Soundboard 9.7 - Why this tape isn’t more celebrated I’ll never understand. It’s just mind blowing! The performance is off the charts great, and the sound is very bold and nicely mixed. Lots of good 73 board tapes out there but how many are featuring all four Zeppers on top of their games on every song? Led Zeppelin Sports Arena San Diego, CA. May 28, 1973 Disc 1 01. -Rock and Roll 02. -Celebration Day 03. -Black Dog 04. -Over the Hills and Far Away 05. -Misty Mountain Hop 06. -Since I've Been Loving You 07. -No Quarter 08. -The Song Remains the Same 09. -The Rain Song Disc 2 10. -Dazed and Confused 11. -Moby Dick 12. -Stairway to Heaven 13. -Heartbreaker Disc 3 14. -Whole Lotta Love 15. -The Ocean Salt Palace Salt Lake City, Utah May 26, 1973 16. -Dazed And Confused  

Audience 8.9 - This tape comes from the vault of renowned taper Mike Millard so you know it is gonna be good – and it is. Atmosphere, and dynamics, although not quite to the degree as some of his other works that originated out of the Forum…it is the venue itself that changes certain characteristics. Led Zeppelin Sports Arena San Diego, CA June 19, 1977 Disc 1 01 Intro 02 The Song Remains The Same 03 Sick Again 04 Nobody's Fault But Mine 05 In My Time Of Dying 06 Since I've Been Loving You 07 No Quarter Disc 2 08 Ten Years Gone 09 The Battle Of Evermore 10 Going To California 11 Mystery Train 12 Black Country Woman 13 Bron-Y-Aur Stomp 14 White Summer Disc 3 15 Kashmir 16 Guitar Solo 17 Achilles Last Stand 18 Stairway To Heaven 19 Whole Lotta Love 20 Rock And Roll

Audience 9.0 - So you have to deal with the annoyance of the beginnings of almost all of the songs missing as, I assume, taper was trying to preserve tape. I think it’s a reasonable trade off to have this quality recording over the old source which was borderline unlistenable…but complete. I’d rather have this!  This is well worth hearing. Led Zeppelin Pacific Coliseum Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada August 19th, 1971 Disc 1 01 Since I've Been Loving You 02 Black Dog 03 Dazed and Confused 04 Stairway to Heaven 05 Going To California 06 That's The Way Disc 2 01 What Is And What Should Never Be 02 Celebration Day 03 Gallows Pole 04 Whole Lotta Love 05 Weekend 06 Rock and Roll 07 Communication Breakdown  

