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The Good and not so Good of Celebration Day


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The Super 8 footage was the grainy parts that had the strange little rectangle on the side of the frame? I also found it very distracting and wonder about it every time I watch the film. I didn't like it either but thought the overall film was great.

The concert was shot with a 1:78:1 aspect ratio. The grainy film was not.

Jeff

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After watching the DVD a number of times I was, to be honest disappointed, and I only listened to about ten minutes of the Shepperton Studios DVD before I swirched it off. Overall I'll stick with the Led Zeppelin 2 DVD set.

Joe, were you more disappointed in the 02 performance or the overall sound/mix?

I haven't even put on the Rehearsal footage yet. Not sure I will ,unless I get crazy to do so one night.

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After watching the DVD a number of times I was, to be honest disappointed, and I only listened to about ten minutes of the Shepperton Studios DVD before I swirched it off. Overall I'll stick with the Led Zeppelin 2 DVD set.

Move forward to Misty Mountain Hop and Kashmir. And even though I spent the extra money for the rehearsal, I watched it once and that should be it. Not crazy with the sound of it. I would have liked ALL the rehearsals but that could be reaching!

Jeff

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After watching the DVD a number of times I was, to be honest disappointed, and I only listened to about ten minutes of the Shepperton Studios DVD before I swirched it off. Overall I'll stick with the Led Zeppelin 2 DVD set.

hey Joe, was it kinda muddy for ya in the mix?

I have to admit too, i have heard the dvd now a couple of times at different friends/sound systems and I'm noticing that I am not 100% with it either. I do love it still.

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Other than the editing of some of Robert's talking to the crowd, I have started to love the performance more and more with each viewing and listen. It took a while for me to fully love the performance 100% when it first happened when I was watching all the bootlegs, and YouTube videos of the concert. As time has gone on, I have warmed up to the whole performance completely. I even have my "favorites" from it now and everything. I am so happy I ordered the Deuxe Edition. It was worth every penny in my opinion.

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I have the Deluxe edition and if I may offer some quick thoughts:

Jason - fuckin' awesome! Every song he played his ass of and played so well!

Robert - Lower register, mimed some forgotten lyrics, over-all though he was a true front man and a

mature power-house!

Jimmy - abbriveated solos, and a malfunctioned Dazed and Confused, but he was so amazing! Power

full-filled and a true artist!

John Paul - yes, lost in the mix early on but comes back with IMTOD very strong and every song after.

He's the un-sung hero of this Band. A true professional and on point with every song!

The technical difficulty of mixing out the very bad and inexcuseable feedback on the first 2 songs leave

us with a poor audio mix that finally gets righted by the time Black Dog comes along. Nothing a engineer

can do with such a bad start to the audio that night.

Overall - amazing and true to the Zeppelin Legacy.

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I have the Deluxe edition and if I may offer some quick thoughts:

Jason - fuckin' awesome! Every song he played his ass of and played so well!

Robert - Lower register, mimed some forgotten lyrics, over-all though he was a true front man and a

mature power-house!

Jimmy - abbriveated solos, and a malfunctioned Dazed and Confused, but he was so amazing! Power

full-filled and a true artist!

John Paul - yes, lost in the mix early on but comes back with IMTOD very strong and every song after.

He's the un-sung hero of this Band. A true professional and on point with every song!

The technical difficulty of mixing out the very bad and inexcuseable feedback on the first 2 songs leave

us with a poor audio mix that finally gets righted by the time Black Dog comes along. Nothing a engineer

can do with such a bad start to the audio that night.

Overall - amazing and true to the Zeppelin Legacy.

good points on the first 2 song feedback problems, that may have led to a less than stellar mix for those tunes...I forgot about that.
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I'm glad I started this thread. So many interesting observations from each individual perspective on the mix, sound, performance...all things in general. I appreictae reading this! I feel the same way as most do here and still have mixed feelings about it, and probably always will.

Quick thought: Does anybody feel that maybe this is why most Critics of the day (1960's-70's) panned Zeppelin for most of their creative career?

In other words, just as we (avid fans of the band) feel like there are some down-sides to this particular release, the critics that maybe weren't huge fans to begin with, were so quick to write them off for the same reasons? Could it be that it just takes a long time for Zep material to grow on some people, just like it's taken a while for some of us here to really dig Celebration Day.....?

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Joe, were you more disappointed in the 02 performance or the overall sound/mix?

I haven't even put on the Rehearsal footage yet. Not sure I will ,unless I get crazy to do so one night.

