August 18, 1969 - Toronto

August 18, 1969

The Rock Pile
Toronto, ON


Early Show

101. Train Kept a Rollin
102. I Can't Quit You
103. Dazed and Confused
104. You Shook Me
105. How Many More Times

Late Show

201. Train Kept a Rollin
202. I Can't Quit You
203. Dazed and Confused
204. White Summer
205. You Shook Me
206. How Many More Times
207. Communication Breakdown


The first show was a great opening set that would be nothing when compared to the scorching second show here! The recording has many volume fluctuations but is fairly clear. The playing here is hot, though. Dazed And Confused is short, compact and powerful, and You Shook Me and How Many More Times are breathtaking in power and playing, and short to work to a maximum effect. Just wait until the next show! What an excellent show in front of the best crowd you'll ever hear! The band is just brilliant here and plays their guts out for this great audience. The band is so exciting to be in Canada after a bad reception from the side of Texas audience few days before what caused of Plant's long comments: "It's very nice to be back, but we've got a lot of problems. We've just come from San Antonio in Texas, wjere all the geezers thought we should get our hair cut, and we've been through that and everybody's been feeling rather bad, so we're very pleased to be here one way or ranother. It's nice to be back. We'd like to say hello to anybody from the British Isles, including Scotland and two geezers who used to come from Birmingham in a group called The Yellow Rainbow. Nice to see you're still nicking gear! And so, if everybody can feel free and easy, we'd like to see what we can do." How Many More Times is filled with some tense drama that is broken by Robert laughing when he can't hit the highest note. A very hot reception caued Plant to introduce the band in a verry funny mood: "We'd like to try to draw a conclusion to what's been a very hectic day. We'd like to tell you that Texas is still as it was when you last read about it and that England is still what it always will be, and we'd like to see you very shortly again, but if not you could all move to the Bahamas or something ... on bass guitar, Hammond organ, and throne ... King John Paul Jones, on drums John Henry Bonham and on lead guitar and as many chicks as he can find ... Jimmy Page!" Then Bonham took the microphone and inctroduced Plant as "straight from the Labour club at Cradley Heath." Communication Breakdown is a blistering version for an encore.


Review: Led Zeppelin Soars to the Pop Stratosphere

With the exception of the Toronto Pop Festival, last night’s Led Zeppelin concert at the Rock Pile was the most significant pop event this year. Not only were the two shows completely sold out in advance, but at least 2,000 were turned away, the management reported.

They missed out on one of the finest shows ever to pour sweat onto the Rock Pile stage. Led Zeppelin proved itself not only to be one conceivable replacement for Cream, but at times I doubt if even Clapton, Bruce and baker could have topped what Zeppelin offered.

At its tightest, Cream was the most exciting band of musicians in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, yet the Zeppelin came close to equaling it.

Six months ago, this four-piece band was unknown, save for lead guitarist Jimmy Page, who had gained an impressive reputation with the Yardbirds.

Two concert tours later, the band has become the most popular English group on the scene, with the exception of Beatles and possibly Rolling Stones.

But it’s not surprising. When the Zeppelin plays blues, it plays them as few white men ever have. Judging by last night’s concert, I’d even go as far as to say that very few colored bands could touch it. Certainly there are better individual musicians then the members of Led Zeppelin but, together it’s difficult to imagine a more cohesive and colorful team.

Led Zeppelin was not a band for the chicken-hearted or the people who want subtlety and soft messages in their music. It lays it all out, hard and heavy, and it was the sort of thing that only a dyed-in-the-groove rock ‘n’ roller can take.

I don’t want to sound overawed, but I do believe it is the strongest, tightest band to emerge from the current vogue of white blues groups.

The most amazing thing was the improvement in the group since its first appearance here last February, when it was a fledgling blues band. It had the ideas and the dynamics, but the expertise was yet to develop.

Now it has, and as the band says in one of its best known songs, Led Zeppelin leave one feeling dazed and confused. (R. Yorke, G&M ‘Pop Scene’, Aug. '69)


Ben Burnett said:
I was 13, a farm boy in Toronto for the CNE with my worldly 15 yr old buddy. We had tickets for the later show, $4.00, incredible!
As we lined up outside a firetruck came by and turned the hose on the crowd, welcome relief from the heat. When Edward Bear finished we wormed our way to the front right of the stage, Jimmy Page was right in front of us. I too remember Page and Plant matching each other, voice to guitar and vice versa. That changed my life forever, I instantly become the grooviest guy in school. To this day, when people talk about the best concert they have ever been too, they clam up when I tell them about this!!!!!!
Now in the radio business, on-air guy, every now and then I bring up the concert, after a Zepp song. I always say "Did I mention I saw Led Zepp in '69?" This webpage brought back so many memories of that night, 40 years ago yesterday. Thankyou for the pictures


Eagle Jackson said:
I was 15 when I saw this show. Forty years later, this is still one of the most memorable concerts I've ever attended. It was a hot, sweaty summer night in Toronto and the Rockpile was packed in, standing room only -- I'm sure far beyond the legal capacity. I was standing in the back, neck craning to see the stage. I still have the image of Jimmy Page bowing the guitar and Robert Plant's wailing voice and the wall of sound. An incredible, rocking performance.