LED ZEPPELIN’S ROYAL ALBERT HALL CONCERT: PIECING TOGETHER THE JIGSAW PUZZLE

Led Zeppelin first toured Scandinavia in September 1968 and yes! They WERE billed as The New Yardbirds, contrary to widely held beliefs. The band then played concerts in the UK during October and November of that year. The name “Led Zeppelin” was being used but, on a poster for the Surrey University gig on October 25, they were STILL billed as “The New Yardbirds featuring Jimmy Page”.

The release of the band’s self-titled debut album in January ’69 plus extensive touring and promotion throughout the United States and Canada (starting in Denver, Colorado on December 26, 1968) no doubt contributed to the band’s greater acceptance here than at home in the United Kingdom.

Zeppelin’s second album, Led Zeppelin II, was released on October 31, 1969 in the UK. Manager Peter Grant followed that up with several concert dates in England and one in Edinburgh, Scotland. By the time the brand-new decade started in 1970, Led Zeppelin was soaring to new heights worldwide.

For Led Zeppelin fans and scholars, there had never been any “official” release from this very significant period of Led Zeppelin’s musical development and simultaneous meteoric ascent in the world of popular music.

In 1976, the movie and soundtrack The Song Remains the Same featured live concert footage from 1973, or about the midpoint of the group’s career when the band was arguably at its peak. This is what Led Zeppelin fans happily devoured.

While it was terrific, and we had to be content with it, there was nothing that showed the band or documented it aurally from its earliest days. Nothing official, that is. Until 1982 - when a “sound-check” version of I Can’t Quit You Baby from the Royal Albert Hall concert on January 9, 1970 was officially released on the compilation of studio tracks called Coda.

If you hadn’t been collecting bootlegs, this would have been your first great glimpse of early Led Zeppelin (apart from the material on The Song Remains the Same). Even bootleg collectors marveled at the sheer power and intensity of that Royal Albert Hall performance.

When I first got my hands on that official release of Coda in November 1982, I remember thinking that, if they recorded I Can’t Quit You Baby during the sound check, they probably recorded other songs, too. I wondered if any of that would ever come out?

I didn’t realize that, in another few years, my prayers about the release of more Royal Albert Hall material would be answered!

WHAT A BIRTHDAY PRESENT - TO PLAY THIS GIG AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL!

On January 9, 1970, Jimmy Page turned 26 years old. Led Zeppelin was playing its third date on the Second Album UK Promotional Tour of 1970, at the Royal Albert Hall – London’s prestigious answer to New York’s Carnegie Hall.

It was an excellent venue for Zeppelin to play. British fans were already caught up in great anticipation of this tour. Peter Grant and the band members had decided to film the Royal Albert Hall concert for a planned documentary on Led Zeppelin.

The gig was filmed but the project never came to be. It was ostensibly shelved because the filming was deemed not to have been up to standard. Apparently, portions had been filmed at the wrong speed.

The musical performance was said to have been legendary. The group had premiered to the UK audience new numbers like Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love and others from Led Zeppelin II. Material from the debut Led Zeppelin was also featured, growing by improvisational leaps and bounds, musically evolving as it had done since the band first started performing numbers like Dazed and Confused, and How Many More Times live when it began touring in 1968.

This January 9, 1970 performance had always been the stuff of legend – and the subject of rumour. We all hoped that someday this material would be released.

LED ZEPPELIN: ROYAL ALBERT HALL

In the 1980s, my prayers and yours were answered, as fragments of this long-lost performance began to surface! First, an audio recording emerged during the mid 1980s (more detail below).

Then, in 1989, Toasted Records produced a video. Entitled Led Zeppelin Royal Albert Hall, this bootleg VHS tape was packaged quite professionally. Finally, for the first time ever, Led Zeppelin fans could both see and hear what all the fuss was about in 1970, when the band performed live!

That boot contained an amazingly good visual representation of Led Zeppelin at this magical performance. The audio wasn’t quite as well done as the video, but songs included Zeppelin’s new set-opener for the first part of 1970, We’re Gonna Groove. That song also appeared as a studio track on the 1982 official release, Coda. It was a cover of a song originally done by soul artist, Ben E. King.

Other songs on the video included: I Can’t Quit You Baby, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown, C’mon Everybody, Long Tall Sally, Move on Down the Line and Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.

To see and hear Led Zeppelin at the beginning of 1970 was a Zep fanatic’s dream come true! It was absolutely spellbinding to see Jimmy Page sit down and play White Summer/Black Mountain Side on the black and white Danelectro guitar he sometimes used.

