50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin at Western Springs: The country kid who quit school to climb stairway to rock and roll heaven

Jimmy Page and the twin electric guitar, combo six-string and 12-string, amid Stairway to Heaven and now, 50 years later, pirated on YouTube. Photo / Doug Laing

Remember the trusty Kodak Instamatic?

It was the trusty global introduction to 'photography made simple' in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Cartridge loaded film, shoot and snap. Easy.

I'm guessing I got mine for Christmas in 1971.

It would have cost less than $5, but its value was proven within a couple of months, one Friday night in Auckland, on February 25, 1972 at Led Zeppelin's only-ever New Zealand concert.

The memories flood back every anniversary, but especially this February 25, 2022 (also a Friday) which was the 50th anniversary of the rock music legends' gig at Western Springs.

I was a 17-year-old from Masterton, able to snap Robert Plant, John Paul Jones et al from barely 5-10 metres away.

Going to California, from Auckland. February 25, 1972, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin at Western Springs, Auckland. Photo / Doug Laing

Actually I went one better, and recorded it with a hand-held cassette tape-recorder I'd hired, for $5, from a globe-trotting Wairarapa rodeo rider who I bumped into in a shop.

On the 50th anniversary, I have realised why I was never a business person – one of my photos is on YouTube, with what sounds suspiciously like a pirated and remastered version of my recording.

The original version, which I still have (from the ageing two 90-minute tapes, change sides at 45 minutes, transferred to CD) featured our own sound accompaniments.

We were teenage country town schoolmates completely overwhelmed by the first trip to the big smoke of Auckland.

Smoke, by the way, was well-represented on the night.

Led Zeppelin was an unbelievable bonus.

It had only been a few weeks earlier that I'd heard the concert announced on Wellington music station 2ZM.

A Wellington-to-Auckland return train was on offer, with bus transfers from the Auckland railway station to the Springs and back to the rail, plus a concert ticket. All for $20. The mates were on.

A few days later I was conveniently asked to leave school and not come back until a barber had attended to my hair.

I met the challenge head on, and walked the three to four kilometres out to Waingawa Freezing Works.

By 10.15am, I was in the smallgoods department, ripping things out of sheep's heads, earning the money to go to Auckland.

The train trip was an experience in itself – 500 people on what became known as the "Kapok Express" because of the pillow-fighting.

There was no food or refreshment sales on board.

At Te Kuiti, the platform was lined by the constabulary deployed to stop the misspent youth plundering the bottle store across the road.

(Coming home, the train stopped at a State Highway 1 crossing near Taihape, flagged-down by a taxi driver with three to four concertgoers who had missed their ride).

Someone who did have longer hair - from West Bromwich, one of the most definable rock voices of the sixties and 70s, Robert Plant. Photo / Doug Laing

Some people, like I, heard Stairway to Heaven for the first time.

One review called it "boring", but it was the outstanding feature of the two days of the Masterton to Masterton trip.

Going to California was another highlight, and who could forget Whole lotta Love.

The setlist was Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Black Dog, Since I've Been Loving You, Celebration Day, Stairway to Heaven, Going to California, That's the Way, Tangerine, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Dazed and Confused, part The Song Remains the Same, What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Rock and Roll, Whole Lotta Love, and the encore - Communication Breakdown.

Somehow, I recall Four Sticks in there as well. Aww maaaate … John Bonham, RIP.

The show took everything from the new album known as Led Zep IV (four) and at the time referred to by some disc jocks as Runic Symbols (the things pictured on the cover) – and the best after I, II and III.

I still remember every minute.

It certainly beat the annual Loxene Golden Disc Award road in the Masterton Town Hall.