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Houston 5/21/77


snapper

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This show was considered to be the best of the tour by the band,

and no bootlegs exists of it, as of yet.

What are your memories of this concert, feel free to go into details.

The main memory is that it was a very good show, maybe Page is right about it being the best of the tour, Black Dog was done as a encore, rare for this tour, I remember being happy they played " Trampled Underfoot" after Kasmir I believe, when they started taking tickets there was a mad rush and people were jumping over the turnstills and the ticket takers were just trying to grab tickets as people were flying by, I still have mine. I hope someday a recording of this show comes to see the light of day, that is if there is one. it could possibly top the LA shows.
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  • 2 months later...
So no photos of the Landover screens anywhere?

And also - even if proof emerges that there were screens, it doesn't necessarily mean it was recorded

...Photograph #16 of 28....?

Photographs by John Huntington - See: May 30 (Official Timeline)

http://www.controlgeek.net/blog/2008/9/4/e...pelin-1977.html

.........

Capitol Centre, Landover, Maryland

1977

Wed. May 25 - BR Classic Rock Site (Page 1st Black Dragon Suit - Change to 2nd White Suit). (I have read on Royal Orleans.Com about the change in Page Attire this day)

(Although May 28, 1977 also attended by BR, but NO Photographs)

http://www.e-rockworld.com/zeppelin.htm

Thurs. May 26 - no photos for this date, I searched, anywhere

Friday, May 27 - OFF

Sat. May 28 -No photos for this date, either, anywhere

Sun. May 29 - OFF

Mon. May 30 - photo by John Huntington - Robert in Jeans...(a small firecracker incident also, here) but serious 2nd incident on June 14, 1977 MSG... see timeline...

Sound Equipment Co. @ shows: Showco

Edited: Not able to confirm if photos in these links are from Landover, Sat. May 28, 1977

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gPMcfaLPNhA/R9Cm...nfederacy_b.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yQz9Ppfz_QQ/SQCw...nfederacy_f.jpg

...I am extremely tempted for these dates...sound really good...

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This show was considered to be the best of the tour by the band,

and no bootlegs exists of it, as of yet.

Where did you read that St Paul 4/13/77 was considered to be "the best of the tour by the band"?

Extremely hard to believe that they said that. And even if they did, every other show during that period in April was mediocre and mistake-filled at best, so it makes it very hard to believe that they magically pulled it off for one night during what was a very rocky patch of gigs, performance-wise.

There are many eras of shows that I wish I had a soundboard of, but the first leg of the 77 tour is DEFINITELY not one of them. It took the band up until Atlanta on 4/23 just to get the show down properly, with the minimum of mistakes. Even then, the gigs after that weren't exactly flawless, even including the highlights of 4/28 Cleveland and 4/30 Pontiac. Certainly none of them were "magic" nights on that leg.

I don't think that there's any question that the best shows of the 77 tour were in LA. Better than Cleveland, better than Landover, better than New York. The playing, the sets, and the improvisations. And of those, 6/23 is impossible to top, no matter how common and ubiquitous that show is after all these years. There is no way that any gig from April could touch that.

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Where did you read that St Paul 4/13/77 was considered to be "the best of the tour by the band"?

Extremely hard to believe that they said that. And even if they did, every other show during that period in April was mediocre and mistake-filled at best, so it makes it very hard to believe that they magically pulled it off for one night during what was a very rocky patch of gigs, performance-wise.

There are many eras of shows that I wish I had a soundboard of, but the first leg of the 77 tour is DEFINITELY not one of them. It took the band up until Atlanta on 4/23 just to get the show down properly, with the minimum of mistakes. Even then, the gigs after that weren't exactly flawless, even including the highlights of 4/28 Cleveland and 4/30 Pontiac. Certainly none of them were "magic" nights on that leg.

I don't think that there's any question that the best shows of the 77 tour were in LA. Better than Cleveland, better than Landover, better than New York. The playing, the sets, and the improvisations. And of those, 6/23 is impossible to top, no matter how common and ubiquitous that show is after all these years. There is no way that any gig from April could touch that.

That quote was from Zep's Laser tech during the 77' tour, otherwise known as Photonbeam, he used to post regularly on the Royal-Orleans Zep site.

He also went as far to say that both Peter Grant and Richard Cole also

(as well as the band) felt that this was the best show of the tour.

Maybe the man was lying, I don't know, but that's what he said.

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I don't think that there's any question that the best shows of the 77 tour were in LA. Better than Cleveland, better than Landover, better than New York.

People who did not attend the Cleveland 1977 shows but say they were great is beyond me. "Destroyer" sounds as sterile as a medical operating theater; in person however the Houston concert was a visceral kick in the chest although the soundboard doesn't live up to being there. If bootlegs are any indication (and they're not, they're a 32-year-old barometer reading at best) I'd've rather seen the Landover gigs than NYC. Judging from recordings, the L.A. concerts were the apogee of that tour, basically performed at the end of the long '77 road grind when the band was on top of their game after getting a few dozen concerts under their belts to fine tune their presentation. When they returned to the stage in July for the third leg they seemed to have lost the edge they had at the end of the second.

