After 3/3/75. . What's next?

[pluribus]

Responding to a few comments regarding Page /similar being the leaker. All in good fun. I don't know anymore about this stuff than anyone else!

• There is a pattern to the soundboard releases. I see no pattern here. Even popping the dates into an excel spreadsheet. Many have sworn over the years what they think the next one will be, and everyone has been wrong. So, assuming that the boards are only available from one particular date to the next is purely guessing. The lack of soundboards from January 1975 could just as easily be chalked up to the fact that those shows were subpar, just as the holding back of the LA/Long Beach 2, and Seattle 2 shows makes sense because they are the best shows of the tour. 
• Page couldn't be the source, because he's a perfectionist. Page being a perfectionist is probably one of the biggest Zep myths there is. The release of the Zep II multitracks showed how little of a perfectionist Page really was. Do the reading on the timeline of the studio dates, compare with careful listening to the band's official catalog, and you'll hear that Page recorded things in the least amount of time he could do it, leaving in tons of performance/production errors. That's not perfectionism, that's being budget/time conscious. Look at the movie footage and soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same. There are errors all over the place. The mastering of the band's catalog in the reissues is again questionable. This is not the work of a "perfectionist", this is the work of someone trying to get the most money out of something for the least amount of required effort. Page was even quoted by Kevin Shirley around the time of the DVD release that he told Shirley to "hurry up" because Page had to attend his son's graduation. For something as serious as the band's first true live chronology, would you really want to rush that?  
• Page is against bootlegging. We know that this is totally false. There are photos of him in Japan bootleg shops, taken over numerous years, and even film shots of him in It Might Get Loud where you can see all of his bootlegs in the bookcase behind him. On top of which there is the aforementioned court case where a well-known bootleg dealer called Page out for using Ross Halfin to supply things to Japan. 
• Page would never just release these soundboards without trying to sell them via official releases. The "Led Wallet" argument. The problem with this is that these soundboards have zero value commercially. We may love them, but these are not what the average fan would ever want to buy. They would probably do more damage to the live Zeppelin legacy than honor it. We fans look past the performance quirks, but the average person would make a mockery of them. "Plant's voice sounds like sh*t, Page's playing sounds like he has broken fingers..." Besides, Page could still have it in his long term plans to make an Earls Court release. Those are the only shows from 1975 which have multitracks, which means that he'd have all the freedom to chop it anyway he wanted, in ways that he could never do for the US tour soundboards. Which leaves the 1975 US tour boards for what then? To just sit there rotting in his archives?
• These came from former Showco employees. The first EV soundboard appeared within months of Kevin Shirley having transferred all of the band's existing live tapes for the DVD project. On top of which, it wasn't long before the Southampton 73 show leaked as well, mixed by Shirley himself. What a coincidence.

 

[TheGreatOne]

The son's graduation makes no sense, a 2 or 3 hour ceremony ?   Is this some sort of graduation gift?

[pluribus]

The son's graduation makes no sense, a 2 or 3 hour ceremony ?   Is this some sort of graduation gift?

http://www.ledzeppelinnews.com/2011/03/kevin-shirley-admits-to-run-ins-with.html

Shirley, who had engineered the 2000 live album by Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes, says he had some rough moments with Page while the live Led Zeppelin releases were in preparation.

"I got to the studio and it was like, well, there's a room full of old tapes, going back from 1968 to 1980. And we're going to do something with them and it was like, 'What are we going to do with them?' And Jimmy Page, at that point, was like, 'Well, I want to be in New Orleans in eight weeks' time to see my son, so we need to do something in eight weeks.'"And I looked at them, and I opened up the first tape which was, like, a 1968 [sic] recording of the Royal Albert Hall, and the tape was falling apart. I said, 'We gotta bake these tapes.'"And he was furious. He was like, 'Why do you have to bake the tapes?' And I'm, like, 'Well, there's oxide and tape and glue, and it's coming off, and storing in moldy old England, it'll do that to you.' And he was livid."And we finally had to bake the stuff, had to bake everything and transfer everything. So that, alone, took us about three or four weeks to get done. So we started off on the wrong foot."

