Led Zeppelin DVD

Patrick Cleasby

You may have caught the news that rapidly circulated the internet a week ago, when the press release concerning the release of the Led Zeppelin live double DVD set and the accompanying triple live CD package was dropped on a (relatively) unsuspecting world.
I was lucky enough to be invited to spend an hour in the company of Dick Carruthers, who is co-producer/director of the DVD alongside Jimmy Page, at M Productions studio in West London.

Dick was a voluble and enthusiastic guide to the genesis and philosophy of what must be one of the most highly anticipated music DVD-V releases ever.

This project has been in the works for the last year, and the result of some very intensive research and restoration is intended as a definitive statement of all that is fit for release, although as Dick is keen to point out, that quality threshold has been set very high.
While Dick trawled the archives for film and video material, Jimmy Page and Kevin Shirley were assembling corresponding surround mixes from the huge archive of live recordings Page was known to be sitting on. Page is reputedly now a multi-channel convert, which begged the inevitable question "Does that mean he's ready to start the DVD-A of Led Zepp IV now?" Dick pleaded the fifth on that one with a knowing smile...
Not only is the audio presented in pristine and powerful DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo (presumed to be 16 bit - these discs seem too full to allow space for 24 bit), but the level of attention which has been paid to preparing, cleaning, colour grading and restoring the film and video elements is worthy of a feature film remastering project, and a high budget one at that.

The discs present the material in chronological order as shown below, and just play when started. Escaping to the menu enables you to appreciate some brilliantly subtle and tasteful moving menus, consisting of left over footage from incomplete tracks, and some of Dick's own footage of the tape archives and negatives being cleaned.

One of the bonuses of selecting out individual concerts, rather than let them play through end to end, is the insertion of some subtle extra transitions as the program returns to the menu, such as the guys getting onto their legendary plane.
There is also supplementary material, consisting of early European TV appearances on the first disc, and interviews and 1990 vintage promos on the second, including the only decent interview footage of the late John Bonham.
It's a shame we didn't have a five and a half hour slot, because that is what it would have taken to view everything there is to offer here. Dick took two of us through the concerts in order, explaining different restoration issues as he went.
The Albert Hall footage is from a two camera 16mm shoot, and in its restored form looks and sounds simply glorious. Page's punchy guitar blams out of the right channel, appropriate to his stage left position, only occasionally circuiting round the room during solos, and Bonzo's thunderous bass drum is thuddingly rendered by the DTS soundtrack, noticeably better in comparison to the Dolby Digital, even to previously non DTS-convert Dick!

On to Disc Two, and a stunning version of The Immigrant Song for which footage could not be found, and so some Super 8 footage from Australia has been edited promo-style to accompany it.
Then Madison Square Garden, and I got Dick to hit that audio button to get the DTS again. Black Dog tears out of the speakers and it is immediately apparent that although this 35mm footage is familiar from "The Song Remains The Same", the level of the restoration from negative, and the new edit, coupled with the incredible remixed sound, give a whole new perspective. There is also the fact that Misty Mountain Hop and The Ocean, not in the original film, have been recovered from the reels and reels of unmarked negative.

As New York changes into Earls Court, film footage changes to video, and we get the acoustic sit down of Going to California, proving that not only does DTS do power better, but it also does delicate mandolin strums in a brilliantly lifelike way.
Cussedly avoiding the chance to sample Stairway, we get a blast of the crunching riff from Trampled Underfoot, before viewing the version of Rock n' Roll from Knebworth (video again, although complemented by drop-ins of crowd-shot Super 8), and a quick bit of Kashmir before Dick shows us the end credits, which once again consist of snippets unused elsewhere.

Throughout, modern effects gimmickry is left out and edits to cover film loading and other transitions are kept to an elegant and appropriate-to-the-period minimum. Footage is left in the original 4:3 (somebody tell Queen!), except for the Madison Square Gardens section, which is letterboxed 4:3 at what looks like 1.77:1, for composition reasons, matting the original open gate 35mm.
All in all a superb looking and sounding package, release details for the UK cannot be confirmed at the moment, but all Led Zeppelin fans should save their pennies and then rush out and buy this in a couple of months. The fact it was done in the UK has also got to mean the R2 PAL version is the one to go for!

Main Feature Tracklistings:

Disc 1
Live at the Royal Albert Hall (1970) 1hr 42 mins
We're gonna groove
I can't quit you baby
Dazed and Confused
White Summer
What is and what should never be
How many more times
Moby Dick
Whole Lotta Love
Communication Breakdown
C'mon Everybody
Something Else
Bring it on home

Disc 2
The Immigrant Song
Madison Square Garden (1973) 23:24 mins Black Dog
Misty Mountain Hop
Since I've been loving you
The Ocean
Earls Court (1975) 49 mins
Going to California
That's the way
Bron Y Aur stomp
In my time of dying
Trampled Underfoot
Stairway to Heaven
Live at Knebworth (1979) 51:41 mins
Rock N Roll
Nobody's fault but mine
Sick Again
Achilles Last Stand
In the Evening
Kashmir
Whole Lotta Love