led zeppelin at 52nd. and college ave.

[david]

i read about it in a book, that zep played,for free, in a basement below paul's barber shop at that corner about 1969. just before the first album release. does anyone also know of this, or maybe attended?

[Jeb Banner]

seriously? That would be amazing.

[Evan Finch]

Haven't heard about Led Zepplin -- but I read an interview with John Hiatt recently, in which he mentioned seeing the Yardbirds play at 52nd and College when he was growing up here. Must have been the same space.

[John Scot Sheets]

I read the same interview with John Hiatt, he said Page was playing with a violin bow. I have asked lots of folks about this but never got any info. Maybe it was The New Yardbirds, not Zep.

[Dave Bostwick]

According to their website, they first played as Led Zeppelin starting in September 1968 in Europe, then came to the US in December and played in Denver and then LA, although they continued to be billed as the Yardbirds during the fall of 1968. It's pure speculation, but it's not inconceivable that they could have played a warmup show sometime before their first official US concert (where they were added to an existing bill), which would have been just before their first album came out in January 1969.

[Evan Finch]

Here's the relevant segment from the Hiatt interview.

[jeff]

On a related note, my Dad saw The Yardbirds at the Fountain Square Theater sometime in the late 60's. He knows that it was post-Clapton, but pre-Page, so it was probably '66 or '67. I love their stuff, Paul Samuel-Smith is one of my biggest musical influences.

[Scott Hall]

For what it's worth, Toby Myers of Roadmaster/Mellencamp fame once spoke of attending a New Yardbirds show in Fountain Square. Lots of early Zeppelin material, violin bow and all, and he stood on a Coke bottle to see over the crowd.

[nora]

Someone should ask Paul....he loves to talk. And talk. And talk.

[LUMPY REPELLENT]

John Scot Sheets said:

I read the same interview with John Hiatt, he said Page was playing with a violin bow. I have asked lots of folks about this but never got any info. Maybe it was The New Yardbirds, not Zep.

The Yardbirds played at 'Middle Earth' seems like it was at around 34th and Illinois street. Page was in it.

[david]

yes, middle earth!!! thats one we seem to have forgotten on these venue lists, and all-around nostalgia .tour ....i attended 1 show there, at 34th and illinois /or capital....zappa with mothers.....another almost attended -melanie- but who cancelled @ last minuit,we were told ,by her then [maybe still?] husband-manager peter ?, who did not feel the venue was up to snuff...and it wasn't.! it was a old movie theater, tilted floor , no seats, just sitting on hard cement....not to mention the neighborhood where the local residents did not care for the intrustion of suburban white kids and their loud 'acid=rock noise'...we had full cans of beer thrown at us ,i was hit by a couple, and we barely managed to flee....i recall the venue was rather short-lived........ but speaking of rock venues in indy in early-mid 70's, what about tyndall armory???? lots of folk played there....zappa and group quite regular....and as i mentioned elsewhere, the bush stadium annual summer all-day rock festivals.... AND WHO REMEMEMBERS 'THE SHERIDAN BARN?' think thats what it was called, advertised on wnap by chris conner, et al......

[John Scot Sheets]

What year was the Middle Earth? I dirve past that building at least once a month, and really want to break into it and look around, It seems to be part of a body shop or something that is attatched to it now, me and the missus always joke that it is a chopshop. We walked all the way around it a couple years ago, great building, maybe one of my favorites.

Just how many times did the Yardbirds play in Indy? We have many sightings and I'm getting confussed.

[LUMPY REPELLENT]

The Whiteland Barn had the Who in 1967