LedZepNews has today published nine previously unseen photographs of Led Zeppelin performing in Frankfurt, Germany on June 30, 1980.
The photographs were taken by Michael Leske who smuggled his father’s camera into the Festhalle arena to photograph the show. We were connected to Leske by LedZepFilm.
“All my mates had left [the] heavy rock community and joined the ‘punk’ camp. But I stayed true to hard rock,” Leske said in an email to LedZepNews. “My heroes were Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin at that time.”
“I discovered Led Zeppelin when I was 15 years old,” he explains, “from the IV album onwards. With the soundtrack album The Songs Remains The Same, Led Zeppelin became the ‘one and only’ live band for me.”
When the band announced its 1980 tour of Europe, Leske knew he had to attend and planned to document the show. “I smuggled my father’s camera into the hall, which was forbidden,” he recalls.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get any closer to the stage – I didn’t want the security to take my camera.”
Leske shot the show using his father’s Zeiss Ikon Contaflex camera. All of the photographs are now able to view on the LedZepNews Flickr page. You can view all of the concert photographs in the album here. Click the arrows below to move through the images.
The publication of Leske’s photographs follows the release yesterday of previously unseen photographs of Led Zeppelin performing at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 14, 1977 and Monday’s publication of 22 previously unseen photographs of Led Zeppelin performing in Dallas, Texas on May 18, 1973.
I went to led zeps concert at Randwick in Sydney in @1972 wow it was unforgettable still am a lover of your music
There were many US service personnel at this show as confirmed by the pic..
To those who saw the mighty Led Zeppelin perform live I admire you. I am not worthy. I bow down.
Kezar Staduum SanFrancisco.
June 2, 1973. A top 20 life moment.