The final time John Bonham played drums for Led Zeppelin
The death of Led Zeppelin’s legendary drummer, John Bonham—widely regarded as one of the greatest percussionists of all time—marked the end of the biggest band on the planet, barring a few lacklustre reunions. While the greatest loss was, of course, felt by Bonham’s friends and family, the void his passing left in the music world was equally profound, bringing an era of rock greatness to an untimely close.
It was a death that would send shockwaves across not only the music world but the entire globe as the juggernaut John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham sadly passed on. Bonham had cultivated the image of an undefeatable rock star through a combination of powerhouse performances both on and off stage, in and out of the bar. Sadly, it would be the latter proficiency that would ultimately be his demise.
The stadium-sized rockers Led Zeppelin had long ruled over a decade in which they delivered album after album of monster jams, but the new decade presented a fresh challenge. The 1980s would be a daunting time for any hard rock act. The following decade proposed to shed the dead weight of the classic rock acts of the past, slim down their output and head toward a digital age with new vigour. To make matters worse, it would be one Led Zeppelin faced without their behemoth drummer. The drummer took to the stage for the final time with his brothers in rock on July 7th, 1980.
The summer of 1980 saw the end of Led Zeppelin’s major European tour. It was a rally of shows that confirmed that the quartet of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Bonham could be just as powerful in this decade, too, and it hinted that they weren’t about to slow down for anyone. The group’s last performance in Berlin proved to be the final time Plant, Page, Jones, and Bonham would share the stage. It had been a tour full of new beginnings for a band that had been on the ascendancy for so long.
The 1980 tour saw Led Zeppelin forced to adapt their act to align with the shifting values and themes of the era. Once the wild showmen of the ‘70s rock scene, the band found themselves increasingly out of step as audiences gravitated towards the stripped-down energy of punk and new wave. These emerging genres favoured raw, authentic talent over the grandiose theatrics and virtuoso soloing that had defined Zeppelin’s heyday, leaving the band looking somewhat outdated in the face of this brash new musical landscape.
Elaborate staging and noodling riffs were now feeling incredibly old hat. Younger crowds wanted immediacy and connection. They wanted their musical heroes to feel attainable and accessible. It was a sign of the times and a suggestion Led Zeppelin needed to move with them. With 14 nights scheduled for the European summer, Zeppelin needed to streamline their set to make sure they weren’t seen as dinosaurs.
The band had been touring since 1968, and while the show had definitely evolved from the group’s original efforts, the performances had now become a little static, a little staged and all too predictable for their audience. As such, Led Zeppelin cut the fat from the show and avoided anything that felt too over-produced or over-complicated. They were looking for something a little more raw.
Fret not, Zepheads, they still had a show full of classics as no Led Zeppelin performance was complete without the obligatory ‘Stairway To Heaven’, the band’s favourite ‘Kashmir’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’. It means that this bootleg from the band’s last performance with their main man John Bonham is still packed full of perfect moments as they open the show with ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’, a stalwart they’ve been performing since 1968.
Despite the lure of a new decade of domination of the rock and roll world beckoning, another classic from the past would close the show and signify they weren’t done with their old stuff yet. John Bonham would bow out with Led Zeppelin with the stunning performance of ‘Whole Lotta Love’. The drummer would sadly pass away only a few weeks after the show and leave a huge hole in what made Led Zeppelin great.
Just a few weeks before the show, Bonham had seemingly foreshadowed the event, as he collapsed three songs into the set and saw a Zeppelin concert cancelled — his drinking had gotten out of control. While the rest of the tour went off without a hitch, Bonham died a few weeks later after drinking around 40 shots of vodka in a single night, never waking up from his stupor and leaving fans across the globe in shock.
The drummer was reportedly at Page’s house recording and writing new music and possibly concocting the next batch of tunes to share with a brand new decade. Sadly, with Bonham’s passing, Led Zeppelin would never get the chance to record as one again and disbanded in December of that year. A few quasi-reunions would take place over the ensuing decades, but the power behind the band had been lost and with the demise of John Bonham, so to went Led Zeppelin.
