the picture [which appears in the hardcover version of this book but cannot here for legal reasons] from the left is my girlfriend at the time, Vibeke and I in white beside the black van. Behind these “young lovers”, you can see Bonzo in a purple t-shirt, Jimmy in front posing with the Danish girl. The picture was probably taken by one of the other band members with her Kodak camera. Behind the steering wheel is driver Ivan Riel talking to a guy who is more interested in his car than in this long-haired band! The stop took place at a gas station and cafeteria near the town of Tappernøje.
Notice that Jimmy is wearing his brand-new Danish wooden clogs that he had bought the day before in Copenhagen with my assistance! I remember Jimmy just loved the look of those clogs. So we stopped along the way on that tour and I helped him pick out a pair. He really thought they were quite something.
REDDON:
They’re probably the same ones he was wearing in photos I’ve seen from 1970. I guess there’s a little story or two behind everything!
You mentioned that you got Led Zeppelin a date in Göteborg, Sweden. If I understand correctly, this date at Göteborg wasn’t booked originally. Do you recall how you got them this extra date? Was it common practice for you, as the tour manager, to add dates for groups like Led Zeppelin if your touring schedule would allow it? I know groups did that here in North America; it happened for Led Zeppelin on the band’s First U.S. and Canadian Tour of 1968-69.
RITZ:
Led Zeppelin did play a date in Göteborg, at Liseberg Amusement Park. I remember that the people were walking by, not even looking or listening as Zeppelin played, trying very hard to impress them. But they weren’t interested in Led Zeppelin’s music at all! We all knew before they went on that it would be like this. They were very professional about it. They went on and played well anyway. It was comical - people were walking by with their kids, giving Led Zeppelin funny looks, because here were these guys with long hair playing away, very loudly. They just got strange looks from people passing by with their children. They didn’t get the music at all. Zeppelin joked with me that it was my fault for getting them that awful gig. But it was all in good fun.
REDDON:
When you first met Page and the rest of the group in Scandinavia in 1968, do you recall ever talking about the future Led Zeppelin album?
RITZ:
I think Led Zeppelin mentioned that they were going to record their first album. I can’t remember the specific considerations, as it was so long ago now. However, they did think about the fact they were going to record an album when they went back to England.
REDDON:
Do have any other memories to share about your days on tour with the fledgling Led Zeppelin?
RITZ:
Jimmy Page was so nice to the rest of the group. It was like there was no leader. I travelled with and managed many other acts. I saw lots of scrapping and bickering with these groups. But not with Led Zeppelin. They knew they were four equal parts, coming together to “go for the gold”. Page was so kind to everyone and they got along very well. I never saw any problems of big artist’s egos with Zeppelin.
When you look at it, The Jeff Beck Group’s music was close to filling the void at that time in the late 1960s. But they couldn’t keep it together. Then Led Zeppelin formed, and the time was right for their music to fill that void. It had also been right for The Jeff Beck Group but they had too many personnel problems they couldn’t sort out among themselves. They simply self-destructed.
One of the other things about Led Zeppelin that has always impressed me? When John Bonham passed away, the way the group disbanded. I can’t think of anybody else who would have done that but Zeppelin did. What a thing to do! They were four equal parts as I said from the beginning in 1968. One part was no longer part of Zeppelin, so the other three parts followed. No replacement. What a great tribute to do that!
I didn’t save any Led Zeppelin itineraries or anything like that. I had many such itineraries, contracts, all that type of thing. But we had no idea we were in on history being made. I was just going along, doing my job without thinking about saving those things. Who would have thought forty years later there would be such interest in these items?
We are having a celebration at the Gladsaxe Teen Club site. It’s the Egegård School in Gladsaxe, where it all began for The New Yardbirds. We have so many good memories from there! We have booked the school for a big party on Sunday, September 7, 2008 to celebrate Led Zeppelin’s 40th Anniversary date of their first-ever performance. It’s special for me because I was their tour manager for that very first tour. I found them all to be very nice guys who were always very professional. They knew what it took to “go for the gold”!
Jerry and Annie Ritz got to see the first-ever public performance of Led Zeppelin and also the last one (to date) of the band’s reunited members.
Courtesy: Jerry Ritz, used with permission. Enzepplopedia Publishing, Inc.
Frank Reddon here. In the fall of 2007, Jerry Ritz contacted me to share some very exciting news. He and his wife, Annie, had won tickets to see Led Zeppelin reunite at London’s O2 Arena! Talk about bringing things full circle! They were there at Led Zeppelin’s first-ever performance and, almost forty years later, they would be attending what might be the group’s last-ever performance. (Let’s hope that’s not the case…)
Because of the important role Jerry had played in Led Zeppelin’s career, he was the subject of many interviews in the Danish and English press in the days leading up to the O2 concert. He graciously consented to share his impressions of the concert with me for this book.
On December 11, 2007 – the day after Jerry and Annie Ritz attended Led Zeppelin’s reunion gig at London’s O2 Arena – Kurt Baagø from Danish Radio Broadcasting conducted a telephone interview with Jerry. This piece is reprinted with the permission of Kurt Baagø and Jerry Ritz; translated from Danish into English by Karen-Annette Madsen of www.teenclubs.dk and edited slightly to fit this book’s style and format by L. A. Reddon, with many thanks to all concerned.
BAAGØ:
Good Times, Bad Times - the first track Led Zeppelin ever recorded, or at least the first track on their first album – was also the song that the reunited Led Zeppelin played to open with at the O2 Arena in London yesterday evening.
We have Jerry Ritz on the line, who was there last night at the O2 Arena. Jerry, are you telling me that there were probably only five people there at the O2 Arena last night who were also there at Led Zeppelin’s very first gig ever? That was in Gladsaxe…how many years ago? In 1968! Of course, there are the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin plus you, Jerry Ritz and your wife, Annie. Only the five of you had also been there at the very first concert! Tell me. How was it?
RITZ:
Yes! It has been 39 years and 94 days since that Danish debut in 1968. It was a tremendous experience! It was very symbolic that they started out with Good Time, Bad Times because it has the following lyrics: “In the days of my youth, I was told to be a man. Now I reached the
