I remember it, it finished with an excerpt of Stairway to Heaven from TSRTS, not as an example of blues, but showing how far bands that had grown out the blues had gone.I can't find it anywhere!!

I remember a UK radio show one afternoon playing the whole album before it was released. I can't remember who the DJ was, I don't think it was Alan Freeman.

I posted some time ago about what it was like to see them at Earls Court, might be of interest....

Doesn't the venue size come into it. I saw Black Sabbath back in 1972 in Bradford UK. A fairly small venue when compared to arenas. I was squashed in that area between the front row and the stage. When the music started it was like a we were hit by a physical force. I don't think there was much in terms of health and safety back then. That was the loudest I ever heard. I saw Zep at the last night of Earls Court, that was loud, especially during Jimmy Pages violin bow solo, the high pitched notes were painful.

For anyone thats not in Britain, just to clarify The Sun is the most moronic paper in the country (can't call it a newspaper). you've all probably got an equivalent in your countries!

Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography. A very interesting read, especially the early life of Jimmy. There is a lot of focus on the negatives once it gets into the mid Zep phase, and especially the 77 tour. Much like Mick Walls book, its about the rise of Jimmy and Led Zeppelin and then starting with Robert Plants car crash it treats everything as a decline until Bonzos death. It treats Jimmy through most of the 80's as a broken man, but then builds him up again with an amazing comeback in the 90's, and puts forward how after Page/Plant and also after the 2007 concert he becomes the curator of Led Zeppelin always adjusting rather than trying to create anything that would remotely compare. If you've followed Zep for a long time and read alot of their biographies then you have to decide for yourself which parts are significant, which parts are built up for sensationalism. A few times he puts forward his own opinion on what are the best or most significant tracks on certain albums, I found myself disagreeing with most, and sometimes I thought that he just doesnt get it. I was also put off to begin with, where the introduction relates a story of Jimmy round at David Bowies home and how he was eventually asked to leave and Bowie had to get the house exorcised! At that point I thought 'Oh dear its one of these books'....fortunately that part was pointless. Definitely a good read and lots of info.

Thats great thanks! I'll have to look those up. I've been downloading some, but as soon as you play you find that some are almost unplayable.

Hi Steve, if this is still available YES PLEEEZ! Can't get enough these are amazing!!

Sorry I can't find any reference on the cutting, and I cut this out of a magazine back in the early 70's.

Have you got favourite bootlegs? There seem to be one or two sites that have so many bootlegs but I find I have to treat each one as a new album and listen to it repeatedly to get to know it, so I'm still looking for ones that are really worth putting the time in.

Yes please Sir!! that sounds awesome! You sent me an Earls Court link some time ago which is amazing!

I'd have to disagree.... for me Page's solos are amongst his most notable achievements. I'm a great fan of many great guitarists, from Mclaughlin to Zappa, to Santana to Hackett to Vai to Beck to etc etc....for me no solo's have as much (i dont really know an accurate description) emotion, inflections, musical phrases, direct connection to the composer. If someone asked me for what I thought was the best album for guitar solos, I would go straight for TSRTS with his solos on Dazed & Confused, No Quarter, Stairway, Whole LLove, Heartbreaker (thats ignoring all the bootlegs where I've found better versions) Its his ability to create there and then on stage.

I can remember back in the 70's listening to allkinds of Zep bootlegs and there would be a phrase or line that Robert Plant would sing and I would think it was very JJoplin. However Robert Plant could go from the roaring blues man to the clear as a bell ballad singer amongst other styles and timbres. As a female vocalist much as I appreciate what she did and how ahead of many popular female vocalists she was even today.....she isnt my go to female voice, sometimes her gravelly scratchy side was not what I wanted.

Page's playing owes everything to Bert Jansch, John Renbourn??!!! - I havent heard anything by Bert Jansch or John Renbourn that sounds like Dazed and Confuse, No quarter, Whole lotta Love, The Song Remains the Same.... in fact most of the Zep catalogue. Page has a massive knowledge of different musicians and styles, and a fantastic grounding from his session days, and pulled on all of it.....hence one of the main ingredients in Zeps success, the sheer variety of techniques and styles.

Personally I preferred ITTOD. For me Presence started with one of Zeps best pieces - Achilles, and finished with one of their most beautiful emotional pieces - Tea for One, but in comparison the tracks in between sounded too much like one session and not as developed. I think that Presence could have been better had the track listing been different, say start with For your Life and have Achilles finishing the side, in the way that Kashmir finished side 2 of PG. ITTOD felt like an album of joy, which is amazing considering Plants tragedies etc, to get to 1979 and bring out something so upbeat, so varied. The first half from In the Evening to Hot Dog seemed great fun, and very uplifting. The second half was nothing but epic. Carouselambra seemed to carry on from where Achilles left off. My only criticism of it was that Robert Plants vocals in the first section should have been mixed louder.....but what a track. All of my Love was beautiful and I'm Gonna Crawl another slow blues but so positive and joyful compared to the Presence closing track Tea for One.

from some old music magazines....

Most of these were from my sisters teen girls magazines in the UK....

To be honest I didnt know that they actually used trains, I assumed it was just part of the advertising campaign. It was the first Zep 'tour' to be in London only and it seemed as if they were justifying the single venue by showing how easy it was to get there. I came from the north of England and it was much cheaper to travel the 200 miles by bus.

I used to get the NME weekly but I'm sure it would have been in Melody Maker and Sounds. I dont know the dates that the additional shows were added, but I remember the first three being sold out in a matter of hours. I tried to get tickets by post which was pointless, eventually getting two tickets for the 25th via classified ads in the NME. £10 for a £2 ticket which at the time was a fortune!

Just been going through a load of cuttings from the 70's....heres teh original advert for the Earls Court concerts... lots more to come

In 1975 I was lucky enough to see them on the final night of Earls court. 4 hours if you include the audience cheering between encores. I've seen alot of bands and alot of concerts before and especially since then, nothing ever came close. The bootlegs, videos etc just dont capture it. Bonzo's drums reverberated through the stage, Pages violin bow was actually painful on the high pitch notes.

While we are on the subject heres something my Mum knitted for me to wear at Earls Court in 75

See for yourself....copies from a couple of 16th century french occult book. Jimmy Page played on the mystery of it all... dont forget back in the 70's there was nowhere to look this up or even if you did know, who would you tell.

I always wondered what Bonzo thought of Carl Palmer. I know that Zeps and ELP's paths crossed a number of times (I'll have to dig out the anecdotes from Keith Emersons autobiography), and he must have been aware of how many times Carl Palmer was voted best drummer in the UK music papers in the 70's, they were very very different drummers and both must have been well aware of each other. Jason Bonham certainly was as his band supported ELP on their come back tour of 92.