BATH FESTIVAL 1970 FOOTAGE OVERVIEW/LZ NEWS/TBL ARCHIVE LIVE IN PARIS 1969/OSAKA 1971/DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TRAILER/DL DIARY BLOG UPDATE
Chris Charlesworth on the Led Zeppelin Bath Festival 1970 footage…
https://justbackdated.blogspot.com/2022/10/led-zeppelin-film-from-bath-1970.html
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Here’s the latest Led ZepNews Update:
Led Zeppelin
- Previously unseen close-up footage of Led Zeppelin performing at the Bath Festival of Blues on June 28, 1970 was released online this week. The footage was presumed to be lost but in 2017 it was revealed that it still existed and was recoverable. We explained the full story that led to the footage’s emergence this week here.
Jimmy Page
- Jimmy Page and Scarlett Sabet gave a talk about their work together at a dinner in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on September 9.
Robert Plant
- Robert Plant and Alison Krauss gave interviews to The Boston Globe and Nashville Scene to promote their recent world tour.
John Paul Jones
- John Paul Jones performed with Them Crooked Vultures at the Taylor Hawkins tribute show in Los Angeles on September 27. The band performed a cover of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, their own song “Dead End Friends” and then Queens of the Stone Age’s “Long Slow Goodbye”.
Upcoming events:
October/November – The expanded edition of “Led Zeppelin – Five Glorious Nights” by Dave Lewis will be published along with the new photo book “Led Zeppelin Live Times 1969-1979” by Robert Ellis.
October 19 – The French translation of “Led Zeppelin By Led Zeppelin” will be published.
October 25 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
October 27 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Cork, Ireland.
October 28 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Galway, Ireland.
October 30 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace at the Sligo Live music festival in Sligo, Ireland.
October 31 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Dublin, Ireland.
November 2 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace at the Wexford Spiegeltent Festival in Wexford, Ireland.
November 5 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Edinburgh, Scotland.
November 6 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Glasgow, Scotland.
November 8 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Aberdeen, Scotland.
November 9 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Perth, Scotland.
December 22 – The paperback edition of “Beast: John Bonham and the Rise of Led Zeppelin” by C.M Kushins will be published.
Early 2023 – “A Whole Lotta Music: Life To My Ears,” the memoirs of Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis, will be published.
2023 – The remastered and expanded 30th anniversary edition of “Coverdale–Page” will be released.
Many thanks to James Cook
The complete Led ZepNews email goes out periodically. To receive it sign up here:http://tinyletter.com/LedZepNews
Led ZepNews Website: Check out the Led Zeppelin news website at
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TBL Archive 1 :
LED ZEPPELIN AT OLYMPIA PARIS OCTOBER 10, 1969 IT WAS 53 YEARS AGO -TBL ARCHIVE REVIEW
To mark the 52nd anniversary of the Led Zeppelin Olympia Paris gig today, here’s my 2014 review of the companion disc that features Jimmy’s edit of the show.
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I
The Companion Audio Disc: Live at the Olympia, Paris, October 10th 1969
Good Times Bad Times / Communication Breakdown (4.05)
I Can’t Quit You Baby (6.41)
Heartbreaker (3.49)
Dazed and Confused (15.01)
White Summer / Black Mountain Side (9.19)
You Shook Me (11.55)
Moby Dick (9.21)
How Many More Times (11.14)
The debut Led Zeppelin album was the recorded statement of their first few weeks together. The material selected had been well rehearsed and pre-arranged by the four, one of the primary reasons it took a mere 36 hours to record the album at Olympic Studios, in Barnes, West London.
It’s evident there was very little left over from the album sessions, though back in 1992 Page did salvage Baby Come On Home (aka Tribute To Burt Burns), an outtake from this era that appeared on the Boxed Set 2 compilation. It’s been reported over the years that Zep rehearsed cover versions of The Band’s Chest Fever, Bobby Parker’s Watch Your Step and Elmer Gantry’s Flames but it would appear they were never recorded, as Jimmy has not come up with any alternate versions or outtakes from the first album’s sessions.
Instead he has used the companion disc platform for the first album to present a fully fledged 1969 live on stage recording. There may have been a case for an earlier representation of the band being made available- notably the early Fillmore 1969 appearances (and who knows maybe that situation will be addressed in the future).
