How Led Zeppelin came to be

On September 7th, 1968, Led Zeppelin played their first live show ever in, of all places, a converted gym in Gladsaxe, Denmark. “Their performance and their music were absolutely flawless,” local reviewer Bent Larsen wrote in the venue’s monthly newsletter, “and the music continued to ring nicely in the ears for some time after the curtains were drawn after their show.” As far as gigs go, this show, which featured several songs that would ultimately appear on the band’s first album, like “Communication Breakdown,” “Dazed And Confused” and “You Shook Me,” paled in comparison to the marathon runs they would undertake at the Forum in Los Angeles or Earls Court outside of London in the years to come, but the momentousness of the occasion can’t be overstated. “ were playing at a teacher’s training college outside of Birmingham to an audience of about twelve people,” Page recalled in the Led Zeppelin oral history "Trampled Underfoot." “We got together in this small rehearsal room and just played ‘Train Kept a-Rollin’’ which was a number I used to do with the Yardbirds, and I think Robert knew it,” Page said in 1990. Page was particularly predisposed to lending a hand, having previously worked in the studio with Proby in 1964 on the eccentric singer’s Number Three U.K. hit “Hold Me.” Thus, the first recordings ever of Led Zeppelin in full flight can be heard not on their own full-length debut, but on Proby’s 1969 album "Three Week Hero."