I've been to over two hundred concerts since the early seventies, but nothing can compare before or since to the Led Zeppelin show at Tampa Stadium on the night of June 3rd 1977.
I'd bought my ticket in advance and arrived about half an hour before show-time. As I made my way towards the field, the sight that greeted me was astounding. At every entry portal throughout the stands, two cops dressed in full riot gear stood silent sentry. Clear shields, clubs, leggings, helmets... the works. I'd seen the Tampa police present in large numbers before, but never anything like this. As the entire stadium became visible, I realized that even the walkway rows in the stands were completely full of people. There was not one square foot of un-rented real estate in the place. I couldn't put my finger on it then, but there was a certain strange 'electricity' in the air. Very weird. I remember thinking that it felt like something very big was about to happen.
I made my way down onto the field, just to the right of center near the 20 yard line where some friends were already waiting for me. There on stage was Bonzo's drums and all their gear. It was a towering sight. One look told me that the band who owned that meant business. I'd never seen Zeppelin before, but I knew for sure that I was in the right place.
Just before dark they came on. No opening act. It was like throwing a switch. They kicked right into it, no holds barred, and the massive 70,000+ crowd responded in cheers. From where we were standing, it was like being strapped to the front of a run-away freight train. I'd seen The Who a year earlier in Jacksonville, right up against the barricade, so I thought I'd seen it all. But boy was I wrong!
It was easy to think then that we were in for one hell of a night. But it was simply not to be. I can still hear them about 20 minutes into their set, wailing out strains of 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' as the first grape-sized drops of rain began to fall. Just as the song neared it's end, the rain got so bad that the band was forced to leave the stage, saying that they would be back when the shower was over. The crowd, already pumped up by a taste of this fine jam, waited patiently through the downpour.
It rained for at least half an hour. Maybe 45 minutes. And then just as suddenly it was over. We were all beginning to get up and shake off the rain when a voice came over the PA system and simply said that everyone had to leave the stadium. That the show had been canceled. They issued this command over and over with no other explanation. No mention of rescheduling that I could hear from my vantage point. No mention of whether we'd be getting our money back. Nothing. My ticket stub said "rain or shine". I suspected everyone else's did too because it wasn't 30 seconds before bottles began pelting that stage. I stood there in utter amazement watching a steady stream of objects raining down on their gear. The voice came through the PA again, this time issuing threats if we did not leave immediately. The hailstorm of bottles grew even worse. That's when I knew for sure there was going to be trouble.
This went on for another two or three minutes before I noticed the long line of black helmets filing in on the other side of the crowd barricade. They weren't fifty feet away from my vantage point, trotting single file, left to right. Then, with no further warning, over the barricade they came. An immediate stampede followed. Everyone in front of me just turned and ran as fast as they could. I soon learned the source of their motivation....
Before I knew what was happening, I was stepped on, knocked to the ground and run over. By the time the crowd cleared, there they were... the meanest bunch of cops you'd ever want to see. They were two-abreast and busting the crap out of anybody that was in their way. 'In their way' at this point meant the dozens of other poor souls who like me, had just been stampeded and were trying to get to their feet. The two cops who were moving in my direction chose to bash the couple to my left instead, which gave me a chance to gather myself. In an instant, I got to my feet and surveyed the bedlam going down all around me. What especially caught my eye was the mayhem at the far end of the field. Where everyone had been flushed by the police. Everywhere it was insanity in motion. I don't even know how to describe it. Missiles were flying. Thousands of people were running in every direction. Screaming. Trying to get away. Angry police and confused fans could be standing right next to each other at any given time, but would not even be aware of the other's proximity. Too much to take in during the space of a moment. A friend who had been knocked down with me urged me to come with him and "get the hell out of here". But me, being young and very pissed off at what I'd just seen, decided to head for the other end of the stadium where my brothers and sisters needed me more.
The fuzz were trying to force what the papers said were "between 3,000 & 5,000 rioters" into one of the four huge exit portals at the west end of the field, but so far had only managed to drive them to the back of the far end-zone. As I ran up upon this scene, I could clearly see why the cops weren't advancing any further... A battle line had been drawn. A long line of cops on one side and hundreds of angry jeering longhairs on the other, with a sort of 'no man's land' in the middle. I darted across that silent space and into the biggest mass of pissed-off, snarling, steaming, oath-spewing, bottle-hurling rock n' roll people I'd ever seen. I had just turned to join in the face-off when the police made another charge and finally succeeded in pushing us back through the end-zone portal. It took a lot of blood and quite a few busted fingers, but we somehow managed to closed the huge gates on them so they couldn't force us out any further. Every time a cop would lay his hands on those gates he'd get them smashed with something. Did I mention the missiles? It was unbelievable. The air was loaded with flying things throughout this whole affair. After a while we ran out of things to throw. The papers said a couple of days later that stadium cleanup found 3,000 pairs of shoes.... Like I said, nothing left to throw.
