Close Call For Fey On Led Zep Show

Denver music man Barry Fey nearly became famous for being the guy who refused to book Led Zeppelin.

It was Dec. 26, 1968, and Fey had sold out a Vanilla Fudge and Spirit concert in the Denver Auditorium Arena - what's now part of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.

"About 10 days before the show, I got a call from the agent saying, 'Barry, I want to add an act to our show,'" Fey said. "I said, 'Ron (Terry), all the tickets are sold.'

"He said, 'You've got to do this for me, Barry, this is a big, big act. Their name is Led Zeppelin.' I thought it was a joke."

Fey turned Terry down, until the agent showed Fey the money.

"Ten minutes later Ron called back and said 'Vanilla Fudge is going to give you $750, and if you give $750 of your own money, we still can put Led Zeppelin on the show.'" Fey caved in. The concert crowd had no idea that this new heavy-metal band from Britain was added to the show. That night marked the band's American debut.

"I got up on the stage and said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm Denver welcome to Led Zeppelin,'" Fey said. "They started playing, and it was incredible. It was an unbelievable show; people were gasping. That was a big day in Denver history."

Thanks for the info to Rockymountainnews.com.

Comments

[Ubershall404]

1st comment

Thought they were only doing 1 show?

[tpot06]

^This was in 1968

[MentalityBand]

{cough}

That was...great...
...was it really newsworthy?

[Black Star]

Why report on news that's almost 30 years old?

[Black Star]

Scratch that, almost 40.

[riffmasterjosh]

um who cares dude this isn't news worthy.

[Off-The-Heazay]

dude, this is like.
old.

why post it up guysss?

[mfkr]

"this new heavy-metal band from Britain"

are they taking the piss?

[Underjoggle]

Heavy metal?
They may have been heavy sometimes, but they certainly weren't metal.

[IMABBALLPLAYER]

well.... okay....

[MAYNARD]

They were considered metal til their 3rd album.

[Deliriumbassist]

I'm gonna say this is more useless than most of the Pete Wentz news items.

[Led_Zeppelin992]

...Um.

That's nice.

But why?

[Itsspatches]

MAYNARD wrote:

They were considered metal til their 3rd album.

LOL

[thejester]

MAYNARD wrote:

They were considered metal til their 3rd album.

metal had not even been coined at that time but thank you for you and UG's contribution on this riveting news

[eells]

*slaps forehead*

whats the point of this? i could understand if maybe there was some guy who wouldent have booked them or something similar had just happened in recent news, but what was the point of this? must be a slow news day...

[kryzay311]

Oh. That's nice.

[BluesLP1990]

you all saw "led zeppelin"
you really thought it was going to be late-breaking news?

go surf NY Times and leave the Led-heads at UG some slack

[666Sabbath666]

um.....ok then
Vanilla Fudge FTW!

[tommyt]

wow UG just turned into TOTP2

[Jack Dony]

UG news?

smyd!

[Jibbs]

Led Zeppelin would have been booked somewhere else if not there.

[ArchisT]

OLD NEWS BEARS

[Dog454]

Led Zeppelin used to be some heavy stuff back in the day. There weren't any bands like Slayer around to scare anyone to death, so Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Coven did.

[Cobalt Blue]

can we not argue about when Metal was officially started please?

was this their first show they're talking about? either way they should have added this bit to the book that came with the box set.

[sowhat360]

Underjoggle wrote:

Heavy metal?
They may have been heavy sometimes, but they certainly weren't metal.

are you serious....back then that was metal

[stef123]

Well this is pointless news.

[TheIceCreamMan]

Ok. In the 60s, Zeppelin would be metal. Honestly, in the time of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, a song like Communication Breakdown would send people into frenzies.

Also, this is more suited for a biography or retrospective than a frickin' news story. Is the news that slow today?

[tamargoguitar]

omg its 30 years ago! MY TIME MACHINE WORKS

[tamargoguitar]

omg its 40 years ago! MY TIME MACHINE WORKS

[Pure_Morning]

Wait, excuse me if I'm wrong, but was Led Zeppelin (New Yardbirds) even around in 1968?