It's a theme that would carry into the second video:

"When we worked at Sound West, and Jimmy would be upstairs, and he'd come downstairs and say, 'What you doing?' And I'd say, 'Well, I'm just working on this thing over here, I just repaired this one guitar thing.'"He's like, 'Don't you dare! Let me hear it.'"And then I would play it to him. He goes, 'Let me hear how it was.' Then I'd play it back to him. He'd say, 'Let's hear what you did to it.' And then he'd listen back. He'd go, 'I'm
going upstairs to smoke.'"And then he goes, 'I don't wanna know, I don't wanna know. If it sounds better, that's good, but I don't wanna know.'"

Repairs? On Jimmy Page's guitar work? Surely not? Well, yes, and call me Shirley:

"There's one obvious one in the Zeppelin DVD where, that great fanfare that marks the end of the solo in 'Stairway to Heaven.' He goes up high and he does that fanfare right at the end of the solo."If you watch that performance on the DVD, which I think is from Earl's Court, the high string breaks, and so he has to go and play the fanfare down an octave ... I have taken the liberty of pinching the fanfare from another performance and putting it on there. So if you look you can see that it's played an octave down, but sounds an octave up."

Shirley confirms, too, that there is much more unused Led Zeppelin material sitting in the vault. Not all of it, however, is useable:

"I got to the studio and it was like, 'Well, there's room full of old tapes, going back from 1968 to 1980 ... And by the time we started looking at it, it really wasn't that much. There was some really shaky performances, and there was a lot of drug use going on in the band in the '70s. So there were performances that really weren't good at all."

 

[TheGreatOne]

wow, talk about performing Open heart surgery.    Totally wacked something like this needs to be rushed.   Collecting dust for 30 years and all of a sudden needs to be rushed...lol

[Bozoso73]

wow, talk about performing Open heart surgery.    Totally wacked something like this needs to be rushed.   Collecting dust for 30 years and all of a sudden needs to be rushed...lol

I totally agree! 3 decades and NOW it's a rush job!?!? 

PS thanks Pluribus. .you seem to have lots of links and stuff to great stories. .:):) happy turkey day (if ur in the U.S.)

[KellyGirl]

The problem with this is that these soundboards have zero value commercially. We may love them, but these are not what the average fan would ever want to buy. They would probably do more damage to the live Zeppelin legacy than honor it. We fans look past the performance quirks, but the average person would make a mockery of them. "Plant's voice sounds like sh*t, Page's playing sounds like he has broken fingers..." 

I don't generally weigh in on these subjects on the board, but I can very much get with the quote above.

My husband and I enjoy the music of Zeppelin, however he leans more on the studio or official live albums
for his listening pleasure. Living dangerously with Zep for him would be a Mike Millard recording. LOL. While
I love clean and polished too, I'll go deeper and listen to shows with major faux pas in a performance. I can
over look a breaking of a string, or a smacked Jimmy playing like a drunken sailor on shore leave, or the band
sounding fantastic - but Plant is squawking about. I can still find enjoyment in those performances.

If I was introducing somebody to the sound of Led Zeppelin live for the first time,  I would never say
"Hey you with the virgin Zeppelin ears - heres the band playing A L S in Tempe AZ."  Enjoy....

Some of the performances, while precious to avid Zep fans - could turn a new/ casual Zep fan off of live shows
altogether. That would be a shame because there are some superb nights the 4 of them come together beautifully.
So I do understand why the band in the overall picture is reluctant to release certain live recordings with their stamp
on it.

[The Old Hermit]

The mastering of the band's catalog in the reissues is again questionable. This is not the work of a "perfectionist", this is the work of someone trying to get the most money out of something for the least amount of required effort. Page was even quoted by Kevin Shirley around the time of the DVD release that he told Shirley to "hurry up" because Page had to attend his son's graduation. For something as serious as the band's first true live chronology, would you really want to rush that?

Are you saying the current remastering wasn't done with any care and precision, and that Jimmy Page just wanted it out to start making money and didn't give a toss how good it sounded?  I would definitely challenge you on that assertion, all evidence points to quite the contrary...

