Knebworth DVD's

[sweetjellyroll]

I own both 4th & 11th shows in there full glory with pretty damn good quality.The video is deff from video recorded for the large screen.Why hasn,t Page released these gems?

[The Kevster]

I have a complete DVD of the 4th August gig, which obviously came from the same source as the footage on the 2003 DVD. Picture quality is a little soft, but the sound quality is stunning. I also have a complete audio recording of the 11th, again in high quality, so the tapes clearly exist.

Even better of course, would be a complete Earls Court DVD...

[sweetjellyroll]

I have a complete DVD of the 4th August gig, which obviously came from the same source as the footage on the 2003 DVD. Picture quality is a little soft, but the sound quality is stunning. I also have a complete audio recording of the 11th, again in high quality, so the tapes clearly exist.

Even better of course, would be a complete Earls Court DVD...

Have the complete 24th show and half the 25th on DVD(the best night)

The latest version of the 24th has full Moby dick with only the acoustic set edited.The source i have no idea but cost me an arm and a leg to buy.The bootleg guys did a fine job with the sound.

[Mooney1975]

The second Knebworth show is not good. Page had a off night. On the 2003 DVD there isn't much from the 11th. Click on Knebworth and you'll see how much of the 11th was used.

http://www.thegardentapes.co.uk/

[J. M. Smig]

If Page ever releases the Knebworth footage as a complete DVD, I hope he doesn't use the film transfers that he used on the 2003 DVD. I have some of that footage in its original video format, from the Whole Lotta Zep weekend that MTV had years ago to promote the first box set, and it looks far better. Video-to-film transfers never look that great, in my opinion.

[Trashbag]

Page is a perfectionist, so he'd have his work cut out for him to make a Knebworth DVD. If he did, he'd probably use just the 4th night with some vocal patches from the 11th night.

[hodgo]

I actually don't think we'll see a Knebworth DVD for the reasons above, Page will not be happy with his performance & so will probably not allow it. But to me that is a great shame, because I think those 2 shows are great performances despite the imperfections & listen to both nights often.

Graham

[olefreddy]

I have a complete DVD of the 4th August gig, which obviously came from the same source as the footage on the 2003 DVD. Picture quality is a little soft, but the sound quality is stunning. I also have a complete audio recording of the 11th, again in high quality, so the tapes clearly exist.

 

Even better of course, would be a complete Earls Court DVD...

Agree

[hunter19877]

These shows are definitely gems! I have always loved these shows and i dont think Jimmy will ever release these officially! He has stated in the past that he would rather put stuff out that has not been seen or bootlegged. Anyway for those of you who dont have these shows, you can download them for free on my blog here

These are not links to downloads, they are links to my blog where I posted these shows for download, the links in the posts

First night

http://longliveledzeppelin.blogspot.com/2015/09/19790804-led-zeppelin-knebworth_29.html

Second night

http://longliveledzeppelin.blogspot.com/2015/09/19790811-led-zeppelin-knebworth_29.html

[Melcórë]

I own both 4th & 11th shows in there full glory with pretty damn good quality.The video is deff from video recorded for the large screen.Why hasn,t Page released these gems?

I don't even think you have to class Page a "perfectionist" to understand why he wouldn't release either show in full -- they do not represent the pinnacle of Led Zeppelin by a long shot. Now, could a more "complete" setlist be compiled and put on DVD (i.e. more than what was on the 2003 disc)? Of course...but we're more likely to see an Earls Court composite one day.

[hunter19877]

I don't even think you have to class Page a "perfectionist" to understand why he wouldn't release either show in full -- they do not represent the pinnacle of Led Zeppelin by a long shot. Now, could a more "complete" setlist be compiled and put on DVD (i.e. more than what was on the 2003 disc)? Of course...but we're more likely to see an Earls Court composite one day.

Agreed...

[Melcórë]

Agreed...

Any Knebworth official release would rely heavily on the August 4th performance, and then there's the question of what would you cut...

[The Old Hermit]

I actually don't think we'll see a Knebworth DVD for the reasons above, Page will not be happy with his performance & so will probably not allow it. But to me that is a great shame, because I think those 2 shows are great performances despite the imperfections...

Jimmy Page won't release either a complete Earl's Court and/or Knebworth DVD for a number of reasons;

1) He already released a live archive in 2003 with DVD... Page isn't one to repeat himself.

2) As stated above, the Knebworth shows aren't exactly their finest hour, although the first show (Aug 4th) was miles better than the second show (Aug 11th), but neither are Zep at their best.

3) The Earl's Court original footage was in pretty bad nick when recovered and had to undergo some major restoration and repair work to get it in a releasable state, that doesn't mean the footage we got was all the footage they could, theoretically, have released on DVD  but it's all the footage they wanted to release in the context of that particular release.

If we're talking hypotheticals here, I would rather that Pagey had moved the Madison Square Garden 1973 footage on DVD  to the end of Disc 1, following on from Royal Albert Hall 1970, and reserved Disc 2 for more Earl's Court 1975 footage alongside Knebworth, but that's just my own personal view...

