When John Bonham defaced a Danish art gallery in 1973
In March 1973, Led Zeppelin held a press conference at Copenhagen's Galerie Birch, a modern art gallery, ahead of a tour stop in the city. The choice of venue, reportedly favoured by guitarist Jimmy Page as an art enthusiast, backfired when the event descended into chaos, with a Danish newspaper later reporting that the band had "turned the press conference into a madhouse". The incident is notable both as an example of rock stars' growing sense of entitlement by the early 1970s and for the lasting damage caused to the gallery's exhibits.
Journalists repeatedly pressed Page about his fascination with the occultist Aleister Crowley, whose Scottish home he was reportedly about to buy, souring the mood as drink flowed freely. Photographer Jorgen Angel, who had followed the band since 1968, recalled that drummer John Bonham, wearing woollen gloves against the winter cold, smeared wet paint on several still-drying canvases, alarming attendees who feared costly lawsuits. Two reporters were ejected by Zeppelin's bodyguards, who then also confronted Angel demanding his camera film, though he had not photographed the defacement.
- Led Zeppelin's 1973 Copenhagen press conference turned chaotic and hostile.
- Drummer John Bonham reportedly smeared paint on wet gallery paintings.
- Bodyguards ejected journalists and demanded a photographer's camera film.
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Led Zeppelin's 1973 press event in Copenhagen took place at the height of their fame, during a European tour, when rock bands were increasingly given free rein by promoters and venues eager for their business. The gallery hosting it, Galerie Birch, was a working exhibition space showing pieces by contemporary artists, not a music venue, which meant it had wet paintings and fragile displays on site during the event.
The key figures are guitarist Jimmy Page, said to have picked the gallery because of his personal interest in art, and drummer John Bonham, who ended up damaging several paintings. Also involved were the Danish journalists covering the event, who focused their questions on Page's interest in Aleister Crowley, a controversial early 20th-century occultist, and a photographer, Jorgen Angel, who had documented the band for several years and witnessed what happened.
The episode matters as a small but telling illustration of how much latitude major rock acts had by the early 1970s, and of the tensions that could arise when that behaviour collided with venues and people unconnected to the music industry, in this case an art gallery and its exhibits.