[ginjaninja]

oh my god who chooses what news to put up now?
seriously, 40 years too late mate. this has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

Sort it out, UG!

[Trytan]

yeah. you're wrong.

[Black Star]

Pure_Morning wrote:

Wait, excuse me if I'm wrong, but was Led Zeppelin (New Yardbirds) even around in 1968?

They formed in September of 1968, if I remember correctly.

[Riot Act]

hahaha

WOW...maybe UG did this just so everyone would go WTF UG?!

haha...

[Zhuey]

Led Zeppelin? Heavy Metal? Riiight...

[Neloangelo818]

thats the last straw. im done with this site.

blabbermouth comments have better news than this damn site.

[XXm3t@lXX]

they were heavy metal in thier time

[kalamari]

They had their heavy metal moments, but Black Sabbath are a much much better example of early heavy metal

[Steve The Plank]

What is it with you idiots bitching that Led Zeppelin aren't heavy metal? Along with Black Sabbath, Zeppelin were one of the pioneers of Metal!

[tgd21]

damn calm down, the dude just found something kinda interesting, and thought hed share.. are you guys just sitting at your pc's dying for some news to break on ug, and this got your weenies hard..but then you were let down when it was just some interesting tidbit?

anyway..thats pretty insteresting..i guess it would have been better had he not put them on the bill..only to find out they become like the greatest band ever.

and zeppelin were the equivalent of metal back then...i mean look at the music in 68, simon n garfunkle mamas n papas, beatles, beach boys, the monkees...zeppelin..i think theyre the heavy ones out of the bunch

[Twist of fate]

The story was posted 2 hours ago from when I found it.

[EnterIbanez]

Underjoggle wrote:

Heavy metal?
They may have been heavy sometimes, but they certainly weren't metal.

agree.

[hippyguitardude]

tgd21 wrote:
and zeppelin were the equivalent of metal back then...i mean look at the music in 68, simon n garfunkle mamas n papas, beatles, beach boys, the monkees...zeppelin..i think theyre the heavy ones out of the bunch

yeah but also hendrix, jeff beck, blue cheer, and many more. yeah they were probably the heaviest though (beck is a close call though)


and what the hell! UG is getting really desperate for their news. jesus christ.

[dann_blood]

mfkr wrote:

"this new heavy-metal band from Britain"

are they taking the piss?

Back then they were considered metal, because in the 1960's there was no such thing as death or black metal, or even heavy metal. Did that REALLY need explaining?

[scarfacesuit]

dann_blood wrote:
Back then they were considered metal, because in the 1960's there was no such thing as death or black metal, or even heavy metal. Did that REALLY need explaining?

I was just about to say the EXACT same thing you did. I read some of these posts incredulously, wondering if people knew what they were talking about at all.

[tgd21]

I was just about to say the EXACT same thing you did. I read some of these posts incredulously, wondering if people knew what they were talking about at all.

no..no they dont

[last_biscuit]

I find it funny how all the idiots saying 'Led Zeppelin aren't metal' seem to have no idea how metal started and have no idea that they were called a heavy metal band in their time, and 'metal' doesn't just mean screaming and playing downtuned riffs as fast as possible.

Music evolves, learn to accept that older stuff in a genre will sound different to recent stuff.

[Salvial]

Fuck, nobody can appreciate a little story from the past.

I enjoyed reading it. Lighten up, Christ.

[Vinura]

i almost thought they were gonna do another tour, almost...

[tormentedbyu]

Ummm... not metal. lol

[LedFloyd79]

Salvial :
Fuck, nobody can appreciate a little story from the past.

I enjoyed reading it. Lighten up, Christ

agreed... i enjoyed the read

[CowboyUp]

This is news?

It was a nice read, but it seems kind of random.

[WhoAreYou22]

Well, I say, that is an interesting little fact.


But why post it?

[GuitarSymphony]

History and news aren't the same thing people.
NEWS (hence the word NEW)

[Elohel]

Salvial wrote:

Fuck, nobody can appreciate a little story from the past.

I enjoyed reading it. Lighten up, Christ.

True that.

It's a bit of historical trivia, quit bitching. Although, by the same token I guess people would bitch if it were modern news by a band they didn't like.

