[imagesource: Dick Barnatt / Redferns]

In the early 1970s, Led Zeppelin was probably the biggest band in the world.

Anybody who has read one of the hundreds of band biographies (I would argue When Giants Walked the Earth is the best of the bunch) will understand why, with their success and notoriety increasing with each album release and tour.

Some of the stories that are told about the band are true. Others, like the notorious red snapper / shark story, are shrouded in mystery.

What we do know for sure is that in October 1972, while returning home from a tour of Japan, the band members stopped in Slip Disc nightclub in Mumbai.

A visit to a nightclub was far from unusual, but this was a dingy joint on a Monday with about 10 people inside at the time.

Make that 13, as three “long-haired Westerners who’d just been refused entry into Blow Up, a far more staid nightclub underneath the grand waterfront Taj Mahal Hotel”, entered.

The Telegraph takes it from here:

That year, the band had already played to hundreds of thousands of delirious fans from Tucson to Tokyo, and here were Page and Plant – along with tour manager Richard Cole – in a broom-cupboard dive-bar in downtown Mumbai. Not only that, but Atomic Forest and a handful of other Indian rock bands had made a career out of playing covers of Zeppelin, Stones and Jethro Tull tracks. These men were living legends. And they were now in their midst.

What happened next must rank as one of the more extraordinary “I was there” moments in rock history. It also yielded one of music’s most tantalising lost bootlegs.

Madhukar Dhas, aka Madooo, then a 22-year-old singer in local psychedelic rock band Atomic Forest, was told to sing by Slip Disc’s owner, a man called Ramzan.

Along with a few other musicians who happened to be there, Dhas took to the stage. They played ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ by the Rolling Stones, which earned a thumbs up from Plant.

The venue began to fill up as word spread that these VIPs were in attendance, and soon reached its capacity of 50.

Some jokingly encouraged Page and Plant to perform, and then the duo walked on stage:

Precise recollections of the impromptu set-list vary. It was recorded by Slip Disc’s resident DJ, Arul Harris, but the whereabouts of the only tape remain unknown. According to Dhas, Page and Plant started with a bluesy ad-lib about turning up at Blow Up, the club under the Taj, and not being allowed in.

They also performed ‘Whole Lotta Love’ with the ramshackle equipment available, including a guitar that had been strung with piano strings.

Page and Plant jammed out for just under half an hour, and told the crowd they would return the next evening to play again.

They did, but found the place packed with people wielding cameras and left after 10 minutes without playing a chord.

In 2012, Plant spoke about the night they jammed during an interview, saying “we ended up in there with loads and loads of illicit substances… wired out of our faces.”

He recalls singing, as well as playing the drums.

Dhas actually went on to become a minor celebrity in his own right, starring in a Mumbai production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar before moving to New York in 1978.

In 1981, Plant appeared as a guest on New York’s WNEW 102.7FM rock radio station, and Dhas called in repeatedly to try and talk with him.

He was initially dismissed by the receptionist who answered, but once his claims were run past Plant the two reconnected.

The world-famous musician told Dhas that he “remembered the night with fondness”.

That’s about as good as it gets, really.

[source:telegraph]