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It's access all areas for the DVD of the year...
This quite stunning DVD will mark a turning point in the burgeoning DVD industry. Until now the industry had been struggling a little and just like Zeppelin came to the record industry’s rescue in 1979 with the release of their album In Through The Out Door. Led Zeppelin DVD will help the music DVD market no end. Lovingly put together over the last couple of years by Jimmy Page and director Dick Carruthers this DVD really is what a music DVD should be like.
Drawing from the bands earliest filmed moments this DVD will delight the still massive audience for all things Zeppelin.
Starting off with Led Zeppelin's performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1970. You are immediately struck by the quality not only of the performance but also the amazing restoration job that has been done on the film. To be perfectly honest this film has the look of a performance that was filmed just last week. This performance, which was typical of the band's performances of that time, draws on material from the bands first two albums and a few choice covers although Zeppelin always managed to make these covers their own. As the opener We’re Gonna Groove so aptly proves.
Other highlights from this performance are Whole Lotta Love and Moby Dick. If after watching John Bonham’s performance during Moby Dick (and in fact throughout this concert) you need to ask why he was considered the world's greatest drummer let me summarise for you: Quite simply no one was playing like that then and no one is playing like that now. It is quite simple, the guy was a phenomenon.
As extras on DVD one we have selected performances from the Supershow film and the often seen Danish television performance. There is also the less well-known French television performance where the band appear to be performing to a strange audience that includes members of the Salvation Army! In addition to that, the footage of the band playing in Iceland, which was literally the land of the Midnight Sun, is fascinating and almost surreal.
It has to be said that the amount of detail that has gone into the planning and execution of this DVD is amazing and even the individual menus for the discs make for compulsive viewing.
Disc two starts with what is known as a 'Mash Edit' of silent super 8-cine footage mixed to professionally recorded soundtrack. A roadie on the band's tour of Australia filmed the footage in 1972 and it confirms the well-known fact that Led Zeppelin did in fact invent stadium rock. Although if you look at the amount of equipment used you can see that it was still in its infancy even then. Let’s face it some bands use more equipment to play in clubs these days.
The DVD moves onto footage filmed although not used in The Song Remains The Same from Madison Square Garden in 1973 and includes a quite stunning version of Since I’ve Been Loving You.
For me the footage from the band's run of gigs at Earls Court in 1975 has special meaning as I actually attended one of the gigs. I am instantly transported back to that warm spring night of my youth and no doubt many others will also find themselves transported back to a more innocent time. For many Led Zeppelin fans the period 1972 through to 1975 was the 'Golden Age' for the band. This was a band at their most creative peak not only in the studio but also live. The footage from Earls Court includes some wonderful versions of material from the band's then current album Physical Graffiti and, for me again, these are the definitive live versions of In My Time Of Dying, Trampled Underfoot and of course Stairway To Heaven. The acoustic section is also stunning and the sound and picture quality crystal clear. I would love to see the entire concert released on DVD at some point as this segment has truly whetted my appetite.
In 1979 Led Zeppelin had been away from the live arena for almost two years and there were fears within the band that perhaps their audience had left them. They needn’t have worried. The current album In Through The Out Door flew off the shelves in record stores the world over and tickets for a pair of concerts at Knebworth in August 1979 were also similarly snapped up.
Highlights of this particular performance are Kashmir, Achilles Last Stand and the then new song In The Evening. The quality of the footage and sound is peerless and as an interesting aside, bootleg footage has been edited in as cutaway shots that lend the whole thing a kind of newsreel feel to it. Sadly the concerts at Knebworth proved to be the band's last English concert dates as just over a year later John Bonham was dead, and three months after that Led Zeppelin officially called it a day.
As extras on this disc we have some amazing interview footage from 1970 in New York and also from Sydney in 1972 which includes black and white footage of the band performing Rock ‘n’ Roll in a stadium. Bob Harris is also seen interviewing Robert Plant for the Old Grey Whistle Test where Robert is talking up the Earls Court Gigs. The love and attention that has gone into this DVD fully brings to life the legend that was Led Zeppelin and if I’m honest I doubt we shall ever see their like again. With this DVD however we can re live those moments in time when Led Zeppelin were a band like no other. I am also struck that there could be no finer tribute to John Bonham who in all honesty leads from the back and holds it all together. Led Zeppelin DVD is probably the finest music DVD release of our and any other time.
Interview (Jimmy Page)
*****
Review by Jon Kirkman, Rock Ahead
© 2003 All rights reserved.
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