| Concert Tour Name: | Europe 1971 |
| Artist: | Led Zeppelin |
| Album: | Led Zeppelin IV |
| Start Date: | 3 May 1971 |
| End Date: | 8 August 1971 |
| Number Of Legs: | 3 |
| Number Of Shows: | 6 |
| Last Tour: | United Kingdom Spring 1971 |
| This Tour: | Europe 1971 |
| Next Tour: | North America 1971 |
Led Zeppelin's 1971 European Tour was a concert tour of Europe by the English rock band. The tour commenced on 3 May and concluded on 5 July 1971. It included one concert at Liverpool, England, which was a rescheduled date from their preceding tour of the United Kingdom.[1] It is possible that other unverified dates in Europe were also performed during this period.[2]
Though being very short in duration, this concert tour was well known, primarily because of the extremely violent crowd disturbance which took place at the band's concert at the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan on 5 July.[3] [4] [5] This festival appearance in front of an audience of 15,000 people was abandoned when hundreds of tear-gas wielding riot police charged into the crowd. The group were forced to leave the stage and many fans were injured. Some of the group's equipment was also damaged in the chaos. The band's singer Robert Plant later recalled:
The concert has been described as one of the low points of Led Zeppelin's career, and the band never again returned to Italy.[6]
All track written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, except where noted.
The fairly typical set list for the tour was:
There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. On 3–4 May Led Zeppelin played "Four Sticks" (Page, Plant), the only known times it was performed by the original band.[7] Also played on 3–4 May was "Gallows Pole," two of only four complete known live performances, the third performance occurring later that year on 19 August 1971 at Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada, and the fourth on 16 November 1971 at St Matthew's Baths Hall, Ipswich, UK.
| Date | City | Country | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leg 1 – Denmark & England | |||
| 3 May 1971 | K.B. Hallen | ||
| 4 May 1971 | Fyns Forum | ||
| 10 May 1971 | University of Liverpool | ||
| Leg 2 – Italy | |||
| 5 July 1971 | Velodromo Vigorelli | ||
| Leg 3 – Switzerland (warm-up shows for following tour[8]) | |||
| 7 August 1971 | Montreux | Switzerland | Montreux Casino |
| 8 August 1971 | |||