Led Zeppelin Inner City Blues Volume 1: Southampton Broadcast 1973

STUNNING EARLY 1972 BROADCAST

 

Led Zeppelin released their fourth album on 8 November 1971. Led Zeppelin IV has gone on to sell 37 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums in history, and its massive popularity cemented Zeppelin's status as superstars in the 1970s. 

 

The group followed up the album's release with tours of the UK, Australasia, North America, Japan, and the UK again, from late 1971 through early 1973. Two of the early gigs in the UK occurred in late January ’72, when Zeppelin descended on the southern port city of Southampton. Performing at the Gaumont Theatre on 21st January, in front of 2,500 fans. The next night the band turned up at Southampton Uni and set up in the union - or ‘the old ref’ as most of the students referred to it. The gig was superb and was recorded and broadcast by local radio.

 

Jimmy Page had requested that the band play a smaller venue on this tour, with the possibility of releasing it as a live album at a later date. The album never materialised. This remarkable concert is now available on this new two-instalment set however, more than 50 years after it took place, and will surely delight the millions of fans still flying the flag for this essential quartet.