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•  LED  ZEPPELIN • THE  COMPLETE  UK  VINYL  DISCOGRAPHY •

Details of every Led Zeppelin UK release on the Atlantic and Swan Song labels from 1969 to 1982 with full colour, high quality photography throughout of labels, sleeves and inserts along with detailed analysis and identification of the crucial 1st pressing details of every album and single. Essential reading for collectors of Led Zeppelin UK 1st pressings.

Following the break up of The Yardbirds in July 1968, Jimmy Page and former bandmate Chris Dreja started  preparations to form a new group, ostensibly to fulfil outstanding Yardbirds touring commitments in Scandinavia later that same year.

With the rights to use the former band name, Page began searching for a lead vocalist, eventually approaching a young blues singer from the Midlands by the name of Robert Plant. Plant’s then drummer, John Bonham, was also persuaded to join the new project. Page, a prolific session musician from the mid-1960s, had collaborated with bassist and arranger John Paul Jones on an earlier recording session. Jones had already stated his wishes to join Page on any future project and completed the line-up once Dreja announced his intentions to quit music and concentrate on photography.

With former Yardbirds manager Peter Grant now acting as the new group’s manager, the band fulfilled the Scandinavian dates under the name of the New Yardbirds and then set about recording a debut album, financed by Page and recorded in just over a week.

The group signed to Atlantic Records and changed their name to Led Zeppelin. The debut album, a mix of authentic blues and folk, underpinned by a new, hard, heavy rock sound, took the world by storm.

Within a few months, Zeppelin were the most popular and sought after band in the world, breaking sales and concert attendance records wherever they played.

The group produced five LPs on the Atlantic label before creating their own Swan Song label in 1974. They released three more studio albums and one live album on their own label up to 1979. The tragic and untimely death of drummer John Bonham in 1980 caused the break up of the band later that year.

Page and Plant forged ahead with solo careers utilising their existing Swan Song label. The final UK release on Swan Song was 1982’s compilation album of Led Zeppelin outtakes and unused tracks – “Coda” – after which the label folded in early 1983.