Neal Preston

Gelatin silver photographs, each signed by the photographer in ink on front below the image. Each approximately 14 x 11 in.; 360 x 280 mm or the reverse. 

"the drugs turned on them..."  led zeppelin's  last american tour was a staggering financial success. Through the spring and summer of 1977  they played to wild crowds over 44 dates until the remaining 5 dates were cancelled (including JFK stadium) due to the death of Robert Plant's son. Many consider these shows the beginning of modern arena tours "...with its staggered itinerary and massive arena and stadium venues, [it] became the blueprint for which the likes of Bruce Springsteen and U2 would base their multimillion dollar tours during the Eighties and Nineties." (Lewis.  Led Zeppelin: Celebration II: The 'Tight But Loose' Files, London: 2003). 

This tour saw Zep playing their last American concert, with the spectacle onstage equaled only by the darkness backstage. "...The kind of people they had around them had deepened into some really criminal types. I think Richard Cole and perhaps some of the band and everybody around the band was so far into drugs at that point, that the drugs turned on them. They still had their moments of greatness..." (Jack Calmes, who provided the staging equipment for all US Zep tours since 1973).