Led Zeppelin, Brisbane Festival Hall, Brisbane

Setlist (from 143 & 106 minute audience recordings):

Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker (incl. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)), Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Celebration Day, Stairway to Heaven, Going to California, That’s the Way, Tangerine, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Dazed and Confused, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Rock and Roll, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Sing a Simple Song, Just a Little Bit, Boogie Chillun’, Cocaine Blues, Bottle Up and Go, The Wanderer, Hello Mary Lou, Let’s Have a Party, Going Down Slow)

Zeppelin performed their last ever gig in Australia, and for the first time on the tour they played a non-stadium, indoor show. The audience was quite rowdy as Plant continually tried to quell the crowd, telling them before Dazed and Confused: “You must realize that the people you meet in the street tomorrow are the people who have been shouting and making this a bit of a nauseating time.”

During the Whole Lotta Love medley the band surprised the audience with their rendition of Dion and the Belmonts’ The Wanderer – the one and only time they ever performed the song.

Despite the rough start to the tour beginning with the futile drug raid the morning after their first show in Perth, the Australian tour was a resounding success. Once again, the band had conquered new territories, playing to thousands of people in sold out stadiums across the continent. One only needs to view the Australian segment of the band’s 2003 official DVD release to get a feel for the magnitude of the shows and audience response. The live tapes of the tour captured the band consistently turning in high level performances before wild, rock-starved fans. Fortunately, between the illicit recordings, pro-shot video, press coverage, interviews, and countless photographs of the concerts, the 1972 Led Zeppelin Australian tour is still being enjoyed 40 years later. It remains one of the most memorable tours ever undertaken in Australia by a visiting rock band.

February 29th, 1972: Brisbane Festival Hall, Brisbane

Written and Compiled by Mike Tremaglio – first published in TBL issue 32.