PLOT SYNOPSIS:
This double-DVD set includes more than five hours of never-before-available concert and performance footage from Led Zeppelin, spanning the years 1969-1979. While enthusiasts have been trading poor quality versions of this material for years, this marks the first archival video release to contain any footage of the band playing live. The main feature on the first disc includes highlights of the band's legendary set at the Royal Albert Hall January 9, 1970. If there was ever any doubt as to the power and intricate legerdemain of Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (vocal/harmonica), John Paul Jones (bass/keyboards/mandolin), and John Bonham (drums), this performance will silence all detractors. The dozen songs from this show are derived primarily from the band's first two LPs, with a few well-chosen covers thrown in for good measure. One particularly interesting inclusion is Plant's spontaneous incorporation of a few lines from Neil Young's "Down by the River" and "On the Way Home" during an epic "How Many More Times." Supplementary shorts on disc one feature a promotional video for "Communication Breakdown" (with the band miming to a pre-recorded audio track), a half-hour mini-show for Danish Television, a clip of "Dazed and Confused" from the British TV program Supershow, as well as a pair of tunes ("Communication Breakdown" and "Dazed and Confused") for the French TV show Tous En Scene. The second DVD fast forwards to the '70s and continues with a trio of main attractions and a slew of extras. First up is a composite video for "Immigrant Song," which contains some amateur footage married to a previously unissued live version of the song. This is followed by outtakes from the motion picture The Song Remains the Same (1976), which finds the quartet at Madison Square Garden in 1973. The oft-bootlegged 1975 Earl's Court is up next, highlighted by acoustic renderings of "Going to California" and "That's the Way." The last extended set finds Zep during its triumphant return to England in 1979. It would ultimately be a bittersweet affair, as it turned out to be the band's final performance in its homeland prior to the death of Bonham the following year. Extras on disc two include a few interview clips and promotional videos for "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "Traveling Riverside Blues" -- both circa the Led Zeppelin (1990) four-CD box set. -- Lindsay Planer