Due to the complexity of this recording, more detailed notes can be reviewed below. As far as a number rating I can honestly give this a 9.0/9.4 due to the fact it is indeed a welcome upgrade to a great show that we can finally put away the countless other versions of! LED ZEPPELIN - 1973-03-16 - Vienna - NEW 4 SOURCE MATRIX Disc 1 01. Introduction [0:57] 02. Rock and Roll (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant) [3:48] 03. Over the Hills and Far Away (Page, Plant) [6:41] 04. Black Dog (Jones, Page, Plant) [6:18] 05. Misty Mountain Hop (Jones, Page, Plant) [4:27] 06. Since I've Been Loving You (Jones, Page, Plant) [9:09] 07. Dancing Days (Page, Plant) [5:53] 08. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp (Jones, Page, Plant) [6:26] 09. The Song Remains the Same (Page, Plant) [5:20] 10. The Rain Song (Page, Plant) [9:19] --- [* = board tape available / optional disc division @ 58:19] Disc 2 11. Dazed and Confused (Page, Holmes) * [28:30] contains: San Fransisco (Phillips) Mars, the Bringer of War (Holst) 12. Stairway to Heaven (Page, Plant) * [10:59] 13. Whole Lotta Love (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant) [25:36] contains: Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Wexler, Berns, Burke) Boogie Chillun' (Besman, Hooker) * (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care (Leiber, Stoller) * Let's Have a Party (Robinson) * I Can't Quit You Baby (Dixon) * 14. Heartbreaker (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant) * [8:01] Jimmy Page - guitars John Paul Jones - bass, organ John Bonham - drums Robert Plant - vocals MATRIX NOTES: The general aim was to provide the whole concert in as consistent and upgraded a listening experience as could be stitched together from the various recordings which are all incomplete. While there are always some downsides to matrixing analog recordings that have been manually synchronized, it is hoped that the benefits, such as the improved stereo dimension, of the results outweigh those deficiencies. Further lesser quality audience sources than those described below also exist but were not used. AUD source #1: The master was reportedly a TDK SA 90 cassette, which matches the 45 + 45 minutes which are extant and captured tracks 2-8 & 12 and parts of 1, 9, 11, 13. Winston Remaster used for the first part (which is unmatrixed on that version). Best of the audience recordings overall, recorded close to the stage towards one side. The guitar is somewhat buried here. AUD source #2: A lower/medium quality cassette recording at a greater distance to the stage, used only to patch missing AUD sections of tracks 1 & 9-11 (and the encore break before 14). AUD source #3: Captured most of the concert except for the introduction and notably two gaps in DAC. The master reported to have been recorded with Sony mics to Uher Report reel-to-reel. Close to the quality of AUD.1 but with a different sound balance (guitar is prominent, vocals somewhat buried) and recorded towards the other side of the stage. Matrixing with AUD.1 thus allows reproducing the occasional stereo panning effects of the house mix (which are not present on the SBD): guitar break in Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, bow solo in DAC, Theremin in WLL. SBD source: Apparently a 60 minute cassette which contains most of tracks 11-14. However, several minutes of 11/DAC & 13/WLL are missing, as the tape was not flipped immediately when the side or reel A ran out. There was probably another cassette on which the first hour of the concert was recorded (or copied), including the beginning of DAC, with the engineer likely missing some two minutes of the song between the cassettes, after the first one stopped and until recording resumed on a fresh tape. The reason why only the second cassette is available (for this and also certain other dates) is perhaps that someone in or with the band wanted a listening copy of just the songs with improvisation. The mix that was recorded is not exactly the same as what was played over the PA, as some of the delay/reverb effects (particularly on the vocals), as well as the panning, heard on the audience recordings are not present. Track by track breakdown: tr.01: AUD.2+1. AUD.2 contains half a minute more of the pre-show compared to AUD.1, none of which is on AUD.3. 02-08: AUD.1+3. SBD not available for the first part of the show but AUD.1 & 3 run practically without breaks until the end of BYAS. 09: AUD.1/2+3. AUD.1 has breaks during the intro and its side A completely cuts out @ 1:30 into TSRTS; the taper evidently did not flip the tape and resume recording until well into DAC which gap has here been patched with AUD.2. 10: AUD.2+3. AUD.1 thus does not exist for The Rain Song; the lower quality tape of AUD.2 used to substitute. 11: AUD.2/1+3. AUD.1 continues recording @ 5:00 while AUD.3 cuts out around 6:45 for one minute. Both gaps in DAC have been patched by matrixing with AUD.2, except for the section between roughly 2:50 and 4:00 where that tape itself has a discontinuity. 11: SBD & AUD.1+3. SBD cuts in about 15 seconds after AUD.1, i.e., around 5:15 into DAC from which point on it is the main source for the matrix but augmented with AUD.1 & 3 - and some patching from AUD.2 - as far as they are available. 12: SBD & AUD.1+3. AUD.3 has short cuts in the introduction; SBD cuts out after STH ends as the tape side ran out. 13: AUD.1+3 / SBD & AUD.1+3. Side B of the AUD.1 cassette runs out around 10:15 into WLL but SBD continued recording 4 minutes before that. 13-14: SBD & AUD.3. The segment containing the last 13 minutes of WLL and nearly all of Heartbreaker is therefore a matrix of SBD and AUD.3 since AUD.1 was no longer recording. The encore break is largely cut on both sources between the songs: AUD.3 misses about 2:20 of atmosphere while SBD loses only 1:30 and has the first notes of Heartbreaker intact. For the sake of completeness the missing part has again been patched from AUD.2 although the change in sound is noticeable.    

Audience 7.5 A famous show, billed as “Electric Magic”, the band put on a marathon concert which is contained on these three discs…in average quality. That’s it. Legendary gig, great performance, average recording. Listen to Since I’ve Been Loving You, it will give you chills. Collectors will need this…historically huge. Led Zeppelin Empire Pool, Wembley, London, UK November 20, 1971 Disc 1 01. Introduction 02. Immigrant Song 03. Heartbreaker 04. Black Dog 05. Since I've Been Loving You 06. Rock And Roll 07. Stairway To Heaven Disc 2 01. MC 02. Going To California 03. That's The Way 04. Tangerine 05. Dazed And Confused 06. What Is And What Should Never Be 07. Celebration Day Disc 3 01. MC 02. Moby Dick 03. Whole Lotta Love