{"id":208938,"date":"2025-09-08T00:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T00:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208938\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T00:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T00:48:16","slug":"on-this-day-in-1968-led-zeppelin-made-their-debut-as-the-new-yardbirds-featuring-a-misidentified-robert-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208938\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1968, Led Zeppelin Made Their Debut as The New Yardbirds\u2014Featuring a Misidentified Robert Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comprised of singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, drummer John Bonham, and bassist John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin claimed their place in rock-and-roll royalty. With hits like \u201cGoing to California\u201d <\/a>and \u201cStairway to Heaven,\u201d they released nine studio albums from 1969 to 1982. On this day in 1968, the iconic quartet that we would come to know as Led Zeppelin made their live debut under a different name.<\/p>\n

Few know their name, but without the Yardbirds, we would have never had some of the most seminal rock music of the 20th century. Guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page all got their start there, with Page joining in 1966.<\/p>\n

The future Led Zeppelin founder would record just one album with the Yardbirds, 1967\u2019s Little Games, before the band began to disintegrate. Vocalist Keith Relf and drummer Jim McCarty wanted to pivot to a more folksy direction, whereas Page preferred to continue with the heavier music that Led Zeppelin would eventually perfect.<\/p>\n

John Paul Jones Knew Led Zeppelin Would Be Great Even Before They Were Led Zeppelin<\/p>\n

The Yardbirds officially split in 1968, but they still had a tour of Scandinavia planned for that summer. To avoid violating their tour contracts, Jimmy Page decided to piece together a whole new lineup. Vocalist Terry Reid declined the offer to front the band, but recommended then-unknown singer Robert Plant, who subsequently suggested childhood friend John Bonham as drummer. John Paul Jones, who had previously worked with Page as a session musician, offered to fill the bassist role.<\/p>\n

And thus, The New Yardbirds took the stage together for the first time on Sept. 7, 1968, at\u00a0Gladsaxe Teen Club\u00a0in Gladsaxe, Denmark. Playing for a crowd of 1,200 people, Robert Plant<\/a> was introduced as Robert Plat by Teen Club President Lars Abel. As for how the performance was received, a local news outlet declared the new Yardbirds<\/a> \u201cat least as good as the old ones were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew this was going to be great\u00a0\u2026 We locked together as a team immediately,\u201d John Paul Jones said in an early interview.<\/p>\n

By October 1968, the New Yardbirds had played their final show, re-branding as Led Zeppelin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized we were working under false pretenses, the thing had gone quickly beyond where The Yardbirds had left off,\u201d Page later said. \u201cWe all agreed there was no point in retaining the New Yardbirds tag, so when we got back from Scandinavia we decided to change the name. It was a fresh beginning for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Jorgen Angel\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comprised of singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, drummer John Bonham, and bassist John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":208939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[976,171,35304,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-208938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-classic-rock","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-led-zeppelin","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115165928093417926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}