Also, people need to learn their music history.

[kirkadolph]

Thanks!
.....

[MinorThreat423]

it was a good read
anyone should admit Led Zeppelin were heavy and prolly infact metal for their time but half of their other songs were blues and acoustic songs...page and plant even claim that themselves

[Flying Afros]

zeppelin isn't metal...

[Me2NiK]

Helter Skelter.
>.>

[Kaervek]

Flying Afros wrote:

zeppelin isn't metal...

And you don't know Zeppelin. Get your facts straight.

[rockr09]

Wtf? Why would anybody care for news forty years old?


Im gonna go write this down in my life journal!

[TeenBite]

Ha, maybe every day from now Ultimate Guitar will post an almost interesting fact on the front page.

It isn't even a good story! "omg i dont know this band, should i let them play?" "yeh, you should" "ok, they can play".

[-xCaMRocKx-]

NO

FREAKING

WAY!

Zeppelin made their american debut!? Wow, i wish i had known earlier!

and the metal thing - back in the day, they were the definition of heavy metal (although that was a term that plant hated)

but really, was good to read, but certainly not news. it should be..... somewhere else.

[Tw1zzler]

ArchisT wrote:

OLD NEWS BEARS

lol, dude I know what your talking about

[fade2black_69]

i fink UG was on crack or something when they posted this up :S

[The_Seventh_Sin]

Why is this news?
this is like...olds...

It'd be a cool addition to a "History of Led Zep"-ish article, but not news

[Decembero]

Ubershall404 wrote:

1st comment

Thought they were only doing 1 show?

Idiot. Besides Its not supposed to be news everyone, its supposed to be:

"Did you know that Led Zep almost had their American Debut show cancelled because..."

Its a random useless fact, not news.

[E V H 5150]

Led Zeppelin is more metal than Slayer and all those other crappy metal bands that just play really fast guitar with so much distortion all you hear is noise and tunings so low the guitarist is using bass guitar strings.

I might be stretching some of that. But the point is, Led Zeppelin at least had a musical quality that at the time was unprecedented. I think we can all appreciate that, regardless of what you categorize them. Honestly, what makes blues different from death metal? Genres and titles are used to classify so you know what other bands with the same style you might not like. It doesn't mean that all they ever play is metal.

[HavokStrife]

Some of their beats would sound really cool metalized, and some of Jimmy's riffs would be shred-o-matic with tons of distortion, but seriously, heavy metal?

And what's up with popping this up on the shows 39th birthday?

[ChopSuey19]

Guys, guys, guys, relax!! Is it gonna' kill you if they put this one bloody article up? Its your own fault for wasting your time with it if you didn't like it. I liked it.

Zeppelin was a pioneer of metal. If there was no Zeppelin, there would be no Slayer,Killswitch etc.
Of course, they preferred being called Rock n Roll.

I can understand why you say that, half of their songs are slow or acoustic or bluesy. But yes, some of their songs were metal-based.

[acidhammerdrums]

did anyone else notice that this story doesn't make sense anyway?

[Scott O]

Ubershall404 wrote:

1st comment

Thought they were only doing 1 show?

What does '1st comment' mean? Tell me you're not telling us you're proud of the fact that you put up the first post?

[Nebblacktip]

MAYNARD wrote:

They were considered metal til their 3rd album.

Seriously? Are you sure you aren't confusing them with Metallica (Before the Metallica fans go crazy, I'm joking) Cause my younger bro gave me Zeppelin II on vinyl for Christmas (Best younger brother ever) and it doesn't sound metal... A great album (my favorite) but not metal, not even for 1969. But then again, i've never thought of Zep as particularly metal, so I'm a bit biased.

News must be slow around the holidays. But still, sorta interesting. Shows you what young bands had to go through back then.

[gboblyn]

Look at the source and then look at the date. Like someone said, it's the anniversary of Led Zep's American debut (or at least it was yesterday). That alone is newsworthy on a slow day and they added a story. Everyone needs to quit whining. And just because Zeppelin doesn't use crazy distorition, blastbeats, and screaming doesn't mean they aren't metal. You don't need that stuff to be heavy when you're that talented.

