All four members of Led Zeppelin signed 15-year contracts in 1976 that set up the legal framework for the band to continue performing until at least 1991, LedZepNews can reveal.

Employment contracts signed by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones along with Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant with a Dutch business used to minimise the group’s tax bill were long term agreements designed to futureproof Led Zeppelin’s finances.

Copies of employment contracts signed by Bonham and Grant were entered into evidence in the $2 million civil lawsuit filed by three of Bill Graham’s employees after they were assaulted backstage at the Day on the Green festival on July 23, 1977.

S&L, the Dutch business that employed Led Zeppelin, was a defendant in the lawsuit and introduced the band’s contracts into evidence.

LedZepNews has published the employment contracts as part of The Day on the Green Files, a collection of articles about the impact of the 1977 violence and the documents that emerged following the festival.

The employment contracts show that Led Zeppelin was prepared to continue as a group for at least the next 15 years, securing the band’s finances and offering fans a glimpse of how Led Zeppelin would have continued if Bonham hadn’t died in 1980.

Bonham and Grant’s contracts were both signed on October 11, 1976, five days after S&L was incorporated in Rotterdam. Bonham’s contract lists his address as Old Hyde Farm, the Worcestershire property he purchased in 1972 that can be seen in the film “The Song Remains The Same”.

Grant’s contract lists his address as Horselunges, the East Sussex mansion where the Led Zeppelin manager lived during the 1970s and 1980s. It can also be seen at the beginning of “The Song Remains The Same”.

“The Company shall pay all expenses which are who exclusively and necessarily incurred by the Employee in performance of his duties hereunder,” the contracts read, “and in addition shall [not visible] all first class travelling and hotel expenses incurred by the Employee in relation to the performance of his duties hereunder, and supply all such stage wear equipment and assistance as the Employe may reasonably require for the performance of his duties.”

Bonham and Grant were each paid an annual salary of 125,000 Dutch Guilders by S&L, the documents show.

The members of Led Zeppelin agreed in the documents to “maintain a good state of health” and agreed not to “engage in any hazardous or dangerous pursuit”.