Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, You Shook Me, How Many More Times (incl. "Lemon Song"), Communication Breakdown, Long Tall Sally.
Review: Great Zeppelin Closed Newport, Despite Ban!
For the first and last time, British groups may have suffered as a result of the 16th annual Newport Jazz Festival, held last weekend in Newport Rhode Island.
The three day event attracted a record crowd of some 80,000, the heaviest attendance figures of 25,000 coming on Friday night, which was devoted entirely to heavy rock. It also attracted the attention of the local authorities who, because of the tension and near riotous situation which prevailed on the same Friday night, demanded that Led Zeppelin be cancelled from the final bill on Sunday, and subsequently revoked the permission given for the opening concert on the Blind Faith tour.
Getting down to the festival itself for the first time, promoter George Wein was persuaded to run rock acts. If I recall, the first show he booked into this category was English – Jeff Beck, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, John Mayall and Led Zeppelin - was the count of UK acts.
Beck, Ten Years and Jethro all appeared Friday, along with Roland Kirk and Blood Sweat and Tears. Beck had the responsibility of closing an incredible show which was literally a six-hour swing through the best in rock.
Excitement caused tension, tension provokes trouble with the local authorities and Newport, hardly used to rock, told George Wein to cancel Led Zeppelin’s appearance on Sunday, “in the interest of public safety”!
Wein announced the Zeppelin would not appear owing to the illness of one of the group. They showed up on Sunday anyway, following a knockout performance at the Atlanta Pop Festival and at 1am Monday morning, proceeded to go on stage and completely destroy the audience.
It was a strange situation for the Zeppelin to be in. Jimmy Page told me: “You don’t blow a date like this one. Not after all that. The Newport Jazz Festival was far too important to us to just cancel out and I’m very upset at the whole thing. Wein should never have announced once of us was ill.”
That wasn’t all. Johnny Winter was given an hour and a half on stage .Other acts ahead of Jimmy seemed to ignore the time limit set on their performances. Page was uptight, but when he went on stage, that crowd out there was ready and waiting, and Led Zeppelin was prepared to sock it to me – regardless of the unfortunate set of circumstances.
With the Zeppelin’s close, so the 16th annual Newport Jazz Festival came to an end. (J. Harris, July '69)
Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, You Shook Me, How Many More Times (incl. "Lemon Song"), Communication Breakdown, Long Tall Sally.
"Led Zeppelin played the iconic Newport Jazz Festival slot after Buddy Rich and his big band. The festival site was becoming overcrowded and the radio stations started to announce that we weren’t going to appear to try and cut the numbers of people that were travelling to the site. Such was the popularity of the group that we had hijacked such a prestigious jazz festival." - Jimmy Page
News Excerpt: "The crowd was going crazy as Led Zeppelin was introduced Sunday night at one a.m. A standing ovation before they performed."
Review: Great Zeppelin Closed Newport, Despite Ban!
For the first and last time, British groups may have suffered as a result of the 16th annual Newport Jazz Festival, held last weekend in Newport Rhode Island.
The three day event attracted a record crowd of some 80,000, the heaviest attendance figures of 25,000 coming on Friday night, which was devoted entirely to heavy rock. It also attracted the attention of the local authorities who, because of the tension and near riotous situation which prevailed on the same Friday night, demanded that Led Zeppelin be cancelled from the final bill on Sunday, and subsequently revoked the permission given for the opening concert on the Blind Faith tour.
Getting down to the festival itself for the first time, promoter George Wein was persuaded to run rock acts. If I recall, the first show he booked into this category was English – Jeff Beck, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, John Mayall and Led Zeppelin - was the count of UK acts.
Excitement caused tension, tension provokes trouble with the local authorities and Newport, hardly used to rock, told George Wein to cancel Led Zeppelin’s appearance on Sunday, “in the interest of public safety”! Wein announced the Zeppelin would not appear owing to the illness of one of the group. They showed up on Sunday anyway, following a knockout performance at the Atlanta Pop Festival and at 1am Monday morning, proceeded to go on stage and completely destroy the audience.
