Led Zeppelin Bath Festival 1970 footage…

The sudden emergence of clips from Led Zeppelin’s bill topping appearance at the Bath Festival on June 28,1970 has left fans awestruck across the globe – long rumoured to exist to see vivid moving colour images of this legendary Zep appearance has been truly astonishing.

The synced clip which has snippets of Immigrant Song, Dazed And Confused, Bring It On Home and Thank You has been sound-tracked via the bootleg tape – again the effect of seeing visual imagery to a tape I’ve been playing for many years is a revelation.

The backstage footage with Robert and john Bonham outside and in the group’s caravan – clips of tour manager Richard Cole and soundman Clive Coulson plus other clips of Jimmy walking backstage with Charlotte and John Paul Jones with Julie Felix capture the feel of the event so brilliantly.

So where has all this come from and why now?

The original label of a can of film of the Bath Festival on display at the Icons of the Hall event (see more below) clearly states Lorrimer Films Limited.

This YouTube footage has been made available by the Kinolibrary film archive company. By presenting silent footage they will have avoided any copyright issues with the music of Led Zeppelin which is owned by Warners. The synced footage matched to the clip that surfaced was quickly taken down.

I don’ really know why this has all surfaced – one thing I do know is that this footage was filmed by the late Peter Whitehead – famous for his films of The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd and the January 9 1970 Led Zeppelin Royal Albert Hall film

In May 2017 I attended the Icons of The Hall Event at which the Led Zeppelin Royal Albert Hall footage was screened and the Led Zeppelin at Bath 1970 film discussed…

Here’s my report for TBL of that event…

This was a special event showcasing the work of filmmaker Peter Whitehead as part of the venue’s Summer of Love: Revisited series. It was presented in the Elgar Room – a side theatre within the main venue.

This included the screening of a 40 minute cut of the famous Led Zeppelin appearance at the Royal Albert Hall on January 9 1970.

The event was superbly staged by Dr.Alissa Clarke and professor Steve Chibnall from the De Montfort University plus the Hall’s Richard Dacre contributing to the panel.

The film presented was a 40 minute edit sourced from the official DVD. It featured We’re Gonna Groove, I Can’t Quite You Baby, Dazed And Confused, White Summer, Whole Lotta Love and Communication Breakdown.

Before proceedings had got under way I studied the contents of a special display case that had various memorabilia on show – part of that was a vintage film label marked Led Zeppelin at Bath. I have previously been aware that Peter Whitehead had shot film of the band at the Bath Festival in 1970 but here was tangible evidence.

This was backed up by Professor Steve Chibnall during the forum when I asked some questions about the Bath film. Steve revealed he had viewed the 20 to 30 minute silent colour footage (the label says B and W but Steve says it is colour  and though it was rather dark in places it was usable and he hoped one day it could be restored and see the light of day.

Here’s the full transcript of the Q and A via the LZ News site:

Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis: Hi there, my name’s Dave Lewis, I’m from the Led Zeppelin magazine, so all this has been fascinating. I’m very intrigued to hear you tell me that the Bath Festival was filmed and so you’re saying that the Led Zeppelin show was filmed?

SC: Indeed, yes.

DL: Can you tell me how much of that was filmed and still remains?

Steve Chibnall: There’s 20 to 30 minutes and a lot of it is backstage. I’ve only seen the footage, I haven’t seen it with sound. The problem, according to Peter Whitehead, was that A. He was stuck in traffic and had trouble getting to Bath so he arrived late. He was supposed to film the band arriving by helicopter and he missed that.

And then when Led Zeppelin played, they played in the dark and there was insufficient stage lighting for his cameras. So he reckoned that the footage, the live footage, was not usable. It is usable because, I mean, it can be, it can be restored now. So you can raise those lighting levels, you can see more digitally.

It looks beautiful to me and I think it was recorded, the band probably have a recording of it, I would think. So there is a possibility. He was supposed to do interviews with the band members as well, which I don’t think that ever happened. But certainly there is 20 or 30 minutes of footage from Bath. And if you look in the display case there you can see what was once a label attached to a can of film which says precisely that.

DL: That immediately made me think ‘wow.’ So, is it colour film?

SC: Yes.

DL: And who actually owns it?

SC: Peter Whitehead owns the film but Led Zeppelin, no doubt, will own the music.

DL: So could you see that coming out at some point?

SC: I’d love to see it come out, I think it would be a really good project for 2020, don’t you? The fiftieth anniversary of the Bath Festival.

DL: 2018?

SC: No, it was 1970.

DL: Oh, sorry, it would be, yeah. It would probably take that long to work it out.

SC: It would, but it would be lovely to have that, wouldn’t it?

DL: Superb, thank you very much.

Like I said, I had previously been aware that Peter Whitehead had shot the Bath Festival in 1970 but this was real tangible evidence it exists and it was great to chat to Steve afterwards and hear first hand from someone who has actually viewed it. Quite weather it will ever see the light of day officially only time will tell. It was incredibly exciting to be right there as this revelation news was unfolding -James Cook admirably reporting it all on the LZ news site within a couple of hours.

Dave Lewis May 2017

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:

It was 60 years ago today..

On October 5 1962 The Beatles first single Love Me Do/PS I Love You was released – from small acorns…

Update here:

Here’s the pre -order link:

Thanks for listening