[Melcórë]

Jimmy Page won't release either a complete Earl's Court and/or Knebworth DVD for a number of reasons;

1) He already released a live archive in 2003 with DVD... Page isn't one to repeat himself.

2) As stated above, the Knebworth shows aren't exactly their finest hour, although the first show (Aug 4th) was miles better than the second show (Aug 11th), but neither are Zep at their best.

3) The Earl's Court original footage was in pretty bad nick when recovered and had to undergo some major restoration and repair work to get it in a releasable state, that doesn't mean the footage we got was all the footage they could, theoretically, have released on DVD  but it's all the footage they wanted to release in the context of that particular release.

If we're talking hypotheticals here, I would rather that Pagey had moved the Madison Square Garden 1973 footage on DVD  to the end of Disc 1, following on from Royal Albert Hall 1970, and reserved Disc 2 for more Earl's Court 1975 footage alongside Knebworth, but that's just my own personal view...

I asked Kevin Shirley a couple of years ago whether or not anything hit the cutting room floor in terms of song choice -- didn't get a reply to that one. The extra EC tracks on DVD ("Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" and "Whole Lotta Love") are interestingly not from multi-track recordings, but from the video soundtrack; that suggests (to me) that they didn't mix anything else from EC,* otherwise they might have used it in the menus (like they did for "Over the Hills and Far Away").

 

* -- Of course we know he mixed (a heavily edited version of) "Long Tall Sally" for RAH, among other oddities.

[The Old Hermit]

I asked Kevin Shirley a couple of years ago whether or not anything hit the cutting room floor in terms of song choice -- didn't get a reply to that one. The extra EC tracks on DVD ("Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" and "Whole Lotta Love") are interestingly not from multi-track recordings, but from the video soundtrack; that suggests (to me) that they didn't mix anything else from EC,* otherwise they might have used it in the menus (like they did for "Over the Hills and Far Away").

 

* -- Of course we know he mixed (a heavily edited version of) "Long Tall Sally" for RAH, among other oddities.

But those "extra tracks" are just snippets on the assorted Menu Options, you wouldn't expect Page and Shirley to go through multi-track mixes just for audio scratches, would you?  I think it's fair to assume the Earl's Court tracks featured on DVD  are the only ones they decided to include and thus the only ones fully worked on to completion, and there isn't any 'deleted' tracks like on the remastered TSRTS  DVD lying in the vaults somewhere... although I'm still surprised with hindsight that the latter release didn't include a complete filmed version of 'Heartbreaker' as an extra track alongside the other four, seeing as every other track from the MSG '73 setlist featured on the accompanying remixed soundtrack album was featured, either in the film itself or, as mentioned, separate songs as extras, oh well...

[JTM]

Forgive me if I'm slow on the uptake here - I've only been a Zephead since June 2014 - but what do you mean exactly by "extra tracks", I know 'Bron Yr Aur Stomp' from Earl's Court is on DVD, but 'Whole Lotta Love' is from Knebworth not Earl's Court, am I missing something?

Both are just snippets not complete songs, WLL is on the Audio Options menu BYAS is on the EC menu.

Not really what one would call extras, though some may refer to them as so, I don't.

[The Old Hermit]

Both are just snippets not complete songs, WLL is on the Audio Options menu BYAS is on the EC menu.

Bloody hell dude, that was too fast for me... after posting the initial post you quoted, I went to my go-to guy at The Garden Tapes and found out just what you said above, then it all came back to me.  The trouble is, by the time I came back here, and completely re-wrote that first post, you'd already replied to it... blimey!!!

See, this is what I love about this place... nice people, prompt service, I think I'll stay ....

[JTM]

Bloody hell dude, that was too fast for me... after posting the initial post you quoted, I went to my go-to guy at The Garden Tapes and found out just what you said above, then it all came back to me.  The trouble is, by the time I came back here, and completely re-wrote that first post, you'd already replied to it... blimey!!!

See, this is what I love about this place... nice people, prompt service, I think I'll stay ....

I played some it this afternoon after I got fed up with Netflix buffering, the disc was still in the player, happy to help.

[Melcórë]

But those "extra tracks" are just snippets on the assorted Menu Options, you wouldn't expect Page and Shirley to go through multi-track mixes just for audio scratches, would you?  I think it's fair to assume the Earl's Court tracks featured on DVD  are the only ones they decided to include and thus the only ones fully worked on to completion, and there isn't any 'deleted' tracks like on the remastered TSRTS  DVD lying in the vaults somewhere... although I'm still surprised with hindsight that the latter release didn't include a complete filmed version of 'Heartbreaker' as an extra track alongside the other four, seeing as every other track from the MSG '73 setlist featured on the accompanying remixed soundtrack album was featured, either in the film itself or, as mentioned, separate songs as extras, oh well...

I got excited at the fidelity of the snippets and thought that there might be something more -- alas, comparison with the boot sources showed me they were one and the same, just from the master as opposed to traded copies (and hence that much better).

