{"id":272562,"date":"2026-02-03T22:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272562\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T22:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:44:08","slug":"bonzos-birthday-cake-was-a-wedding-cake-and-george-harrison-lifted-the-top-layer-straight-into-bonzos-face-bonzo-picked-harrison-up-and-launched-him-into-the-swimming-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272562\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBonzo\u2019s birthday cake was a wedding cake and George Harrison lifted the top layer straight into Bonzo\u2019s face. Bonzo picked Harrison up and launched him into the swimming pool\u201d: When Led Zeppelin broke a Beatles record and celebrated in style"},"content":{"rendered":"

5 May 1973 was a landmark date for Led Zeppelin<\/a> \u2013 when they broke a record previously held by The Beatles<\/a> for the biggest concert attendance for a single act.<\/p>\n

Back in 1965, at the height of Beatlemania, an audience of 55,600 had seen The Beatles perform at Shea Stadium in New York City.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eight years later, and three years after The Beatles had disbanded, Led Zeppelin played to 56,800 fans at Tampa Stadium in Florida.<\/p>\n

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As Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page<\/a> recalled: \u201cAt Tampa we broke The Beatles\u2019 Shea Stadium record, which was a big deal at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band’s North American tour of 1973 climaxed with a three-night stand at Madison Square Garden in New York \u2013 recorded for the concert movie and soundtrack album The Song Remains The Same.<\/p>\n

Led Zeppelin – Over the Hills and Far Away (Live at Madison Square Garden 1973) [HD] – YouTube
\n\"Led<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The hysteria around Led Zeppelin in this period is remembered in the cover story of the new issue of Classic Rock.<\/p>\n

Among the many anecdotes told by members of the band and their inner circle is the story of drummer John Bonham\u2019s 25th birthday party on 31 May 1973 \u2013 less than four weeks after that record-breaking show in Tampa.<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

This story also involves ex-Beatle George Harrison<\/a>, his then wife Pattie Boyd and Zeppelin\u2019s tour manager Richard Cole, aka \u2018Colesy\u2019.<\/p>\n

The story is recounted in the words of Zeppelin singer Robert Plant<\/a> and the band\u2019s manager, the late Peter Grant.<\/p>\n

Referring to Bonham by his nickname, Grant said: \u201cFor Bonzo\u2019s birthday party we hired a programme director\u2019s house in the Hollywood hills. We ended up putting in new carpets for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Robert Plant recalled: \u201cLots of luminaries arrived at this house after we\u2019d played the LA Forum \u2013 George Harrison, Roy Harper, Keith Moon\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBonzo\u2019s birthday cake was a wedding cake,\u201d said Peter Grant, \u201cand George Harrison lifted the top layer straight into Bonzo\u2019s face, with all this hard icing. There was no lateral thinking with Bonzo. He picked Harrison up and launched him into the swimming pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cPattie Boyd came out screaming, so Colesy threw her in the pool. George said, \u2018This is the greatest night of my life!\u2019 And Atlantic [Records] made a poster of the bill for all the damages.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Plant, this was also the night on which he uttered a phrase that would become legendary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stood in the boughs of a tree and declared I was a golden god!\u201d Plant said. \u201cCameron Crowe was at the party and used the line in his movie Almost Famous. I suppose it sounds a bit sad now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5 May 1973 was a landmark date for Led Zeppelin \u2013 when they broke a record previously held…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-272562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}