Led Zeppelin North American Tour Summer 1970

Led Zeppelin's Summer 1970 North American Tour was the sixth concert tour of North America by the English rock band. The tour commenced on 10 August and concluded on 19 September 1970.

North America Summer 1970

Tour by Led Zeppelin
Poster for Led Zeppelin's concert at Seattle, used to help promote its Summer 1970 North American tour
Location	United States Canada
Associated album	Led Zeppelin III
Start date	15 August 1970
End date	19 September 1970
No. of shows	20 (29 planned)
Led Zeppelin concert chronology

Overview

This concert tour was a massive success for Led Zeppelin, as they played to wildly enthusiastic audiences. It was their highest-grossing tour to date (for the two New York City concerts alone, the band grossed $100,000).^[1][2][3] With The Rolling Stones off the road at the time, only The Who could now compete with Led Zeppelin for the title of the world's top concert attraction.^[1] The band were widely hailed as bigger than The Beatles, dethroning them in the polls for the first time in rock history.^[4]

This concert tour was originally scheduled to commence on 5 August at Cincinnati. However, the first week was rescheduled due to the ill health of the father of bass player John Paul Jones. The itinerary was amended several times, leading to much confusion, with the band erroneously being billed to appear at the Strawberry Fields Festival on the weekend of August 8–9.^[1] The tour eventually commenced on August 10 at Hampton.^[5]

During this tour the band mixed their third album at Ardent Studios, Memphis, in August 1970. The album was released in October 1970, shortly following the conclusion of this tour.

Tour set list

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

1. "Immigrant Song" (Page, Plant)
2. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
3. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
4. "Bring It On Home" (Page, Plant, Dixon)
5. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant)
6. "Bron-Yr-Aur" (Page)
7. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
8. "Organ Solo"/"Thank You" (Page, Plant)
9. "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page, Plant)
10. "Moby Dick" (Page, Jones, Bonham)
11. "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)

Encore:

• "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page)
• "Out on the Tiles" (Page, Plant, Bonham) (On 4 September, 6 September (late), and 19 September)
• "How Many More Times" (Page, Jones, Bonham) (On 19 September)
• "Train Kept A-Rollin' (Bradshaw, Kay, Mann) (On 2 September)
• "Blueberry Hill" (Lewis, Stock) (On 2 September and 4 September)
• "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (Bredon, Page, Plant) (On 6 September (late))

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

Tour dates

The original itinerary before John Paul Jones' father's illness was:

Date	City	Country	Venue
5 August 1970	Cincinnati	United States	Unknown
6 August 1970	Detroit		Olympia Stadium
7 August 1970	Cleveland		Cleveland Public Auditorium
8 August 1970	Pittsburgh		Pittsburgh Civic Arena
9 August 1970	Boston		Boston Garden
10 August 1970	Hampton		Hampton Coliseum
11 August 1970	Charlotte		Charlotte Coliseum
12 August 1970	Jacksonville		Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum
13 August 1970	Hollywood		Hollywood Sportatorium
14 August 1970	Chestnut Hill		Boston College Alumni Stadium
15 August 1970	New Haven		Yale Bowl
19 August 1970	Kansas City		Kansas City Municipal Auditorium
20 August 1970	Oklahoma City		Oklahoma State Fair Arena
21 August 1970	Tulsa		Tulsa Assembly Center
22 August 1970	Fort Worth		Tarrant County Arena
23 August 1970	San Antonio		HemisFair Arena
24 August 1970	St. Louis		Kiel Auditorium
25 August 1970	Nashville		Nashville Municipal Auditorium
27 August 1970	Milwaukee		Milwaukee Arena
29 August 1970	Winnipeg	Canada	Winnipeg Arena
1 September 1970	Seattle	United States	Seattle Center Coliseum
2 September 1970	Oakland		Alameda County Coliseum
3 September 1970	San Diego		San Diego Sports Arena
4 September 1970	Inglewood		The Forum
5 September 1970	Honolulu		Neil S. Blaisdell Arena
6 September 1970
7 September 1970	Raleigh		J.S Dorton Arena
12 September 1970	Cleveland		Cleveland Public Hall
14 September 1970	Rochester		War Memorial Auditorium
17 September 1970	Philadelphia		The Spectrum
19 September 1970	New York City		Madison Square Garden
20 September 1970	Washington, D.C.		Cole Fieldhouse

While the final tour dates were:

Date	City	Country	Venue
10 August 1970	Hampton	United States	Hampton Roads Coliseum
15 August 1970	New Haven		Yale Bowl
19 August 1970	Kansas City		Municipal Auditorium
20 August 1970	Oklahoma City		State Fair Coliseum
21 August 1970	Tulsa		Assembly Center
22 August 1970	Fort Worth		Tarrant County Convention Center
25 August 1970	Nashville		Nashville Municipal Auditorium
26 August 1970	Cleveland		Public Auditorium
28 August 1970	Detroit		Olympia Stadium
29 August 1970	Winnipeg	Canada	Man-Pop Festival, Winnipeg Arena
31 August 1970	Milwaukee	United States	Milwaukee Arena
1 September 1970	Seattle		Seattle Center Coliseum
2 September 1970	Oakland		Oakland Coliseum
3 September 1970	San Diego		San Diego Sports Arena
4 September 1970	Inglewood		The Forum
6 September 1970	Honolulu		Honolulu International Center 2 shows
9 September 1970	Boston		Boston Garden
19 September 1970	New York City		Madison Square Garden 2 shows