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

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!


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Led Zeppelin - Jimmy's Birthday Party (Empress Valley Multitracks) - Live at Royal Albert Hall, London, UK January 9, 1970

Artist: Led Zeppelin
Date: 1970-01-09
Venue: Royal Albert Hall
Location: London, England
Source: Multitrack Reels
Title: Live At The Royal Albert Hall - Jimmy's Birthday Party (Empress Valley)
Lineage: Slivers>cdr(2)>Eac(secure mode/read offsets corrected)>wav>flac (level 7)

Tracklist:
Disc 3
01. We're Gonna Groove (3:31)
02. I Can't Quit You Baby (6:57)
03. Dazed and Confused (16:05)
04. Heartbreaker (3:55) (cut)
05. White Summer/Black Mountain Side (12:19)
06. What Is And What Should Never Be (5:03)
07. Moby Dick (15:30)

Disc 4
01. How Many More Times (20:48)
02. Bring it On Home (7:54)
03. Whole Lotta Love (6:22)
04. Communication Breakdown (4:31)
05. C'mon Everybody (2:38)
06. Something Else (2:14)
07. Long Tall Sally (3:53) (cut)

Notes: Disc 1 and 2 are a mix of the SBD and Kevin Shirley multitrack mixes. Discs 3 and 4 are strictly from the multitrack mixes

My Comments:
Yet another amazing show courtesy of Led Zeppelin, played at a time when they were just about a year old. Even then, they were well on their way to super stardom, as they had received a lot of face time during 1969's many music festivals (Woodstock not being one of them unfortunately), and by the end of the year's touring they would be playing sold out shows to tens of thousands in venues like NY's Madison Square Garden and the LA Forum. To start out 1970 Zeppelin decided to embark on a short UK tour to promote their second album, which had come out the year before. Expanding on their late 1969 setlist, they decided to drop the opening number Good Times Bad Times/Communication Breakdown in favor of a Ben E. King cover We're Gonna Grove, which the band had actually recorded for the third album but had passed it over in favor of Immigrant Song later in the year. In addition to that, they also debuted Since I've Been Loving You and Thank You in this tour, but unfortunately both tracks did not survive the test of time on this recording and thus only a snippet of the organ solo appears in the official DVD (Heartbreaker is unfortunately incomplete). But what did manage to survive are incredibly fiery versions of Dazed and Confused and How Many More Times, Dazed in particular featuring a fantastic reference to Cocaine Blues, sung quite masterfully by plant. Tonight's How Many More Times has all the elements to make it a definitive version of this song, featuring unparalleled intensity, dramatics and flat-out excellent playing from all four members that leaves one hanging at the edge of their seat. On a more slightly serious mood is White Summer/Black Mountainside, which really showcases jimmy's incredible improvisational skills, including his exotic middle-eastern riffing which always leaves me hoping for Kashmir seguing in at the end of the song. This excellent show closes off with a generous share of encores including Communication Breakdown, Bring It On Home (played on the "Black Beauty" custom Les Paul which was a rarity), Eddie Cochran's Something Else and C'mon Everybody, and finally finishing off with Little Richard's Long Tall Sally; which is unfortunately cut on the multitracks (not on the SBD though). In a nutshell, along with Live On Blueberry Hill, this is a must have bootleg to have for 1970. Enjoy!

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Led Zeppelin - Dead Center (Per Mk. 41 Schoeps) - Live at the O2 Arena, London, UK Dec 10, 2007

Here's a little preview of what's coming up in October and November when this show is officially released in theaters and on DVD!!






Led Zeppelin
December 10th, 2007
O2 Arena - London, England
**Ahmet Ertegun Tribute**

Taper: Per
Source: Schoeps MK41s > NBOX > Edirol R-9 (24/48)
Position: FOB (approx. 15 meters ahead of sbd). Dead center.

Conversion: WAV > Soundforge 7.0b > shntool 2.0.3 > flac 1.1.2
Eq: Nothing. Some clapping is attenuated.

***This is the 16 bit version***

Disc 1:
01. (crowd) 01:55.03
02. Good Times Bad Times 03:11.03
03. Ramble On 05:43.19
04. Black Dog 06:06.38
05. In My Time Of Dying 12:09.42
06. For Your Life 06:55.37
07. Trampled Under Foot 07:00.23
08. Nobody's Fault But Mine 07:12.25
09. No Quarter 09:27.42
10. Since I've Been Loving You 08:02.46

Total: 67:43.53

Disc 2:
01. Dazed And Confused 12:46.00
02. Stairway To Heaven 08:49.22
03. The Song Remains The Same 06:59.18
04. Misty Mountain Hop 05:50.00
05. Kashmir 12:36.55
06. Whole Lotta Love 10:36.17
07. Rock And Roll 05:28.59

Total: 63:06.21

notes: Enjoy the show!

