Previously unseen photographs of Led Zeppelin performing in Los Angeles in March 1975 have been published online for the first time.
Mark Seidman published the photographs, which were taken at The Forum in Los Angeles on March 24 and March 25, 1975, to the official Led Zeppelin forum.
“I was up in my attic and discovered a gold mine,” he wrote.
“I was 21 and determined to get great seats to see Led Zeppelin. As crazy as it sounds (and it was), we camped out for three nights at the Forum in Los Angeles to be first in line when tickets went on sale for the final three shows of their tour.”
“My friends and I had it all planned out. We wanted to be sure to end up with tickets to all three shows, so we each were to buy tickets for a specific date. When the ticket windows opened, I asked for the best possible seats for my date. I was stunned when she handed me Section B, Row 1. Front row, almost dead center.”
“She had no idea why I was yelling and jumping up and down and why there were hundreds of people lined up to get tickets to these shows. Our seats for all three nights were in the first two rows. The top ticket price was $8.75. That was 45 years ago. I snuck my camera in. I was sure they’d confiscate it. Fortunately, they didn’t.”
“I had a Honeywell Pentax with a zoom lens and three rolls of Ektachrome for the first two nights. Real SLR camera. Real slide film. I left my camera home on the final night so that I could totally take in the spectacle,” he added.
Seidman told LedZepNews that he first saw Led Zeppelin perform in 1970 at The Forum in Los Angeles.
“At the time, there wasn’t much security at the shows so my friends and I left our lousy seats and soon found ourselves right in front of the stage,” he said. “It was an overwhelming experience for a 16 year old kid. I remember wishing that I had brought a camera with me.”
“In 1972, I had managed to snag second row seats to see The Rolling Stones. I took a camera in and got some amazing shots, but far more were blurry, underexposed etc. I learned a lot about how to shoot concerts that night, so I’d be ready whenever my next chance came around.”
So when he managed to get tickets to Led Zeppelin’s 1975 US tour, Seidman again took his camera into The Forum.
“I snuck my camera in under my jacket and shot three rolls each of the first two nights. When I got my slides back from the developer, I knew I had some pretty good shots. That was 45 years ago. I was 21 at the time.”
“Fast forward to now. I was up in my attic looking for something unrelated and found boxes of slide projector trays. One of them was labeled ‘LZ 1975.’ I bought a device to convert them to digital images and with the benefit of some digital cleanup, I was pretty excited to discover that some of them were as good as I remembered.”
“I shared about 20 of the best ones on Facebook, but only a few of my Facebook friends are Led Zeppelin fans. I knew that serious Led Zeppelin fans would probably enjoy them so was more than happy to share them on the ledzeppelin.com forum.”
You can view the full collection of photographs in two separate official forum threads. The first thread is here, and the second thread is here.
Saw the tour in Madison Square Garden in May prior to plant’s sons death.
Grat show.
Great pics You’re The Luckiest person front row are you serious
The show they did in 1975 at the Capitol Center in Lanham,MD.I was only 13 and snuck to the concert and when I got home needless to say the belt was waiting but that show changed my whole life.Thanks for the violent bow Jimmy I still have it.
Jimmy was the first real guitar player that I was drawn too. I listened to Jeff and Eric but Jimmy during the late 60’s and early to mid 70’s was so special. Since then I’ve been introduced to and admired everyone from SRV, Terry Kath, Jeff Healey, Jimi, Joe Bonamassa, David Gilmour Gary Moore, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Derek Trucks, Albert King and Collins to name a few! Jimmy started me on listening to awesome guitar players. Thank you Mr. Page and Led Zeppelin!
A truely legendary band,thank you LZ I grew up loving you I still do !!!!!!@
A true band of great legends that will always be….
The Zep Rules!
Thank you very much for sharing. Led Zeppelin are my favorite.
i think page and plant should write record and tour again. sorry jonesy. i saw em twice. better than van hagar
Wow, I have a whole bunch of photos from those shows. I was in the second row. Had my Topcon RE super with a 180mm f/4 concert lens once I get my stuff digitized I’ll post some. I didn’t sneak my camera in. I just had it around my neck nobody said a thing.