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Zurich 1980 questions


PhxHorn

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The first bootleg I ever bought, back in '88 or so, was a Toasted Records LP of the Zurich '80 show. It only goes through Kashmir, and the rest of the LP is filled out with a couple of tunes from Bonzo's B-day Party. I managed to trade for the rest of the tunes on cassette via the Zeppelin email list around that same time.

The quality on those is decent, but not great. In the fall of '91, Jason Bonham co-hosted a radio show called Led Zeppelin: The Final Chapter, which I taped off the air. The show didn't have a whole lot of new info, but it did include two or three cuts from the Zurich show: Trampled and Achilles I think. Maybe one more? They were a good notch better sound quality than the LP and the tapes I've got. I was surprised that they were broadcasting bootlegs on a nationally-aired radio show, and I'm also curious where the superior recordings came from. I assume the entire show must be available in similar quality to what in the Final Chapter? Were all these 1980 shows that hit the market in the late 80s taken from the stuff that was stolen from Page at one point? They all seem to have similar sound quality, which is to say, sort of thin sounding.

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Led Zeppelin: The Final Chapter was produced by Westwood One for Westwood One Radio Networks and aired on September 2nd 1991. I have a set of the original six "silver cds" distributed to radio stations. As I recall the

live material from Switzerand was taken from the soundboard source that had entered circulatation prior to the broadcast. Many 1980 soundboard sources were stolen from Jimmy..discussed in Zeppelin Mysteries thread.

Here are reviews of three Zurich 1980 releases courtesy of Underground Uprising:

Zurich (Tarantura - 1980-17,18 - 2CD)

June 29, 1980 Hallenstadion - Zurich, Switzerland

Audio: 9+ SBD

DISC ONE: Train Kept A Rollin', Nobody's Fault But Mine, Black Dog, In The Evening, The Rain Song, Hot Dog, All My Love, Trampled Underfoot, Since I've Been Loving You.

DISC TWO: Achilles Last Stand, White Summer, Black Mountain Side, Kashmir, Stairway To Heaven, Rock And Roll, Heartbreaker

Packaging is the now standard Tarantura/Flagge format gatefold paper sleeve with photo's from the 1980 tour and the air warden tour poster on the rear. Individual CD sleeve's have the Tarantura "Abracadabra" logo. An excellent sound board source tape is used. The source is well balanced, has very little tape hiss and does not suffer the normal "flat" sound of a board tape. Jimmy's introduction to Black Dog has him mentioning that he "took his glasses off so he can see the guitar better" - this might explain the improvement of his performance during Black Dog. The dirigible commanders were apparently late showing up for the show and Plant apologizes for the delay before the introduction of In The Evening. Bonzo can be heard in the background barking orders as Plant instructs the crowd how to say "Eye Thank Yew" - "Ready? One... Two... Three... EYE THANK YEW!". It reminded me of the incident in Japan "One... Two... Three... Mister Bonham!" back in '71. There's some popping or digital static the starts during the slow intro to The Rain Song and reappears erratically afterwards. All My Love starts without any verbal introduction and the crowd roar is instant - a fan favorite even back in '80. Excellent (by 1980 standards) versions of Trampled Underfoot and Since I've Been Loving You follow. Jimmy comes through and delivers with an outstanding Achilles Last Stand. White Summer should have been laid to rest long ago. The blimp pilots get hopelessly lost in Kashmir and stumble several times trying to recover. Once they finally do find their way, Plant comments "that's better!". Digital static can be heard once again shortly afterwards. The end of Kashmir is missing and Tarantura fades it out. The tape starts back up again with Plant's commentary "If anybody's bootlegging that, you'll have to scratch that number cause wasn't completely correct - somehow we got through it". A fast paced Rock And Roll is the warm up for a ten minute Heartbreaker. This is one of the better 1980 shows and the nicely balanced sound board tape sounds great. Recommended due to cost to the hard core, 1980 completist or Tarantura collector. The general collector should probably seek out the much more affordable TDOLZ set instead. (Steve Prendergast Sept 02)

Swiss Made (TDOLZ vol. 70)

Disc 1: Train Kept A Rollin', Nobody's Fault But Mine, Black Dog, In the Evening, The Rain Song, Hot Dog, All My Love, Trampled Underfoot, Since I've Been Loving You.

