Jimmy Page Said He Had a Specific Ritual During Led Zeppelin’s 1975 Tour
Jimmy Page always had a fascination with the mystical. His vignette as a mountain climber who became an ageless hermit in The Song Remains the Same movie (a segment he filmed as his property once owned by Aleister Crowley) made it public. Oh, and there was the long-lost soundtrack to the film Lucifer Rising, too. The guitarist was no stranger to magic, and Page had one specific ritual (albeit a non-magical one) he did every night during Led Zeppelin’s 1975 tour.
Jimmy Page perfected a personal ritual with his stage outfits in 1975
Led Zeppelin performed in small settings, such as clubs, ballrooms, and halls, when they first started. The fledgling band didn’t have an audience that required them to play arenas and stadiums, but that didn’t take long to change. Zep played at Baltimore’s Civic Center, Philadelphia Spectrum, and London’s Royal Albert Hall before 1969 ended.
The band played exclusively in massive venues by 1975.
The larger surroundings necessitated more grandiose stage decorations, such as their massive, light-up Led Zeppelin sign — and new clothes.
Page’s ritual for each concert in those larger venues had to do with the outfits he wore. The guitarist had two custom-made suits that he alternated between wearing.
“I thought about what I wanted on my stage clothes carefully. After [a woman named] Coco made the dragon outfit, I had her make my white suit with the poppy on it. I would wear the black dragon one night and the poppy suit the next. It became a ritual for me.”
Jimmy Page to ‘Light & Shade’ (p. 175) author Brad Tolinski
Page’s two custom-made suits became his uniform for Led Zeppelin concerts in the mid-1970s. He wore his black dragon jumpsuit through the band’s 1977 North American concert, their final trip through the U.S. Page told Tolinski his dragon suit survived and looked pristine decades after he had it made and after years of wear and tear.
Page’s habit of wearing the same clothes was as much about comfort as it was about being a showman.
The sometimes plain stage outfits he wore earlier in Led Zeppelin’s career, such as the tweed trench coat and bucket hat he donned at the 1970 Bath Festival, didn’t cut it inside large and relatively dim arenas. His brightly decorated suits with intricate designs and sparkling stones helped him stand out to the fans in the cheap seats.
The red dragon and white poppy outfits are probably Page’s two most famous articles of clothing. Still, the guitarist’s clothes became iconic whether or not he meant it to happen.
He broke out a Zoso sweater for concerts in late 1971 as the band incorporated more music from Led Zeppelin IV into their set. Before wearing his dragon outfit starting in 1975, Page wore a black suit with a galactic theme (stars and swirls) during the band’s 1973 shows. When Led Zeppelin ended a two-year concert hiatus at the 1979 Knebworth Festival, Page’s clothes switched to business casual. He wore light-colored pants with a striped collared shirt as the band got back to business.
Jimmy Page never got to revisit his ritual of switching between his custom-made black and white suits after Knebworth. Led Zeppelin had a brief three-week European tour in the summer of 1980 that proved to be the last shows they played together. Drummer John Bonham died before Zep kicked off a fall 1980 U.S. tour, and the band broke up soon after. No Page ritual, wardrobe-based or otherwise, could have recreated the magic Led Zeppelin lost when Bonham died.
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