BAAGØ: So you think they were as good yesterday as they were in Gladsaxe in 1968?
RITZ:
Absolutely. They were better! But it is also an entirely different set-up. Yesterday evening, twelve fresh, in tune guitars were handed to Jimmy Page after each song. This was definitely not the case in Gladsaxe. At that time, he would even have to carry his own amplifiers to the scene and unpack all the gear. Back then there were no extra services. So when I sat in the O2 Arena and I was thinking back some forty years, there was of course a lot of difference between these world celebrities and their performance at Gladsaxe Teen Club. But at the core, there is no difference. The music is the same. They are the same three people with a drummer who can well compete with his father.
BAAGØ:
Did you have a backstage pass? Could you go backstage and make a small agreement to have Led Zeppelin come back to the Egegård School in Gladsaxe in September 2008 to celebrate their 40th anniversary with a new concert?
RITZ:
No – unfortunately I did not. But rumours did actually spread that I had been present at their first- ever performance. We met a lot of people and there was a fantastic, warm ambiance. Everybody felt that they were part of a kind of club because they were among the lucky few to get the chance to buy a ticket for the event. I was even interviewed twice for foreign television stations to compare this event with when it all started back at the Egegård School in Gladsaxe.
BAAGØ: How did the concert end?
RITZ:
Well, they actually continued to play for more than two hours. And it was fantastic that they did not try to get away with only a few numbers. They ended the concert with Kashmir when they had been playing for one hour and 52 minutes. After that, there was five minutes of standing ovations. People were just completely crazy. Then they came back and performed Whole Lotta Love with an interlude that left room for improvising between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. It was on the spot without rehearsals, so it was “alive”. As I said before, it was evident that they were seeking to recreate their style from before the break, but there was also this “nerve” that made it all so alive.
With Whole Lotta Love exactly two hours had passed and it was then 11.02 pm GMT. They left the scene again, only to come back and perform a fantastic version of Rock and Roll.
To sum it all up, it was a tremendous experience to be there. What made it special was also the fact that there were people of all ages – young people who were not born when Led Zeppelin played their first concert and young people who were not even born when they went their separate ways in 1980 when John Bonham died. It was such a mixed group of people and not only the old and grey who met to remember their youth again. It was not a nostalgic event as such. But everybody seemed to have their special moments and memories with Led Zeppelin. Memories that were exchanged also at our hotel bar after the concert was over.
But their music is definitely still alive. There was a very special moment after the last encore when the young Bonham went down onto his knees and, with his hands over his head, bowed low before his father’s three old colleagues. He need not have been so humble, though. His performance on the drums was well worthy of his father and kept the “new” Led Zeppelin act well together.
BAAGØ:
Well thank you, Jerry. Your report has been so good, I almost feel I attended the concert myself!
RITZ: You should have been there! It did completely live up to all our expectations.
ANNIE RITZ
RECALLS LED ZEPPELIN’S FIRST-EVER PUBLIC PERFORMANCE
Portrait of Jimmy Page in his days with The Yardbirds.
Courtesy: Howard Mylett Collection, used with permission. Enzepplopedia Publishing, Inc.
Annie Ritz experienced the popular music scene of the 1960s firsthand in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, Annie experienced one aspect of rock’n’roll history that few people can ever lay claim to. She was in the audience the night of Led Zeppelin’s first-ever public performance. It was Saturday, September 7, 1968 at the Gladsaxe Teen Club which was located in the Egegård School in Copenhagen. At the venue, a soft drink sponsored sign announced the act as “The New Yardbirds”. The group would be renamed Led Zeppelin in a few short weeks.
Annie was also a volunteer at the Gladsaxe Teen Club where she spent many happy Saturday nights with her friends. It was here that she met her husband-to-be, Jerry Ritz, who was the tour manager for The New Yardbirds in September 1968.
REDDON:
It’s great to be speaking with you in person, Annie! Let’s get started by having you tell me how the Gladsaxe Teen Club came about.
RITZ:
In the 1960s, there was tremendous growth in the Gladsaxe area. Lots of new baby boomers, if you like. There were many high rise apartments going up. Lots of young people were in all the new families moving into Gladsaxe and the surrounding suburbs. The Gladsaxe Teen Club was started by young people who wanted to have somewhere for all these even younger people to go and enjoy themselves safely. There were other smaller clubs in the area too, but the Gladsaxe Teen Club was the main one.
In nearby Brøndby, they modelled another club after ours. It was a great idea and it was very successful at providing somewhere for young people to go and enjoy themselves. There was a lot of great music played at the Gladsaxe Teen Club.
REDDON: How did you become involved in the Gladsaxe Teen Club?
RITZ:
I was at the Teen Club one night with a friend of mine. We were sitting there and one of the organizers of the Teen Club events pointed at me and asked Jørgen Angel, “Who’s that?” Jørgen replied, “This is my friend, Annie. She’s from Kgs. Lyngby.” The organizer asked me if I would like to become a volunteer, since my friends and I were coming to the Teen Club anyway. Then I would save the dollar admission each time. I liked that idea! So I agreed to become a volunteer. That way, I would get in for free and get to see the performances. It was lots of fun volunteering, too.
We had so much fun at those performances. We would drink Jolly Cola, eat Mars chocolate bars and all hang around together. It was such a great time; not only the first time we saw Led Zeppelin there, but on all of the Teen Club nights.
REDDON:
I was very fortunate to interview Jørgen Angel, who took those spectacular and historic photos of Led Zeppelin’s first-ever public performance at the Gladsaxe Teen Club on Saturday, September 7, 1968. He kindly introduced me to you and your husband Jerry, after he told you about my early Led Zeppelin research. I’m very grateful for that.
RITZ:
Yes, I actually knew Jørgen from the Teen Club before I met Jerry! We often laugh about that. Jørgen took the photos for the Gladsaxe Teen Club programme, the Teen Club Nyt. So we were all there at the Gladsaxe Teen Club that night to see “The New Yardbirds” who would later become Led Zeppelin.
REDDON: How did you get interested in popular music like The Yardbirds?
RITZ:
I