And the whole quote from Kevin Shirley is taken out of context; neither Page nor Shirley thought the project they started on in May 2002 would take more than about 10 weeks... until Shirley informed Page of the deterioration of the multi-track tapes and the fact they had to be baked to bring them back to usable status, which evidently took Page by surprise, as it would anyone.  But once that was settled, Page worked on the project, alongside both Shirley and Dick Carruthers, for SIX MONTHS... not exactly someone who wants to just get it out the door quickly and start the cash register ringing, is it?

I'm far from being an unquestioning JP fanboy and there are things I disagree with him on - omissions from HTWWW, changing 'The Ocean' from being the final encore in the 2007 TSRTS  album, the exclusion of 'White Summer/Black Mountain Side' from the recent Coda, early fade on the 2015 remastered 'Hey, Hey, What Can I Do' to name but a few - but one thing he has done is keep the Zeppelin legacy alive without spoiling, soiling, or exploiting it... which in this day and age is something to be admired.

[Bozoso73]

I don't generally weigh in on these subjects on the board, but I can very much get with the quote above.

My husband and I enjoy the music of Zeppelin, however he leans more on the studio or official live albums
for his listening pleasure. Living dangerously with Zep for him would be a Mike Millard recording. LOL. While
I love clean and polished too, I'll go deeper and listen to shows with major faux pas in a performance. I can
over look a breaking of a string, or a smacked Jimmy playing like a drunken sailor on shore leave, or the band
sounding fantastic - but Plant is squawking about. I can still find enjoyment in those performances.

If I was introducing somebody to the sound of Led Zeppelin live for the first time,  I would never say
"Hey you with the virgin Zeppelin ears - heres the band playing A L S in Tempe AZ."  Enjoy....

Some of the performances, while precious to avid Zep fans - could turn a new/ casual Zep fan off of live shows
altogether. That would be a shame because there are some superb nights the 4 of them come together beautifully.
So I do understand why the band in the overall picture is reluctant to release certain live recordings with their stamp
on it.

hi Kelly:) 

that would be absolutely brutal to put on Zep virgin ears (or anybody's for that matter) to play anything from Tempe:) the Millard tapes are, besides soundboards, the crown jewel of Zep bootlegs. .im not really down with the smack years. .73 being my fav. .there is just something to jumping into the hot tub time machine, putting on some headphones and enjoying all the nuances to the shows. .Plantisms. .bonzo screaming about this and that. .new takes on songs. .fans yelling or passin joints. .riots. .storms. .etc. .i was born just a little to late to enjoy in person. .:)

[KellyGirl]

Hi there! Bozoso73!! Ha-ha yeah I'm in that club too of being born too late to see the band live.  
All I can say is thank you internet!!!

I started off leery of '77 due to the fact the very first show I heard was in fact '77 Tempe. It made me
positively gun shy with that year. The reputation that year holds doesn't help either. Which sucks
because a lot of the setlist's I love. Well thanks to "What Show Or Live Song Are You Listening To Now?" 
thread, I completely changed my tune about putting that X through 1977.

I know with '77 one has to wade through a ton of mud to get to any gems, so I very very much understand
how it would not be every Zep fans favourite year. The lack of stuff from the band officially released tells
that tale.

I think the best way to introduce '77 to someone who wants to experience every year of the band live, yet
not keen on 77, would be maybe pick and chose certain songs from certain gigs, rather then a whole entire
show. A little from some of Millard nights in LA, maybe some from Cleveland Destroyer and so forth. If that
doesn't interest them then that's okay. Other years offer something enjoyable too!!

[Nutrocker]

If I was introducing somebody to the sound of Led Zeppelin live for the first time,  I would never say
"Hey you with the virgin Zeppelin ears - heres the band playing A L S in Tempe AZ."  Enjoy....
 

Oh go on, you know you want to!  

I started off leery of '77 due to the fact the very first show I heard was in fact '77 Tempe. 

Jesus! That's a helluva intro to the '77 tour- at least hearing a "bad" '77 show first would have been able to make you truly objective towards the other performances, though: usually it's the reverse, right? People hear June 21 or 23rd first and then measure up all the other shows against those ones. You sorta did it the other way 'round, which is kinda cool.