However, Jimmy has opted for a later 1969 performance. The source is a radio broadcast of the band’s performance at the Olympia in Paris on October 10th 1969, recorded by Europe 1 radio for the Musicorama programme and part of a short European tour Zep were undertaking during that autumn. A 78 minute edit of the show was first aired on November 2nd 1969. Left to languish in the radio station’s archives for some 38 years, it was re broadcast on December 7th 2007, just three days before the band’s reunion concert at the O2 in London. The recording was subsequently bootlegged, most versions with the French DJ introductions left in and unevenly mixed.
Overall this is a much punchier mix than the bootleg version. To accommodate the formatting , there are some edits and the whole presentation clocks in at just under 70 minutes.
There is no band introduction and much of Robert’s between song chat is edited. As for the actual songs themselves, Good Times Bad Times/Communication Breakdown ,I Can’t Quit You Baby, Dazed And Confused ,White Summer/Black Mountain Side ( missing the ‘wanking dog’ Plant reference !) are relatively uncut from the original broadcast. The previously unheard Moby Dick clocks in at 9.21 – it can assumed that there has been some editing on this as Bonzo’s showpiece of the time was clocking in at around 15 minutes. There’s a slightly unorthodox intro to the piece as Jimmy comes in slightly later with the riff, behind Bonzo’s tympani playing. After the riff comes back in at the end, Bonzo undertakes a final percussive flurry with a boisterous shout and then a 50s riff from Jimmy brings it all to a close.
Heartbreaker is edited to a very compact 3 minutes.49 – during the solo just as the recording goes into that weird echo effect of the radio broadcast. Jimmy avoids that sequence and cuts it straight into the up-tempo solo – it all clocks in at a compact 3 minutes 49.
How Many More Times is scaled down from the 22 minute original performance to 11 minutes 14. There is some chat from Robert prior to the track – it then omits the onstage band member’s introductions during the intro as was custom at the time and cuts straight to the riff.
There’s therefore no room for Aynsley Dunbar reference or the Lemon Song/Boogie Chillun’ sequence featured on the broadcast – however the Oh Rosie/Steal Away (backed by a distinctive Whole Lotta Love riff) and The Hunter is in there – in effect this version is in a similar arrangement to that of its studio counterpart. A final goodbye and namecheck for the players brings proceedings to a close.
The Paris Olympia show vividly demonstrates Led Zeppelin’s progression as a unit during their first year together, in particular the growing confidence of Robert Plant, his shrill vocal attack adds real vitality and spark to the proceedings.
Highlights: The opening Good Times Bad Times/Communication Breakdown salvo with John Bonham doubling up the bass patterns to whip them into shape. The pure blues attack of I Can’t Quite You Baby and You Shook Me – the latter providing a loose framework for a lengthy improvisation –and the How Many More Times finale which carries the listener along on an irresistible adrenalin rush.
After completing another US tour in the fall of 1969, they would go on to revise the act for the opening gigs of 1970. This Paris performance is therefore a welcomed official representation of the band at this point – with a set list still full of Zep I vitality nurtured during the countless gigs they performed that year – and now maturing with the introduction of new material from the about to be released Led Zeppelin II.
This then is an energetic snapshot of the often wild abandonment performances of this era. Whilst the bootlegs serve their purpose, when it comes to the officially sanctioned live album releases (of which How The West Was Won would be a template), I feel there’s a real sense that we are hearing Led Zeppelin as its original founder perceives it. That is reason enough to welcome Led Zeppelin Live at the Olympia 1969 into your homes and onto your deck at the earliest opportunity…
Dave Lewis – May 20th, 2014
TBL Archive 2:
This week marks the 51st anniversary of one of the all time great Led Zeppelin live performances – the September 29 concert in Osaka.
Here’s my review of the 2020 Transatlantic Records bootleg release More Comedy Less Work…
Now this is what I call an inspiration…
My thoughts on…
Led Zeppelin- More Comedy – Less Work: Live At The Festival Hall Osaka Japan September 29,1971
4 CD long box package Transatlantic Records
I’ve come a little late to the party when it comes to the recent soundboard tapes that have surfaced from Led Zeppelin’s tour of Japan in 1971. I recently acquired the Please Please Me 6 CD set via the Eelgrass label and I am looking forward to wading through this expansive set of recordings of their September 28, 1971 performance at the Festival Hall in Osaka.