The whole melee was eventually forced out of the stadium and into the west parking lot. Tampa police and Sheriff Auxiliaries busting heads everywhere. Thousands of people running in all directions. At one point, I was knocked to the ground by a blow to the back of my head. As my vision stabilized and I lay there looking up, I was astonished to see a virtual meteor shower of objects criss-crossing above where my head had been just moments earlier.
I got to my feet and spied two Sheriff deputies about thirty feet away, standing there amidst the utter pandemonium, talking to each other just as calmly as you please. They were standing very close together, talking face-to-face. Looking to the ground, I saw a beer bottle lying a few feet away. I grabbed that sucker by the neck and in one movement, hurled it end over end, right at those two helmet-headed cops. But my aim was too true. The bottle passed right between their faces! I mean, there couldn't have been a hand's width on either side. They had helmets on, but their faces were not protected. It would have been a major injury to a cop if it had connected, but there was hardly time for regret. A second after I let-fly, I was slammed to the ground from behind by two more Sheriff deputies and cuffed. They dragged me away to a small secure room there on-site and threw me in with a few others. A little while later, I even got to ride in the paddywagon!
First they took us to the city stockade and put us in a holding cell with about twenty other dudes. I swear to God, they couldn't fit another person in there. Standing room only. All concert-goers. Many bleeding. Many shouting for help. All ignored by a fat cop working at his desk not ten feet away. I spent the rest of the night in County lockup, and was arraigned the next morning on a very serious charge.... "Hurling a deadly missile at a police officer in the line of duty" (the two cops who took me down saw the whole thing, and were later present to testify at my trial). There were many other arrests that night, but only three felonies. Me being one.
After a few months, my trail date came up and my hotshot lawyer got the charge reduced to malicious mischief. I guess because I had no adult record and nobody got hurt. Not to mention by the time any of us made it to court, the whole Led Zeppelin affair had become a bad taste in the city's mouth and everybody just wanted to wash their hands of it. It was an experience that Tampa (and the rock and roll community here) would live with for a long time. It was quite a while before they would even allow another concert at the stadium (The Eagles in 1980, I think it was).
The next day, the newspaper ran a great picture (big) on the front page showing these two riot-clad cops dragging this totally bewildered-looking fan away. The disturbing thing to me was the sneer of hate on this one cop's face. A very clear message, and not surprising to anyone who was there. They were ready for trouble. We later learned that Led Zeppelin had been chauffeured away before the rain had even stopped. The Tribune ran a picture of their limo streaking away. You could see Plant through the window looking very distraught. When all the dust settled, it came out that the city had canceled the show after the rain due to some kind of curfew at the stadium or something.
It was a real bust but at least I got to see them. And they were really cooking! They received a life-time ban on performing in the city of Tampa, so needless to say they never came back to the area again. The Tampa police were eventually saddled with the lion's share of the blame. Coming from one who actually saw it, I think it's safe to say that they were at least 75 percent at fault. You just don't go and rush a pumped-up crowd of over 70,000 LZ fans and get away with it. It was a mistake of colossal proportions and absolutely hand's down the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
Three days later, Bob Ross with the St. Petersburg Times wrote... “Never in 10 years of active concert-going have I felt harmonious vibrations become waves of sheer terror so quickly. . . . I saw soaked, panic-stricken people trapped desperately between pounding police sticks and the immobile throng behind them”. Then-Zeppelin spokeswoman Janine Safer said in Rolling Stone #243, that... "The entire situation from top to bottom was handled as miserably as anything could conceivably be handled" (there's a couple of photos in that issue including the one of the poor bewildered freak in the clutches of the evil hateful cop). The papers said the next day that there were 27 car crashes around the area of the stadium that night.... fans caught up in the mass exodus who just wanted to get the hell away from a really bad experience.
Not long after this, the stampede incident at The Who show in Cincinnati happened and the days of festival seating were almost over. Tell me.. when was the last time you went to a concert and saw a human-pyramid or a blanket-toss on the field, or hundreds of Frisbees flying through the air all at once? Now you have little old ladies with flashlights who show you to your seat. I can see my friends over there but I can't get to them. So much of the communal spirit has been quashed with the taming of the rock arena.... Rock will never be the same again. It was the end of an era that was old as rock itself.