I've added about a dozen previously unseen photos from Zurich '80 today... https://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/june-29-1980

"'Black Dog' is a slight refinement of the forceful Zeppelin trademark. There's a lot of blood 'n' guts... they are still light years ahead of their nearest imitators." - NME, November 1971. Watch episode 1 of The History of Led Zeppelin IV now. https://fb.watch/8OzZQE6iFF/

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2021 and TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL 2021 BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN ROLLING STONE | David Fear “It’s revelatory, even if you’ve heard live versions of these songs before, and often straight-up gobsmacking.” “There are numerous itches that are perfectly Led-scratched for those who find Zep’s back catalogue permanently awe-inspiring.” “What these early live scenes give you is a real sense of the sex and power of the music they made — how physical and visceral and carnal they were right from the very start.” “MacMahon has given us a thoroughly itemized, straight-from-the-rock-legends-mouths breakdown of their early years and pre-Zep careers. There’s a whole lotta love for those initial glory days.” VARIETY | Manori Ravindran “New footage and angles of well-known gigs breathe new life into iconic performances, and left Venice audiences enthralled.” THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER | John Defore “Bernard MacMahon’s Becoming Led Zeppelin is an eye-opening delight” “The film adds a wealth of pre-Zep photos, film and ephemera, plus generous helpings of excellent performance footage from their first months together.” “An essential, joyous portrait.” VARIETY | Owen Gleiberman “It unearths Led Zeppelin's roots with comprehensive fascination.” “A movie that any Zep fan will want to see.” “It’s full of extraordinary footage.” “The movie is totally true to its title.” “This movie actually made me eager to see a Part II.” THE WRAP | Steve Pond “A spirited tribute to the power of music to change young lives.” “Like the band, the movie is potent and excessive” “Becoming Led Zeppelin” is something of an event." “It offers glimpses of the band we’ve never seen before.” “it’s entirely true to the spirit of the band.” “If you’re a diehard fan, you’ll probably glory in what the film delivers and wish there were more of it.” “Becoming Led Zeppelin” reminds me of the most memorable Led Zeppelin performance I ever saw.” INDIEWIRE | Nicholas Barber “It’s efficient and affectionate.” “Like all of the best rock docs, it will make you want to listen to the band’s albums.” MOVIE MANTZ | Scott Mantz “BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN: Just got back at 12:30am from a surprise screening here at Telluride, and good luck going to sleep — I’m pretty pumped from this super-cool, rocking, enlightening & entertaining rock doc about Zep’s formative years up to ZEPPELIN II” SCREEN ANARCHY | Ryland Aldrich “Very cool seeing these legends tell their origin story. Director Bernard MacMahon does a good job of building in cultural context, but the star of the show is obviously the music. You MUST see this with a crowd.” INDIEWIRE | Anne Thompson “Telluride 2021 Recharged the Film World and Anointed 2022 Awards Contenders: “music docs hit big at Telluride [including] Bernard MacMahon’s Venice debut “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” which guitarist Jimmy Page and two other surviving band members steered toward a music focus.” VARIETY | Peter Debruge, Owen Gleiberman Fall Festival Breakouts: 20 Movies That Got People Talking at Venice, Telluride and Toronto Variety’s critics put together the following roundup of highlights from the three early-September festivals. No.1 Becoming Led Zeppelin “For those of us who think of Led Zeppelin as the Beatles of heavy metal, not to mention one of the four or five greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, the first documentary about them is a compelling movie. The director, Bernard MacMahon, spends an hour chronicling the group’s roots in the ’50s and ’60s. The film has amazing sequences that make it a must-see for any Zep fan.”

Mojo / Dec. 2021

Today: Jimmy Page at Cheltenham Literature Festival to Discuss Jimmy Page: The Anthology 13 Oct 2021 Jimmy Page will be taking the stage at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival this evening (Wednesday 13 October) to discuss his acclaimed, career-spanning book, Jimmy Page: The Anthology. The rare interview will be chaired by Times journalist Will Hodgkinson and located at The Times and The Sunday Times Forum at Montpellier Gardens in the heart of Cheltenham. It will be held at 5:45pm and cover his spectacular life in music, from his colossal body of session work in the Sixties, through to the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and beyond. Page will also discuss the contents of the book, including the impressive archive of guitars, costumes and memorabilia that he has amassed throughout his career, all of which was published for the first time in the anthology. A limited number of tickets are still available and can be booked here through the festival's website for £14 plus a booking fee. Speaking about the book last year, Page said: "I wanted to include items from my personal archive that have played a part in my overall story, to give the detail behind the detail." The Anthology contains a new text of over 70,000 words, in which Jimmy Page guides the reader through hundreds of rare items, many of which are previously unseen, and others of mythic status, such as the Gibson double neck guitar, his dragon-emblazoned suit, his white embroidered poppy suit, and the outfit worn in the concert film The Song Remains the Same. Also included are handwritten diaries, correspondence, rare vinyl pressings, previously unpublished photographs and much more. Page personally selected each piece shown in the book to create the most comprehensive and revealing account of his life to date. To purchase a ticket to the interview, click here, or to purchase Jimmy Page: The Anthology, click here. https://www.genesis-publications.com/news/today-jimmy-page-at-cheltenham-literature-festival-to-discuss-jimmy-page-the-anthology/

