After completing recording sessions for the project, the band played a brief series of European concert dates in early summer, including a festival in Milan, Italy in July that ended early, according to reports, after police fired tear gas into the crowd when the audience rose to their feet to clap along with the group’s performance.
“The eyes were stinging a bit from the tear gas,” said John Paul Jones. “We kept on playing, though.”
After an earlier mix failed to satisfy the band, Jimmy Page remixed “Led Zeppelin IV” in July before Led Zeppelin launched a North American tour in Vancouver, BC the following month, which included songs from the project ahead of its release later that fall.
“When we played ‘Stairway’ at The Forum (in Los Angeles), we got a standing ovation,” explained Page. “It was quite a moment.”
Led Zeppelin played their first-ever Japanese tour in late September, which saw them donate all proceeds of their concert in Hiroshima to the victims of the first atomic bomb in 1945.
“Led Zeppelin IV” was released on November 8; it achieved instant Gold status in the US while topping the UK and US album charts a month later.
See also:
Led Zeppelin celebrate 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin revisit The Battle Of Evermore on 50th anniversary series
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss share final Raise The Roof preview
Led Zeppelin share 1970 performance of What Is and What Should Never Be
Search Led Zeppelin at hennemusic
