Unseen Led Zeppelin footage from the band’s legendary LA Forum show has been made available for the first time.
The ‘Whole Lotta Love’ rockers’ performance at the iconic venue on September 4, 1970 has gone down as one of their most famous shows, and the ‘Live on Blueberry Hill’ LP is regarded as one of the first rock bootlegs.
Until this week, footage from the show hadn’t been seen but fan Eddie Vincent has finally shared seven minutes of his recording on YouTube after 52 years.
In an introduction to his video, Eddie – who snuck a Kodak Brownie 8mm camera into the venue to capture some material – said: “When my friends and I got to the Forum, I tucked it under my jacket.
“There weren’t any problems at the door back in those days. The seats were excellent, first row behind the stage.
“We were behind John Bonham’s gong, so you couldn’t really see him much, but the sound was great.”
Although the fan kept the camera – which could only film for 30 seconds at a time – off for most of the gig, he did get snippets of a number of songs, including ‘Whole Lotta Love’, ‘Thank You’ and ‘What Is And What Should Never Be’.
Eddie added: “During the acoustic set, John ducked behind the gong to grab a cigarette and very graciously acknowledged our slavish praise.
“He even posed twice for my still camera, and both times the flash failed to go off. Those pictures came out worthless, unfortunately. But a few others, along with that 8 mm film, survived.”
He recently found his old footage and sent it to another Zeppelin fan, John Waters, who put it with audio from ‘Live on Blueberry Hill’ and uploaded it to YouTube.
He told Classic Rock magazine: “The music needs to be out there. I know a lot of collectors and traders that don’t give their stuff away, and that’s a shame to me.
“Music’s to be shared, and today you need it to get away from the crazy world.
“And if this film brings a lot of people happiness, hey, we did a good job.”