It was a strange situation for the Zeppelin to be in. Jimmy Page told me: “You don’t blow a date like this one. Not after all that. The Newport Jazz Festival was far too important to us to just cancel out and I’m very upset at the whole thing. Wein should never have announced once of us was ill.”
That wasn’t all. Johnny Winter was given an hour and a half on stage. Other acts ahead of Jimmy seemed to ignore the time limit set on their performances. Page was uptight, but when he went on stage, that crowd out there was ready and waiting, and Led Zeppelin was prepared to sock it to me – regardless of the unfortunate set of circumstances. With the Zeppelin’s close, so the 16th annual Newport Jazz Festival came to an end. (J. Harris, July '69)
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News Report (2): A report that Led Zeppelin would not appear as billed on the Sunday evening Festival program was heard over the radio. This brought the group's manager Peter Grant flying into Newport with lawyer saying that the British group would appear.
Led Zeppelin did appear. Led before a audience of 12,000. Grant later said: "George Wein panicked. It was obvious they weren't going to get everybody in. He thought there'd be about 15,000 who couldn't get in, so they announced that one of the group was ill and they wouldn't appear. This was done without our knowledge. Actually, we came over from England to do the Festival. We were very excited about it. We felt it was progressive musically and would give us a new audience. We feel this hurt the act a lot".
Grant said that Led Zeppelin were planning to do a free concert in the area for the "people who came a long distance to see us and had no way of getting in."
So Led Zeppelin closed the 1969 Newport Jazz Festival - actually with a vintage rock 'n' roll medley that started off with "Long Tall Sally." It is worth noting that when the Festival finished last year, Wein stated: "The public for jazz is incredible - talk of jazz being dead is just ridiculous." Nearly 80,000 attended the four days of the Festival, with three afternoon shows - an increase of 25,000 over the year before. [Billboard / July 1969]
July 11, 2011 10:36pm Jay Hofschneider
I'll never forget this concert.I was 18. My friend Andy and I had hitch hiked to Newport from Rochester NY.The night before, we sat up in the hills behind Festival Field to hear Jethro Tull.It was the first gathering of the tribes of that spectacular summer. When a group of rowdys tried tearing down the fence, The stage announcer said-"Chill out ,People. If you screw things up tonight, you'll screw up Philadelphia, Toronto and the big one at Woodstock!" It was the first I'd heard about Woodstock and I immediately found the tiny ad in Rolling Stone and ordered my tickets. They then announced that Led Zepellin had been canceled, but we had tickets for Sunday and had no intention of leaving as Johnny Winter was still on. When Zep showed up anyway, we knew a new era was upon us. A month later we were at Woodstock and our lives were forever changed.
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Winter and Page
June 9, 2012 11:39pm John D.
I was at the Sunday night concert and remember Johnny Winter and Jimmy Page jamming together...or maybe it was Johnny Winter jamming with Led Zeppelin itself. Whatever, it was unreal. Imagine that, Winter and Page together in a guitar duel.
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Years ago!
March 6, 2011 7:15pm Robin
3 other sailors and myself left Grotten Conn. Sub Base july 4th. to hitch hike to WoodStock NY. we got about 20 miles away from it on the hiway everything was jammed and stoped and no way to get a ride. We hungout with the freeway people a whial then turned back and headed for Newport. We paid and got in a day er so later. We stayed a couple daze saw lots of Rock Stars did a lot of dope and met thousands of people. I have never been to a better consert or had more fun in my us navy stay. We got back a day late and were punished for it, but The Newport Jazz Fest in 1969 was worth it!
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I WAS THERE
May 1, 2010 3:45pm David Bender
I WAS THERE AND SAW JOHNNY WINTER PLAY LIKE THE WIND. I WAS GOING TO GIVE UP GUITAR CAUSE I WASN'T AS FAST AS I WANTED TO BE BUT THEN SAW BB KING AND JOHNNY WINTER JAM AND KNEW I JUST HAD TO BE ME..MY OWN STYLE.