I think Tempe was one of the last '77 shows I heard, mainly because it's a more 'obscure' show to find.

[Crimson Avenger]

Responding to a few comments regarding Page /similar being the leaker. All in good fun. I don't know anymore about this stuff than anyone else!

• There is a pattern to the soundboard releases. I see no pattern here. Even popping the dates into an excel spreadsheet. Many have sworn over the years what they think the next one will be, and everyone has been wrong. So, assuming that the boards are only available from one particular date to the next is purely guessing. The lack of soundboards from January 1975 could just as easily be chalked up to the fact that those shows were subpar, just as the holding back of the LA/Long Beach 2, and Seattle 2 shows makes sense because they are the best shows of the tour. 
• Page couldn't be the source, because he's a perfectionist. Page being a perfectionist is probably one of the biggest Zep myths there is. The release of the Zep II multitracks showed how little of a perfectionist Page really was. Do the reading on the timeline of the studio dates, compare with careful listening to the band's official catalog, and you'll hear that Page recorded things in the least amount of time he could do it, leaving in tons of performance/production errors. That's not perfectionism, that's being budget/time conscious. Look at the movie footage and soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same. There are errors all over the place. The mastering of the band's catalog in the reissues is again questionable. This is not the work of a "perfectionist", this is the work of someone trying to get the most money out of something for the least amount of required effort. Page was even quoted by Kevin Shirley around the time of the DVD release that he told Shirley to "hurry up" because Page had to attend his son's graduation. For something as serious as the band's first true live chronology, would you really want to rush that?  
• Page is against bootlegging. We know that this is totally false. There are photos of him in Japan bootleg shops, taken over numerous years, and even film shots of him in It Might Get Loud where you can see all of his bootlegs in the bookcase behind him. On top of which there is the aforementioned court case where a well-known bootleg dealer called Page out for using Ross Halfin to supply things to Japan. 
• Page would never just release these soundboards without trying to sell them via official releases. The "Led Wallet" argument. The problem with this is that these soundboards have zero value commercially. We may love them, but these are not what the average fan would ever want to buy. They would probably do more damage to the live Zeppelin legacy than honor it. We fans look past the performance quirks, but the average person would make a mockery of them. "Plant's voice sounds like sh*t, Page's playing sounds like he has broken fingers..." Besides, Page could still have it in his long term plans to make an Earls Court release. Those are the only shows from 1975 which have multitracks, which means that he'd have all the freedom to chop it anyway he wanted, in ways that he could never do for the US tour soundboards. Which leaves the 1975 US tour boards for what then? To just sit there rotting in his archives?
• These came from former Showco employees. The first EV soundboard appeared within months of Kevin Shirley having transferred all of the band's existing live tapes for the DVD project. On top of which, it wasn't long before the Southampton 73 show leaked as well, mixed by Shirley himself. What a coincidence.

 

Yes, all good fun! I can't resist a few points in reply though. My intention is never to offend, but just to enlighten through debate

The pattern to the releases is that they are all from 75 or 77. Nothing earlier or indeed later. Southampton 73 was a few years ago now, and there was clearly a different story behind that... it appears to be 'closer to home' I'll grant you. Same with the 2007 O2 rehearsal leak actually; that one did surprise me. But back to the 'soundboard revolution'; it's a very narrow date range, although yes, the releases within that seem pretty random.

You are saying that with regard to 75, Jimmy isn't releasing the January gigs because they are bad (they aren't, but that's another debate), and isn't releasing the best ones either? So he's deliberately releasing the 'mediocre' ones?! I find that a strange thought process! And some of the 1977 SBDs show Jimmy in a very bad light indeed.

I think Jimmy usually achieved exactly what he wanted to achieve in the studio, given the technology of the time. But I'll stick to commenting on live stuff. TSRTS is musically a very fine job, in terms of performance and the painstaking job Jimmy did to piece it all together. I hate to think how tedious that was in the pre digital age. You can take issue with some of the editing decisions, and I certainly dislike aspects of the hack job done on it in 2007, but the original audio there is fine. It's the video that's the train wreck, for reasons beyond his control.