The following night, the last of the Japanese tour has appeared on a variety of releases, most recently as 929 How The East Was Won – this I have on a double CD set, again via Eelgrass that presents the soundboard source.
Now there’s a much longer presentation of this celebrated performance under the title More Comedy Less Work.
It presents the near complete performance with a mix of the aforementioned soundboard source plus the so called multi-track stage recording and a couple of extracts from the September 28th show. All this has been achieved via a Winston tape overhaul. For those who are unaware, Winston is an avid fan who is highly skilled at improving the sound of Zep bootleg recordings. Over the years Winston has widely and freely shared his remastered recordings, many of which have been acclaimed as definitive versions.
With that prospect in mind I could not resist the opportunity to delve into this new version.
I am of course looking forward to soaking up the previously mentioned 6CD Please Please Me set that chronicles the previous night ( I will report back on that one in due course), but my eagerness to hear a complete September 29 Osaka presentation had me ripping off the outer cellophane ready to get intimate with the three CDs. Note a fourth CD in the package showcases an Up Close radio show from 1992 and a Jimmy Page interview from 2017.
The reasons for my enthusiasm are simple:
For a start, all self-respecting Led Zep fans know that the three city, five show Japanese tour the band undertook in September 1971 was very special. Across those gigs they varied the set list considerably, throwing in all sorts of one offs and unique cover versions. The night of September 29 was no exception, in fact being the final night they really went to town.
The basic set list is also pretty much as it was a mere 53 days on from this memorable Osaka 1971 performance when on the night of Sunday November 21, I was lucky enough to witness Led Zeppelin live for the first time on a night of pure electric magic at the Empire Pool Wembley.
During this period Led Zeppelin were right on top of their game – and then some…
These were the nights where they sought as Jimmy would put it, that fifth element. There’s a hunger and vitality in the playing – a sense of wonderment at what they could achieve and how far they could push the boundaries. There was nothing they could not attain musically, their ambitions were infinite.
Other factors: Robert Plant’s vocal register was at its highest and most potent – a quite remarkable instrument in itself that he deployed to maximum effect.
The interplay between Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham was at a new peak of creativity..
They had a brand new fourth album in the can and ready for imminent release and they knew it was good – and of course they were more than eager to preview material from it.
In short, their confidence was absolutely sky high and boy did it show…
Now my relationship between Led Zeppelin and this Japanese tour goes way back. In 1976 I first got to hear what it sounded like via a bootleg LP.
Led Zeppelin A Cellarfull Of Noise – Live In Japan was a single LP on the Kornyfone label. I purchased it from the Sounds Ahead record shop in Marlborough Court just off Carnaby Street – a tiny record shop that specialised in under the counter releases.
Unfortunately this recording of the fabled September 29 Osaka show was strictly lo-fi and it also played slightly slow. It did however open my ears for the first time to the potency of their playing and also included that bizarre interlude when John Bonham went missing. ‘’Where’s Bonzo?’’ proclaimed Robert repeatedly prior to a drummer-less performance of Tangerine.
Things did improve considerably with the acquisition of the various September 29 audience sourced CD set that surfaced in the 1990s. Last year came the much welcomed new double CD of soundboard highlights. It’s always been one of my all-time fave Zep gigs.
Now the oddly titled More Comedy Less Work presents the full show in genuine Winston style.
The packaging itself is fairly rudimentary – a cartoonish illustration with an overhead airship on the front of the digipack long box. The Led Zeppelin script is lifted from the Led Zeppelin III cover and a sticker indication noting that this is a limited run of 300 portrays the group image featured on the back of that album sleeve. The back cover has some brief explanatory notes about how the recording was pieced together. An eight page booklet has small photos from the tour and reproduces the 1971 Japanese tour programme, though in very small black and white thumbnail type pics.
Some further explanatory notes about the unique content of the set list would have been an asset. It’s all in the Evenings With Led Zeppelin book and TBL issue 31 thanks to Mike Tremaglio’s diligent chronicling.
As for the music, well, let them take you there ….to the Festival Hall in Osaka for the final night of what had been a highly successful tour.
I am well versed with this performance via the previous recordings but hearing it complete in such quality is an absolute revelation.
