| Concert Tour Name: | United Kingdom & Ireland Spring 1971 |
| Artist: | Led Zeppelin |
| Album: | Led Zeppelin IV |
| Start Date: | 5 March 1971 |
| End Date: | 1 April 1971 |
| Number Of Legs: | 2 |
| Number Of Shows: | 13 (14 originally scheduled) |
| Last Tour: | North America Summer 1970 |
| This Tour: | United Kingdom Spring 1971 |
| Next Tour: | Europe 1971 |
Led Zeppelin's Spring 1971 United Kingdom & Ireland Tour (also known as the Back to the Clubs Tour) was a concert tour of the United Kingdom & Ireland by the English rock band. The tour commenced on 5 March and concluded on 1 April 1971.
For this tour, the band decided to mainly perform at the smaller clubs that they had originally played earlier in their career, rather than large arenas and auditoriums. This decision was made to reward those fans who had been loyal to them from the start of their career. The small, more intimate size of the venues, and the correspondingly smaller ticket sales and gate receipts, was offered as proof that Led Zeppelin wasn't preoccupied with making money and instead endeavoured to create a close connection with their audiences when performing on-stage.[1] However, as the tour progressed, it became evident that this intention was compromised due to thousands of fans being shut out of shows because of the scarce availability of concert tickets.[2]
The Belfast concert on 5 March[3] featured the first public performance of their now-legendary song "Stairway to Heaven", which was played at nearly every subsequent Led Zeppelin show. One scheduled concert from the tour, at Liverpool University, was cancelled and rescheduled to take place during the band's subsequent tour of Europe.
During this period the band members began to experiment with their stage attire, introducing strange caftans and garments and growing longer hair and beards, which gave them a very fashionable appearance.[2]
A fairly typical set list for the tour was:
Encores (variations of the following list):
There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.
| Date | City | Country | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 March 1971 | Ulster Hall | ||
| 6 March 1971 | National Stadium | ||
| 9 March 1971 | Leeds University | ||
| 10 March 1971 | University of Kent | ||
| 11 March 1971 | Southampton University | ||
| 13 March 1971 | Bath Pavilion | ||
| 14 March 1971 | Stoke-on-Trent | Trentham Gardens Ballroom | |
| 18 March 1971 | Mayfair Ballroom | ||
| 19 March 1971 | Manchester University | ||
| 20 March 1971 | Stepmothers Club | ||
| 21 March 1971 | Boat Club | ||
| 23 March 1971 | The Marquee | ||
| 1 April 1971 | Paris Theatre (BBC concert) |