If Jimmy isn't against bootlegging, I wonder why he brought the Scottish court case in the first place. Yes, he's clearly interested in knowing what boots are out there, and we all had a good look at his shelves in IMGL (nothing interesting, if I recall), but if you read the transcript you posted, he also says he went into the shop in Japan and just took all the boots off the shelves and walked out with them. Not the actions of a man checking up on his investments! As for the Halfin point, Jimmy wasn't 'called out' by anyone. A very specific allegation was briefly asserted by the defence lawyer, Jimmy denied it, and they moved on. If the defence team had had evidence of Jimmy shipping stuff over to Japan, they'd surely have pressed the point.

Jimmy Page is in his 70s. How many 'long term plans' do you think he has? I think he missed a big trick in not doing Earls Court in 2015 for the 40 anniversary, and alongside the remastered PG of course. I'd love to see it, but he doesn't seem interested. As I said yesterday, he recently told Dave Lewis that putting out Japan 71 would be too much work, so I don't see him fiddling about with five nights from Earls Court either, sadly.

So both Halfin and Shirley are in on it now? the conspiracy grows! Seriously, Shirley's operation does seem to have been a bit leaky on a couple of occasions, but if there's to amount to anything systematic, again, why nothing before 75? If you had access to the whole lot, why make 75-77 a special case and let 69-73 rot?

Oh, I suppose it's just about possible that Jimmy is sitting at home stroking his white cat, plotting our torment with an inexplicable series of bootleg releases. But the more I think about it, the less plausible it appears. I think it's important to be realistic about what we can expect. There's no evidence we can expect SBDs from 69-73, from the current source at least, and plenty that we can expect more from 75-77. Of course, I'd be delighted to be proved wrong!

 

 

[Nutrocker]

The pattern to the releases is that they are all from 75 or 77. Nothing earlier or indeed later.

Really, the only things that could still come out in soundboard form post '77 would be soundboards for the two 1979 Copenhagen shows or the 1980 Vienna and Munich gigs- any of which would be welcome additions. I've often wondered whatever happened to the Vienna and Munich soundboard tapes; certainly they existed at one point, I wonder why they were never leaked alongside all the other 1980 soundboards?

[Crimson Avenger]

Really, the only things that could still come out in soundboard form post '77 would be soundboards for the two 1979 Copenhagen shows or the 1980 Vienna and Munich gigs- any of which would be welcome additions. I've often wondered whatever happened to the Vienna and Munich soundboard tapes; certainly they existed at one point, I wonder why they were never leaked alongside all the other 1980 soundboards?

The 1980 boards were all part of the 'stolen' tapes weren't they? At this point I guess we're never likely to get the missing ones, or know what the deal is there.

I'd love to hear the 79 Copenhagen gigs in SBD. People rave about them, but for some reason I've never got on with the AUDs.

[The Old Hermit]

Jimmy Page is in his 70s. How many 'long term plans' do you think he has? I think he missed a big trick in not doing Earls Court in 2015 for the 40 anniversary, and alongside the remastered PG of course. I'd love to see it, but he doesn't seem interested. As I said yesterday, he recently told Dave Lewis that putting out Japan 71 would be too much work, so I don't see him fiddling about with five nights from Earls Court either, sadly.

Jimmy wasn't going to release a major live album at the same time as the remastered Physical Graffiti  album, it would have confused the general punters and detracted from both releases, so no opportunity was missed there.  An Earl's Court live album in the future... who knows?

Did Jimmy really say that to Dave Lewis, have you got a link?  I always heard the reason for Japan '71 not being released, either back in the day or more recently, was because Jimmy and/or the collective band weren't happy with the actual recording itself, and that's why, if Jimmy said what you said he said to Lewis, it probably means it's too much work to 'clean up' the original multi-track tape, and the guy has just spent three years listening to just about every tape Zeppelin recorded, listening to yet more and even more time in the studio is the last thing on his mind at present... his solo stuff is next.

[Crimson Avenger]

Jimmy wasn't going to release a major live album at the same time as the remastered Physical Graffiti  album, it would have confused the general punters and detracted from both releases, so no opportunity was missed there.  An Earl's Court live album in the future... who knows?

