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A Gazetteer of Led Zeppelin Locations near
Home At First Destinations. |
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• Starting out in
SCANDINAVIA
as The New Yardbirds:
Roskilde, Denmark; September 8, 1968
Copenhagen,
Denmark; September 14-15, 1968
Gothenburg
Sweden; September 18, 1968
Stockholm,
Sweden; September 20-21, 1968
Bergen, Norway;
September 22, 1968
Oslo, Norway;
September 23, 1968
•
Officially Renamed as Led Zeppelin:
Marquee Club (closed 1996), 90 Wardour Street, Soho, London; Oct. 18 & Dec. 10, 1968
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Plymouth, Devonshire;
March 2, 1969
Royal Albert Hall, London;
June 29, 1969 & Jan. 9, 1970
Cardiff, Wales;
March 5, 1969 & December 11-12, 1972
Glasgow, Scotland;
December 3-4, 1972
Oxford, England;
January 7, 1973
Edinburgh,
Scotland; January 28, 1973 |
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• Olympic Studios,
117 Church Road, Barnes, SW13 9HL,west
London (Ravenscourt Park tube).
Led Zeppelin’s first album was recorded here in
November, 1968 (released January, 1969). Over the next 7 years the band continued to use
Olympic Studios for portions of their albums "II", "III",
"IV", "Houses Of The Holy", and "Physical Graffiti". For
four decades, Olympic Studios have been host to many of the top recording acts of popular
music, including the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Yardbirds, Blind Faith, Traffic, Jimi
Hendrix, Ten Years After, Derek and the Dominoes, Deep Purple, Eagles, Mott the Hoople,
Thin Lizzy, The Who, The Pretty Things, Queen, Oasis,
INXS, Madonna, and Prince. The studios are about 1,000 yards east of the River Thames
where the annual Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race occurs each spring.
• Sarm West (formerly
Island) Studios, 8-10 Basing
Street, London W11 1ET.
This former church was reincarnated as Island
Recording Studios where Led Zep recorded portions of "Led Zeppelin III" (1970),
the untitled "Led Zeppelin IV" (1971), and the "Houses of the Holy"
(1972) albums. The band’s signature song, Stairway to Heaven, was recorded
at Island Studios in 1971. "Stairway" is still the #1 requested song of all-time
on the U.S. radio stations. The studios changed owners and names in the years since, but,
as Sarm West, are still a top London recording complex, claiming Madonna, Blur, Radiohead,
Boy George, Cranberries, The Pretenders, Mark Knopfler, George Michael, Pet Shop Boys,
Depeche Mode, and Tom Jones among their recent artist/clients. Getting to Sarm West
Studios is easy from Home At First’s London Apartments at St. Katharine’s Marina
by the Tower: take the Underground (District Line) east from Tower Hill one stop to Aldgate East, then the Hammersmith & City Line 13 stops west to Ladbroke Grove. Follow
signs leading east to the famed Portobello Road street market via Lancaster Road. Cross
Portobello Road on Lancaster. Basing Street is one block east of and parallel to
Portobello Road. Plan to shop for some of London’s best bargains on Portobello Road.
• Giant’s
Causeway,
Antrim Coast,
Northern Ireland.
Used for the cover art of "Led Zeppelin
III". The remarkable thousands of hexagonal columns of basalt that make up the World
Heritage Site Giant’s Causeway are within easy reach of Home
At First’s cottages in County Antrim. May be easily combined with a
visit to the adjacent Bushmill’s (Irish Whisky) Distillery. Admission is free, but parking isn’t.
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•
Bron-Yr-Aur cottage,
near Machynlleth, NW Wales.
In 1970, Plant and Page worked out material for
"Led Zeppelin III" during self-exile in this now abandoned cottage on the
southern edge of Snowdonia National Park. Zeppelin’s song Bron Y Aur Stomp
commemorates the band’s time at the cottage, which is one mile north of the
Machynlleth rail station, and is reachable as a day-trip from Home At First cottages in
Snowdonia (northwestern Wales) and Mid-Wales.
• Headley Grange,
Liphook Road, Headley, Bordon, Hampshire GU35 8NG. This old English manor house southwest of
London (direction Portsmouth) served as the
band’s headquarters
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for its albums "Led
Zeppelin III" and "Led Zeppelin IV" (a.k.a. "ZOSO", or untitled), and "Physical
Graffiti" (1975). The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio truck was the on-site recording
studio during this period when Led Zeppelin was at its creative zenith.