To see and hear Led Zeppelin pay homage to the early roots of songs like C’mon Everybody and Long Tall Sally, was a phenomenal sonic epiphany. The whole concert is supercharged with electricity. England’s youth definitely embraced Led Zeppelin as “Rock Gods”. You could see that the band returned the warmth and adulation, looking very satisfied to have come home so triumphantly.

STRANGE TALES FROM THE ROAD

As I mentioned, around 1985 or ’86, an audio fragment from an American FM broadcast of the Royal Albert Hall performance was released on bootleg vinyl. It was a tiny piece that appeared on a staggering 10-record set called Strange Tales from the Road (RSR International) which spanned most of Led Zeppelin’s career.

You’ll see from the play list below that this professionally packaged box set of coloured vinyl featured some material that didn’t appear on Toasted Records’ video of the same concert. Here’s the full list of songs:

C’mon Everybody, Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown, Something Else, Bring It On Home, How Many More Times Medley (including Boogie Woogie, High Flying Mama and Leave My Woman Alone).

By the end of the 1980s, then, Led Zeppelin fans had a superb representation of what their favourite group was doing at the beginning of the 1970s – that incredible decade both in the studio and live in concert - that has made them one of the greatest rock’n’roll bands of all time!

LIVE AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL: JIMMY’S BIRTHDAY PARTY

By the 2000s, there were bootleg CDs featuring numbers from the Royal Albert Hall concert that further helped to fill in the pieces. Empress Valley’s Live at Royal Albert Hall: Jimmy’s Birthday Party treated us to songs not previously available in audio or video format, official or bootleg.

For instance, there are fragments of Heartbreaker from Led Zeppelin II. Here’s the full list. Note that the How Many More Times medley features different pieces than those listed on the Strange Tales from the Road bootleg.

We’re Gonna Groove, I Can’t Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, Heartbreaker, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times (includes The Hunter, Boogie Chillun’, High Flyin’ Mama, Leave My Woman Alone, The Lemon Song, That’s Alright Mama), Bring it on Home, Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown, C’mon Everybody, Something Else, Long Tall Sally (includes Bye Bye Baby, Move on Down the Line, Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On).

THE OFFICIAL PICTURE EMERGES: LED ZEPPELIN DVD

It’s one thing to collect Led Zeppelin live concert material on bootlegged tapes, vinyl and CDs (computer files now too). No doubt you realize these iterations of Led Zeppelin’s body of work are not officially released or sanctioned by the band or its record companies.

For years, boots of The Royal Albert Hall concert, both in audio and video formats, had been available. Jimmy Page and his band-mates always knew that their January 9, 1970 Royal Albert Hall performance was a magical one, on so many levels.

In May 2003, Led Zeppelin DVD was released. The definitive Led Zeppelin collection of video footage, it featured the Royal Albert Hall material in a smorgasbord of sight and sound that was totally mind-blowing.

Having this appear as an official release, in the highest possible audio and video quality, was a landmark musical thrill for Led Zeppelin fans the world over. To see the mighty Zeppelin in full flight, playing numbers like What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick and others in such stunning sonic and visual clarity, was truly earth-shattering.

Looking back and recalling the early glimpses in the mid 1980s of video and audio fragments, I marvel at how such a complete picture ultimately emerged of one of the pivotal, celebratory performances at a crucial point in Led Zeppelin’s career.

I remember lamenting to myself how I wish I could just see a second or two of video and hear the audio from that Royal Albert Hall performance…I had seen pictures from that show and could only imagine in the early 1980s, what it must have been like!

Then the bootlegged materials surfaced and they would have been good enough. But, as we learned from a Guitar World Magazine interview with Jimmy Page in the 1990s, it was these same bootlegs that prompted Led Zeppelin to release the “real thing” – their officially sanctioned footage from the Royal Albert Hall on January 9, 1970.

You see? Dreams can come true, if you wait long enough. This Zed Hed’s did!

Please note: The manufacture, distribution and sale of unauthorized and/or unlicensed recordings is illegal. Enzepplopedia Publishing, Inc. does not produce, distribute or sell such material nor endorse those who do. Any reference, discussion or image presented here is intended solely for the purposes of historical research and context.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Godwin, Robert. The Illustrated Collector’s Guide To Led Zeppelin: (CD Edition Volume 2); Collector’s Guide Publication, Burlington, Ontario, Canada, 1994.
• Lewis, Dave & Pallett, Simon. Led Zeppelin: The Concert Files, Omnibus Press, London, England, 1997.
• Rey, Luis. Led Zeppelin Live: An Illustrated Exploration Of Underground Tapes: Final Edition; Editor: Bob Walker: The Hot Wacks Press, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, 1997.

Reminders

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