31 previously unseen photographs of Led Zeppelin performing in Landover, Maryland in May 1977 have been published online for the first time after photographer Bill “Wheelz” Wheeler allowed LedZepNews to release them.
In May, LedZepFilm published Wheeler’s footage he shot at the May 28, 1977 concert. He then connected us with Wheeler via Dylan Kendall. We’re now able to share the photographs online for the first time which likely originate from the first three of Led Zeppelin’s four Landover 1977 shows.
You can view all of the photographs in this Flickr album which is also embedded below. Click the left and right arrows to move through the photos:
“The first show happened to be the same night as my high school graduation ceremony,” Wheeler tells LedZepNews. “I didn’t go to graduation; I went to Led Zeppelin.”
“I camped out outside overnight to get the tickets. Then the night of the show they let us right in the back door at 9 o’clock, and I got the front row for two nights. Then all the rest I can say is it was LED ZEPPELIN for FOUR nights,” he adds.
Led Zeppelin performed in Landover on May 25, 26, 28 and 30, with Wheeler attending every show.
“Looking back on it, though, the acoustic set really kicked me in the ass. They started slow with the ‘The Battle of Evermore’ and ‘Going to California’ and then John Bonham came in and lit it up with ‘Bron-Y-Aur Stomp’. I really enjoyed the whole thing from the start. The way they came out and opened with ‘The Song Remains the Same’, I was blown away,” he continues.
By the time he attended the Led Zeppelin concerts, Wheeler had been photographing concerts for “four or five years,” he recalls.
“I pretty much got to a point where I thought I knew what I was doing. The stage was like 11 feet tall, so I had to stand on a chair to get some of the shots. I would even go to my friend’s seats a couple of rows back to capture the whole band,” he says.
It was a tricky balancing act for Wheeler to juggle filming parts of the performance while also taking photographs. “When I was capturing moments on Super 8, I’d think, ‘Ah, I’d better get a shot of this.’ I’d put the Super 8 camera down and grab my still camera, get a shot, and then pick the Super 8 camera back up to continue filming. So, yeah, it got a little complex, but I figured it out,” he says.
After returning home for the show, Wheeler rushed to develop his photographs, he recalls.
“I think I was home for about 15 minutes, and they were already in the development tank,” he says. “I was printing them about an hour later. That’s how it was after nearly every concert I went to. That was my passion.”
Releasing his footage and photographs for fans to see has been an enjoyable experience for Wheeler. “Looking back at it after all these years, watching the footage and looking at the shots, I know they’re gold, just in my eye,” he says. “To see people’s interest in it hold up through time is overwhelming.”
Was a good video of Led Zeppelin. The sound, though, left plenty to be desired. It’s a well-known fact that Led Zeppelin opened their concerts with “The Song Remains The Same.” Wasn’t able to see John Bonham at all, though.
–never forget the drummer, especially the best ever.
I live in DC area and been to so many concerts at Landover Capital Center (Now a mall), but missed that concert. I saw them at Baltimore Civic Center in 1973 (Now Baltimore Arena) for $6 a pop. I was a fool that I missed the Landover show. Those days Washington area didn’t have big concert venues and people used to go to Baltimore (which was Rock heaven then with 98 Rock station playing all the Rock music of those days). Washington didn’t even had a decent Rock radio before 1975 when they started WWDC (DC 101) to start playing all the Album Oriented Rock (AOR).
The Baltimore show was the Songs Remain the Samd Tour and the Madison Square Garden show and the Nassau Collessium show was filmed for the movie of the same name. They opened the Baltimore show with Rock-N-Roll (Zep IV) and Stairway to Heaven was played later. Encore was Whole Lot of Love. I told my girl friend then (who was a Neil Diamond fan), if you survive the next 2 hours, I am marrying you (We got married on Aug 4, 1973) and she was saying What What because of the loudness.
That was history and I am fortunate, lucky that I saw them LIVE.
Yes you are so very fortunate and lucky to have seen them in 77. My older brother was there but my first concert there didn’t come until a little later with RUSH Permanent Waves. I remember a 14 year old being so happy when the radio announced Led Zeppelin was coming to the Capital Centre for 5 days I jumped through the roof only to be crushed by that same roof a few months later when Bonham died the second saddest day of my life.