To be honest RH, I was disappointed with Roberts vocal range, I understand that he can't reach the same scales as he could whilst they were together, but well I don't know I was just disappointed with his performance ( apart from the tracks that are still within his vocal range...Kasmir etc). I can now understand why Robert doesn't want to do any tours.

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I have only watched the DVD twice. There are some stellar moments. IMTOD is the highlight for me. Slow, chugging, dead bluesy and some intense playing from the lads. After that it gets a bit lost and a bit dull but it picks up again with Kashmir and I like Rock and Roll at the end. Why no Plant talking is a bit odd but as one would expect there is NO improvisation. I understand that after all that time and a new drummer, but I feel that's what a liked about Zeppelin live. You can put on boots from any tour and they hardly ever played the same song exactly the same on any given night. I miss that really.

The rehearsal I have played once and it would have better been just an audio CD. Overall a landmark release from a show everyone here would loved to have gone to. Well done to JP in getting it out but i am like Joe, I prefer the Led Zeppelin "DVD" set

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To me, its a fantastic document of a one off performance by my favourite band of all time, who hadnt played a full gig together in 27 years. There are mistakes, sure, and some of the super-8 stuff is annoying at times, but it was the greatest day of my life thus far, and I feel blessed not only just to have been there that night, but now to have a concert DVD of the performance. I think its fantastic from start to finish.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love it overall, recognizing like any concert it has its peaks. For me, my four favorites were NFBM, NQ, Kashmir (The Top Performance of the Night), and Rock and Roll. None were perfect, but I thought they came together the best on those tracks. Rock and Roll... probably the last song those guys ever played together as LZ, so an emotional moment for sure. I'm grateful for the entire project and it is a great study to go from BBC Sessions to RAH to HTWTW to TSRTS to Earl to Knebworth to this. What a journey of live releases. If they stay true to it, and I believe they will, what other band or artist has ever gone out with a performance of this magnitude? Cheers.

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Pros:

They actually used matching footage this time!

MOST of the concert is present.

The fix in Dazed is one of the only fixes that I appreciated.

The 8mm footage is a great addition!

Cons:

Removal of Honey Bee, Plant chatter (Ahmet... we did it!), and Boogie Mama

The fix in Dazed is not perfect

Feedback.

Miminal bonus features. It was nice to have the Shepperton rehearsal on video, but something more could be nice.

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First the negatives. Is there anybody else out there willing to admit that this was not the greatest night for Jimmy page? Sure he had his moments of brilliance he always does. But I felt that Many of his solos did not flow and were disconnected. Stairway, quarter, song remains, since, and nobody's fault all had some nice phrases but as a whole the solos did not move me. The way he used to build his solos was phenomenal. These just didn't seem to go anywhere. His tone at times was really not very good, thick and muddy on stairway and the song remains and ramble on, thin and bright on Since. Yes I know tuning was dropped on some songs but those are things he can adjust with a twist of a knob. I feel he does not have the control over the equipment the way he did when he was younger. I know from gigging on many stages that when you have trouble with feedback, and I'm talking your own personal feedback from your amp, there are things you can do to minimize it. He struggled with the bow and in other places (the end of dazed for example feedback all over the place) which in my opinion affected his ability to play from the heart. There is no excuse for that go and turn your amp volume down or roll your guitar volume down a bit and get on with!.... Next negative: the mix in the arena and the mix on the release. Overall exciting and fun to crank up but as usual a modern-day mix on the bass. None of these guys get it it's all big subwoofer sound and no detail or clarity. That's why you are not hearing Jones The way you should be hearing him. Bring back these guys from the 70s that knew what the hell they would doing!..... On the positive side: thank God these guys especially Jimmy page are still alive to even have done this. Don't get me wrong I am truly appreciative that it happened and I truly love the Jimmy page is still walking this earth. And he did have some excellent moments. The solo in for your life I thought it was interesting and excellent. His solos in black dog and rock 'n roll were good too. I thought his dazed solo was great it's unfortunate that he blew the part coming out of the solo, that was his fault not Jason. And Robert was absolutely great and was the biggest surprise for me. After listening to a decade of him whispering his way through solo albums I was shocked at the intensity of his singing. Sure he can't hit the notes anymore he hasn't since 1972. But his energy and is phrasing was great. And Jason while not being his father did an awesome job and gave it the energy it needed..... And I thought there were great moments of drama and touching moments as well. Kashmir was excellent and the end of the night with rock 'n roll could not have been better!

Edited by Ed A
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Is there anybody else out there willing to admit that this was not the greatest night for Jimmy page?

I have not read nor heard that the night at the O2 was planned and set out for Jimmy Page to have his greatest night.