There were some things mixed for DVD that were left off, though, including "Long Tall Sally" and an alternate intro to "Since I've Been Loving You."

[NealKenneth]

Been giving a lot of thought to what we may yet see from Zeppelin, and it occurred to me that just about the strongest thing they could release is a compilation of Knebworth 1979.  You often see the idea get floated around that the DVD segment of Knebworth was the "best bits" and, while I agree this is true to some extent, if you look at threads and comments about Knebworth, you realize there is still quite a bit of what many consider "the best" that is still left unreleased.

In particular, the performances of Since I've Been Loving You and No Quarter on 8/11 are frequently mentioned as top 5 versions of all time, and I agree especially in the case of No Quarter.

Complete versions of the MSG and Earls Court seem to be much higher up the wishlists of fans, but I don't think this path would be wise.  Not only is the audio quality of Knebworth superior, but Plant is a far better voice in 1979 then either 1975 or 1973.  Additionally, the setlist spans their career more effectively, with Knebworth including songs from every single album they released.  But what I really think separates Knebworth from MSG or Earls Court is that they are in the process of shedding their pretension.  They are climbing down the other side of the mountain...artists who had gone as far as any artist ever has, only to mature and realize that excess was not the answer.  It also helps that Knebworth were the third and fourth shows the band had played in two years, allowing a freshness and excitement the band struggled to conjure during MSG and Earls Court, which both finished lengthy, exhausting tours.

The real tragedy, to me, is that Page didn't see fit to have the film crew along at Copenhagen as well (as he did with Pittsburgh in 1973.)  Imagine a film that flits between performances to a small foreign theater and a crowd of 200,000 in their homeland.  Talk about light and shade!

It goes without saying at this point that Copenhagen had phenomenal performances, with the second night almost shocking in Page's display of fluency.  However, contributions from Copenhagen aren't really necessary.  Their are enough definitive performances from Knebworth to make a film in the 90-120 minute range.  The Omega to Royal Albert Alpha.

[IpMan]

Been giving a lot of thought to what we may yet see from Zeppelin, and it occurred to me that just about the strongest thing they could release is a compilation of Knebworth 1979.  You often see the idea get floated around that the DVD segment of Knebworth was the "best bits" and, while I agree this is true to some extent, if you look at threads and comments about Knebworth, you realize there is still quite a bit of what many consider "the best" that is still left unreleased.

In particular, the performances of Since I've Been Loving You and No Quarter on 8/11 are frequently mentioned as top 5 versions of all time, and I agree especially in the case of No Quarter.

Complete versions of the MSG and Earls Court seem to be much higher up the wishlists of fans, but I don't think this path would be wise.  Not only is the audio quality of Knebworth superior, but Plant is a far better voice in 1979 then either 1975 or 1973.  Additionally, the setlist spans their career more effectively, with Knebworth including songs from every single album they released.  But what I really think separates Knebworth from MSG or Earls Court is that they are in the process of shedding their pretension.  They are climbing down the other side of the mountain...artists who had gone as far as any artist ever has, only to mature and realize that excess was not the answer.  It also helps that Knebworth were the third and fourth shows the band had played in two years, allowing a freshness and excitement the band struggled to conjure during MSG and Earls Court, which both finished lengthy, exhausting tours.

The real tragedy, to me, is that Page didn't see fit to have the film crew along at Copenhagen as well (as he did with Pittsburgh in 1973.)  Imagine a film that flits between performances to a small foreign theater and a crowd of 200,000 in their homeland.  Talk about light and shade!

It goes without saying at this point that Copenhagen had phenomenal performances, with the second night almost shocking in Page's display of fluency.  However, contributions from Copenhagen aren't really necessary.  Their are enough definitive performances from Knebworth to make a film in the 90-120 minute range.  The Omega to Royal Albert Alpha.

So true. A combination of the best performances of each song from the two shows would be brilliant. The bonus alone is the version of Communication Breakdown on the 11th. Robert's voice is pretty shot by this very difficult song to sing and he just goes for it, balls out, don't give a fuck! And, Jimmy is great on this tune. It reminded me of a punk band with REAL musicians who can actually play just going, "Take this your shits!!!"

[Flares]

Visually I find Earls Court a bit boring to watch, because it's just what was projected onto the big screens at the gig. It might just be me, but because the sound is so pristine and the visuals are a bit dated, it's almost like it's dubbed. Everything is in sync of course, but it just feels kind of weird to watch.

Knebworth is far better visually, but the performance is past their prime. I think the second Copenhagen show was Page's most tight and fluent playing since '73. A shame we couldn't bottle what he was on that night or how he prepared. 

Anyway, none of this stuff will surface officially while Page is alive, because of his high quality control. Presuming he doesn't instruct his family to burn all the master tapes on his death, it may be up to whoever his in charge of the estate and how desperate they are for money (unlikely) if it is released. But if Page lives to a ripe old age, God knows that the media landscape will be like then (will people still pay for music at all?) and will demand be sufficient for it to be commercially viable?