BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A new wave rock group that headlined Allentown Fair last year will return to the area to play Wind Creek Event Center, it was announced.
So will a tribute to the biggest rock band of all time led by the son of one of its members, playing a tribute to the 50th anniversary of one of its biggest albums.
Cheap Trick, which had its first hit with “Surrender” in 1978 and 10 years later had its biggest hit with “The Flame,” will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22.
And Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, with his Led Zeppelin Evening will perform a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the "Physical Graffiti" album at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15.
Tickets, at $45-$85 for Cheap Trick and $49.50-$99.50 for Bonham, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 22, at the Wind Creek website or at the box office at 77 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band
Cheap Trick headlined Allentown Fair last year as a replacement for rock group Heart, which postponed at the last minute when singer Ann Wilson took ill.
Cheap Trick formed in 1974 and last year celebrated its 50th anniversary as a band.
It has sold more than 10 million albums in the United States alone.
Starting with its 1977 platinum album “In Color,” Cheap Trick produced five straight gold or platinum albums through 1982.Billboard.com
After “Surrender,” it had the follow-up hits “I Want You to Want Me,” “Dream Police” and “Ain’t That a Shame.”
The band was full of new wave imagery, with guitarist Rick Nielson playing checkerboard designed guitars in a baseball cap with a flipped-up brim, long-haired singer Robin Zander wailing away and balding drummer Bun E. Carlos beating away with a cigarette dangling from his lip.
Starting with its 1977 platinum album “In Color,” the band produced five straight gold or platinum albums through 1982. Its 1979 album “Dream Police” went to No. 6.
But bassist Tom Petersson left the band in 1982, and Cheap Trick didn’t have another Top 40 hit or platinum album until he rejoined in 1988.
Cheap Trick then had the platinum album “Lap of Luxury,” which included “The Flame” and a cover of Elvis Presley's “Don’t Be Cruel.”
Carlos no longer tours with Cheap Trick and has been replaced by Neilson’s son Dax playing drums.
Its most recent album of new music was 2021’s “In Another World.”
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
Before Allentown Fair, Cheap Trick last played the Lehigh Valley in 2023 and 2019, both at Wind Creek, and at Allentown’s PPL Center in 2018.
It also played Wind Creek, then called Sands Bethlehem Event Center, in 2015 and 2012, and at Allentown’s Airport Hall in 1991. It also was a headliner at Allentown Fair in 1978.
Tribute to top band, classic disc
The 1980 death of Jason Bonham's father prompted Led Zeppelin — one of the best-selling music artists of all time — to break up after just a decade together and eight studio albums and a live album.
But those nine albums have sold 80 million copies. Retrospectives released since then have sold an additional 23 million copies, meaning the band has sold more than 100 million albums, making it the No. 2-selling band ever, behind only The Beatles.
Led Zeppelin is best known for its fourth, untitled album, which alone sold nearly 24 million copies and is among the Top 10 selling albums of all time. The album included the song “Stairway to Heaven,” “Rock and Roll” and more.
"Physical Graffiti," Led Zeppelin's sixth album, was released in 1975 and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Albums chart.
It since has become Led Zeppelin's second-best seller, at 16 times platinum, second only to "Led Zeppelin IV." Its best-known single was "Trampled Under Foot."
Jason Bonham has carved out his own impressive career as a drummer with his own band, Bonham, as well as four years with Foreigner.
And he even took his father’s seat for two reunions of Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones: A five-song performance at the 40th anniversary of Atlantic Records in 1988, and, in 2007, a full concert at London’s O2 Arena as part of an all-star tribute to Atlantic founder Ahmet Ertegün.
The younger Bonham also went on to tour with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and recorded the album “Outrider” with him.
Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience also performed at the event center in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