[Set-Abominae]

Without Zeppelin, the genre of heavy metal wouldn't exist.

[aguynamedlarry]

ArchisT wrote:

OLD NEWS BEARS

HAHAHHA

[envoykrawkwar7]

HISTORICAL NEWS OWNS ALL
=)

[Mortalitas]

new heavy-metal band from Britain

heavy metal?

Set-Abominae wrote:
Without Zeppelin, the genre of heavy metal wouldn't exist.

Lol i think your mistaking them for Black Sabbath right?

[prot]

Neloangelo818 wrote:

thats the last straw. im done with this site.

blabbermouth comments have better news than this damn site.

99.9% of people come to this site for guitar tabs... The news, reviews, etc, are just additional material. Good luck finding guitar tabs on Blabbermouth.

[Take_Warning]

Deliriumbassist wrote:

I'm gonna say this is more useless than most of the Pete Wentz news items.

hahahahahahha that was good.

Not news...history...

[Zeppelindude101]

Ubershall404 wrote:

1st comment

Thought they were only doing 1 show?

no they did that concert to see whether or not to go on tour

[Fixer]

For a second there, I thought they were actually going to come (I'm from Denver), and now they couldn't because of this Fey guy. I was pissed, until I read the article.

[HardAttack]

This is stupid. Not only is it not news, it'd old and frankly unnecessary.

[HumanitysDeath]

Underjoggle wrote:

Heavy metal?
They may have been heavy sometimes, but they certainly weren't metal.

The definition of metal has evolved over time.

[soulphonate]

1968!? How is this "new"s?

[dizzy.dark]

Nice

only about 40 years off.

[Meester_Vai]

tgd21 wrote:

damn calm down, the dude just found something kinda interesting, and thought hed share.. are you guys just sitting at your pc's dying for some news to break on ug, and this got your weenies hard..but then you were let down when it was just some interesting tidbit?

LOL

[insurgentsteve]

at first i was like, "someone today rejected led zeppelin to play a show? must be the biggest asshat in the world"

[Gh.]

zeppelin isn't metal...

thank god they're not

[Der Meister]

All of you who say that Zep isnt metal.....Back in that time and age it WAS considered "metal". Becuase there hadn't been anything heavier at the time.

[MTVget0FFtheAIR]

the lack of mod posting in this "news" is suspicious .....

interesting i guess, but why the hell denver?

checked.

[babyslapmafro]

haha this is cool, a throwback

[axeslinger0u812]

the booking agent misheard them in Spokane, and the posters all said "Len Zeffin". lol. now THATS a poster I would want now. talk about feeling like a jackass when they became arguably the biggest band in the history of rock and you didn't even marquee them right.

[led_zep_1789]

i wouldnt call this news...but what i would call it is good background info for the band? xD

[RockInPeaceDime]

why do you people continue to come to this site for news? obviously you dont like reading what they post. don't ****ing click on it and read it if you dont like it. goddamn bunch of ****in 12 year old critics...grow up or don't get on the internet unmonitored.

[yunkers]

i love how many arguments this article caused.... this is a 30 year old piece of news that didnt ned to be argued over in the first place, and just because its old doest mean its something cool to hear about

who the **** cares

[Korzack]

lol ^ exactly. Umm... Whoopty doo.

[Set-Abominae]

Set-Abominae wrote:
Without Zeppelin, the genre of heavy metal wouldn't exist.


Lol i think your mistaking them for Black Sabbath right?

Zeppelin and Sabbath were around roughly the same time. They both contributed.

[Gregoric]

ChopSuey19 wrote:

Guys, guys, guys, relax!! Is it gonna' kill you if they put this one bloody article up? Its your own fault for wasting your time with it if you didn't like it. I liked it.

Zeppelin was a pioneer of metal. If there was no Zeppelin, there would be no Slayer,Killswitch etc.
Of course, they preferred being called Rock n Roll.

