Led Zeppelin
DVD

THE PREVIEW (Pre-release preview of the best-selling DVD in history)

"I'm a traveler of both time and space," sang Robert Plant in Kashmir. Thanks to the sensational and eagerly awaited release of the Led Zeppelin DVD, we will all become travelers of time and space and we will be there, just a few meters away from Led Zeppelin during a legendary and explosive performance; on stage, behind John 'Bonzo' Bonham; backstage, inside limousines; aboard the legendary Starship; sitting next to Plant, Bonham, Page, and Jones as they give interviews and in other unexpected places.

A project Jimmy Page has been working on for over a year, this double DVD (and double VHS), which will be released simultaneously with the triple live CD on May 26, represents a definitive chronological collection of Led Zeppelin's live performances, the result of careful research by Page, the group's official archivist, in the vault-like Fort Knox of Led Zeppelin, located in a secret spot in an unused area of the London Underground, in a fireproof room with an essential climate control system to keep the precious tapes intact. Page worked on the project in collaboration with director/producer David Carruthers (who previously produced the Oasis DVDs).

An intensive restoration and cleaning effort by Carruthers for the film/video portion and by Jimmy Page and Kevin Shirley for the audio portion, the latter mixed in 5.1 Surround quality, DTS, and 16-bit PCM Stereo, will make Led Zeppelin live feel like it has never been heard before, even for those who were fortunate enough to attend one of their concerts. The DVD, which immediately surprises with its splendid menu and submenus, follows a chronological order, starting with the highlight of the entire collection—the nearly complete performance on January 9, 1970 (Jimmy Page's birthday) at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which occupies the whole first disc. From the initial We're Gonna Groove, the exceptional audio quality is striking with its crystal-clear sound and perfect balance of the stereo channel of each instrument. Bonham's thunderous bass drum, thanks to DTS technology, is prominently highlighted with a result that makes the listener and the entire room vibrate. Various slow motions, photos, etc., have been inserted in the missing video parts, all with a very pleasant result.

The second disc moves to 1972 with an excerpt from an Australian performance of Immigrant Song, mixed with the audio version of a concert from the American tour of the same summer, all in video-promo style, with backstage inserts and footage of the limousines arriving just minutes before the start of the daytime concert. A huge crowd awaits the group. Beautiful images of the band in all its glory and a couple of sequences of Peter Grant on stage right behind Page taking photos of the band, with the delirium of the crowd in the background. Then it moves on to 1973, Madison Square Garden in New York, the pinnacle of the triumphant American tour and for the first time, some spectacular amateur sequences are seen, taken from behind the band, mixed with professional ones. The restoration and editing in DTS 5.1 will shock those used to hearing the audio version of this concert as offered by the film The Song Remains the Same. Beautiful sequences on Bonzo before and during The Ocean.

The Earl's Court Arena in London saw the return of Led Zeppelin to England in 1975, where they brought for the first time the mighty stage apparatus of the American tours in five concerts with a total of 85,000 spectators. The beginning is breathtaking: it's an acoustic set, with the four sitting in front of the stage. The video quality is immaculate, the clarity crystal. Page and Plant truly look like rock gods, especially Page in his black dragon suit. The London section ends with Stairway To Heaven and various sequences of Page with the Gibson Doubleneck in the darkness and sequences shot from above during the guitar solo: spectacular!

Then we move to Knebworth 1979, which marked an important comeback for the band, after more than two years of absence and after the misfortune of losing Robert Plant's son while they were on tour in the US in the summer of '77, which resulted in the cancellation of the remaining dates and increasingly realistic rumors of a breakup. In front of 250,000 spectators and after an initial bewilderment at the incredible reception received from the British (but there were also many Italians and French), they launched a musical message to the world: "We're back!" Numerous Led Zeppelin fans who have bootlegs of these concerts do not consider them up to the group's reputation. They will certainly change their minds when they see the Knebworth video from the DVD. At the end of the performance, the entire Band reaches the front of the stage to bow and greet the immense ecstatic crowd. Plant says: "Thank you for the 11 years." Jimmy Page waves to the crowd, everyone smiles, truly moving. You'll Never Walk Alone sung by 250,000 people on August 4, '79, serves as the soundtrack during the credits.

The DVD offers numerous sub-menus with extra material such as live TV appearances in Denmark and France in 1969, promotional videos, interviews, and excerpts from amateur video footage of concerts in '75 and '77. The rich digipack includes a magnificent 16-page booklet. Depending on sales performance, further DVD releases of entire concerts are not to be excluded. Certainly, the Led Zeppelin DVD risks becoming one of the best-selling musical DVDs in history. Believe it or not, 2003 will once again be the summer of Led Zeppelin, twenty-three years after their breakup and on the thirty-fifth anniversary of their formation, when they first got together to play Train Kept A-Rollin, and the room exploded.