Wednesday, November 28, 2012

New Led Zeppelin Remasters?




In a recent Rolling Stone magazine interview Jimmy Page has announced a new set of remasters of all the original albums to be released starting next year. He says that each album will receive the box set treatment and will be released one by one every year. As to what to what is contained in these box sets jimmy adds that it will be "pretty substantial stuff", saying that it will include rarities and maybe even some live recordings to accompany the albums. Check it out for yourself at the link below.

Read Rolling Stone article

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Led Zeppelin - Swan Song (Empress Valley) Shepperton Studios, Surrey, UK December 6, 2007

Here's a little taste of what you can expect on the newly released Celebration Day, if you didn't have the funds to get a hold of the deluxe editions then here is what you are missing out on the bonus DVD. This is the audio (sorry no video, you'll have to buy that) to the rehearsal to the O2 gig at Shepperton Studios, Surrey that took place on the 6th of December 2007. Enjoy!



Led Zeppelin
2007.12.06
Shepperton, Surrey, England UK
Shepperton Studios

SBD Recording
"Led Zeppelin's Swan Songs" Led Zeppelin: The Complete Shepperton
Rehearsals and O2 Show
Empress Valley Supreme Disc (EVSD 558-559)

Note: Only disc 1 and 2 of this 4 disc set is being seeded. Disc 3 and 4 containing an
audience recording of the Led Zeppelin reunion at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert are not included.

Lineage: Silvers - EAC - FLAC Level 8


Disc 1
01. Introduction
02. Good Times Bad Times
03. Ramble On
04. Black Dog
05. In My Time Of Dying
06. For Your Life
07. Trampled Under Foot
08. Nobodys Fault But Mine
09. No Quarter
10. Since I've Been Loving You

Disc 2
01. Dazed And Confused
02. Stairway To Heaven
03. The Song Remains The Same
04. Misty Mountain Hop
05. Kashmir
06. Whole Lotta Love
07. Rock And Roll




Original notes:
It was inevitable that this full dress rehearsal would appear in one way or another. The full and uncut dress rehearsal held at Shepperton Studios on 6th December 2007, just five days before the concert has been hoarded for quite a long time. An edited version, with No Quarter and Misty Mountain Hop both butchered has been in the hands of a few "chosen ones" since the end of 2010. And four songs in lossy MP3 were leaked all over the Internet some months ago. This edited version was subsequently leaked out in the Summer of 2011, and Tarantura released this version (NOT sourced from the download), in a
2 CD package called "The Triumph Rehearsals". The total running time for this title is 100 minutes and 10 seconds. The Empress Valley version is 108 minutes and 44 seconds. So about 8 minutes was butchered out of the "leaked" release. Of course when that version hit the Internet download sites, and news about Tarantura releasing it as well was known, Empress Valley put out the full unedited version. the hoarder who
had been sitting on this for ages sold the complete version to Empress Valley. For a very tidy sum no doubt.
This release comes in a 4 way jewel case, inside a card slipcase. The 2 CDs of the rehearsals are excellent stereo soundboard. On the night some songs came out a bit differently to the rehearsals, and there are a few mistakes, but all in all an excellent prelude to the concert itself. As a bonus, EV has added a complete audience recording from the O2 arena. The sound is reasonable, but unfortunately the taper was surrounded by whoopers, talkers and various other imbeciles, so that is a disappointment. There are a number of excellent recordings that they should have chosen from.This is of course an extremely expensive title. The cost of the rehearsal recording must have been considerable, and the label has to recoup that outlay. That said, it is a very nice thing to have. (Jules McTrainspotter Sept 2011)

My notes

This the full dress rehearsal to the O2 gig which took place four days later on December 10. Over all it is an excellent recording and a nice contrast to the O2, even though both performances had basically the same setlist. Whereas the O2 was a understandably nervous, yet still tight, the rehearsal is much much more loose and experimental. All four of the band members are confident from their months of rehearsing and they feel good enough to play around a bit, and this is most apparent with plant, who experiments around with many vocal phrases. A fine example is In My Time of Dying, in the O2 show he throws in Honey Bee towards the end of the peice, which is not bad at all, but after listening to the rehearsal rendition i kinda wish he would have gone with that. Some highlights in my opinion would be In My Time Of Dying, For Your Life, No Quarter, Stairway, Kashmir and Whole Lotta Love. Needless to say both shows have their own share of merits and faults, but we're lucky to have a band that after thirty years can still put on a fantastic performance. I hope you enjoy this as much as i have, and i'll keep my fingers crossed for another reunion show!


Download from Mediafire