The Concert That Never Was

The Concert That Never Was

By Elizabeth Talbot

In 1970 The "Melody Maker" published a contemporary account of how Jethro Tull's two concerts at the Messegelande Frankfurt one Saturday "started a full-scale riot between fans and police which ended with five people being taken to hospital and damage totalling £5,000". Apparently, despite the shows having sold out two weeks earlier, hundreds of teenagers without tickets travelled long distances in the hope of gaining entry, and when they were unable to enter the building, they tried to gain access by unconventional means. There was mayhem and extensive damage, with at least a dozen 15-foot-high plate glass shop windows smashed.

This chaos meant that the concert by Led Zeppelin, planned to take place at the same venue on March 10th 1970, had to be cancelled. The new location for the band's gig on the same date was in Berlin. When the tour was originally announced, bespoke posters were printed for all the individual venues, including ones for Frankfurt. However, these were superseded by fresh issues as a result of the riots. One of the original Frankfurt posters, for the concert that never was, is being offered for sale at TW Gaze Diss Auction Rooms in their next Sound & Vision auction on Tuesday 15th April. Carrying a pre-auction estimate of £400 - 600 it is a real find for rock enthusiasts.

The sale also includes a printer's proof of the artwork for the cover of Led Zeppelin’s album "III" which is estimated at £150 – 250. The artist behind this iconic cover, Richard Drew, known as Zacron, was born in Surrey in 1943 and studied painting, drawing, design and etching at Studio 35 in Surbiton from 1957-1960 with Eric Clapton, and later at Kingston College of Art, where he first met Jimmy Page. Both Clapton and Page were members of the rock band the Yardbirds which was formed in 1963 and whilst they pursued their music careers, from 1967 Zacron became a lecturer at Leeds College of Art, then a teacher at other education centres. Page left the Yardbirds in 1968 to become a founder member of a new band called Led Zeppelin, and in 1969 he and Zacron reconnected when Zacron was commissioned to create the cover art for "III". His innovation in graphic techniques were the foundation for this cover which is now legendary in rock history.

Commenting on his album art, Zacron stated on his site: "An album cover is not sound packaging, but an area of visual communication, an opportunity to put visual art and audio art together in a joint arena." 

The “III” cover is in turn a small example of a vast and varied body of work he produced over five decades, with much of it having a close association with the music industry. Zacron spent his later years living at Hethersett in Norfolk and died in 2012; his Estate is now being disbursed.

Specialist valuer Rupert Willows says, "The Frankfurt concert poster and the printer's proof copy of the cover artwork are from a collection of items fresh to the market, straight from Zacron's Estate. His early work was pioneering and influential in so many ways and his output remained individual and distinctive throughout the course of his career. It will be interesting to see how collectors respond to these rarities." 

The fully illustrated catalogue will be published online twgaze.co.uk. Enquiries for this or future Sound & Vision sales to r.willows@twgaze.co.uk