Concert Memories.

From the first to the very last Led Zeppelin show at the Los Angeles Forum in Inglewood, California, I attended every concert held in that venue. I was also a fan at the Long Beach Arena. The very first performance I attended was in 1970. Although I was already a big fan by then, that LA concert sealed the deal. From that night forward, I became a devotee of the group I now consider to be the greatest ever, not only on the basis of those concerts, but on their live and studio recordings as well.
It was one thing to listen to an album but another completely different experience to see the group live at what, thirty years later, would be considered the greatest live rock act ever recorded. Here are the highlights I recall from being there.
There was incredible silence in that boisterous crowd the first time Stairway to Heaven was played live. It brought tears to my eyes and I couldn’t stop screaming after Page finished his guitar solo.
My good buddy Pete Baker and I would always take our bathroom break during the Moby Dick drum solo, trying to miss as little as possible and thinking we could hear the drums. The Forum women’s restrooms had huge lines; it was funny to see the dozens of women in the men’s rooms that just “couldn’t wait.”
At the Long Beach Arena show, we sat only ten rows back from the stage. It wasn’t a crowded show by normal standards, but WOW what a performance. Long Beach Arena is located next to a huge naval complex, and I remember that someone set off a naval flare that glowed as it descended upon the crowd...scary and crazy, but somehow cool.
The length of each of the performances was staggering. I doubt any other group has ever created so much energy during live performances. I loved the way Plant would say, “Good evening!” about forty-five minutes into the show, his hair radiating color and style. Page was so, so smooth and yet had such power. “Bonzo”? Well, we know from those shows just who is THE greatest drummer of all time. Last, but not least, there was John Paul Jones, quietly filling in all the gaps and staying in the background behind the greatest rock performers of all time.
Shooting Strategies, Camera and Film
In the early 70's there were no real restrictions regarding cameras at concerts. My objective for obtaining good images was straightforward: get up close without getting thrown out of the concert. This required planning: simply walking up during the show and take a picture was not allowed. It was common policy for a fan to be ejected from the venue whenever security guards saw someone rush the stage during the performance. To avoid this unhappy ending, I developed a unique strategy to get front row shots that worked every time.
My seats were never that close, with the remarkable exception of my (incredible) tenth row seats at Long Beach Arena. In each instance, I held to my seat until the band first finished its act and left the stage. In the moments before they returned and the long encores began, I waited for the instant that happened at every concert: a large group of people would rush the stage and their numbers would overwhelm the security personnel. When this wave of people “broke”, I took off with them, heading straight for the front.
It’s my guess that the guards were instructed to leave the crowds alone at that point, because they did not force the concertgoers back to their seats. As any real Zeppelin fan knew back then, their encores could last a very long time. I'd get off two, even three rolls of film before it was over…definitely worth the wait and the struggle!
My standard equipment was a Nikon F and a 105 mm Nikkor lens. Once I brought in a 300 mm lens, which is responsible for the close up of Plant seen on this web site. I shot with Tri-x film rated at 800 asa, or high speed indoor Ektachrome film rated at 640 asa. Movement was always an issue because people were jumping around and jostling, the floor was shaking, the band was grooving, and it was instinctively wrong to hold still when there was so much rockin’ and rollin’ going on. My guess is that for every ten shots, I'd get one. The body of the work seen here was culled from six rolls of film, shot during three concerts. It’s not an overstatement to say that these images represent some of the finest moments of my life.
Although I wish I could have seen more, the dozen performances I attended remain the apex of my concert experiences. Long live the kings, Led Zeppelin!
Pete Saloutos