The latest of Carl Lee's guest blog posts describes his decision to walk to see the biggest rock band in the world - and just as well that he did...
Walking to Knebworth
In August 1979, Led Zeppelin, who at that time were arguably the largest rock band in the world, played two huge outdoor shows in the parkland of Knebworth House just south of the Hertfordshire new town of Stevenage. It was the first outdoor ‘festival’ gig that I had attended and I walked there.
Back in the sixth-form in the late 70s and early 80s, musical tribes vied with each other for perceived gradations of ‘cool’ but strangely Zeppelin were able to cross these clearly demarcated boundaries. I was more likely to be listening to the Clash or Ian Dury at the time, and Zeppelin’s last album, ‘In Through The Out Door’ was clearly their most ‘meh’ album to date.
Yet Zeppelin had not played live in Britain for four years and there was clearly a sense of ‘event’.
If we didn’t go because my musical tastes were evolving from Radio Caroline classic rock to something more edgy and contemporary that really would not be smart. Saturday jobs were enabling of the seemingly affordable £7.50 ticket price: an absolute snip by today’s stratospheric standards of festival tickets. The question was how to get there.
I’m not sure whose idea it was but being early August and with no school the summer holidays stretching out ahead of us and it was decided that we’d walk there from Leighton Buzzard, where we lived, a distance of some 28 miles.
So on 2nd August we set off trudging the roads, crossing the A5 and M1 before alighting at Sharpenhoe Clappers, a chalk escarpment a few miles north of suburban Luton. We set up camp just as the sun was setting to avoid detection from outraged locals and did foolish teenage things.
Drone footage of the Sharpenhoe Clappers
In the morning we set off to complete the 12 miles to Knebworth. This was a more rural route taking us through the villages of Lilley, Kings Walden and St Paul’s Walden before attempting to find the entrance onto the site. To say we were excited would be a huge under-statement although the chaos of the camping area was a shock. Drop latrines, rubbish everywhere, menacing rockers chuntering ‘acid, acid, acid’, hardly any food and already the real hardcore staking out their pitch close to the stage. And this was just Friday night.
Saturday broke and to be honest I don’t have many clear recollections of the rest of the day apart from the fact we were a long way back behind folk much taller than us and with the wind swirling the sound around.
The only support act that stuck in my mind was Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and that was possibly because of the impossibly tight spandex trousers he was wearing.
Check out the track 'Singring and the Glass Guitar'....
When night fell and Zeppelin came on stage the excitement was electric.
I have had to go back and watch a film of the gig to reconfirm my impression at the time:that this was a rather uncertain show, rambling and lacking sharpness.
And also, because of the distance from the stage and the wind taking the sound away, it was not exactly the greatest aural experience - but hey it was Led Zeppelin playing live!
It was almost like touching a holy relic, a band of mythical proportions whose music along with Pink Floyd were my first teenage crush. That was probably enough. I bought a sweatshirt from the gig. Somebody’s parents picked us up the next day, bedraggled, in need of a bath, hung-over but with a cracking yarn for the sixth form common room.
Interestingly, looking back over Wikipedia some comments from the music journalist Chris Welch caught my eye. Attending the show he observed that
“Audience reaction at Knebworth had not been overwhelming and many seemed content to stand and stare like mesmerised spectators at an alien ritual.”
Having now been to outdoor shows where the audience has been in raptures and the act or band has been absolutely flying I can completely concur with Welch’s observations. It may have been Led Zeppelins biggest gig but it certainly was not their finest. Yet at the time it was a magical adventure, and it was made much better by walking there.
It was a sort of pilgrimage.
Here's another review as well:
And a recording of one of the concerts.
Led Zeppelin: 4th August 1979
In an interview he gave in 2005, Robert Plant said:
"I was racked with nerves. It was our first British gig in four years and we could have gone back to the Queen's Head pub. We talked about doing something like that. But instead we went back in such a flurry and a fluster to 210,000 people in a field and 180,000 more the next day, surrounded by Keith and Ronnie and Todd Rundgren. Nobody's big enough to meet those expectations. But because there was some chemical charge in the air, it worked. It didn't work for us. We played too fast and we played too slow and it was like trying to land a plane with one engine. But it was fantastic for those who were there."
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