50 years of Led Zeppelin. The mind boggles. So much time has passed in the blinking of an eye, a moment in time. It's hard to believe I first met Luis 31 years ago, at a Record Fair in London's West End. By chance, but maybe some kind of destiny. Immediately we had such common ground, and a shared love and enthusiasm for what made Led Zeppelin unique - their live performances.
Back in 1987 Led Zeppelin were largely reviled by media and more besides. The Heavy Metal monster they had been largely responsible for had become not only mutated but watered down, and the musical climate had them out of favour. It took the 1990 6LP/4CD Box Set and the ensuing MTV led publicity to see their music and legacy in a much more relevant and positive light.
And in 1991 the first edition 'Led Zeppelin Live' was released by Bob Walker through Hot Wax Press, with two updates over the next six years. With the burgeoning Bootleg CD market Luis' work became an essential guide and companion to discovering and enjoying the underground recordings of Led Zeppelin.
Fast forward to 2017, and I was invited to join Luis in a Q&A at the O2 10th Anniversary gathering in London. It was there, meeting for the first time in almost 15 years, we discussed this project and a new edition. And here it is. What more can I say that if you collect the music of Led Zeppelin, it's as essential as any book published past and present. It's been a pleasure and an honour to be very much involved in this edition, and seeing how it's turned out is exciting to say the least.
So what can you expect? Those of you familiar with previous editions will know the format, the focus and detail in every page, every entry. As more information comes to light about dates, venues, obscure and sometimes barely listenable song references, 8mm and professionally shot footage, new Bootlegs etc it's painstakingly added, amended and updated to what was already a very impressive body of work. The cream is obviously more discoveries, either unheard documents or alternative source tapes of already known shows and sessions and there's a treasure trove here. Add to that some wonderful illustrations of bootlegs, ticket stubs, posters, press cuttings and more.
Coming in at 556 glorious pages, we begin with a chronological history of all the documents we could find, from September 27th 1968 to July 7th 1980. Over 464 of those pages 330 shows, outtakes and more are reviewed in exceptional detail, bringing as much information as possible alongside comments about each and every one, in such an engaging and vivid way it really makes you want to reach for each and every recording and immerse yourself within it once again.
There's a detailed gig history and a section called 'Songs A to Z' which alphabetically details all the original and cover songs in those documents. It's one of my favourite things about The Tape Documentary, and a fascinating insight into the truly unequaled and unrivaled influences that helped fuse the music we know as Led Zeppelin.
As you'll have noticed I can't praise this highly enough! It is a very limited run, so either contact Luis or check out Ebay and Amazon. Suffice to say, if you love Led Zeppelin this is as essential as it gets my friends...
Back in 1987 Led Zeppelin were largely reviled by media and more besides. The Heavy Metal monster they had been largely responsible for had become not only mutated but watered down, and the musical climate had them out of favour. It took the 1990 6LP/4CD Box Set and the ensuing MTV led publicity to see their music and legacy in a much more relevant and positive light.
And in 1991 the first edition 'Led Zeppelin Live' was released by Bob Walker through Hot Wax Press, with two updates over the next six years. With the burgeoning Bootleg CD market Luis' work became an essential guide and companion to discovering and enjoying the underground recordings of Led Zeppelin.
Fast forward to 2017, and I was invited to join Luis in a Q&A at the O2 10th Anniversary gathering in London. It was there, meeting for the first time in almost 15 years, we discussed this project and a new edition. And here it is. What more can I say that if you collect the music of Led Zeppelin, it's as essential as any book published past and present. It's been a pleasure and an honour to be very much involved in this edition, and seeing how it's turned out is exciting to say the least.
So what can you expect? Those of you familiar with previous editions will know the format, the focus and detail in every page, every entry. As more information comes to light about dates, venues, obscure and sometimes barely listenable song references, 8mm and professionally shot footage, new Bootlegs etc it's painstakingly added, amended and updated to what was already a very impressive body of work. The cream is obviously more discoveries, either unheard documents or alternative source tapes of already known shows and sessions and there's a treasure trove here. Add to that some wonderful illustrations of bootlegs, ticket stubs, posters, press cuttings and more.
Coming in at 556 glorious pages, we begin with a chronological history of all the documents we could find, from September 27th 1968 to July 7th 1980. Over 464 of those pages 330 shows, outtakes and more are reviewed in exceptional detail, bringing as much information as possible alongside comments about each and every one, in such an engaging and vivid way it really makes you want to reach for each and every recording and immerse yourself within it once again.
There's a detailed gig history and a section called 'Songs A to Z' which alphabetically details all the original and cover songs in those documents. It's one of my favourite things about The Tape Documentary, and a fascinating insight into the truly unequaled and unrivaled influences that helped fuse the music we know as Led Zeppelin.
As you'll have noticed I can't praise this highly enough! It is a very limited run, so either contact Luis or check out Ebay and Amazon. Suffice to say, if you love Led Zeppelin this is as essential as it gets my friends...