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This does not have to do with Houston 5/21/77 but in reference to the Silverdome gig. Peter Grant destroyed the video of that show. So thank him for where we are today

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^ How do you know he did this?

Although this is entirely plausible considering how paranoid Grant had always been about bootlegs and the fact that in '77 he was heavily into cocaine and had just been through a divorce.

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This does not have to do with Houston 5/21/77 but in reference to the Silverdome gig. Peter Grant destroyed the video of that show. So thank him for where we are today

Peter Grant destroyed the Silverdome footage, kdh? I, too, must ask: how do you know this?

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The information is there in print. You have to search for it to find it. Stop believing in what is not there. Do you not think that at this point if the footage was real, that some snippets would have been leaked out? I wish it was not true, but it is true. Peter Grant was not impressed with the Silverdome show. Richard Cole will be the source. And don't slam RCole for being what he was at that time of his life.

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The information is there in print. You have to search for it to find it. Stop believing in what is not there. Do you not think that at this point if the footage was real, that some snippets would have been leaked out? I wish it was not true, but it is true. Peter Grant was not impressed with the Silverdome show. Richard Cole will be the source. And don't slam RCole for being what he was at that time of his life.

Oh, don't tell me! Grant had Cole and Bindon stomp the Silverdome footage to death.

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The thing is, is that Cole was addicted to Heroin heavily in '77 so his memory may nit be crystal clear. Also just look at his book, he'll write and say anything about the band (true or not) to make a quick buck. I highly doubt the band would have just let Grant destroy the tapes, the Silverdome show was quite a good performance.

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The thing is, is that Cole was addicted to Heroin heavily in '77 so his memory may nit be crystal clear. Also just look at his book, he'll write and say anything about the band (true or not) to make a quick buck. I highly doubt the band would have just let Grant destroy the tapes, the Silverdome show was quite a good performance.

Yes, the Silverdome is a good show, much better than Seattle, so my question is why did the Seattle show survive and the Silverdome show didn't?

The thought of any Zeppelin film/video being destroyed (no matter how bad)

just makes me cringe.

Destroying an entire concert? Thats just fucking crazy.

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Yes, the Silverdome is a good show, much better than Seattle, so my question is why did the Seattle show survive and the Silverdome show didn't?

The thought of any Zeppelin film/video being destroyed (no matter how bad)

just makes me cringe.

Destroying an entire concert? Thats just fucking crazy.

...yes, it does...most of the online research does allude to fact of existence of this film at one time....sadly nothing has or will surface looks like...

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Yes, the Silverdome is a good show, much better than Seattle, so my question is why did the Seattle show survive and the Silverdome show didn't?

The thought of any Zeppelin film/video being destroyed (no matter how bad)

just makes me cringe.

Destroying an entire concert? Thats just fucking crazy.

Yeah exactly. It just doesn't make sense. The Seattle show is almost cringe worthy except for certain moments (No Quarter is great, the impromptu jazz jam in Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp, Bonzos last ever performance of Moby Dick and the Stairway solo is awesome.)

I believe the Silverdome show does exist, I just cant fathom how it would have just been destroyed, it defies common sense.

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The information is there in print. You have to search for it to find it. Stop believing in what is not there. Do you not think that at this point if the footage was real, that some snippets would have been leaked out? I wish it was not true, but it is true. Peter Grant was not impressed with the Silverdome show. Richard Cole will be the source. And don't slam RCole for being what he was at that time of his life.

There is plennnnnnty of stuff that exists that has not been released. The theory that since there are no leaks, therefore it must not exist is ridiculous. Before HTWWW, here wasn't a single snippet of the soundboard from Los Angeles 1972 out there. The final credits of the DVD shows plenty of snippets of footage that was not known to exist (proshot Pittsburgh 1973 for instance).

The stories of Grant or the band "wiping the tapes" from Japan 1971 is as made up as any stories of "destroying" some supposed video footage of Pontiac. Nonsense. Especially since the technology back then didn't result in a single master copy of footage. You're talking about several cameras, with some running independent reels of film, projecting to several tv and video screens, as well as to a main control room for directing the shots. So, to think that Grant just walked into a room and said "alright, hand over the tapes" is underthinking the setup.

If it exists, it exists. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But believing stories about "it existed, but we hated how it looked so we threw it away" is beyond naive. The band kept copies of everything that they recorded, and listened/watched them. That has been documented by everyone from Bonham mentioning in an interview about how he listened to tapes from every tour to check his drum sound, to Page and Plant having commented on owning copies of "Live on Blueberry Hill" when it came out, and Page having passed off a copy of the Badgeholders SOUNDBOARD to the Showco Laser Operator so that he could prepare the lighting effects for Knebworth in 1979.