My Comments:
Following the death of our dear Bonzo in 1980 and the subsequent breakup of the Led Zeppelin, prospects looked bleak as many fans clung to the hope that one day the remaining three members would reunite and honor their fallen comrade. The journey along that road has been rocky as evidenced by one-off shows like 1985's Live Aid benefit show and the 50th anniversary of Atlantic records gig in 1988, which were regarded as sub-standard by fans and critics alike. Then in the 1990s there was the partial reunion of Page & Plant for the No Quarter and Walking Into Clarksdale albums, which although not being immensely commercially successful and unfortunately leaving Jonesy out of the loop, it nonetheless brought new life to many of the old Zeppelin numbers. And so for a while it seemed that all three would remain involved in their solo careers until  2006 when Atlantic record's founder, and close friend of Led Zeppelin, Ahmet Ertegun passed away. And so the stage was set for what would be the world's most requested show of all time, as there were over 20 million ticket requests for a mere 18,000 available seats. Now as for the show its self, one has to take in mind that that Robert, Jimmy, Jones (and to a lesser extent Jason Bonham) are well past their prime, but even then the four manage to put on a excellent show. The two hour long setlist includes old favorites and never before played songs spanning most of their career, the only album not represented in the setlist is 1979s In Through The Out Door. And as Zeppelin was not the only band playing that night for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute the band had to keep improvisation to a minimum, so most songs closely resembled their studio counterparts. Nonetheless, the band played with gusto and the audience enjoyed every minute of it, from the never played Good Times Bad Times, Ramble On, and For Your Life; to old anthems like Stairway and Whole Lotta Love. IMO the highlights of the show apart from the new songs have to be a excellent In My Time Of Dying, Nobody's fault But Mine, a eerie No Quarter, a very emotional Stairway To Heaven (especially at the end when plant remarks "We Did it Ahmet"), a powerful and thunderous Kashmir, and superb Whole Lotta Love. As for the recording, this is the Per Mk. 41 source, an excellent audience recording, which among the dozens of sources circulating this has to be my personal favorite version of this show; it is surprisingly clear and natural-sounding, which really makes you feel like you are really there (kinda a la Listen To This Eddie). So Enjoy!!

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Led Zeppelin 2007 O2 Arena reunion DVD

After years of rumors regarding a possible release of this highly acclaimed reunion, finally  it is official Led Zeppelin is to release the 2007 reunion as a concert film to be shown across America starting October 17th and most likely released as a DVD or blue ray...which gives me an idea of what show to post next...

See Reuters article

Led Zeppelin - Long Beach Multi-track fragment - Live at the Long Beach Arena, June 27, 1972

Sorry for the long gap in posting other shows, i've been busy with work and such....but in the meantime here's a little tidbit to complement my last post. This is a very short multi-track fragment of the Long Beach show on the 27th June 1972, this is a rough mixdown made probably for the How The West Was Won project. The excellent sound alone is worth the download, but at the same time quite frustrating knowing that a multi-track of this quality is out there, possibly complete, not to mention there might also exist mutli-tracks of the more famous LA Forum show two nights earlier. Anyways enjoy...i hope to be a be able to post another show soon


Long Beach Arena
June 27, 1972
Long Beach, California
Soundboard Recording
Master quads > DAT>
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Edits Made) > M4A

Setlist:
01 - What Is and What Should Never Be
02 - Dancing Days
03 - Moby Dick (fades out)

Lirodendron's Notes:
Remastered in Adobe Audition 3.0. on Jone 12, 2012.
A real shame more of this soundboard is not available, phenomenal sound!


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Led Zeppelin - Burn Like A Candle (Genuine Masters) - Live at the LA Forum June 25, 1972

Led Zeppelin
June 25th, 1972
LA Forum
Burn Like A Candle [GM-LZ-25.02.1972-DVD-A-02]
Excellent Audience Recording
DVDR > DVD Decrypter > DVD Audio Extractor > WAV [44000khz] > FLAC
Audio only.

