Friday, November 28, 2008

Day 259: 6/27/1980 Nuremberg, Germany

6/27/1980 Nuremberg, Germany  Bedtime for Bonzo
Train Kept a Rollin', Nobody's Fault But Mine, Black Dog

The tape begins near the end of the first verse of Train Kept a Rollin'. Things almost fall apart at the end of the song when Bonzo loses track of the beat. The problems continue during the initial verses of Nobody's Fault But Mine. Despite this, Page manages to deliver an excellent sticky-fingered guitar solo. As the song ends, he announces "there's two of us tonight who aren't feeling at all well... a bit of stomach trouble, so we're gonna do our best whatever, as usual." It's obvious that Bonzo is in bad shape, frequently falling behind the rest of the band during Black Dog. He can be heard saying "no way!" as Plant introduces In the Evening. Unfortunately, the song would not be played tonight. Following a long pause, Plant announces "just got a slight technical problem, if you can bear with us." The tape ends shortly thereafter without further explanation. Apparently, the band was forced to cancel the show after Bonzo collapsed onstage, allegedly the result of consuming a large quantity of bananas earlier in the day.

The tape is another excellent soundboard recording.

2 comments:

Elvis Christ said...

Bananas...right.

Anonymous said...

I was at this concert. I saw it all, from beginning to end. It was a very sad day in my life to say the least. I was in the Army just before my 18th birthday. I always wanted to see Led Zeppelin, my all time favorite band. I wanted so badly to hear them play "In The Evening". The song ended before the guitar lead-in portion had begun. I can say that I did see them, only 3 months before John Bonham left us. I will always be grateful for what I did get to experience, thank you Robert, Jimmy, John Paul and John Bonham. No one can truly appreciate Led Zeppelin until you've seen them live! In 1993 I saw Robert Plant's Fate of Nations tour and in 1995 I saw Page & Plant's Unleaded Tour... it sounded far better than any CD. They are simply amazing!