Jump to content

Professionally filmed Led Zeppelin concerts


Geezer

Recommended Posts

Aside from Seattle and Pontiac '77 -which we KNOW were filmed professionally (the cameramen on stage prove it)- there are photos from all the Landover shows as well as Houston. If they were professionally filmed, one, where are the cameramen/videoscreens in the available photos from those gigs and, more important...if pro shot footage existed of at least one of the Landover gigs as well as Houston, where the fuck is it? You tryin' to tell me that there is supposed to be professionally shot footage of at least three or four 1977 shows with only one -Seattle- ever emerging? Sorry, I don't and never have bought into that. I could believe Pontiac exists, but was either lost to the annals of rock history or some motherfucker (possibly more than one) out there is hoarding the goddamn film. Having said that, I'd be even more convinced of Pontiac's existence if we had at least a screenshot or something more substantial than just rumours and photos from the gig showing cameramen and video screens, y'dig? I mean, Jesus Christ, it took fucking years just for some of these elitist collectors even to admit/confirm the rumours that 'about twenty minutes' of audience shot 8mm footage existed of the Pontiac show. And when will us Great Unwashed see it, if ever, if it's not just a bunch of bullshit as well? Let's just hope the bloody Mayans were WRONG, let's put it that way, heh heh...

Tom is right..."The Rover" was quite adamant in more than one Houston '77 discussion that there were neither video screens or cameramen at that show (so what if CSN and Aerosmith footage has emerged from the Summit in '77? Those bands were a little bit more open, shall we say, to exposure than Zeppelin.) I can't be arsed right now to dig up the discussion where "The Rover" stated all this, but do a search on "Houston '77" and they'll be there. And what about that waterhead -can't remember his name- who tried to claim Peter Grant personally destroyed the Pontiac '77 footage :lol: :lol: :rolleyes: I seem to recall we sorta crucified the guy, justifiably so. I swear, the amount of outright bullshit and unsubstantiated rumours that surround what Zeppelin footage -video or audio that supposedly exists...I repeat for emphasis: :rolleyes::lol:

Edited by Nutrocker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another question:

MSG 1973 July concerts: Excellent video and audio quality

Knebworth 1979 concerts: Atrocious video and audio quality

WHY??? Logically, the quality of the Knebworth shows must be higher (due to technological advancements).

Edited by Taro
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another question:

MSG 1973 July concerts: Excellent video and audio quality

Knebworth 1979 concerts: Atrocious video and audio quality

WHY??? Logically, the quality of the Knebworth shows must be higher (due to technological advancements).

Just curious as to why You would say that the "Knebworth 1979 concerts: Atrocious video and audio quality"?

Have You seen the two Knebworth 1979 (8/4/79 and 8/11/79) full concerts on dvd? If You have, it may be possible that You have or have seen "atrocious video and audio quality" of these concerts.

I have had these two Led Zeppelin Knebworh 1979 concerts on dvd for over 3 years now and the dvd I have of these shows are very far from being "atrocious". In fact, they are very good and most enjoyable to view any time I feel like watching them.

I have no single idea what "generation" the dvds I have are but they must be "low gen" because the video and audio of both are of very above average quality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taro, you need to realize that Knebworth was filmed like the Earls Court '75 or Seattle '77 gigs- for the massive video screens used at the concerts...the shows were not filmed for mass consumption in theatres like TSRTS was. TSRTS was conceived and filmed as a Hollywood movie, with all the bells and post production whistles that entails- to the point where a fair bit of the film wasn't filmed at Madison Square Garden at all but rather 'recreated' on a soundstage at Shepperton Studios in England a year after the fact (as far as I know, the band essentially 'mimed' to the MSG performances). IMO you really can't compare the quality of the Knebworth videos to TSRTS- the comparison there is rather similar to yer previous question regarding the difference between a soundboard and multitrack recording. Think of Knebworth as the soundboard; TSRTS as the multitrack. Big, big difference there.

Having said that, compare the quality of the Knebworth footage used on the official Led Zeppelin DVD to any of the myriad of 'bootlegs' of either the 4 Aug or 11 Aug full concerts. In essence, Jimmy Page used the lowest gen available for the DVD (probably from his own personal collection, no doubt); the original Knebworth video boots -like Seattle '77- indeed were pretty crappy quality, until very, shall we say, resourceful collectors sought out 'lower gen' copies of the videos and distributed them. Okay? Just the same, none of them match the quality of the TSRTS film because they were professionally filmed, but the only post production was done on the footage used for the official DVD in 2003. Every other version is essentially raw footage. I'm sure the raw footage of any of the MSG '73 stuff would look just as bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah...HERE'S the discussion where The Rover confirms there were no video cameras at the Houston '77 show...as an extra added bonus it is also the discussion where KDH makes his bullshit claims about the Pontiac video being 'destroyed'...read it and weep with laughter:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/10547-houston-52177/page__hl__pontiac

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having said that, compare the quality of the Knebworth footage used on the official Led Zeppelin DVD to any of the myriad of 'bootlegs' of either the 4 Aug or 11 Aug full concerts. In essence, Jimmy Page used the lowest gen available for the DVD (probably from his own personal collection, no doubt);

I'm almost sure that he had an access to all camera angles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm almost sure that he had an access to all camera angles.

