Jump to content

Were all 5 nights at Earls Court Videotaped and/or Multitrack Taped?


Recommended Posts

5 minutes ago, NealR2000 said:

As painful as this may be for us to accept, I don't think there is sufficient demand for another Zep live release.  Yes, the die-hard Zepheads would buy it, but as a commercial venture, it would most likely not be worth the work and production costs involved.

I fear you are right. The time to do all this was surely when the albums were being remastered; have live material accompanying each one, like Pink Floyd did (and indeed LZ did with the first album). That would have made a bigger splash than the very thin pickings they did release.

Now, there's probably enough interest to make it commercially viable from a basic profit point of view, but it wouldn't be 'big'. And all the evidence is that Jimmy isn't interested in releasing anything else anyway.

I do wonder what Robert's attitude to this would be, were it his decision alone. He's a bit more internet-era media savvy than Jimmy, so he might surprise us. Hypothetical of course.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Crimson Avenger said:

I fear you are right. The time to do all this was surely when the albums were being remastered; have live material accompanying each one, like Pink Floyd did (and indeed LZ did with the first album). That would have made a bigger splash than the very thin pickings they did release.

Now, there's probably enough interest to make it commercially viable from a basic profit point of view, but it wouldn't be 'big'. And all the evidence is that Jimmy isn't interested in releasing anything else anyway.

I do wonder what Robert's attitude to this would be, were it his decision alone. He's a bit more internet-era media savvy than Jimmy, so he might surprise us. Hypothetical of course.

 

 

Based upon the evidence, Robert has much less of an appetite for releasing stuff from the Zep vaults than Jimmy.  I think even Jimmy knows that the market has been met with respect to anything else from the vaults.  That last remastering and accompanying disc stuff was it.  It took a lot of his time and energy to do.  I think, based upon his age, his only remaining desire now is to do a little live work in some capacity. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, NealR2000 said:

Based upon the evidence, Robert has much less of an appetite for releasing stuff from the Zep vaults than Jimmy.  I think even Jimmy knows that the market has been met with respect to anything else from the vaults.  That last remastering and accompanying disc stuff was it.  It took a lot of his time and energy to do.  I think, based upon his age, his only remaining desire now is to do a little live work in some capacity. 

Agreed, I think we've heard everything we're going to, from official channels. Not to reopen a wellworn topic, but I doubt Jimmy will be playing live any time soon. His last solo gig was over 15 years ago. Our only hope, I think, is that sometime soon he gives up the 'live playing next year' routine and looks for something else to do. Then we may seen some new interest in putting out live material such as EC 75. I'd welcome it for sure; for a band with such a good live reputation, Zep is still pretty poorly served for official live releases.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love the Earl's Court Shows ,such a good vibe. And as was mentioned it would be all downhill from those halcyon nights. Performance wise the shows are very good but the band had played some real legendary shows that March. The 24th considering it is a SBD would be my favorite but the encores on the 25th where pretty hot. I agree the 23rd is under rated and I'd REALLY love a Soundboard of that.

You know when official live releases are discussed I have to shake my head sometimes. Speaking for myself a great audience recording like any of  Millard's or Freezer's (73 and 75 shows) or a real clean complete soundboard with a solid bottom end, like the one we just got from Landover 75 is waaay more exciting . I would LOVE  to hear a Freezer tape of the 71 New Orleans show over a hodge podge of Earl's Court or a nice clean SBD of 4/28/77.

As far as anything official a cleaned up compilation of the LA Forum 77 or Seattle 75 would be great Earl's court too. But when you start with adding from here , doubling up guitars etc. it loses it's status as an official document of a night like 6/25/72 capturing the band as they were.....great!!

HTWWW is a sonic assault and really well produced with produced  being the key word. The Boots we love so much (warts and all) have an innate charm to them. The really great shows will have a fair amount of flubs but it doesn't bother me. I would think it's safe to say that if you are reading this you can tell a bad performance from great one.

What if jimmy decided to release Hannover 6/24/80 and filled the 1000 flubs with tape from Zurich and Frankfurt.? Oh , the humanity!

Seriously, with all the technology out there a turd like Hannover can be polished to a brilliant shine. But to what end ?

Ideally, I'd like to see Jimmy clean up and officially release a couple of  Page Plant nights from 96 or 98 . He has 10 shows (or nearly 200 tracks) in super quality from Japan 96 alone to work with and very little need for cut and paste. I think that would cap off his legacy nicely. He did (to my surprise) play extremely well on both tours. 

But for now the only thing that's certain is another EV board from 75 or 77 will drop on us. Ain't so bad...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, NealR2000 said:

As painful as this may be for us to accept, I don't think there is sufficient demand for another Zep live release.  Yes, the die-hard Zepheads would buy it, but as a commercial venture, it would most likely not be worth the work and production costs involved.

I hate to admint it, but that sounds accurate. However, everything goes around and comes around. Rock will have a resurgence. God know we are due for one! But not quite yet.

