ON THIS DAY IN 1968, LED ZEPPELIN PLAYED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME:

Misfortune can beget some of the best creative wins in the artistic world, and that is certainly true of Led Zeppelin’s origin story. Jimmy Page had recently found himself without a band after his fellow Yardbirds parted ways in the late 1960s. What was worse, he already had a tour booked, which meant he had to cancel the run or find a new band. He ultimately chose the latter.

Page had already worked with John Paul Jones, so he was an obvious ask. Manager Peter Grant suggested Robert Plant and John Bonham, who played together in Band of Joy, as Page’s singer and drummer. Page originally wanted Terry Reid and B.J. Wilson to fill those roles, but both musicians declined. Thus, the four men who showed up to practice that fateful August day were Page, Jones, Plant, and Bonham.

The group met on August 12, 1968, in a small, toasty basement room in what is now London’s Chinatown neighborhood. “There was just wall-to-wall amplifiers and a space for the door, and that was it,” Jones later recalled. “Literally, it was everyone looking at each other. ‘What shall we play?’ There was an old Yardbirds number called “Train Kept a Rollin.’” The whole room just exploded.”

Related: ‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ – If You’re a Fan, Catch It on the Big Screen.

But watching at home on a big TV with a good surround sound system isn’t all that bad an alternative; it’s available for purchase or rent at Amazon Prime Video, and currently streaming on Netflix.