Europe 1973 by Wolfgang Heilemann (I believe that's him behind Robert), who travelled with the band for a few shows and shot for Bravo & others. This photo is either in Germany or Vienna. Here's one from Montreux 72:

Scream For Help feature - May 1984

Interview with promoter Howard Stein (1970)

June 1972, Los Angeles. They're just East of the the Hyatt Hotel (Riot House) on Sunset Blvd. Photo by Jim Marshall. There's a few in this series.

There's two sources he's using: The main one is a decent 1080p digital transfer but has been adjusted a bit here & has some extra compression artifacts etc. Second source: Clips the filmer's friend did from nearly the same angle is an older 480p transfer and is kind of out of focus.

The amazing Mr Jimmy:

Looks like it's this pressing: https://www.discogs.com/Led-Zeppelin-Untitled/release/3716771

‘We’re like Mork and Mindy!’ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, music’s odd couple Fourteen years after their Grammy-winning debut, the roots duo have reunited – facing high expectations. They explain how they left their comfort zones with a ‘nuts but tasteful’ all-star band by Marissa R Moss | Fri 24 Sep 2021 06.00 BST More than half a century since arriving to play his first show in the US with Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant was in the strange position of having to explain himself to the authorities. “I had to prove that I was contributing to the betterment of the American system somehow, which is kind of cute, really,” Plant says of this post-lockdown trip to Nashville. He is sitting in the city’s famous Sound Emporium studio with his collaborator, the bluegrass legend Alison Krauss. It is the same place where they recorded their second, highly anticipated record as a duo, Raise the Roof, before the pandemic put the world on pause. Due to various restrictions, Plant had to get special permission to get back into the country for this week of preparation and promotion; Krauss, he points out in a sarcastic huff, had to drive for only 10 minutes. “I had to present a form to Homeland Security and all that,” he says, sitting on a burgundy velvet couch in one of the facility’s dark, moody rooms. “Fifty-three years of coming here … they should have my number down by now.” Raise the Roof, the follow-up to 2007’s much lauded debut LP Raising Sand, could have worked as Plant’s immigration application. Fourteen years in the making – as long as Led Zeppelin’s entire career – it is a sublime re-imagining of roots music traditions, from unsung English folk singers to modern torchbearers and lost blues gems. Highlights include a magical rework of the Everly Brothers’ Price of Love, which Krauss and Plant turn from harmonica-laced pop into a slow burning lament anchored in Krauss’ infinitely emotive vocals; an exquisite, melodically joyful version of Go Your Way by the early Led Zeppelin influence Anne Briggs; and High and Lonesome, an original written by Plant and their returning producer, T Bone Burnett. It is a warm day and Plant has just got back to the studio on foot after grabbing a bite down the street. Nashville is a driver’s city, so the 1.85-metre (6ft 1in) musician, with his silver curls tossed loosely in a ponytail, would have surely been a roadside attraction to anyone cruising down Belmont Boulevard, were it not for the white mask obscuring his face. Krauss is cosied up on the couch in a quilted black jacket, despite the late summer weather, a box of tea stashed in her tote. When she talks, she grabs the mic nearby, as if by instinct. The pair had tried several times to make a second record, but nothing had stuck: the title is as a nod to the jubilation they feel about finally getting the band back together. “You can’t wait 14 years to try to get it right and then put it under the couch and say: ‘Well, that was good,’” says Plant. “You’ve gotta shout it out and raise the roof.” It was a song by the Americana band Calexico that finally broke the creative barrier. Krauss was driving in Nashville, listening to a burned CD – she is not au fait with making digital playlists – when the song Quattro (World Drifts In) came on at an intersection. “We’d send songs back and forth, and you might hear the same song at a different time and it didn’t have the right moment, for whatever reason,” Krauss says, “This one had such a sparkle on it. One song sets the mood for everything – and that was the song.” She texted Plant immediately. He, too, fell in love with the lyrics. Their version of the track opens the new record, just as the original opened up the record to them. Plant is as fascinated by border stories as he is by tales from the American south. Calexico, named after the city where California and Mexico join, sing of immigrants fleeing everything they know for the dream of a better life. “Where they are living is what they are playing. It’s coming out of the ground,” Plant says of the band, now based in Tucson, Arizona. Ever since he made Raising Sand in Nashville, Plant spotting has become urban lore in the city. There was the rumour that he lived in an apartment above an ice-cream shop in the east side; some people insisted they saw him eating dinner when he was supposed