Disc 2: Achilles Last Stand, White Summer/Black Mountain Side/Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven, Rock and Roll, Heartbreaker.

June 29th, 1980 in Zurich, this title was released in the Tour 1980 box set with the soundboard recording (A Good Hot One ), and each title was released independently. So far this is the only release on cd of the very good to excellent audience recording. Swiss Made is good also because it has the complete Kashmir, along with Robert's comment "If there's anybody bootlegging that you'll have to scratch the last number, as it wasn't completely correct." This is a very good performance to a lively audience, and this title is recommended to those who prefer audience recordings to soundboards. (Gerard Sparaco Feb 2000)

The European Championship (Bluecongo Production) 2 CDRs

Hallenstadion, Zurich, 29 June 1980

Disc 1 (63.37): the Train Kept A' Rollin'/Nobody's Fault But Mine/Black Dog/In The Evening/The Rain Song/Hot Dog/All My Love/Trampled Underfoot/Since I've Been Loving You

Disc 2 (59.18): Achilles Last Stand/White Summer-Black Mountain Side/Kashmir/Stairway To Heaven/Rock And Roll/Heartbreaker

This is another fan created "matrix" combining a soundboard recording and an audience recording to fill the gaps. The main source for this is the Empress Valley Conquer Europe release, which unfortunately is in mono (although the original SBD source is stereo). Using an audience recording, the cuts in the SBD have been very neatly filled from the AUD, and this has produced a very useful and complete version of this excellent concert. Nice to hear Claude Nobs' introduction just before the encores (from the AUD source).

(Jules McTrainspotter April 05)

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My LP version contains WLL, which is not included on any of the above-mentioned releases. I assume the running order was Stairway, R&R, WLL, Heartbreaker?

Actually, the LP version contains an audience recording of R&R, and as Jimmy's doodling around after that tune, the recording switches to soundboard again shortly before Jimmy begins WLL. He plays a few blues riffs and then starts the tune. I had Heartbreaker on cassette from a long-ago trade, and so I spent some time compiling the various sources into my own 2-CD set this weekend. It's actually a pretty solid late-era show.

Or is it possible WLL was from another source? It's hard to imagine them not playing it that night.

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My LP version contains WLL, which is not included on any of the above-mentioned releases. I assume the running order was Stairway, R&R, WLL, Heartbreaker?

Actually, the LP version contains an audience recording of R&R, and as Jimmy's doodling around after that tune, the recording switches to soundboard again shortly before Jimmy begins WLL. He plays a few blues riffs and then starts the tune. I had Heartbreaker on cassette from a long-ago trade, and so I spent some time compiling the various sources into my own 2-CD set this weekend. It's actually a pretty solid late-era show.

Or is it possible WLL was from another source? It's hard to imagine them not playing it that night.

Setlist:

Train Kept a Rollin', Nobody's Fault But Mine, (Out On the Tiles intro) Black Dog, In The Evening, Rain Song, Hot Dog, All My Love, Trampled Underfoot, Since I've Been Loving You, Achilles Last Stand, White Summer ~ Black Mountainside, Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven, Rock and Roll, Heartbreaker.

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Well, now, I guess I've got a mystery version of WLL on my hands! It sure sounds like it's from the same source, though.

Whole Lotta Love was played on other dates that summer and there are soundboard recordings in circulation from those dates. It'd be virtually indistinguishable to the casual listener if another '80 source was combined with the Zurich source.

Berlin, July 7, 1980

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=X4VE7_yKhVE[

Edited by SteveAJones
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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice, I've been making do with the Tour Over Europe 2cd set

that ends at Kashmir

(and a cassette dub of it before that)

but more importantly,

the Toasted 'Last Stand' vinyl of Berlin

with no WLL. That was an insane noisedelic jam.

Looks like I've got some homework to do. :)

Edited by rockthing
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