I haven't watched the DVD in a while, but I'm almost sure it's the same footage as on the boots, just cleaned up considerably...like I said, I HOPE Page himself has access to a better copy than the collectors do!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seattle may have been professionally FILMED, but the audio was not professionally recorded. The concerts used in the Led Zeppelin "DVD" were all professional, multitrack recordings- as in Eddie Kramer or some other recording engineer recorded them probably on a 'mobile' 8 or 16 track recorder, like any official live album. Even the circulating recordings of the Seattle '77 show that claim to be 'soundboard' (as in a stereo or mono cassette or reel to reel recorder hooked up to the soundboard at the venue) aren't really soundboard recordings- merely copies of the the audio from the umpteen million circulating Seattle '77 videos- which, again, vary in video and audio quality depending on the generation of video (when Seattle first started circulating it was a very high gen copy; over the years lower gen copies have made their way through the collectors/bootleggers circles).

When compiling the DVD back in '03 Page was only looking to use the highest quality stuff. Seattle '77 doesn't qualify mainly for three reasons: 1. no high quality video existed at that time (and arguably still doesn't) 2. no multitrack recordings of the gig were made 3. Seattle was a very sloppy, mediocre performance for the most part, even by 1977 standards. Any of the other supposed pro shot 1977 videos (Pontiac/Detroit; Landover; Houston- only Pontiac was CONFIRMED to be pro-shot...no video cameras can be detected in any of the available photos of the Landover or Houston gigs) would be disqualified for the same reasons, only difference being any of those were better shows than Seattle, performance wise.

Yes, exactly.

fsmith, I would need photos to prove all your tales.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taro, you need to realize that Knebworth was filmed like the Earls Court '75 or Seattle '77 gigs- for the massive video screens used at the concerts...the shows were not filmed for mass consumption in theatres like TSRTS was. TSRTS was conceived and filmed as a Hollywood movie, with all the bells and post production whistles that entails- to the point where a fair bit of the film wasn't filmed at Madison Square Garden at all but rather 'recreated' on a soundstage at Shepperton Studios in England a year after the fact (as far as I know, the band essentially 'mimed' to the MSG performances). IMO you really can't compare the quality of the Knebworth videos to TSRTS- the comparison there is rather similar to yer previous question regarding the difference between a soundboard and multitrack recording. Think of Knebworth as the soundboard; TSRTS as the multitrack. Big, big difference there.

Having said that, compare the quality of the Knebworth footage used on the official Led Zeppelin DVD to any of the myriad of 'bootlegs' of either the 4 Aug or 11 Aug full concerts. In essence, Jimmy Page used the lowest gen available for the DVD (probably from his own personal collection, no doubt); the original Knebworth video boots -like Seattle '77- indeed were pretty crappy quality, until very, shall we say, resourceful collectors sought out 'lower gen' copies of the videos and distributed them. Okay? Just the same, none of them match the quality of the TSRTS film because they were professionally filmed, but the only post production was done on the footage used for the official DVD in 2003. Every other version is essentially raw footage. I'm sure the raw footage of any of the MSG '73 stuff would look just as bad.

The Knebworth gigs were also filmed for a possible release for public consumption. Thats why the band wore the same outfits on both nights.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't understand why he didn't have an access to all camera angles. Almost every direcotr of a concert has it as I know.

I believe he only had access to the angles used on the big screens. It looks like there were more angles used because he mixed footage from two nights and also mixed footage of different songs. (I think there are some snippets from Moby Dick during Stairway.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe he only had access to the angles used on the big screens. It looks like there were more angles used because he mixed footage from two nights and also mixed footage of different songs. (I think there are some snippets from Moby Dick during Stairway.)

I hate that kind of schemes. He could've asked an experienced director to direct it, David Mallett for example.

Edited by Taro
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't understand why he didn't have an access to all camera angles. Almost every direcotr of a concert has it as I know.

Earls Court was filmed on a videotape. The video shown on the big screen was recorded to the tape. Same with Seattle. Knebworth was filmed on seprate tapes, each tape records one angle. And the garden and Albert Hall shows used a film crew hired by the band using handheld cameras to film the show, and obviously they have the alternate angles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Earls Court was filmed on a videotape. The video shown on the big screen was recorded to the tape. Same with Seattle. Knebworth was filmed on seprate tapes, each tape records one angle. And the garden and Albert Hall shows used a film crew hired by the band using handheld cameras to film the show, and obviously they have the alternate angles.

Is there any way of getting the footage of each camera?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're going down a rabbit-hole, Taro.

It's really very simple...the reason for the difference in visual quality between the 1973 MSG concerts filmed for TSRTS and the video feeds of 1975 Earl's Court and 1979 Knebworth, is the simple fact that film is always going to look better than videotape. Especially back in the 70s when videotape was primitive.

The 1973 MSG concerts were filmed using 35mm panoramic cameras. Of course it's going to look better than a videotape feed(75 Earl's Court, 77 Seattle, 79 Knebworth) from a clunky video camera.

End of discussion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're going down a rabbit-hole, Taro.

It's really very simple...the reason for the difference in visual quality between the 1973 MSG concerts filmed for TSRTS and the video feeds of 1975 Earl's Court and 1979 Knebworth, is the simple fact that film is always going to look better than videotape. Especially back in the 70s when videotape was primitive.

The 1973 MSG concerts were filmed using 35mm panoramic cameras. Of course it's going to look better than a videotape feed(75 Earl's Court, 77 Seattle, 79 Knebworth) from a clunky video camera.

End of discussion.

:munchies: Strider, it could be just a similar trait in character, but these comments (Taro) remind me of someone who has been recently "extinct" from the Forum..... :whistling:

Edited by Rock Historian
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This looks to be Pro-Shot footage. Too bad it is only about 14 seconds of "Immigrant Song". I would like to believe that the rest of this concert is somewhere out there and one day to be released in any format (legit or bootleg).

http://youtu.be/7LWkKv5j8pQ

Always laugh at that clip of Cole slamming shut the briefcase full of cash, "no,no,no"..haha. I don't think there's more film of that gig, but, it sure would be fantastic if there was

Edited by badgeholder
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...