LED ZEPPELIN WAS MY FAVORITE AS I GOT SO MUCH LOVE WHEN I PLAYED THEIR ALBUM...I WENT BACK STAGE WHICH WAS A DIRT PARKING LOT..JUST BEFORE THEY ENDED THEIR SET... I WAS ALONE..NO ONE THERE...DARK. THEY ENDED THEIR SET AND THEN A BLACK LIMO PULLED UP. THEY'RE WERE MANY SET OF OPEN WOODEN STAIRS...THE LIMO PULLED UP TO ONE OF THEM. I GOT CLOSER AND THEN THEY STARTED TO COME DOWN THE A SET OF STAIRS. WOW..MY HERO'S..WOW.! THEY GOT CLOSER AND I WAS SURPRISED AT HOW SMALL THEY WERE. I'M SIX FEET AND WAS SURPRISED. LIMO DRIVER OPENED THE DOOR AND GOT BACK INTO THE CAR. I HELD IT OPEN AS THEY CAME BY. JIMMY DROPPED HIS SCARF..I PICKED IT UP AND HANDED IT TO HIM..THEY LOOKED AT ME AND I JUST SMILED... NOTHING REALLY TO SAY...JUST ONE HELL OF A ROCK BAND.
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Concert description
March 3, 2008 3:36am Argenteum Astrum
Led Zeppelin closed out the final night of the festival with this extremely gutsy and intense performance. The audience was rowdy after as the Zeppelin was reported to be not performed and Plant announced: "A lot of people though that we weren't gonna come here today. There was a lot of talk thtat everyone was ill and bad. There was nothing wrong with us at all and we intended on playing. That's what we've come to America for. We were coming in the first place so don't get any hassles about what we were gonna do and what we weren't. We hope you'll enjoy everything we do tonight and have a ball". Robert's voice is so powerful it wreaks havoc on the recorder! The band is definitely on and Jones and Bonham hit some unreal highs throughout the show, as does Jimmy as well. Some great harmonica soloing from Robert as well and two riotous encores cap this great show.
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Newport Jazz Festival 1969
June 17, 2010 6:03am Richard Peck
BETTER than Woodstock! Smaller, GREAT bill, all three nights rocked!! Newport was a beautiful venue, more so than being in the woods! Led Zeppelin was the perfect ending. THIS type of show will never happen again, EVER!
RDP
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re: concert description
January 5, 2016 5:27pm Ed F
Oh yeah, we did enjoy!
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video
July 4, 2014 11:09amjoe-projectionist
was there film or video shot at the concert and if so is it available?
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led zeppelin @ newport 1969
April 6, 2015 2:06pm jimmy cooper
My 3 friend's and I attended the 8pm show of Led Zeppelin + at the Newport Jazz Festival. We spent the very hot day wandering around the area, we found water, and were climbing rocks and sunbathing, unwittingly getting very bad sunburns in the process. The show began and seemed to take forever, we were digging some and just tolerating others. The temperature had dropped, we were still wearing shorts and t shirts, and with the sunburns, were now freezing, which made having to withstand some rather tedious music all the more painful. Finally, rather late, Led Zeppelin came on. I had heard some of their stuff but was not a fanatic, however seeing and especially hearing them in such a close space that night altered my view of reality, considerably. The main lasting impression of that night was the intense volume of the earth shattering bass guitar, coupled with the relentless attack of the lead guitar , the feedback, distortion, and caterwalling of the singer combined to produce a spectacle on such a grand scale that I have never witnessed duplicated before or since. "Dazed & Confused" & "You Shook Me" seemed to go on for hours. The instruments, so loud, tight, intense and distorted are etched into my sonic memory forever, the massive sound of each line bouncing over under sideways down around and then the new line, chord, shreik, explosion renewing the assault on my senses in what seemed like a never ending cycle of sound. It was a little like torture at times mixed with sublime primal bliss, euphoric mind numbing waves of dense aural tides , entering every ear and firing every brain cell of every attendee in the folding metal chairs with such a fulfilling experience, that calling it a rock concert sounds pathetically shallow.
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Hey.........Born and raised
August 23, 2021 6:08pm Gregg Johnson
Hey.........Born and raised in Newport. Saw this show at the tender age of 13 cause my Mom made my sister drag me there. Does anyone have any photos? My sisters' pctures went the way of the Buffalo years ago.
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