I can understand why you say that, half of their songs are slow or acoustic or bluesy. But yes, some of their songs were metal-based.

no LZ, no KSE? WTF?! lol

Anyways I can understand where people are coming from when they say that LZ pioneered metal but I'd still class them more as hard rock/blues because they didn't have other important elements of metal such as the dark lyrical subjects etc. that bands like black sabbath had though I accept that they were most probably a big inspiration for the first metal bands.

...not particularly newsworthy though, this.

[TDAJGuitarist]

MAYNARD wrote:

They were considered metal til their 3rd album.

Are you kidding....The first 2 Zep Albums were basically Blues albums...Esspesally the first....The reason why they called Zeppelin Metal back then was because them,Vinilla Fudge,Cream, Hendrix, and Sabbath were basically the ONLY things that could even be called heavy metal...And to the guy above me...Not all Metal bands use dark lyrics so your argument on that is totaly useless.


Anyways...It is a very interesting Artical...But I see absoleutly no point in posting it on here....

[Pepperommi]

sowhat360 wrote:

Underjoggle wrote:

Heavy metal?
They may have been heavy sometimes, but they certainly weren't metal.

are you serious....back then that was metal

Umm..."Back then" Sabbath was all that was metal...soon to be followed by many great bands

[In_revolution]

A lot of people overreact to postings like this. We are musicians and we all have idols. Whats the harm in learning some rock history every once in awhile? You guys take moments like this for granted, this kind of stuff lets uncommon knowledge about rock icons come out into the open and provide an interesting read. Who cares if it didn't happen yesterday, if it changed Led Zeppelin back in the day, it changed rock history, and if it did that then there is a very good chance that it the way you play guitar or any other instrument. I swear you elitist bums drive me crazy. Metal metal metal, its just one side of music. Branch out, have more tastes. Pop-punk, blues, country, metal, rock, what-have-you all have their merits in the music world. They all change the way we play music in some way. This is article was an easy way to learn about one of the most influential bands of rock history. Go cry about the date somewhere else.

[LaLaLaLoopy]

its a nice little fact notice,perhaps trivia question and answer here for us diehards but thats about it.

[metalminded07]

HAHAHA! look at all you lil bast***s! complaining about this trivial bit of information! Led Zep rocks and Barry Fey was almost an idiot.

[troyponce]

I'll count Zep as metal. Who influenced Devin Townsend to tune down to open C? Good enough for me.

[piff665]

Interesting little fact I guess, but not news. I guess UG cant find any news around the holidays.

[Jastul]

In_revolution wrote:

A lot of people overreact to postings like this. We are musicians and we all have idols. Whats the harm in learning some rock history every once in awhile? You guys take moments like this for granted, this kind of stuff lets uncommon knowledge about rock icons come out into the open and provide an interesting read. Who cares if it didn't happen yesterday, if it changed Led Zeppelin back in the day, it changed rock history, and if it did that then there is a very good chance that it the way you play guitar or any other instrument. I swear you elitist bums drive me crazy. Metal metal metal, its just one side of music. Branch out, have more tastes. Pop-punk, blues, country, metal, rock, what-have-you all have their merits in the music world. They all change the way we play music in some way. This is article was an easy way to learn about one of the most influential bands of rock history. Go cry about the date somewhere else.

however, this still begs the question: how the f*ck is this news?

[slip kid]

is this news?

[Soadfan8]

Not really

[jshizznit]

actually...they were considered metal then...because they supposedly created it along with black sabbath...and its not really news...just still informing you on zeppelins first american show =)

[gopherthegreat]

why are they reporting 40 year old news? what the hell?

[Citizen InZayne]

Don't act like you weren't entertained.

[SuperRitsu]

What?
Who posts the news here on this site?

[alg71321]

Guys, Led zeppelin may hav been considered pioneers of metal back in the day, but by 2days standards they r mor of a rock n roll/bluesy band.

btw, how the fk is this NEWS?

[mrryan]

AH YES!! I saw that on CNN last night!

[Pony_Rocker]

40 year old Led Zepplin stuff? dammit if only the crowd had bottled them and killed them all so we wouldnt have to put up with their crappy music and then their bullsh*t "we're-not-old-we-can-still-rock" reunion concert, they should just stop selling out to themselves and retire... or kill themselves, thatd be a better option

[hendrix456]

yah
they were considered "metal" in the 60s

[Ishiga]

'Scuse me.

