~ The Old Sachem ~ The Led Zeppelin Riot in Boston

By Bill Stewart

After a tour cancellation by the Jeff Beck Group, their manager was able to secure the schedule, and the first tour of Led Zeppelin in the United States was begun. They performed 36 shows in the United States and played in Boston from January 23-26, 1969. They were a huge success, as they overwhelmed their audiences with monstrous and otherworldly sound. A poster proclaimed the dates as a tribute to the Boston Tea Party. They reportedly played for over four hours with only one album of music of their own. They played Elvis songs, Beatles favorites and many other songs that the group knew. It became known as headbanging.

October 25, 1969, was the date of their first performance in Boston. They entered to a standing ovation and the crowd remained standing and shaking throughout the performance. Led Zeppelin also played Boston in 1970 and 1971. As part of their 1973 tour, they played in Boston on July 20. The tour broke records in many of the locations the band played. The concert was sold out. Some fans caused significant damage to the Garden, including burned seats, a flooded rink and trashing the concession stands. Damage was estimated at $50,000. Kevin White was mayor at the time, and he cancelled the next scheduled concert in 1975, but the concert did perform in 1975 in the Garden.

The date was January 6, 1975. It was a freezing cold day in Boston, and a very large crowd of people lined up outside Boston Garden in freezing temperatures that night to purchase tickets to a performance by the rock star band. The performance was scheduled for February 4, and people showed up when the date for tickets was established. The doors were opened because of the cold. Tickets were sold out by 6 a.m. the following morning. Over 2,000 people became very angry when the show was sold out before they could get a ticket.

When the doors opened fans crowded into Boston Garden, and many waiting in a very long line were allowed in and proceeded into the Garden. Inside they were passing around bottles of Boone’s Farm apple wine and Ripple, another kind of wine popular at the time, and smoking joints, getting very rowdy. The arena’s locked doors were pried open by the culprits, then they trashed the beer concessions, flooded the hockey rink and threw debris on it and set fire to the wooden seats. When Mayor Kevin H. White heard about the commotion, he sent the riot cops in with dogs.

Steven Rosenblatt was the ticket manager and said, “For years and years, we had let people line up overnight to wait for tickets. On this night however, campers were allowed into the lobby and they broke into the seating area, leaving Garden officials with a crucial decision to make. You couldn’t have this kind of crowd running around untethered inside the building so we decided to open the ticket windows.”

So ended Led Zeppelin in Boston, but it was not the case of the group not starting the riot. It was those who were let inside overnight with nothing to do but carry on while they waited for the ticket windows to open.

  (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column – sometimes about sports. He also opines on current or historical events or famous people)