1 LA Drone
2 Immigrant Song
3 Heartbreaker
4 Over The Hills And Far Away
5 Black Dog
6 Since I've Been Loving You
7 Stairway To Heaven
8 Going To California
9 That's The Way
10 Tangerine
11 Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
12 Dazed & Confused (includes Walter's Walk, The Crunge)
13 What Is And What Should Never Be
14 Dancing Days
15 Moby Dick
16 Whole Lotta Love
17 Rock And Roll
18 The Ocean
19 Louie Louie/Every Day People/Organ Solo
20 Thank You
21 Communication Breakdown
22 Bring It On Home

My Comments:
Out of Led Zeppelin's entire 11 year live career, this show in 1972 was chosen to be the one to represent the tour de force that is live led zeppelin in the band's first official live album, How The West Was Won. Although parts of HTWWW was also drawn from a Long Beach show two nights later on the 27th, it is still based on the LA show of the 25th. The bootleg is a nice compliment to the live album and its a shame that the whole complete 3 hour show wasn't included on the official release, perhaps it is due to the difficulty of fitting three hours on the release or maybe just the copyright nightmare created by all the medleys and covers performed. Going back to the bootleg, it is named Burn Like A Candle, after a comment made by Robert Plant during the show regarding the upcoming album name. The recording is a very good stereo recording that is quite clear, the instruments are balanced, nicely separated, and it has a nice ambiance to it. And although the recorder gets overloaded at times which results in some loss in clarity, it is nonetheless a highly enjoyable recording, in fact the best audience recording of the whole US 1972 tour. Well the show kicks off with the eerie LA Drone (first implemented a few days earlier in NY) which the tape picks up quite well, and it is quite great at creating suspense and anticipation as the calm before the storm. The calm comes to an abrupt end as the band hammers into the opening salvos of Immigrant Song, featuring still powerful vocals from plant and a excellent solo from jimmy. Which is surprising given that the number was dropped soon after the end of the tour due to it placing great strain on plant's deteriorating voice. After seguing into a great heartbreaker the show encounters its first surprise of the evening, Over the Hills and Far Away is now added to main set list after being premiered in Seattle on the 19th as an encore, and it is played quite faithfully to the album version. This hold true especially for the vocals, which over the coming months will be sung at lower registers due to plant's vocal deterioration. Following this is a heavy Black Dog and a intense Since I've Been Loving You, Black Dog still keeping true to the hard-rocking original (compared to the slower groove of 1973+ versions). Tonight's version of Stairway To Heaven is an excellent one, particularly page's solo which is a awesome balance between intensity of earlier versions and the technical proficiency of future versions (i.e 1973). Also worth noting is that this is the last tour in which the keyboard part of stairway is played using an organ, because starting in October's japanese tour Jonesy will switch to a Mellotron for the keyboards, however in official release (HTWWW) one can clearly hear a Mellotron, it is one of those interesting tidbits that one hears when comparing official to unofficial releases. Anyways, back to the show, following stairway comes the acoustic set, which over the previous tours has grown to four numbers, Going to California, That's The Way, Tangerine, and Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp. Due to this expanded acoustic portion, that drove many shows to exhausting 3 hour lengths, the band decided to cut most of the set after this tour, only retaining Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp till mid 1973. Afterwards comes a superb Dazed and Confused, including Walter's Walk and The Crunge, and although not as technical or improvisational as the famed 1973 versions it nonetheless makes up with its sheer intensity and power. What Is and What Should Never Be and Dancing Days follow next, WIAWSNB was on its way out of the setlist and the Dancing Days just recently added, asit is its second time ever played live on stage. After Bonham's 20 minute workout, Moby Dick, comes the always enjoyable Whole Lotta Love medley and tonight's version is definitely a killer one, with excellent covers of Boogie Chillen', Let's Have a Party, Hello Mary Lou, and Elvis' Heatbreak Hotel which bring down the house and leave the audience hollering for more. And if the show wasn't extraordinary enough they take it legendary lengths to which more than satisfy the audience with not 2 or 3, but 6 encores. Which kicks off with a rocking version of the aptly-named Rock and Roll, which is soon to be promoted from encore to set opener. Next the audience is treated to The Ocean, another song just recently debuted and a song dedicated  to the "ocean" that is their live audience. After a brief pause, a short organ riff by Jonesy is all it takes to make the audience go ballistic, ballistic over a cover of Louie Louie by the Kingsmen which segues into a intense Thank You. The night could have ended there and it would have been one for the ages but they  were convinced back on stage by audience's screams for more zeppelin, to which they responded with a short Communication Breakdown jam and finally finished the night off with Bring It On Home, this being the last time the band played the piece completely and the loose jam a fantastic way to end the three and a half hour show. So whether you're looking for the party atmosphere, the amazing encores, or an excellently played show, this is definitely a must have and a really bootleg gem we're lucky to have, enjoy!


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