Did Jimmy really say that to Dave Lewis, have you got a link?  I always heard the reason for Japan '71 not being released, either back in the day or more recently, was because Jimmy and/or the collective band weren't happy with the actual recording itself, and that's why, if Jimmy said what you said he said to Lewis, it probably means it's too much work to 'clean up' the original multi-track tape, and the guy has just spent three years listening to just about every tape Zeppelin recorded, listening to yet more and even more time in the studio is the last thing on his mind at present... his solo stuff is next.

Solo stuff, lol. Oh, we live in hope!

I don't have a link, but the Japan quote is from Tight But Loose issue 38, page 19. There's a brief interesting discussion where Jimmy says he talked ages ago with Atlantic about releasing 'official' bootlegs, but the idea came to nothing. And then:

DL: So you could put out something like Japan 1971?

JP: I could, but I've been doing so much Led Zeppelin work... and it's not just compiling it, but it's promoting it. That all takes time. I mean I'm not 40 years old or even 50 years old... etc etc.

You are right, that doesn't sound like a man itching to put out more live stuff, or indeed anything. It's a good interview. To anyone not already a subscriber, I recommend TBL!

I still say he should have done Earls Court with Physical Grafitti. After all, Led Zep 1 had a live disc, and they released the DVD and HTWWW together back in 2003. Pink Floyd adopted the bundling approach with their remasters a few years back, giving a live disc to go with the studio album, and that worked pretty well I thought. Eric Clapton did it too with the remastered Slowhand.

Of course, to do Earls Court properly would be a bigger 3 disc venture, but the whole concept of 'discs' is getting a bit redundant in this day and age, so why not?

[NealKenneth]

The pattern to the releases is that they are all from 75 or 77. Nothing earlier or indeed later.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I thought Orlando 71 was also uncovered by this new wave of released.

Regarding a "pattern", I agree that there is one, but basically it comes down to good business strategy.  It seems the releases increase is sound or performance quality as times goes on ("saving the best for last.")  That points to a bright future, indeed it may just be that many shows from before 75 haven't shown up yet because they are better than what they've released so far.

[Dirty Work]

The 1980 boards were all part of the 'stolen' tapes weren't they? At this point I guess we're never likely to get the missing ones, or know what the deal is there.

I'd love to hear the 79 Copenhagen gigs in SBD. People rave about them, but for some reason I've never got on with the AUDs.

The audience recordings for both Copenhagen warmups sound excellent. The audience tapes sound as if they were professionally done, and I wouldn't be surprised if the "Microphones hanging from the balcony" story is true for both gigs. Not sure of the source of the mic part, but hell, read/heard it somewhere.

And thanks for reminding me of them. Just wrapping up restoring my old lost collection, and I knew I was missing something, just didn't know what! Now I do! 

[KellyGirl]

Jesus! That's a helluva intro to the '77 tour- at least hearing a "bad" '77 show first would have been able to make you truly objective towards the other performances, though: usually it's the reverse, right? People hear June 21 or 23rd first and then measure up all the other shows against those ones. You sorta did it the other way 'round, which is kinda cool.

I think Tempe was one of the last '77 shows I heard, mainly because it's a more 'obscure' show to find.

Well I try my best not to read comments on live shows/songs before I listen, so that's how Tempe
wound up being the first '77 show for me. I can honestly say though, that afterwards I wasn't as
critical on hearing other shows from that year. After Tempe I thought damn surely it can only get
better from here! Ha-ha!  

 

[Nutrocker]

The 1980 boards were all part of the 'stolen' tapes weren't they? At this point I guess we're never likely to get the missing ones, or know what the deal is there.

I'd love to hear the 79 Copenhagen gigs in SBD. People rave about them, but for some reason I've never got on with the AUDs.

Yes, the 1980 SBDS were apparently part of the stash stolen from Page- doesn't explain what happened to Vienna and Munich, though...

The Copenhagen audience tapes really are excellent- Mike Millard type quality, if not better. Maybe you just got a bad copy or something.

Well I try my best not to read comments on live shows/songs before I listen, so that's how Tempe
wound up being the first '77 show for me. I can honestly say though, that afterwards I wasn't as
critical on hearing other shows from that year. After Tempe I thought damn surely it can only get
better from here! Ha-ha!  