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There is plennnnnnty of stuff that exists that has not been released. The theory that since there are no leaks, therefore it must not exist is ridiculous. Before HTWWW, here wasn't a single snippet of the soundboard from Los Angeles 1972 out there. The final credits of the DVD shows plenty of snippets of footage that was not known to exist (proshot Pittsburgh 1973 for instance).

The stories of Grant or the band "wiping the tapes" from Japan 1971 is as made up as any stories of "destroying" some supposed video footage of Pontiac. Nonsense. Especially since the technology back then didn't result in a single master copy of footage. You're talking about several cameras, with some running independent reels of film, projecting to several tv and video screens, as well as to a main control room for directing the shots. So, to think that Grant just walked into a room and said "alright, hand over the tapes" is underthinking the setup.

If it exists, it exists. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But believing stories about "it existed, but we hated how it looked so we threw it away" is beyond naive. The band kept copies of everything that they recorded, and listened/watched them. That has been documented by everyone from Bonham mentioning in an interview about how he listened to tapes from every tour to check his drum sound, to Page and Plant having commented on owning copies of "Live on Blueberry Hill" when it came out, and Page having passed off a copy of the Badgeholders SOUNDBOARD to the Showco Laser Operator so that he could prepare the lighting effects for Knebworth in 1979.

Thank you! I like it when people make sense.

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If it exists, it exists. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But believing stories about "it existed, but we hated how it looked so we threw it away" is beyond naive. The band kept copies of everything that they recorded, and listened/watched them. That has been documented by everyone from Bonham mentioning in an interview about how he listened to tapes from every tour to check his drum sound, to Page and Plant having commented on owning copies of "Live on Blueberry Hill" when it came out, and Page having passed off a copy of the Badgeholders SOUNDBOARD to the Showco Laser Operator so that he could prepare the lighting effects for Knebworth in 1979.

How's this for a conspiracy theory: We know the band boarded The Starship immediately after the concert to head towards home for a mid-tour break. There is the very remote possibility any recording was a) forgotten at the venue, b ) lost in transit, c) misplaced upon arrival in England, d) filed away in either Peter or Jimmy's personal archive.

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How's this for a conspiracy theory: We know the band boarded The Starship immediately after the concert to head towards home for a mid-tour break. There is the very remote possibility any recording was a) forgotten at the venue, b ) lost in transit, c) misplaced upon arrival in England, d) filed away in either Peter or Jimmy's personal archive.

I'll have to locate an old hand written letter by a well known Zeppelin collector that I received where I inquired about their knowledge of the possible existance of the Houston footage years ago. If I recall correctly they mentioned that the footage was in the archives of the Superdome and his friend was unable to get the footage past the security. Can research be done to see if the venue has a archive of material? Just a thought. ;)

Robert

www.behindthetoys.com

Led Zeppelin: "They were, are, and will always be, the ultimate rock band".

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I'll have to locate an old hand written letter by a well known Zeppelin collector that I received where I inquired about their knowledge of the possible existance of the Houston footage years ago. If I recall correctly they mentioned that the footage was in the archives of the Superdome and his friend was unable to get the footage past the security. Can research be done to see if the venue has a archive of material? Just a thought. ;)

Robert

Not sure if you meant to say what you did because your post says the Houston footage was in the archives of Superdome, which is in New Orleans. If you meant the Pontiac

footage was in the archives of the Silverdome, then yes I can look further into that,

though I'm sure it's well-covered ground already.

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Not sure if you meant to say what you did because your post says the Houston footage was in the archives of Superdome, which is in New Orleans. If you meant the Pontiac

footage was in the archives of the Silverdome, then yes I can look further into that,

though I'm sure it's well-covered ground already.

Oops! That went right by me. :D I meant Summit. :slapface:

Robert

www.behindthetoys.com

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If you meant the Pontiac footage was in the archives of the Silverdome, then yes I can look further into that,

though I'm sure it's well-covered ground already.

Steve A Jones...how instrumental Showco can be or has been in recovering footage, despite the fact Showco's primary responsibility is to provide Sound Equipment?

Showco Website Info.. (Showco played a very important part in Led Zeppelin's Recording History)

Showco Forum /Events section indicates an upcoming event August 29...where former Showco staff will be interviewed for a upcoming book on Showco, I wonder if there will be any possible reference to Led Zeppelin Recording/Footage History, or at least be somewhat relevant to questions raised here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showco

(Former Showco Staff 1970-2008)

http://www.showco.net/

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Steve A Jones...how instrumental Showco can be or has been in recovering footage, despite the fact Showco's primary responsibility is to provide Sound Equipment?

Showco Website Info.. (Showco played a very important part in Led Zeppelin's Recording History)

Showco Forum /Events section indicates an upcoming event August 29...where former Showco staff will be interviewed for a upcoming book on Showco, I wonder if there will be any possible reference to Led Zeppelin Recording/Footage History, or at least be somewhat relevant to questions raised here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showco

(Former Showco Staff 1970-2008)

http://www.showco.net/

They were certainly "trusted agents" but they'd be unlikely to violate that trust. They

have a reputation to uphold, not to mention it's more than 30 years after the fact.

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