Songs performed during this period include: Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, As Long As I Have You, Killing Floor, White Summer / Black Mountain side, You Shook Me, How Many More Times, Communication Breakdown, Pat's Delight
Led Zeppelin & Jose Feliciano.
Songs performed during this period include: Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, As Long As I Have You, Killing Floor, White Summer / Black Mountainside, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, You Shook Me, How Many More Times, Communication Breakdown, Pat's Delight
Led Zeppelin open for Jose Feliciano.
Press Review & Backstage Interview: Saturday night was the concert of contrast. Featured were Jose Feliciano, the popular blind guitarist from Puerto Rico, and Led Zeppelin, a hard blues group from England who has recently experienced a rapid growth in popularity.
During the second half of the concert, Feliciano sang and played his guitar, sometimes quietly with a ballad and at other times wailing on his acoustical guitar, always doing his interpretation of old rock n' roll tunes. Between songs Feliciano joked with his audience in traditional concert style.
But while the audience sat back in their seats listening to Feliciano, they were on the edge of their chairs clapping their hands to the time of the music while Led Zeppelin blasted out their heavy blues numbers.
Robert Plant, lead singer for the group, screamed out his hard driving vocals and Jimmy Page, lead guitarist, demonstrated his own versatility. Page, formerly of the Yardbirds, showed his ability of producing special sound effects by using not only his fingers and pick, but also a violin bow on several songs.
But, it was John Bonham who took the audience on a sensational expedition through sound with his drum solo. Playing a 15-minute solo, Bonham thumped heavily on his bass drum, and beat relentlessly on the rest of his set. During one segment of his solo he put his drum sticks aside to use his hands in pounding out his sound.
When asked after the concert if he usually received as great applause as Saturday, Bonham answered ‘yes’, but added ‘The drums are something which everyone seems to like and appreciate no matter what their taste in music.’
The entire group liked the audience and said that a good audience is an integral part of their music. Page explained ‘it is not only their songs that set the mood of their concert, but the audience too.’
He continued to say that ‘audience involvement sometimes leads to new ideas through improvisation while playing.’
Robert Plant explained that each of their concerts is different. ‘We have a basic program, in as much as there is a shell of a song and verses, but from there we each go our own way and play what we feel ,’ he said.
‘This is why so many groups break up,’ Page added. ''When a group has been around for a while, they run out of ideas and stagnate,’ he continued. Page said their music is always changing. "There is a noticeable difference now from our first album,’ he said. ‘Actually, an album is a statement of what you are doing at the time,’ he explained. ‘Each time we play we are heading in a different direction,’ Page said.
So, the J-Prom concert moved from the raw blues of Led Zeppelin to the soft melodies of Jose Feliciano. Despite some difficulty with the public address system, both groups presented an excellent show. [5/19/69, Steve Shanesy]
Robert Plant: "I remember one night playing Ohio University with Jose Feliciano and the P.A. was a cluster of speakers right up to the apex of the room. The statutory sixties students sitting around looking suitable astonished and the P.A. was miles in the air and there no chance the voice could project.So I did have to kick in a lot in those early days." [2004]
December 7, 2007 6:24pm mark
Everyone left the venue following the Zeppelin show, and Feliciano played to an empty house.
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Went to this show on a whim
April 12, 2009 3:53pm Michael
I traveled about 100 miles to see this show with a friend who wanted to see Feliciano. Really wierd!! The stage was in the round. Plant kept asking for "more treble". I remember college age kids at the stage... only about waist-high... pounding chairs and anything available demanding more encores. UNBELIEVABLE show! How could anybody book LZ with Jose Feliciano? I remember a stand-up comedian doing about 30 minutes between the acts but Jose didn't have a chance. The crowd was so worked up over the LZ set NOBODY could have brought them down for a performance. One of the most amazing evenings of my life!
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On stage in Athens
March 19, 2009 1:26am Mike
Many people did rush the stage; I leapt right up onto it, and sat about 15 feet in front of Bonham's bass drum. We'd had about four months to become familiar with the debut album -- which was plenty amazing, no two ways about it -- but the live show was something else altogether.
Seeing Led Zeppelin when they were new and unknown enough to open for Jose Feliciano is one of the best concert anecdotes I have.
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I was really wrecked and
February 9, 2010 10:14pm Dan
I was really wrecked and don't remember the concert itself that much. But I lived in the Convo Center and had been listening to their first album over and over again on my Zenth Circle of Sound and it blew my mind when I learned they were coming to Athens. The best part: My room mates and I were shooting some hoop when the Zep's equipment arrived the nite before and there was only one roadie and we helped him unload the truck and set everything up. He gave me a drum stick for my effort. I never heard so much swearing and cussing in a British accent.
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Athens Concert
December 11, 2007 9:16pm Terry
The band was fantastic! The house did not clear after Led Zeppelin completed their set. People stayed for Feliciano. Led Zeppelin did steal the show that night.
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I'm the one that went with
May 16, 2009 9:08pm Ty
I'm the one that went with Mike that wanted to see Jose Feliciano. Wow, what a night.
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Re: Athens Concert
November 13, 2008 10:49pm Frank
I really enjoyed the show and it was truly a clash of two cultures. There was no big sound system like today. They played through the arena's built-in P.A. There was a standup comedian who either opened the show or performed between Led Zepp and Feliciano, I can't remember. I could be biased but I believe a sizable portion (maybe 20%) of the audience left when Zeppelin were finished. The stage was barely two feet above the arena floor, constructed from simple risers. My friends and others rushed down and sat with our feet under the stage, elbows on the front edge, so close I could see the rosin dust falling from the bow Page used in one song. I will never forget that show.
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Zep opens for Jose
October 31, 2014 1:09pm Jim Copacino
I was a sophomore in college and attended this surreal concert. I was only vaguely familiar with Led Zeppelin; Jose Feliciano was at the height of his popularity: a mellow, blind acoustic guitarist who sang poppy love songs with a Latin twist. Zep rocked the place. Fans on the leading edge of the music scene knew what was coming and they were there in force. The rest of us looked on with slack jaws--witnessing this guitar-and-drum wielding force of nature.
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Had front row seats. Remember
May 17, 2018 4:02pm
Had front row seats. Remember one of our group passed the herb up to Plant. They killed, brought down the house. Feliciano? Didn't stay