Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings

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English rock band Led Zeppelin were, throughout the decade of the 1970s, one of the world's most frequently bootlegged performers. This phenomenon was due partly to the immense popularity of the band during this era, which ensured a large and enthusiastic market for unauthorised recordings, and partly to the massive size of the venues they played at, which made the effective policing of the audience for recording equipment virtually impossible.

Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, sometimes took extraordinary measures to combat the practice of live bootleg recordings at Led Zeppelin concerts. He is reported to have personally visited record stores in London which were selling Led Zeppelin bootlegs and demanded all copies be handed over. He also monitored the crowd at Led Zeppelin concerts so as to locate anything which resembled bootleg recording equipment. At one concert at Vancouver in 1971 he saw what he thought was recording equipment on the floor of the venue and personally ensured that the equipment be destroyed, only to find out later that the equipment was a noise pollution unit being operated by city officials to test the volume of the concert.

During the 1970s, bootleg labels such as Smilin' Ear, TMG, Dragonfly, Kornyphone, Condor and Toasted released unofficial recordings of several Led Zeppelin shows on vinyl, including:

Live On Blueberry Hill : One of the earliest Led Zeppelin bootlegs, containing the performance from the Los Angeles Forum on September 4, 1970.
Mudslide : Recorded at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada on March 21, 1970.
Going to California
BBC Broadcasts
Earls Court
The Destroyer : The soundboard recording from Richfield Coliseum at Cleveland on April 27, 1977.
For Badgeholders Only
Listen to This Eddie : An audience recording of the show at the Los Angeles Forum on June 21, 1977.
Custard Pie
Duckwalks and Lasers

Most of these recordings derived from audience tapes, though a few (such as The Destroyer) were sourced from soundboard recordings. However, in the 1980s the number of available soundboard recordings of Led Zeppelin shows increased significantly as a result of the original soundboard tapes being stolen from their owner, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Also stolen were several rare studio out-takes, which were released under titles such as Jennings Farm Blues (featuring run-throughs of an electric version of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" recorded in October 1969) and Studio Daze (including different studio mixes of "Since I've Been Loving You", "No Quarter" and "All My Love").

The 1990s saw a multitude of Led Zeppelin bootlegs become available on the CD format, with many of the higher quality releases being produced in Japan on the Tarantura and Antrabata labels. Jimmy Page is an avid collector of Led Zeppelin bootlegs, and has been reported to have himself bought hundreds of bootlegs on various visits to Japan. On occasion he has been photographed either viewing, browsing, or holding various bootleg titles.

Some notable Led Zeppelin bootlegs released on CD include:

Burn Like a Candle : The complete show from the Los Angeles Forum on June 25, 1972.
Knebworth : Both performances by the band at the Knebworth Festival in August 1979.

[edit] Sources

Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
Luis Rey (1997) Led Zeppelin Live: An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes, Ontario: The Hot Wacks Press. ISBN 4ISBN 0-9698080-7-0.