to be on tour. Plant seems to take to the place naturally, hanging out at a traditional country-themed night called Honky Tonk Tuesdays, grabbing a low-key Mexican breakfast at a place recommended by the musician Buddy Miller, or visiting a mural in Grimey’s record shop of John Prine, the late songwriter Plant described on social media as “the real wordsmith”. The last time he saw Prine, “he made some really funny John Prine comment about me being Frodo or Gollum”. The story cracks Krauss up. The duo assembled some musicians from the Raising Sand sessions, including the guitarist Marc Ribot and the drummer Jay Bellerose, along with some new forces, such as Miller and the renowned jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. Burnett insisted that no one get acquainted with the song choices before entering the studio, to get “the freshest idea with the most life”, as Krauss puts it. She remembers walking into the Sound Emporium for overdubs and seeing Ribot with a set of car keys, scratching them along his instrument – a long way from the traditions of bluegrass, but she loved it. On the previous record, Burnett would suddenly appear in a robe, brandishing a toy piano. “They all have the combination of being so nuts and so tasteful at the same time,” Krauss says. “Shocking. It’s shocking.” “See, I can’t buy into that,” Plant says, doubtful that nuts and tasteful could coexist, at least in the genre from which he emerged. “I’m British and a rock’n’roll singer.” Plant and Krauss both enjoyed the exercise of trying to shake off who they have come to be – she the traditionalist, he the flamboyant frontman. “No decision was made other than lyric and melody,” Krauss says. The blues isn’t her default style, but she wears it well. Plant, meanwhile, tried not to go into character or default to comfortable vocal tricks and signatures, but there is one song on the album that – thankfully – is particularly Plant. While the title, High and Lonesome, conjures up images of early Hank Williams and tears on acoustic guitars, it is far more like Led Zeppelin than weepy acoustic country. Even when outside their comfort zones, though, Krauss and Plant’s disparate worlds overlap perfectly. A previous interviewer, Krauss says, was determined to find out if they argue. “It was so funny, just: do you fight?” she says, chuckling. “Did any of you fight? Did T Bone fight?” “We’re like Mork and Mindy,” says Plant: an odd yet harmonious couple. They have proved that all musical traditions can meet in the middle if you dig back far enough. When Raising Sand came out in 2007, it was an outlier in a landscape entranced by watered down arena folk. Its songs, such as the blues singer Little Milton’s Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson and Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us by the alt rock singer Sam Phillips, served as a reminder that the roots of roots music were far more diverse than the emerging Americana genre might lead one to believe. Raising Sand won five Grammys, including album of the year, beating Radiohead’s In Rainbows and Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends by Coldplay. The concept for Raise the Roof is the same, digging up unsung artists such as Louisiana’s Geeshie Wiley, as well as Plant’s more close-to-home influences, such as Briggs and Bert Jansch. Plant says with a laugh that when he plays their cover of Go Your Way for Briggs, “she’ll probably wag a finger at me about some stolen piece of timeless folk history purloined by some bloke with long hair and cowboy boots”. He continues: “Alison and I have something – theoretically – to live up to, as far as how it worked out before. But the most important thing to do was maintain a really interesting variety of sources of song. Because what do we do in our quietest times, when we have a music machine? We go to places that really, really make us feel good.” And who doesn’t want to feel good after months of lockdown and restrictions? Krauss recalls how, early on, she had trouble even listening to old bluegrass; similarly, Plant couldn’t hear new music – he spent the worst months of the pandemic pillaging his own archive, finding cassette recordings he plans to allow the release of only after his death. They promise that the next collaborative album – if there is another – won’t take so long, though. “I can’t wait 14 years,” says Plant, who is 73. “Otherwise it’s going to be a bit dicey for me.” For now, he is enjoying this long detour. “None of this music is rock, it’s not about power and posture,” Plant says. “How remarkable for me to be able to jump ship so long ago now. But I have a jetpack on my back in case I want to go back.” That person is still in there, after all. On the way out of the studio to meet Burnett and the musician JD McPherson across town, Plant stops and makes a joke about his “Viking finger”. “If I come from the land of the ice and snow,” he says, a bit of mischief firing in his eyes, “I’ll be OK.” Raise the Roof is released on 19 November on Warner Music. Plant and Krauss will tour together in 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/24/were-like-mork-and-mindy-robert-plant-and-alison-krauss-musics-odd-couple