 

And Tempe really isn't all that bad: Page is out of it, sure, but there's a few 1977 shows where you could say that. It's Plant's voice sounding like a thirteen year old who's voice is breaking is what really mars the performance. The fact that it's not the greatest sounding recording doesn't help matters much either (I'd still love to hear the first part of the show that is missing on the circulating recording). But I don't think it's necessarily even the "worst" 1977 performance, let alone "Led Zeppelin's Worst Show"- as far as '77 itself goes I'd put Oklahoma City, Louisville and the May 28 Landover show right down there alongside Tempe as the worst '77 performances we know about.

[Crimson Avenger]

Yes, the 1980 SBDS were apparently part of the stash stolen from Page- doesn't explain what happened to Vienna and Munich, though...

The Copenhagen audience tapes really are excellent- Mike Millard type quality, if not better. Maybe you just got a bad copy or something.

And Tempe really isn't all that bad: Page is out of it, sure, but there's a few 1977 shows where you could say that. It's Plant's voice sounding like a thirteen year old who's voice is breaking is what really mars the performance. The fact that it's not the greatest sounding recording doesn't help matters much either (I'd still love to hear the first part of the show that is missing on the circulating recording). But I don't think it's necessarily even the "worst" 1977 performance, let alone "Led Zeppelin's Worst Show"- as far as '77 itself goes I'd put Oklahoma City, Louisville and the May 28 Landover show right down there alongside Tempe as the worst '77 performances we know about.

I'd like to hear a SBD Tempe too! It's clearly not their finest hour, but a better-sounding and complete version would allow for a more comprehensive assessment. We might get that, although it would be a brave decision to release it, given its reputation.

Similar is Greensboro 75. That's often held up as a poor show, but it's OK really, just let down by a bad tape.

 

 

[Crimson Avenger]

I heard something like Luis Rey got into trouble or scolded years ago for mentioning the Southampton soundboard or something...  This is when only bits of Southampton was leaked, like the rehearsal and before the setlist songs got leaked.    -  There were 2 Southampton shows - We know it was multi-tracked, so the 2nd missing show had to have been multi-tracked also.  

Someone also has to have Seattle '72 Soundboard.  That is a Holy Grail show for sure.

The two Southampton shows were at different venues, so sadly there's no reason to think there's a multi track from the 21st January. That was the main show, at the Gaumont theatre, now the Mayflower. I live not far from it, saw David Coverdale of all people there in the mid 1990s. The 22nd gig, whch is the multitrack, was at the university student union a little way across town. They must have owed someone a big favour!

[dave2007]

.

If Jimmy isn't against bootlegging, I wonder why he brought the Scottish court case in the first place. !

 

 

IIRC it was the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) who brought the case against the bootlegger, not Jimmy.

Jimmy was summoned to appear. 

[Crimson Avenger]

IIRC it was the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) who brought the case against the bootlegger, not Jimmy.

Jimmy was summoned to appear. 

Doesn't matter. He was hardly dragged there against his will, and his views are clearly expressed in the transcript of the case. Consipracy theories are fun, but there's no evidence for this one whatsoever.

[Guest WD52]

On the original thought behind this thread...I'd like to see the Alabama 'Dixie' 1977 gig on soundboard. As for the 'origins' debate, I'm pretty sure it is not just 75 and 77 soundboards that have turned up. Without wading through my 300 odd live cds I'm fairly sure one of the Australian 1972 shows, long available as an audience recording, has turned up as a soundboard reasonably recently. As for the 'origins' debate- a mountain of discussion on a molehill of evidence-it is entertaining to see ideas that could be safely described as wild conjecture/unsupported assertions. Keep them coming (-:

[nick2632]

^^ an Australian 1972 show on soundboard?!?! I wish. I want a complete copy of Sydney 2/27/72 on audience or especially soundboard! I usually listen to Aukland 2/25/72, then listen to the encore for Sydney 2/27/72 because Sydney 2/27/72 is missing a few tracks at the beginning. Those audience recordings are great for those shows nonetheless!

We have 0 freaking soundboards for what is often claimed as the greatest year of live Zeppelin, 1972.