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Bath Festival 1970 Multitracks, let's discuss


Sticks of Fire

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It's kept me from listening to it. It's not the worst.

I've never heard this show before, I think the recording sounds good! I listened to a few songs after TY and they sound pretty good too, IMO.

Thanks for posting that PE3!

:)

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I am confident that if it exists it will get out...

the number of people who want to take credit for releasing it(them) outnumber the number of people who want to take credit for having it (them)

When your dealing with multitracks and video of a show as big as this it really does move things onto another level than the typical soundboards that get sold to bootleggers.

As with say LA 72 I expect if anything see's the light of day it won't be until an offical release is being worked on. Something like Southhampton 73 for example was only leaked when it was being looked at for release.

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It seems that legend of these shows (Be it Zeppelin, Hendrix, Stones etc.) sometimes overshadows the actual performance. It´s of course, partly up to- what one expects to hear...And hearing the bootleg is not the same as being present at the gig anyways. Muddy sound on some of these bootlegs doens´t cover up the energy and excitement, luckily! Belfast 1971 gig with it´s first ever performance of Stairway To Heaven is quite muddy (Empress Valley-version is what I´m referring to...), but it still reflects the mood and feeling of the show, which sounds...well, maybe "lukewarm" really is good term for that! Zeppelin at their worst is still better than quite a few others! :zzz:

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Completely agree. And if/when a soundboard, multi-track or footage ever gets released, people will immediately see that the show wasn't so much legendary as it was just a big festival where Zeppelin were the headliners. The opener/debut of IS is so rough, with Plant's improvised lyrics, that hearing it in better quality would only make the casual fan think "What the hell happened to the song I'm familiar with?". The rest of the show has its share of errors too, like Page's guitar going out in Heartbreaker. The HMMT medley is nothing to write home about. The Long Tall Sally encore is pretty good. Since I've Been Loving You is pretty good too. But only just "pretty good" for Zeppelin, where the bar is pretty high.

Good show? Yes. Notable for Zep playing a huge festival? Sure. Best gig ever? Not compared to other performances that year that really were among the best. NY September evening show, Memphis 1970, and Blueberry Hill all slay Bath.

Bath is as legendary for 1970 as Earls Court for 1975. It's all in the "story" of those gigs that make them legendary, and not so much that the gigs really were, beyond the spectacle that went along with them, with the photos and the posters and the rumors of films and multi-tracks. We all tend to hype up what we don't have. Prior to the videos and soundboard coming out for the EC gigs, people raved about those shows being holy grails, and always referred to them as the best shows Zeppelin ever gave. Once those vids and boards came out, people could finally hear how sloppy Page was, how trashed Plant's voice was, and how much Bonham was just phoning it in. Now you don't hear anybody talk about EC. Instead, people rave more about NY 2/12/75, which we've been able to hear for over 10 years now in soundboard quality. I think getting those other shows actually makes me like the ones we already had even more. I guarantee you that the same will happen with Bath. Once a board or mult-track comes out, people will listen to it for a week and then find themselves inspired to go back to Blueberry Hill.

The exact same thing happened with The Who's 1970 IOW Festival performance. It was considered the holy grail to have for many years before it was finally released, then everyone got to see and hear that it was a rather sloppy performance by Who standards after gaining such legendary status through the years.

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I love how everyone is beating around the bush - either say it's a good performance (which it is) or just flat-out say it's not for you! The audience sources aren't so bad that one "can't tell" - you just don't want to be harassed. :P

Btw: I think all this talk of Bath (and a pic or two posted over at the Hotel) have impacted me greatly...to the degree that I had a dream of either watching, or being present for, the filiming of the Bath Festival gig. Front row, full view of Jimmy and Robert...

:P

Edited by Melcórë
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Has any videos from Bath 1970 ever emerged? They said that picture was dark and unusable, but still... Would be cool to see some of that; it´s not the same as The Song Remains The Same-film, anyway! I mean, Joe Massot did film Bath 1970 too, besides doing TSRTS...right? :o

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Has any videos from Bath 1970 ever emerged? They said that picture was dark and unusable, but still... Would be cool to see some of that; it´s not the same as The Song Remains The Same-film, anyway! I mean, Joe Massot did film Bath 1970 too, besides doing TSRTS...right? :o

Everything you hear about Bath is rumour - there's just about no hard evidence for anything, aside from the audience sources we have, and a very short video. (YouTube is your friend. It's about thirty-one seconds long, and showcases snippets of the opening three songs.)

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  • 2 months later...

I find it hard to believe that a major festival like Bath 1970 was not recorded. Back to the original question from Sticks of Fire: "Are there ANY soundboards of the other artists from the Festival?"

An interesting video:

Edited by Geezer
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From TSRTS' IMDb page:

"Since late 1969, Led Zeppelin had been planning on filming one of their live performances for a projected movie documentary of the band. The group's manager, Peter Grant, believed that they would be better served by the big screen than by television, because he regarded the sound quality of the latter as inadequate. The first attempt was the filming (by Peter Whitehead and Stanley Dorfman) of Led Zeppelin's Royal Albert Hall performance on January 9, 1970, but the lighting was judged to be mediocre, and the film was shelved (this footage was later remastered and featured on the 2003 release 'Led Zeppelin DVD'). Another attempt was organized for the outdoor Bath Festival on June 28, 1970, but only limited footage was filmed, and was similarly deemed unsatisfactory."

If at least parts of the Bath gig were filmed then there's absolutely no question that it was also multitracked.

Edited by Geezer
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  • 2 months later...

There is a Jason Bonham interview from a few years back that I can't find anymore where he mentions something like, "Bath festival will be out by the end of the year". I think it was back around the BBC release. I'll keep looking for it, but there's a link below to someone else that remembers the quote. Assuming that he was correct, and knowing that Jimmy wouldn't release anything that wasn't professionally recorded, I'd say it's likely that the tapes exist.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Led-Zeppelin-501/2008/5/f/Filmed-Shows.htm

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Did nobody see Jimmy's "On This Day"? He said an attempt was made to shoot it but the film was for night time shooting and it was a day time concert so the film didn't look up to standards.

"He" also said that they played a series of nine concerts at Earls Court in 1975. He's also said that there was nothing in the vault for future release, and yet he's working on box-sets.

In other words, take what Pagey says with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, there is overwhelming evidence that Zeppelin's performance at the Bath Festival was not filmed; it was likely still multi-tracked.

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With regards to Bonham's drumming at Earls Court: he sounds more inspired on the 18th compared to the other nights for the most part. Although there are some highlights for him from other nights: the aforementioned TUF from the 24th and TSRTS from the 25th.

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