Led Zeppelin - 1970 - Royal Albert Hall The Initial Tapes

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Led Zeppelin
January 9, 1970
Royal Albert Hall
London, UK

Royal Albert Hall The Initial Tapes

The Godfatherecords ​– G.R. 286/287

101. We're Gonna Groove

102. I Can't Quit You Baby
103. Dazed And Confused
104. Heartbreaker
105. White Summer / Black Mountain Side
106. What Is And Should Never Be
107. Moby Dick

201. How Many More Times Medley

202. Whole Lotta Love
203. Communication Breakdown (Longer Version)
204. C'mon Everybody
205. Something Else

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206. Bring It On Home
207. Long Tall Sally Medley
208. Communication Breakdown (Shorter Version)

Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/oFkzZHIcgFs

Led Zeppelin’s January 9th, 1970 appearance at the Royal Albert Hall is one of their most
important gigs in their career. This was their first high profile concert in London after Led
Zeppelin II displaced The Beatles’ Abbey Road from the number one position in the
charts and drew much attention. The band also understood its significance by
professionally filming and recording with the intention of releasing it as a film later in the
year. That plan was scrapped and the footage wouldn’t be officially issued for another
thirty-three years. The soundtrack for a video and a radio broadcast are sources for all
of the older releases including the very first on vinyl found in Strange Tales From The
Road and The Final Option on RSR International. On CD the original Tarantura issued
both sources on Jimmy’s Birthday Party – The Royal Dragon (Tarantura RAH 1/2 / – /
1995).

Later a much clearer soundboard tape surfaced with “How Many More Times” and the
encores that sounded fantastic and was issued on Royal Albert Hall (Red Robin), but
running much too slow. This tape was subsequently used on Historical Birthday (Shout
To the Top STTP-034), Strange Tales From the Road (STFTR 001-008). A nice sounding
edit of the two sources was released on Royal Albert Hall 1970(Celebration SOBO-015),
running at the correct speed and coming with a VHS cassette with a high generation copy
of the then existing footage. A bulk of this show was finally released by the band in 2003
on the DVD (minus “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” “Long Tall Sally,” and with “Heartbreaker”
and “Thank You” only in fragments). Several years afterwards Empress Valley issued the
four-disc Live At Royal Albert Hall(EVSD-421/422/423/424) with an edit of the DVD audio
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with the radio broadcast on the first two discs and the DVD audio alone on the second
two. The virtue of this set is the debut of the solo in “Heartbreaker.” However, this set
has been described as “a mess” with numerous problems.

Royal Albert Hall: The Initial Tapes on Godfather is similar to the second two discs of the
Empress Valley set by presenting the soundboard with the edit in “How Many More
Times.” The sound on Godfather is excellent sounding, very powerful, and sounds better
than many official releases and is a significant upgrade over EV. The gain has been
increased over the Empress Valley which also raises the level of noise in the quieter
passages in the early part of disc one. This is only really apparent in Robert Plant’s
introduction to “Heartbreaker” though and isn’t an issue.

Zeppelin played at the Royal Albert Hall six months before on June 29th, 1969 for the
“Pop Proms,” supported by The Liverpool Scene and Bloodwyn Pig. This was the third
show of a short eight date tour of the UK with only Bristol and this show having
documents available. A review of this show in the New Musical Express states: “It isn’t
hard to understand the substantial appeal of Led Zeppelin. Their current two-hour plus
act is a blitzkrieg of musically-perfected hard rock that combines heavy dramatics with
lashings of sex into a formula that can’t fail to move the senses and limbs. At the pace
they’ve been setting on their current seven-town British tour there are few groups who
could live with them on stage. I spoke to Jimmy Page after the show and he confessed
that the whole band had suffered extreme nerves beforehand, mainly because people
like John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck had requested tickets. ‘But it was just like it
was at the Albert Hall in the summer,’ said Jimmy, ‘with everyone dancing around the
stage. It was a great feeling. What could be better than having everyone clapping and
shouting along? It’s indescribable; but it just makes you feel that everything is
worthwhile.” (“Zeppelin Put the Excitement Back Into Pop” N. Logan).

The show begins with the new cover arrangement of “We’re Gonna Groove” which
segues perfectly into “I Can’t Quit You.” Both of these were used on Coda. The former
was treated to a new spaced out guitar solo recorded specifically for the final Zeppelin
album, but this is the unedited, aggressive arrangement used to open the show in early
1970 before disappearing forever. “Dazed And Confused” follows and this sixteen-
minute version keep the intensity level up. Plant includes a reference to “Cocaine Blues”
arranged by Rev. Gary Davis, “Hey mama, won’t you come here quick / This old cocaine is
makin’ me sick.”

Afterwards Plant says, “this is the second time we’ve been here and I think we had more
nerves the second time than the first. I know I did. But anyway we got over that with
Birmingham Town Hall a couple of days ago where it was quite disastrous. The people
hadn’t seen anything like it before. That was the attendants first assignment. Who filled
their trousers?” The recording is cut after the solo but Page includes Bouree. “White
Summer” follows and is a twelve minute masterpiece and this is one of tightest versions
on tape. Listening to the track is mesmerizing and it is easy to get lost in the eastern

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atmosphere of the music. It is such a contrast to everything else played and Page comes
across as a true virtuoso.

“How Many More Times” lasts twenty minutes even with the band introduction edited
out. Plant get into Neil Young’s “Down By The River” as well as the “The Hunter,” “Boogie
Chillun,” “Move On Down The Line,” “Leave My Woman Alone,” and “The Lemon Song.”
The band are so focused that they don’t want to stop playing the song and even Page
mentions this in the NME article when he says, “‘We’d actually finished ‘How Many More
Times’ and were going into the ‘Lemon Song,’ but the audience was still clapping so we
just went into another riff and carried on for a further ten minutes.'”

The long encore section follows and there are some issues regarding the proper
placement of “Bring It On Home” in dispute. The Concert Filelists “Bring It On Home” as
the first encore followed by “Whole Lotta Love,” “Thank You,” “Communication
Breakdown,” “C’Mon Everybody,” “Something Else,” and “Long Tall Sally” and Empress
Valley follow this sequence. (This list is also odd since “Thank You” was played early in
the set the previous night and wouldn’t be an encore until the following year). The official
Led Zeppelin website claims that “Bring It On Home” was played fourth after “Whole
Lotta Love,” “Communication Breakdown,” and “Thank You.” The official DVD places it as
the final encore after “Something Else” and Godfather uses this set list as a guide. All but
Empress Valley and Godfather are titles released before the official dvd release of this
show. Overall given the packaging, availability and sound quality, Godfather produced
the definitive version of this classic show and is essential to have.

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