Getting There: Rail hourly from London Waterloo to Liphook (change in
Haslemere). From Liphook, it’s a 3.5 mile hike north to Headley Grange.
• Clearwell Castle,
Church Road, Clearwell, Coleford GL16 8LG.
Led Zeppelin recorded here in 1978. Clearwell Castle
is now primarily used for elaborate weddings (prices starting at a very reasonable £3000
for last-minute bookings!). The castle has a history reaching back to the 13th century,
although its architecture dates principally from the 18th century. Located in the Forest
of Dean in western Gloucestershire near the Welsh border at Monmouth, Clearwell Castle is
close to the splendid ruins of Tintern Abbey. mid-way between Home at First’s lodging
locations in Tetbury in the Southern Cotswolds
and near Abergavenny in Mid-Wales.
Getting
There: For Home At First guests coming from Mid-Wales, Clearwell Castle is about
5 miles southeast of Monmouth, and may easily be combined with a visit to Raglan Castle
(see next entry) only 13 miles away. Home At First guests driving from the Southern
Cotswolds at Tetbury should take the M4 west to the M48 and the Severn Road Bridge. Leave
the M48 on the west (Welsh) side of the bridge and take the A466 north through Chepstow
toward Monmouth. After about ten miles, watch for signs for Clearwell Castle via Mork and
Stowe. |
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•
Raglan Castle, 9
miles east of Abergavenny, in Gwent, Mid-Wales, quite close to the
English border. Robert Plant’s Arthurian fantasy was filmed at this classic
medieval castle for the very uneven 1976 Led Zeppelin concert/autobiography film "The
Song Remains the Same". The 15th century castle was the boyhood home of Henry Tudor,
the Welshman who would found the Tudor dynasty as King Henry VII. The castle was partially
destroyed during by Cromwell’s troops during the 17th century English Civil War.
Enough of Raglan still stands to keep it one of Britain’s most imposing castles, and
a perfect film location for Plant’s Arthurian indulgence in 1976.
Open: daily from 9:30AM (except from 11AM
Su in winter) to at least 4PM (5PM in spring and fall; 6PM in summer). |
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Admission: £3/adults, £2.60/seniors/students, £8.60/family.
Getting There: Accessible from Home At First cottages in Mid-Wales and the
Cotswolds,
Raglan Castle is just south of the A40 mid-way between Monmouth (9 miles east of Raglan)
and Abergavenny (9 miles west of Raglan).
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•
Knebworth House, Knebworth, Hertfordshire SG3 6PY.
A classic English grand manor, owned since 1492 by
the Lyttle Family. Close associations with Henry Tudor, Henry VII, and
Henry VIII, as well
as Winston Churchill, who lived at Knebworth for 6 years. The family opened its expansive
grounds for grand summer rock concerts starting in 1976. Zeppelin appeared at Knebworth
before 200,000 fans in August of ’79, performing one of its last
concerts before the Seventies, John Bonham, and Led Zeppelin, all came
to a sudden, unexpected end. While the rock
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shows are now a part of the estate’s long history, stately Knebworth House and
its delightful English gardens may be visited from April through October.
Open
12N-5PM daily during Jul/Aug, and weekends Apr/May/Sep.
Admission: £8.50/adult, £8/seniors/children.
Getting There: rail twice hourly London
Kings Cross to Stevenage, then taxi 2 miles to Knebworth House.
• Abba’s Polar
recording studios,
Stockholm, Sweden.
"In through the Out Door" (1979) and parts
of "Coda" (released post-mortem in 1982) were recorded here during
November/December, 1978, shortly after the studios opened. Until Polar closed its doors in
May, 2004, its state-of-the-art large-scale studios recorded hundreds of acts from around
the world, including: Abba, Backstreet Boys, Beastie Boys, Def Leppard, ELO, The
Pretenders, The Ramones, The Rolling Stones, Roxette, Roxy Music, and the Scorpions.
Although neither open nor open to the public, Zeppelin pilgrims in Stockholm can walk past the site of
Polar Studios at St. Eriksgatan 58-60 in Stockholm.
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more music history:
1977 |
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