One way or the other, eventually I would bet my house there will be one. just when is the question. I ain't gettin' any younger!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would love an EC release but reading The Garden Tapes it really shows just how finicky Jimmy is - 2 seconds inserted here, 4 seconds inserted there. He really works so hard to produce the best live version he can. The problem is, he has done all the studio albums now and I don't think he has the energy to do an EC release to his exacting standards. It's clear through the last 35 years that Jimmy's one true love is Zeppelin and he would never release anything that did not meet his demanding criteria. There was talk of a How The East Was Won release some years ago but if I recall correctly, he felt there was not enough quality recordings to compile a release or it would have taken too much work to get them near to his standard. I really don't know if Jimmy trusts anyone to create a Zeppelin live release, to do most of the work while Jimmy coordinates it. Very unlikely though as Jimmy has been in full control of Zeppelin releases going back to LZ I.  I really don't think we'll see any more official releases in his life time but then Jimmy lives for Zeppelin so who knows. When he gets sufficiently bored again waiting for Robert to step up he may decide to do a new project like EC but it's all speculation of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Jimmy could easily put unreleased Earls Court clips up on You Tube, but if they're digging out video, it's over 40 years and who knows what kind of condition they're in. It's definitely possible there's more video out there that hasn't surfaced, especially when some of the venues were set up for closed circuit TV or broadcasting basketball & hockey games. 

In hindsight, when they had the film crew for TSRTS, they should have shot some of the Physical Graffiti tour or done a soundstage performance being that they were already sinking millions into that movie. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, dalsh327 said:

In hindsight, when they had the film crew for TSRTS, they should have shot some of the Physical Graffiti tour or done a soundstage performance being that they were already sinking millions into that movie. 

Once Peter Clifton took over TSRTS  post-production duties from Joe Massot, the plan was to shoot additional live footage on the U.S. shows in August/September 1975 - although for what end is unclear because clearly that new material would not match the Madison Square Garden '73/Shepperton '74 footage - but the accident in Rhodes put paid to all of that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/06/2016 at 4:06 PM, The Old Hermit said:

Once Peter Clifton took over TSRTS  post-production duties from Joe Massot, the plan was to shoot additional live footage on the U.S. shows in August/September 1975 - although for what end is unclear because clearly that new material would not match the Madison Square Garden '73/Shepperton '74 footage - but the accident in Rhodes put paid to all of that.

It's an interesting counterfactual isn't it... if they had recorded and released material from the latter part of 1975, we'd all be here arguing about whether MSG 73 was actually recorded and what was worth releasing, because that would almost certainly have never seen the light of day officially.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's amusing reading this thread while I am listening to the new deluxe edition of Velvet Underground's "Loaded", which includes a bootleg fan recording of a 1970 Philadephia show that makes the tape of Led Zeppelin's 1970 Madison Square Garden show sound like Mike Millard quality. 

In fact, each of the Velvet Underground deluxe editions has featured a complete live show in addition to the original album and studio outtakes. I know Jimmy Page and Robert Plant will never relax enough to allow something similar to be released for Led Zeppelin...they seem to be very picky about any warts showing at all. The Velvet Underground (or Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, etc.) approach is anathema to them. 

But I wish they would consider that sometimes the historical significance outweighs technical perfection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Crimson Avenger said:

It's an interesting counterfactual isn't it... if they had recorded and released material from the latter part of 1975, we'd all be here arguing about whether MSG 73 was actually recorded and what was worth releasing, because that would almost certainly have never seen the light of day officially.

Yeah, it actually is interesting; I'm presuming the plan was to possibly replace MSG '73 with live footage from August/September '75, it's not a secret that no-one in the band was particularly pleased with the MSG footage (even though it looks gorgeous on lovely 35mm film) or the fact they had to re-shoot some of it in a studio 13 months later, and I can see the logic behind getting it right a second time if that was indeed the plan.  The 1975 tour in many ways was the last gasp of the Led Zep golden age before the darkness started taking it's toll (although there were still seeds of the later troubles being sown on that tour), and it certainly was the period in hindsight most suitable for a live concert film/soundtrack album, but on the other hand, I'm glad they stuck with MSG '73... if '75 was the last rays of the golden age, '73 was the golden age personified; before Jimmy started dabbling in heroin, whilst Percy's voice was still fully intact, no eighteen-month hiatus from touring, no nasty flu-related vocal problems, the band all on supreme form night after night after night, it really was in some ways the apex of the band's tenure, it would never be that innocent and joyous again.

The whole Houses of the Holy  enterprise, both album and tour, has such a sunny disposition, a feeling of the joy of life in all it's multi-colored splendor that no other Zep album had before or after, so it's wholly appropriate that was the period captured for posterity on screen and disc, at least I think so.

Plus, that little vignette of Peter Grant berating a poor arena manager just never gets old.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Crimson Avenger said:

It's an interesting counterfactual isn't it... if they had recorded and released material from the latter part of 1975, we'd all be here arguing about whether MSG 73 was actually recorded and what was worth releasing, because that would almost certainly have never seen the light of day officially.

I hope not, I'll take 73 over 75 anyday...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Strider said:

It's amusing reading this thread while I am listening to the new deluxe edition of Velvet Underground's "Loaded", which includes a bootleg fan recording of a 1970 Philadephia show that makes the tape of Led Zeppelin's 1970 Madison Square Garden show sound like Mike Millard quality. 

In fact, each of the Velvet Underground deluxe editions has featured a complete live show in addition to the original album and studio outtakes. I know Jimmy Page and Robert Plant will never relax enough to allow something similar to be released for Led Zeppelin...they seem to be very picky about any warts showing at all. The Velvet Underground (or Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, etc.) approach is anathema to them. 

But I wish they would consider that sometimes the historical significance outweighs technical perfection.

Love the "Loaded" deluxe, played 5.1 mix just the other day....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...