CHAPTER 56   PAGE 257   LINE 27

'In the end, I reasoned, 1979 just had to be the turn of Led Zeppelin. What, I wondered, would grab Peter's attention. Possibly something we hadn't tried before. Perhaps two consecutive Saturdays? What the hell, it was worth a try. Peter was by now pretty used to my letters, which I must say were always acknowledged, either by a short note usually explaining that the boys had other commitments, or occasionally a phone call. This time, in addition to my suggestion of two dates, I doubled my previous financial offer.
'I hope we know what we're doing,' I said to Wendy, as I posted the letter.
I didn’t have to wait long for some sort of reaction. A couple of days later I received a phone call from Peter.
'Well, your timing’s right for once ' he said,' The boys were thinking of playing an outdoor festival this summer. You had better come down to Horselunges and talk about it.'
When we arrived, we were surprised to see that since our last visit, a giant security camera and floodlights had been installed above the entrance to the bridge that led over the moat. Already, it seemed, Peter's paranoia was showing itself. Ray Washburn, Peter's general factotum, met us. Peter, it seemed, was still in the middle of a meeting, and we were shown into the music room and were left to listen to early mixes of Zep's new album 'In Through The Outdoor'.
'What do you think?' Peter asked when he was finally through with his meeting.
'Fantastic,' I replied, although in truth I would really have needed a couple more listens to come up with an honest assessment.
When we finally got down to the nitty gritty, Peter explained that this time that Zeppelin were seriously interested in playing Knebworth. They liked the idea of two dates, but he thought our offer was still too low. The figure he named gave me palpitations, but with a higher ticket price was, I thought, manageable. The really nasty surprise was that they wanted us to fly a giant Showco sound system in from America. We had, of course, allowed a figure for sound and lights. However, we hadn’t budgeted for a system this size or for the additional airfreight costs. We eventually agreed to their demands, but strictly on the understanding that we would only go ahead with the second show if it looked like being a sell-out. Peter agreed, saying that Led Zeppelin wouldn’t want to play to a half empty venue anyway. It was at this point that it was agreed we would initially only advertise one show.'...................