To capture a truly great rock ‘n’ roll photograph, you need a few things: access to the band, a good vantage point, a careful sense of timing and, perhaps most importantly, a little bit of luck. Photographer Neal Preston had all of these things when he snapped the now-famous photo of Robert Plant tenderly holding a white-winged dove at a Led Zeppelin concert that took place at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco on June 2, 1973.
The band had a dozen birds released from cages during the end of “Stairway to Heaven,” but instead of flying away like the others, this dove landed on Plant’s hand. Once in an interview Robert commented that a picture taken at the theme was his favorite photo of himself and that he personally owns a copy of it.
“This was taken during a gig at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco,” Preston told The Guardian in 2018. “There were two cages behind the amps on stage, each containing six white doves. To be honest, I think they were probably just white pigeons but we called them doves so let’s stick with that. Anyway, Robert Plant’s a real hippy at heart, so the idea was that at the end of ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ we’d release the doves and they’d fly off into the air as a homage to peace and love.
“But when the cages opened, the birds flew out and one did a low pass over the audience, then must have taken too deep a breath of the San Francisco air – remember, this was 1973 and there was a high chance of being dosed by some deadhead. Anyway, it turned back to the stage and Robert stuck out his hand. The dove landed on it, purely by chance – this was not a trained bird. It was there for about five seconds. I’m just glad it didn’t land on Jimmy Page’s hand or something bad might have happened to it.
“I knew it was a nice picture. With the dove and the Newcastle Brown Ale he’s drinking, it’s so British and so Robert. Nobody else could have pulled that off without looking pretentious.”
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