Led Zeppelin’s July 5, 1971 performance in Milan, Italy was remarkable both for being the band’s only performance in Italy and also for the riot that broke out as police fired tear gas into the crowd.

This early point in Led Zeppelin’s touring career is exhaustively documented in “Led Zeppelin Milano 1971”, a new book edited by Alberto Lo Giudice that is limited to 200 copies and sold directly by its editor.

Lo Giudice spent months sourcing photographs for the book, which focuses solely on this performance and Led Zeppelin’s travel to Milan’s Vigorelli Velodrome.

This narrow scope results in a forensic look at the show, detailing how Led Zeppelin was forced to abandon its performance as fans stormed the stage. 

Lo Giudice’s decision to keep the book focused on black and white photos of a single show means it’s a rare Led Zeppelin book that’s possible to fully endorse, remaining exhaustive in terms of photographs and with careful source notes on the photographers who contributed.

It’s vanishingly rare that Led Zeppelin books surface that are clear labours of love filled with fresh content. “Led Zeppelin Milano 1971” is one of these special titles, deserving a place on fan’s bookshelves next to the 2018 book “Evenings With Led Zeppelin” by Dave Lewis and Mike Tremaglio along with Mark Blake’s 2018 biography of Peter Grant “Bring It On Home”.

As LedZepNews wrote last year, “the most interesting Led Zeppelin activity in 2025 comes not from the band itself, but by outsiders intent on carrying the torch”. This book provides ample evidence of this.

In its opening pages, Lo Giudice documents Led Zeppelin arriving in Milan. John Bonham, possibly drunk, jokingly sits on the luggage carousel for the assembled photographs. Robert Plant appears more concerned with holding on to his plane reading, a copy of the 1968 book “The Quest for Arthur’s Britain” by Geoffrey Ashe.

The photographs selected by Lo Giudice show eager fans awaiting Led Zeppelin’s performance inside the velodrome, unaware of the riot that would take place within hours.

Once Led Zeppelin began performing what would become their sole Italian show, there is an impressive amount of photographs taken of the performance. Shots taken by photographers behind the stage give us a rare view looking down on Led Zeppelin’s performance and the eager crowd.

These shots make it possible to spot details such as John Paul Jones’ spare bass guitar sitting on a pair of white wooden chairs at the side of the stage and a luggage tag tied to the handle on top of a speaker cabinet next to John Bonham.

The sudden outbreak of violence is documented in a series of photographs showing fans rushing the stage. Some have their shirts tied around their faces, working as makeshift bandanas to stop them breathing in the police’s tear gas.

Amid the chaos, the photographs show Jones fleeing the riot accompanied by a crew member holding his bass guitar. Richard Cole, Led Zeppelin’s tour manager, can be glimpsed wading through the crowd to rescue Jimmy Page’s Gibson Les Paul guitar and Jones’ Framus mandolin.

It’s here where an accompanying essay would have been welcome, perhaps quoting the band members regarding the chaos and providing recollections from concert attendees. Instead, Lo Giudice has chosen to let the photographs do the talking, interspersed with occasional newspaper clippings.

For those readers who can’t read the Italian newspaper clippings, their headlines alone reveal enough of the media reaction to the riot. One newspaper branded it a “tifone di violenza”, a “typhoon of violence”. Another branded the show a “desastre en Milan”.

“The police let loose with a salvo of teargas that flooded the audience and band,” Page has said of the show in an On This Day post on his website. “It was clearly a premeditated operation; we lost some equipment that night and also the enthusiasm to play in Italy again.”

Led Zeppelin never returned to perform in Italy, leaving Italian fans of the band short changed. Lo Giudice’s book, however, goes a long way in thoroughly documenting both the show and the typhoon of violence that followed.

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