Right from the moment you hear Bonzo exclaim ‘’Louder, louder’ the listener is hurtled right into the action and let me put it on record from the off: This performance of Immigrant Song may well be the best ever – Plant’s echoed shrill is a pure joy, Bonzo pushes it all ahead in tandem with JPJ and as for Jimmy… the moment he opens up the wah wah for a truly scintillating run is one of the all-time great Zep live moments. The unrelenting energy of it all is just extraordinary.
From there, well it’s a total tour de force. Everything that is great about the band – everything that they have learned to harness in a mere three years is all here. The matchless confident stomp of Heartbreaker really hits the mark – as does the slow burn blues rock of Since I’ve Been Loving You. The seamless patch in of Black Dog from the 28th keeps the momentum flowing.
Dazed And Confused is a cavalcade of electric magic – there’s no other words to describe it, and there’s a drop in for a one off extract of Pennies From Heaven. It’s worth noting here that whenever Zep extended the studio versions of their catalogue, as they did many times – it always came out sounding like a development rather than an indulgence – and there’s no finer example of that than this marathon performance.
Stairway To Heaven is a suitable regal delivery and Celebration Day is always great to hear from this era – actually whenever I hear it I am always reminded of the opening sequence at Knebworthon August 4, 1979 when it made a welcome return to the set.
The acoustic set offers blissful light and shade acoustic harmony moving through That’s The Way and Going To California followed by that aforementioned amusing interlude where Bonzo goes missing prior to a sweet Tangerine. What follows is a rare piece of Zep concert history: the only known live delivery of the Led Zeppelin III staple Friends –which is followed by an ad hoc short cover version of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
A strident What is And What Should Never Be ushers in a complete Moby Dick – the master Bonham and his art..
The Whole Lotta Love medley is a 31 minute veritable Zep Spotify playlist. Try this for a starters: Elvis Presley’s I Gotta Know segued into Twist And Shout performed as The Beatles used to, followed by Benny Spellman’s Fortune Teller. Again via Mike Tremaglio’s research in the Evenings With book we know this trio are ‘one and only’ recordings, save for a 40-second snippet of Fortune Teller which was (also played in Oakland on September 2, 1970 concert. As they had done during the first show in Tokyo, the band also throw in the rarely played live Good Times Bad Times and a blues wailing You Shook Me.
Finally, after an emotionally draining Thank You this three hour show concludes with Rock And Roll – another preview from their upcoming fourth album and a first time outing on this Japanese tour.
The September 29 Black Dog is added on in the multi-track version.
To summarise:
So what we have here is a near complete representation in the best sound quality yet of one of the truly great evenings with Led Zeppelin.
I’ve been playing non-stop this past few days -and what a much needed inspiration it’s been..
Whilst Led Zep and related artists are never far too away from the player here, this is the first real genuine new Led Zep aural experience I’ve soaked up in a good while. It’s a recording that offers a stark reminder of why I have invested so much time and energy into chronicling this band these past 50 years – and why Mike and I spent a sizable amount of our waking hours over a five year period producing the 576 pages that made up the Evenings With book. It’s one of those times when the power of music – and there’s no finer music than Led Zeppelin at full throttle live in concert in my book – gets right to the soul and provides such inspiration, and as we all know, in these unprecedented times any inspiration right now is much welcomed…
More Comedy Less Work will rightfully take its place alongside the Fillmore West April 27, 1969 performance , Plays Pure Blues (Texas International Pop Festival August 31, 1969), Live On Blueberry Hill (LA Forum September 4, 1970) and Going To California (Berkeley September 14, 1971) as my go-to fix when it comes to the in- concert appreciation of the first three years of Led Zeppelin’s existence.
In a world of current confusion one thing certainly remains ever constant – listening to Led Zeppelin perform live in 1971 is a truly wonderful thing… and this overwhelming September 29 performance of that year is more than ample proof…
Dave Lewis – May 25, 2020
Here’s TBL bootleg expert Paul Sheppard’s views:.
More on More Comedy Less Work – TBL contributor and Zep Live on CD expert Paul Sheppard’s observations:
Led Zeppelin – More Comedy, Less Work
Osaka, September 29 , 1971
Background and Context
There are, to the best of my knowledge, 2 main audience sources plus two soundboard sources for this show. These can be sub-divided into several generations for each audience source plus two generations for the soundboard sources. Over the years, in the realm of Cd bootlegs, we have had copious releases of varying quality using one or the other source or mixes of both.
