On This Day in 1968, Led Zeppelin Played Their First UK Concert On October 4, 1968, the four musicians who would become Led Zeppelin made their British live debut at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle. They were still billed as The New Yardbirds. Jimmy Page had assembled Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones into a completely new lineup, and the band had already tested itself with a handful of Scandinavian dates the previous month. Newcastle brought that lineup home. What the crowd saw was effectively the birth of a new band, even though the name Led Zeppelin had not yet appeared on a poster. Within weeks, The New Yardbirds would become Led Zeppelin. Their debut album followed in early 1969, and in an astonishingly short time they were one of the most important rock bands in the world.