Jimmy Page became "Sherlock Holmes" to find a bootleg live recording of Led Zeppelin.
The guitarist has been busy remastering the rock band’s first three albums – ‘Led Zeppelin’, ‘Led Zeppelin II’ and ‘Led Zeppelin III’ – and compiling companion discs to each LP which contain previously unheard material.
Jimmy had a problem creating a companion disc for their debut 1969 LP ‘Led Zeppelin’ because there was very little leftover from the sessions but during a trip to Japan to check what illegal recordings of the band are available he was played a live show which was perfect to release.
In an interview on UK radio station Planet Rock – which will air on June 1 – the rocker revealed: "When it came to sort of piecing all of this together through all of the albums there wasn’t anything left over from ‘Led Zeppelin I’ where you could make a proper companion disk to it; there just wasn’t because of the nature of how it was recorded and there wasn’t that much that went to waste … So the first album we didn’t have anything … So it sort of dictated the fact that it had to be a live recording and it just so happened that in my Sherlock Holmes disguise going into bootleg shops in Japan … on the search for studio things that had been stolen and got out. So I heard this (gig), and what it was was this live show and I thought, ‘Yeah, I know what that’s about, it’s got to be early year 69, mid 69,’ but I didn’t know what it was. It turned out that it was from Paris and that it had been recorded by French radio and that’s it. That logged in my mind and then when we didn’t have anything that would adequately cover the first album that’s the thing I called in."
Jimmy can remember playing the show with his bandmates – bassist John Paul Jones, singer Robert Plant and late drummer John Bonham – and recalls it being a special concert because the fans were so wild.
Speaking about the concert, he said: "I remember the audience being so enthusiastic … The fans know it’s one of those really, really special gigs and all of the French musical aristocracy had played there; like Johnny Hallyday and Sacha Distel. The audience were absolutely fantastic. It shows a real raw energy just coming from us and the audience."
Led Zeppelin are taking over Planet Rock for the entire month of June to celebrate their three remastered albums which will each be played in their entirety, while 100 different Led Zepp songs will be aired across the station’s programming over the month.
The reissued ‘Led Zeppelin’, ‘Led Zeppelin II’ and ‘Led Zeppelin III’ LPs are released on June 3.
Jimmy Page became Sherlock Holmes to find Led Zeppelin live recording
