Led Zeppelin in Bombay and Their Forgotten Gig
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February 1972. Led Zeppelin was at their peak. Four albums in, they had redefined rock, selling out stadiums worldwide.
As they traveled to Australia for their tour, the band planned a stopover in Singapore. However, they found themselves at odds with the local government, which had banned long-haired visitors to curb Western influences. Rock stars were forced to either cut their hair or turn back.
Zeppelin, true to style, refused and diverted to Bombay.
Page later recalled, “All the Led Zeppelin members stopped off in Bombay for an overnight stay en route to an Australian tour. But here in Bombay, the members of Led Zeppelin got to taste the exotic perfume of this fascinating city and managed to be tourists for a day. It was wonderful to experience the kaleidoscopic images we got to savour.”
In October 1972, after wrapping up their Japanese tour, Page and Plant returned to Bombay—this time with music on their minds. They made the Taj Mahal Hotel their home, settling in for what would become an unforgettable trip.
They spent time jamming with local musicians, including an impromptu moment at a nightclub rehearsal where Robert Plant, unable to sit still, jumped onto the drum kit mid-session. “He was all over the place,” recalled Nandu Bhende of Velvette Fogg. “He wanted to connect. But Page was very quiet, just sitting around and not communicating too much.”
One evening, Page and Plant wandered into Slip Disc, one of the city’s few clubs where rock fans could gather. The bouncer, unimpressed by their scruffy look, blocked the entrance, reportedly saying, "HIPPIES NOT ALLOWED!"
Fortunately, a sharp-eyed fan, Yusuf Gandhi, stepped in and got them inside.
The club’s owner convinced them to play. What followed was a raw, stripped-down set featuring "Whole Lotta Love," "Rock and Roll," and a long blues jam. They were joined by two local musicians: Xerxes Gobhai (bassist, Human Bondage) and Jameel Shaikh (drummer, Velvette Fogg). Their spontaneous 20-minute set ended in a long jam where Plant riffed about Bombay before launching into "Black Dog."
The club’s DJ, Arul Harris, recorded the performance onto cassette. The tape later ended up with Keith Kanga of Atomic Forest, but like so many Zeppelin artifacts, it’s now lost to time.
The next night, hundreds lined up outside Slip Disc, hoping for an encore. But Plant and Page never returned. Instead, they took their pilgrimage deeper into the city, stepping into HMV Studios in South Bombay for an experiment in fusing Indian classical music with Zeppelin’s sound.
With guidance from Vijay Raghav Rao and sarangi maestro Sultan Khan, they reinterpreted "Friends" and "Four Sticks" with sitar, sarangi, tablas, and a percussion section trained in an entirely different rhythmic tradition.
“They were great musicians,” Page later recalled, “but they were used to counting and feeling rhythms in a different way. Moving them from one time signature to another while retaining the feel we had in mind was difficult, but it was exciting and a learning experience.”
For decades, the Bombay Sessions remained elusive, circulating only in bootlegs. Then, in 2011, a few recordings surfaced on Facebook, barely noticed at the time. The full tapes wouldn’t be officially released until 2015 as part of the *Coda* (Deluxe Edition).
During that final visit, Plant and Page had bigger plans than just jam sessions.
“You know why we came?” Plant told a local reporter. “To see if we could set up a recording studio. But the customs regulations are tough, man. Like, it will take us six months to get our equipment out of Bombay airport.”
With that, the dream of a Led Zeppelin-backed recording studio in India faded.
“They were idols of ours before they came here,” Bhende said years later, “so we just could not believe that a band of that stature could perform in India. None of us could have ever dreamt it was going to happen.”
Credit to Sidharth Bhatia for his original research, as detailed in his book, India Psychedelic: The Story of a Rocking Generation.
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