June 3, 1977
Tampa, FL US
Tampa Stadium
Setlist:
The Song Remains The Same, (The Rover intro) Sick Again, Nobody's Fault But Mine.
Notes:
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Click here to view the US '77 Tour Programme (flipbook) |
Show ends early due to rain.
The promoters then ran a full page ad, apologizing to fans for the turn of events – it read:
“Concerts West Apologizes and is sorry for the humiliation & inconvenience to you and your faithful fans at Tampa Stadium, June 3, 1977.
You did everything that you could and wanted to do so much more. You are the best and deserve the best, not the worst treatment.
-Respectfully, Concerts West.
News Report: At Least 100 Injured At Led Zeppelin Concert
TAMPA Fla. - City officials, reeling from a mini riot which erupted when a thunderstorm washed out a Led Zeppelin concert, canceled a rain check rerun Saturday, leaving fans from as far as Michigan and New York holding "rain or shine" ticket stubs.
"If I were in Buffalo, I'd go home right now," said Bonnie Strickland. The 19-year-old youth and three companions had driven 24hours to get to Florida for the concert. Strickland said they were the first ones in the stadium when the doors opened at 11:30 a.m. Friday for the8:30 p.m. concert. After spending the day in 90-degree weather on the sun baked football field, they settled down for the concert.
The British band played for 20 minutes before the thunderstorm hit. About 45minutes later the concert was called off.
The cry "We want Zeppelin. We want Zeppelin" came from the 70,000 fans as rocks and bottles began flying onto the stage."We had what had to be called a small riot. There were between 3,000 and4,000 people who were unruly and disorderly," Tampa Police spokesman Johnny Barker said.
About 250 police officers, all in riot gear and using billy clubs, broke up the rioting and herded the fans out of the stadium. The scene was followed by 26 reported traffic accidents near the grounds. "The cops didn't give any warning," one teen-aged girl said. "They just waded in. I ended up at the bottom of the crowd and a cop kicked me in the head. My brother got a broken leg and broken ribs."
The melee left an estimated 100 fans with injuries. Eight were arrested. Shift Commander Tom Wilson said "in the neighborhood" a dozen officers were treated for injuries." One had a concussion, there was one with a broken hand, one with a broken ankle, one with cut lips and some teeth knocked out, one with a dislocated shoulder..." There were so many people you just couldn't move," a 32 year-old man from West Palm Beach said: "I was just trying to get away. The ticket said rain or shine."
Persons holding ticket stubs can get refunds, but we are encouraging them to mail in their refund requests," Barker said. (Newswire - June 5, 1977)
Comments
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Tampa Concert 1977
I drove down from Tallahassee, and we got to the concert early enough to make it out on the field. It was very hot. The show started and the wind started blowing….hard. It was all so memorable. Jimmy Page was rocking, and the wind was blowing, it was very cool, and then the rain came. It really did pour hard. When the band stopped we assumed they knew it was just a late thunderstorm and that it would clear soon. Then the lights came on. The PA system was blasting away, but on the field all you could hear was garbled echoes. I guess the system is designed to be heard in the stands not on the field. We honestly did not know the show was over. We worked our way right up the front; we wanted to be ready when they came back on stage.
That was when we started seeing all this movement behind the plywood barriers, at first you could not tell it was police officers in full riot gear. In the meantime, small liquor bottles are flying everywhere, mostly from the fans in the seats. They were landing everywhere around us. There was some making it to the stage, but mostly they were crashing in all over the field. There was some shoving and stuff, but none of us in the front could tell what was being said over the PA system, we were still waiting for them to come back out. That was when the barricade came down. The cops rushed the field and they were hitting every person they could reach with their police sticks, it was pandemonium. I remember being knocked down, and being trampled by people. I was lucky enough to get to my feet and stay a few steps ahead of the police. Once they cleared us back about 20 yards things calmed down enough for you to be able to run away if that is what you wanted to do. We ran, left the stadium and drove back to Tallahassee that night. We actually loaded up the next morning and headed back down, I think we stopped an hour of town and decided to call someone, only to find it had been cancelled. It was still a very great couple of minutes.