Led Zeppelin Concert Memories: Nassau Coliseum, February 14th 1975

From Underground Uprising uuweb.led-zeppelin.us

Feb 14, 1975,
Nassau Colliseum, NY

We were in Massachusetts and heard that Zep was going to be playing in NY.. we tried to get tickets but the show was long sold out.

A few days before the show, we decided to take a chance that we will be able to buy some tickets… so five of us, day of show, got up early and drove to NY and arrived at the parking lot of the colliseum early,,, around noon. We’re hanging around in parking lot, and some guy, very long hair , a bit older than us comes by and asks if we are going to the show. I said yes, if we can get some tickets… He advised us that he had tickets for sale ,… 6 together , 14th row centre. We only needed five and I asked how much .. He said 25.00 each ( a lot of money then).. I had worked for Don Law before at some concerts so knew about counterfeit tickets so I said OK, let’s go to the Box Office and if they verify the tickets, we’ll take 5.

We go to box office and I ask the lady if tickets are OK and she says ” I don’t know how you got these but they are some of the best seats in the house” ! so we negotiated and bought the 5 for 20.00 each.
This is the stuff that fairy tales are made out of !! We are literally stunned… not only are we in but on the floor – 14th row ..

One of the guys we were with was quite well off so he went out and bought a camera and a tape recorder…. He knew that I had previously recorded a number of concerts so he put me in charge of the recorder. I sneak the recorder in, a Panasonic… nothing fancy… security was tight but not like it is today.. Having recorded a number of shows before, I knew a bit about levels…. I set the levels low… but as the final tapes show, ultimately, not low enough.

Show get’s underway… it is electric !! and LOUD !
Whether you were a Zep fanatic or not, Zeppelin were powerful and used dynamics in a way that many bands then ( and now) do not …Only but a few, Jimi, The Who, … could equal the power of Zeppelin in this show.
The band clearly were enjoying themselves… Plant wishing everyone a “Happy St. Valentines Day…
the last of the papan holidays “……
He sings a few snippets of Tangerine…. in a teasing way…

One of my most vivid memories of the show is Page and the theramin during Whole Lotta Love.,.. just incredible… he was like a sorcerer… coercing unearthly sounds out of the theramin…waving his hands back and forth… like a magician… incredible imagery… I’m taping the show and at some point, everyone stands up… … I knew better but I foolishly get up and aim the mike towards the stage…. Some minutes later, I see a group of guys on the side of the stage pointing towards me… I quickly place the recorder under my seat and cover it with my jacket.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, three big goons are there asking ” where is the recorder?”..
What recorder ?…. of my friends says …. they quickly look around and then leave.
Years later, I read somewhere about Richard Cole and he talks about going out into the audience and beating up tapers and then tossing them out… I looked in his book and sure enough, one of the goons had been Richard Cole… so… this tape almost did not make it… and I probably had escaped a beating !!

I listened to the tapes over the years and … eventually a few split ( which accounts for some of the missing pieces in some songs,,,, original tapes ( 3) were virtually complete ). Again, we’d listen to theses ( and other shows) in a little cassette recorder, perched above the fryolater in a restaurant,,,, it’s lucky they survived at all…

A number of years later, I started to collect Hendrix and eventually got in touch with one of the big tape traders of the day (not just Jimi, he collected, sold, bartered tapes of most any band). ( this was long before Internet, personal CD burners, etc ) I asked him if he could fix the tapes and of course, he said yes…. The agreement was that he would not trade or sell the tape but that he would make a copy for “his own personal collection”. I sent the tapes off and he did indeed repair them and sent back to me the originals plus a safety copy…

Sure enough, a year or so later, I see that a boot had been made of this show !! This really did not bother me too much.. but I lost faith in this fellows word….It was good to see this show out there…

Only recently did I have the original tapes transferred to CD… Indeed, on some songs , there is bass overload but not to the point of ruining the audio…I’ve read that there were two sources of this show… mine is with the bass overload in various places.. I have a few photos of the show… around here somewhere…

To me, this is one of Zeppelin’s finest shows….

Gregory Gunter