LedZepNews is today publishing more than 20 previously unseen photos of Led Zeppelin performing at the Seattle Coliseum on March 17, 1975.

We jointly purchased a contact sheet of the photographs through eBay with LedZepFilm who then scanned the contact sheet, allowing us to separate the images digitally and publish them for the first time below.

The photos appear to show the venue before the lights went down, Led Zeppelin performing the first five songs of the show, and then a photo of police officers at the venue.

We believe the photographs were likely shot by Mike Smith who lived in Seattle at the time of the concert before moving to California and Portland, Oregon later in life. Smith died last year.

You can view the Flickr album with all of the photos embedded below (click the arrow buttons to navigate through the images:

Alternatively, click this link to view the photos directly on Flickr.

Tracing the photographer

The contact sheet shows the photos were shot on KODAK TRI-X Pan Film, but the identity of the photographer was unknown. The only clues we had were a handwritten description on the back of the contact sheet and other listings posted by the eBay seller which appears to be a second hand goods seller in Portland, Oregon.

LedZepNews reviewed the other eBay listings currently published by the seller that are active at the same time they were selling the Led Zeppelin contact sheet.

The other eBay listings included copies of Rolling Stone magazine from the late 1970s with subscription labels addressing them to a Michael R Smith with a Seattle address.

Other items listed by the eBay seller included visual arts magazines addressed to a Mike Smith in California, so we knew this person was passionate about both music and the arts and was in Seattle around the time of the Led Zeppelin concert.

LedZepNews used publicly available records to identify Smith’s family and contacted them via email. They confirmed that Smith was a keen photographer with a passion for music who likely attended that Led Zeppelin concert in 1975.

They also recognised the handwriting on the back of the contact sheet and said Smith lived in Portland, Oregon and had a storage unit in the area, explaining the link to the eBay seller.