Louder Than War is reporting on the passing of Richard Cole, who was Led Zeppelin's tour manager from 1968 - 1980. He was 75 years old.

According to the report: Born in London in 1946, Cole entered the music business in 1965, working as a road manager for Unit 4 + 2. Shortly after that, he became responsible for tour management of such prominent British Invasion acts like The Who and The Yardbirds. Not long after the latter disbanded, their then-session guitarist Jimmy Page introduced Cole to his new band Led Zeppelin. In his interview to Vice magazine, the manager admitted that it didn’t take long to realise the group was outstanding: “About four shows into that first tour of 1968–1969, I realized Led Zeppelin was an exceptional band - simply brilliant musicians.”

Cole’s prolific collaboration with Led Zeppelin lasted for 12 years. His book Stairway To Heaven: Led Zeppelin Uncensored tells about his personal experiences of working with the band and describes the atmosphere of ‘60s London.

One of the first managers to organize American tours for British bands, Richard Cole changed the technical aspects of touring practice. He introduced the practice of bringing over the equipment and crew from England.

The list of other artists he worked with includes such venerable names as Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath, Lita Ford, Ozzy Osbourne, Edan Everly, Black Uhuru, and Three Dog Night.

Led Zeppelin author, Dave Lewis, shared the following tribute via Facebook:

"I am so very sad to hear the passing of Richard Cole.

Over many years Richard has always been so supportive of my Led Zeppelin writings – in 2018 he contributed the most wonderful Foreword for the Evenings With Led Zeppelin book I wrote with Mike Tremaglio. Earlier this year I interviewed him on the phone about the Zep Knebworth concerts for a feature I wrote for Rock Candy magazine. This would prove to be his final word on Zep in print.

His pioneering tour managing role with Led Zeppelin and before that with The Who and Yardbirds was a crucial element in Zep’s world conquering success. For within all the much documented sex drugs and rock’ n’roll he was an incredibly shrewd operator and a highly intelligent negotiator. With the maverick manager Peter Grant and the four members of Led Zeppelin he formed a formidable team – ‘’it was always six of everything’’ he once told me.

I met him on a fair few occasions in the Swan Song office in the late 1970s. The first time was when he came marching up the stairs, took one look at me sitting in the office and proclaimed ‘’Who’s that ‘effin ice cream! (abbreviated cockney rhyming slag =ice cream feezer (geezer)

I rather shakily introduced myself as a fan and writer of my own Zep magazine. Thankfully he soon warmed to my presence. Years later we often laughed about that rather frightening (for me) indignant first crossing of paths.

When Richard moved to Kensington in the early 2000s I made contact with him again and eventually met to conduct a lengthy interview for a US radio station. It was an illumining day and the first of many in his company. I think the fact that I came from the angle of how he got Zep from A to B on any given tour rather than all the usual stuff he was asked about, allowed me to gain his trust.

He loved telling those on the road stories and when it came to the Evenings With Led Zeppelin book he very graciously accepted my request to write the Foreword.

‘’Looking through this book brings it all back to me -city by city and gig to gig’’ he wrote. ‘’It’s like a virtual travelogue of 11 years of my life. 11 years of my life that seem barely imaginable now but 11 years I wouldn’t have missed for the world and what incredible times they were.’’

Richard was immensely proud of his role within the success of Led Zeppelin – and his memory for those times was vivid right to the end. Often he would randomly ring me and dispute some minor detail in the book when it was in the work in progress stage and I of course always bowed to his superior knowledge – because he was there…

Much more than his role in the world of Led Zeppelin and his other management roles with the likes of The Quireboys, Richard was a loyal friend to many and away from the rock’n’roll mayhem, he was also a very sensitive soul -he was a tireless worker for AA, attending regular meetings to support others.

He was also aware of the affectionate and esteem he was held in within the Zep fan community and enjoyed the acclaim and rapport he had with the Richard Cole Appreciation Society Facebook group ably maintained by Sean Atkinson.

He was certainly a great friend to us here. Despite his own ongoing health he was always ringing to find out how Janet and I were – so sympathetic and supportive of my own mental health issues and Janet’s leg break problems.

In recent months I have been aware of how poor his health was and in October I went to visit him at his flat in Kensington. Despite his obvious failing health he was in amazingly good spirits.

For a good couple of hours he relayed to me many a tale of being on the road, right back to his early touring days with The Who and The New Vaudeville Band – so many incredible stories and as ever relayed with much humour."

Read more of Dave Lewis' tribute below:

(Photo - Dave Lewis)