What it comes down to are the following groupings for the Cd releases that have emerged:
- An actual soundboard – a maximum length of about 90 minutes with Empress Valley feeding out individual track releases as well
- An actual soundboard mix – in reality a mix of audience sources
- Source 1 “soundboard – possibly two different versions and short of the whole show
- Sources 2 &3
- Sources 4 & 5
- Mixes – where most of the show is available and where ‘More Comedy – Less Work’ fits in
More Comedy – Less Work (LZ/TAR) 4 Cd
What we get:
CD1
01 – Welcome To Osaka 929 [aud]
02 – Immigrant Song [sbd] 929 + 928 wail fix edit
03 – Heartbreaker [sbd] 929
04 – Since I’ve Been Loving You [sbd] 929
05 – Black Dog [sbd] 928
06 – Dazed and Confused [sbd] 929 patched
CD2
01 – Stairway to Heaven [sbd] 929
02 – Celebration Day [MT] 929
03 – That’s The Way [MT] 929
04 – Going To California [MT] 929
05 – Tangerine [MT] 929
06 – Friends [sbd] 929
07 – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes [sbd] 929
08 – What Is and What Should Never Be [sbd] 929
09 – Moby Dick [sbd] 929 patched edit
CD3
01 – Whole Lotta Love [MT] 929 +patched audio
02 – Communication Breakdown [sbd] 929
03 – Organ Solo [MT] 929
04 – Thank You [MT] 929
05 – Rock and Roll [MT] 929 – Bonus track
sbd – soundboard (speed corrected -2%)
MT – multi track stage recording (edited to completion with Plantations and various patches by Winston)
As described in the accompanying notes:
This is a merge of the newly released soundboard, previously released stray soundboards and the excellent remaster done by Winston.
Besides the speed correction on the SB portion there are a few small fixes to clean up some very minor sloppiness in the performance. Moby Dick is not quite complete but about 90% there. Black Dog is from the 28th (for the SB).
SB levels were brought down in order to level match and for headroom. Very minor eq and limiting was applied and only in spots to get more cohesion in sound.
The Verdict:
A clean and relatively uncluttered recording with Tarantura influenced packaging (though by no means as luxurious as Tarantura’s). The ‘soundboard’ parts are especially good. Owning as I do, 15 versions of this show either on Cd or stored, I can say that this is as good as it gets and highly recommended. Ok, so we have to accept the inclusions from the night before (notably ‘Black Dog’) but I can live with that. Always a pleasure too to hear the ‘Pennies from Heaven’ segment within ‘Dazed’ which a lot of other releases miss out.
The fourth CD contains eight tracks from a US radio show broadcast on 28th Jul, 1992 called ‘Up Close’ which focuses on the 1990 Remasters alongside an interview with Jimmy Page in 2017.
Paul Sheppard
Many thanks to Paul
Dungeons & Dragons – Honor Among Thieves – Official Trailer…
Whole Lotta Love is featured on this trailer for the forthcoming Dungeons & Dragons film due in 2023 – thanks James Rimmer for spotting this one…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiMinixSXII
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DL Diary Blog Update:
Friday September 30:
Great to meet up with old friends including Sean D’arcy, Peter Robertshaw, Richard Conlon and Trevor Maudsley at the excellent Silver Jubilee school reunion tonight…
Saturday October 1:
Thinking about our much missed beautiful ex Our Price colleague and very good friend Hayley Martin two years gone today…always a ray of light…you will shine in our hearts forever…
Saturday October 1:
Saturday is platterday …on the player the newly acquired Pink Floyd Animals remix and sounding mighty fine…
Saturday October 1:
Great to meet up with our very good friends Michaela and Bob for the first time in far too long – a top time was had…
Wednesday October 5:
Wednesday October 5:
Update here:
Here’s the pre -order link:
Thanks for listening
Until next time…
Dave Lewis – October 6 2022
TBL website updates written and compiled by Dave Lewis
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Bath Festival 1970 is the greatest show they played on their home turf IMHO.
See all this hippie crowd sitting on the ground, passionately watching the performance, following every move on stage — a different time.
And no annoying mass-singalong. Blame Oasis!
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