If you read it to the end, it was obviously interesting enough to keep your attention.

If you didn't, you have no right to comment and whine about it.

stop pretending you're cool by flaming everything in sight.

[Ishiga]

metalminded07 wrote:

HAHAHA! look at all you lil bast***s! complaining about this trivial bit of information! Led Zep rocks and Barry Fey was almost an idiot.

and btw. back then, led zepp was brand new. nobody'd heard of em. Nobody is EVER an idiot for not booking a just-formed-yesterday group from god knows where at a booked show. They're just unlucky.

[ihaterap69]

why has this site not been updated since the 28th?

i come here every day and see rivers cuomo on the front page.

[tallicawashere]

close call for that dude
wouldn't he have felt like a moron once this band he could've rejected became one of the biggest and most talented bands that have graced our earth

[tallicawashere]

p.s.
why all the bickering?
how 'bout a smile to perk up your boring, internet-junkie lives
:]

[-Rock-N'-Roll-]

sowhat360 wrote:

Underjoggle wrote:

Heavy metal?
They may have been heavy sometimes, but they certainly weren't metal.

are you serious....back then that was metal

Yeah a long debate that is still going on who is the 1st metal band,Sabbath Zeppelin hell even hendrix, Back then

[xCoilx]

vanilla fudge?

[Tate5118]

who cares? todays metal sucks anyways

[Quikslayer666]

this reminds me of that simpsons episode where homer listens to the radio and the people on it say the year is 1974 and thinks hes traveled back in time lol essentially the same idea.

[frodollas44]

not only is this ****ing useless and ancient, there also hasn't been new news in over a week. what the flying f*** ultimate guitar.

[roarinflames]

Gregoric wrote:


no LZ, no KSE? WTF?! lol

Anyways I can understand where people are coming from when they say that LZ pioneered metal but I'd still class them more as hard rock/blues because they didn't have other important elements of metal such as the dark lyrical subjects etc. that bands like black sabbath had though I accept that they were most probably a big inspiration for the first metal bands.

...not particularly newsworthy though, this.

do you know what houses of the holy is about.
hes talking about dating satans daughter. if that isnt dark enough for you, what is?

[Gigglebooster]

And who cares, I hate this argument so much ):. Honestly, Led Zeppelin obviously doesn't want to be known as the band that pioneered shitty ass music like the new metal we have today. Zeppelin would never resort to constant screaming and garbage instumentals like the shitty "metal" we have now. Zeppelin was a form of metal for the time, but please don't equate it to the shit we're hearing today, cuz they're not in the same league.

[acdc1]

Gregoric wrote:

ChopSuey19 wrote:

Guys, guys, guys, relax!! Is it gonna' kill you if they put this one bloody article up? Its your own fault for wasting your time with it if you didn't like it. I liked it.

Zeppelin was a pioneer of metal. If there was no Zeppelin, there would be no Slayer,Killswitch etc.
Of course, they preferred being called Rock n Roll.

I can understand why you say that, half of their songs are slow or acoustic or bluesy. But yes, some of their songs were metal-based.


no LZ, no KSE? WTF?! lol

Anyways I can understand where people are coming from when they say that LZ pioneered metal but I'd still class them more as hard rock/blues because they didn't have other important elements of metal such as the dark lyrical subjects etc. that bands like black sabbath had though I accept that they were most probably a big inspiration for the first metal bands.

...not particularly newsworthy though, this.

both of them were the first metal bands, all of you are trying to say they arent connsidered metal today. i havent heard a single band considered metal, instead now we have black,thrash,death,etc, metal is a term used to describe all of the above. alot of bands could be considered metal when they themselves dont consider themselves metal.another thing that is really pissing me off is all the people who say its not considered metal now. what the hell did you do decide to change the meaning of metal so now bands before arent metal because they dont play with faster and downtuned instruments(which i have no problem with) other than that i didnt like this article i was reading it and nothing really hapened. this stuff hapened to HEAVY METAL bands all the time back then.

Checked/De-Spammed/Warning distributed.