For me it is a slippery slope to single out one band member and scrutinize his contribution after the fact. While Page's tone or approach on this particular night may not strike someone's preferences, it is beyond scrutiny that Page hit the mark for which he was striving for the band.

Insofar as his contribution as the guitarist, he clearly played with intention- leads and fills concise and not indulgent. Beautifully prepared and his craftsmanship superb.

The O2 has a history of being a bit** to mix great sound. The feedback had zero to do with Page's rig volume or settings- the front of house monitor guy couldn't hear so he pushed the levels. The sound check was done with an empty venue, a house full of bodies absorbs huge sums of sound waves. FOH guy was doing his job, he just missed it. It got really touchy when Page clicked in the wah and opened it up- the upper frequencies boost made the FOH squeal. The softer Page played the more the guy faded up the level and dammit.

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Have to agree with Ed A: the O2 is the 1st performance by JP in 37 years of collecting live boots that his solos didn't move me much at all. There was always some aspect to his playing, even at it's "low" during the ARMS shows in '83, that was outstanding.Thruout his career, he's play a solo, and you'd think to yourself: "that's classic Page". I had been heavily into boot videos from the Page/Plant '98 tour just before I got the booted version of the 02 show back in 2008; so I was used to watching and hearing some of his best playing in years and years from that 1998 tour. as for the O2, while I was in awe of the overall BAND performance, when I really listened repeatedly to the guitar solos, it was a let down. There are "brief" moments of brilliance, like the intro to SIBLY, but overall it just wasn't him to my ears. ( Now I'm strickly talking about guitar solos, ; otherwise, his rhythym playing/ etc was spot on. But I,m referring to JP having a unique "voice" with his guitar solos thruout his entire career...It may have been too much pressure to keep it "short" and clean (due to the cameras/ publicity/ Plant wanting no long solos/etc). Had they gone on and played a LOT more shows, hopefully the real JP would have come out more in the solos. (Babe I'm Gonna Leave You solo from 1998 anyone?)

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yep, one of the 1st I learned too; but I had a transcription from this songbook called "LZ Complete" ; it was the 1st 5 albums, and one of the 1st of it's kind on LZ.( came out 1975 i think); A lot of the transcriptions were wrong in that book; till this day, I play a bastardized version of Rain Song in standard tuning; years later, I found out Pagey used his own tuning, and the chord shapes/sounds were all about that altered tuning! Hell, now there's a million transcriptions out there. I did learn Mood for a day by the record (that's Steve Howe, of course)

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I have not read nor heard that the night at the O2 was planned and set out for Jimmy Page to have his greatest night.

For me it is a slippery slope to single out one band member and scrutinize his contribution after the fact. While Page's tone or approach on this particular night may not strike someone's preferences, it is beyond scrutiny that Page hit the mark for which he was striving for the band.

Insofar as his contribution as the guitarist, he clearly played with intention- leads and fills concise and not indulgent. Beautifully prepared and his craftsmanship superb.

The O2 has a history of being a bit** to mix great sound. The feedback had zero to do with Page's rig volume or settings- the front of house monitor guy couldn't hear so he pushed the levels. The sound check was done with an empty venue, a house full of bodies absorbs huge sums of sound waves. FOH guy was doing his job, he just missed it. It got really touchy when Page clicked in the wah and opened it up- the upper frequencies boost made the FOH squeal. The softer Page played the more the guy faded up the level and dammit.

With all due respect (and I really do not intend to be rude here) there are some things I dont agree with... The original poster asked for our impressions good and bad... So why is it a slippery slope to scrutinize after the fact?... This has nothing to do with preparation or whether Jimmy 'planned' to have a good night, it simply has to do with my opinion of the show itself and the celebration day release, so my opinion on Jimmy's playing that night remains....

But a couple things here you are just not correct about. I was not referring to front of house problems. God knows there were enough of those. But there is a big difference between feedback occuring due to front of house and monitor mix and a tough venue and those coming from your own rig.... Believe me the feedback you are hearing at the end of Dazed and at other times especially when Jimmy clicked on the wah is ALL his rig and nothing to do with FOH... He was letting his rig get away from him. He was not able to control the feedback caused from excessive gain eminating from his amps and/or pedals depending on the song.... What you do in a case like that is first and foremost, turn off the damn wah!!!.... Its not working for you so turn it off!... Roll down your guitar volume a touch... go over to the damn amp between songs and back off on the volume, etc... I get worked up about this because it is not that hard to do and its more of an indication that he is just not on top of it anymore.... If you thought he was fabulous from beginning to end, then fine, I have no problem with that.... But to me, everyone seemed to be most worried before the show about how Robert was going to pull it off, when in fact in my opinion Jimmy was the least consistent.

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