Echo 1, 1st communications satellite, is launched
1960 Ralph Boston of U.S., sets then long jump record at 26' 11"
1960 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 41,600 m

Retro History For The Decade 1950

1959 1st ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation Island
1959 Progressive Party under John Steytler forms in South Africa
1956 KOTI TV channel 2 in Klamath Falls, OR (NBC/CBS) begins broadcasting
1956 Marlene Bauer Hagge wins LPGA World Golf Championship
1955 22nd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 30, Cleveland 27 (75,000)
1955 President Eisenhower raises minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an hour
1955 WPBT TV channel 2 in Miami, Florida (PBS) begins broadcasting
1954 Senator Eddie Yost draws his 100th walk for 5th year in a row
1953 Ann Davidson, 1st woman to sail solo across Atlantic, arrives Miami
1953 Heavy earthquake strikes Isotope islands, 435 killed
1953 Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb
1952 Hussain ibn Talal proclaimed King of Jordan
1951 Babe Didrikson Zaharias wins LPGA World Golf Championship
1950 New York Giants (NFL) beat Ottawa Roughriders (CFL) 20-6 in Ottawa
1950 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Humani generis

Have a groovy vintage retro day!


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Vintage Retro Music & Retro Pop Culture is our passion and what we LOVE. We keep it going everyday for the love of producing it for you to enjoy. Thanks for viewing. Much Peace! Led Zeppelin Plays Together For The First Time on August 12, 1968.