Led Zeppelin:
"The European Championships"
June 29th, 1980
The Hallenstadion
Zurich, Switzerland
A Bluecongo Matrix Production
SB Source: Conquer Europe EVSD
Aud Source: Master Cassette > DAT > CD-R
Audio edited using Pro Tools > Wav > CD Wave > Flac Level 8
Verified
Size: 804mb
Lineage:
All tracks: SBD/AUD sources > Pro Tools > WAV > CD Wave > FLAC (level 8 verified)
d2t03: SBD/AUD sources > Pro Tools > WAV > CD Wave > FLAC (level 8 verified) > xACT > WAV > Audacity > WAV > xACT > FLAC (level 8 verified)
d1t09-d2t06: [as above] > shntool SBE fix > FLAC (level 8 verified)
Track Listing:
101 Train Kept A Rollin'
102 Nobody's Fault But Mine
103 Black Dog
104 In the Evening
105 The Rain Song
106 Hot Dog
107 All my Love
108 Trampled Underfoot
109 Since I've Been Loving You
201 Achilles Last Stand
202 White Summer - Black Mountainside
203 Kashmir
204 Stairway To Heaven
205 Rock And Roll
206 Heartbreaker
======================
Artwork included in .pdf format.
Adobe Acrobat required
shntool report and FLAC fingerprints included
Bluecongo's Comments:
I made this mix very "wet & nasty". I really wanted to capture the energy of the crowd and the band reacting to it. This new version I believe will cast a new light on the 1980 tour. I did my best to include as much in between song banter as possible. The Aud taper often paused his recorder in between songs to save tape apparently. The warts of the Aud & SB recordings have been left in. Drop outs, crackles, etc. Kashmir switches from SB to Aud source midway through the song.
Regarding Kashmir, I have taken the unprecedented step of offering two versions of the song. One version has the tremendous screw up in the middle of the song edited out. The other version is the "warts & all" version. I leave it up to you to decide which you want to listen to. I think you'll prefer the edited version.
Mustardpie's comments:
The uncut Kashmir could not be inserted into the original track ordering without a noticeable click at the beginning. A very tiny bit of sound from the trailing note of Black Mountain Side had been clipped from the uncut Kashmir. I restored this tiny bit of data from the beginning of the edited Kashmir back to the beginning of the uncut Kashmir. Now the tracks flow seamlessly into each other.
Also, CD Wave introduced some sector boundary errors at the end of each disk and in the uncut Kashmir. I encoded the complete Kashmir back to flac level 8, named it to fit the track listing above, and fixed SBEs with shntool with the output set to flac level 8.
Bluecongo gave me his approval to torrent this show. I offer my thanks to him for the hard work he put into this show. I certainly enjoy this version better than the plain soundboard recording.
My Comments:
Led Zeppelin's June 29th gig in Zurich is arguably one of the best shows of the whole 1980 Over Europe Tour. A tour that has been unfairly stigmatized as nothing more than a bunch of sterile, uninspired, mediocre shows. Sure this tour does have its share of bad shows, i.e. the two Mannheim shows of July and to an extent the LZ last show ever on July7th in Berlin. Nevertheless, shows like Zurich are fine examples of what Led Zeppelin was trying to achieve with their sound and look for the 1980s, which focused on stripped down setlists and reduced stage setup. Gone where the long instrumental solos, like Moby Dick and jimmy's bow solo, and a lot of their in-song improvisation, reducing their show to a more manageable two hours.
Regarding the recording, it is a matrix of a excellent soundboard and a good audience source. The audience source does a very good job of picking up the venue's ambient sound. This provides much needed depth to the soundboard, which many times more than not are flat and dry sounding. As for the show itself, the band is very confident and their playing is tight, with the exception of Kashmir where the band fumble for a bit. They kick off the show with a tight Train Kept A Rollin', with jimmy really working his wah-wah pedal to its fullest in a fresh take of their old show opener. This segues into a good Nobody's Fault But Mine, after which finds Page quickly addressing the audience and introducing Black Dog. The song is played very well and includes a really nice solo by page, simply put these first three songs feature some very good and inventive playing, a throw back to their previous years and testament of what they set out to do on this tour. After the three-song attack they slow their momentum down with In the Evening, featuring a mellow keyboard interlude by Jones. Afterwards follows the Rain Song and Hot Dog, which although not bad songs they are IMO strange setlist choices, the Rain song being kinda weird without segueing out of the usual TSRTS and also for being a very quiet song, not well suited to the rowdy audience. As for Hot Dog, it is a nice song but from all the other songs that could have been chosen out of Presence or ITTOD, such as Wearing and Tearing or Candy Store Rock, it is an odd choice. The inspired playing continues with a really good All Of My Love, a excellent Trampled Underfoot which brings to mind 75 and 77 tour versions, and a great Since I've Been Loving You with a good, rapid intro reminiscent of 73 tour versions. Next comes Achilles Last Stand, featuring some great soloing from page and excellent overall playing from thee rest of the band. White Summer suffers from a impatient audience eager to get things moving, and a potentially good Kashmir was ruined by a mishap in which the band became lost for a bit, prompting plant to remark afterwards "
If anyone's bootlegging that you'd have to scratch that number cause it wasn't completely correct". A very good Stairway to Heaven closes the show, featuring a really good solo by page who shows much inventiveness, rare by this tour. Then they come back for two encores, Rock and Roll and Heartbreaker, which features a nice solo from page, who throws in bits from over the years of playing this song. This show may not be the most energetic of the tour or even be perfectly played, nevertheless it is a essential show to have and perfect example of what could have been, what a American led zeppelin show could have sounded in the had Led Zeppelin The 1980s part one tour carried on
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