Saturday, March 2, 2013

Led Zeppelin: 1969-12-06 Châtenay-Malabry, France (FLAC_Master_2 CD) (Just Surfaced!)

Here is something I've been waiting a long, long time for!  It is a brand new, just surfaced a few hours ago, and previously no recording for this date was known to exist Led Zeppelin show.  This is a great audience recording.  Actually, it's excellent!!!

Rather than do all the stuff I normally do (rename tracks, add the text the way I organize it, etc); I'm doing a copy and paste of the original post this time.  It's way too late and I got to get to sleep :-)

A VERY SPECIAL thanks goes out to "alphi" for bringing this master recording into the light of day!

********************copy & paste start********************

Led Zeppelin
Piston 70
Ecole Centrale
Chatenay-Malabry
1969-12-06

**** DO NOT BUY / SELL ****
**** DO NOT ENCODE TO MP3 OR ANY OTHER LOSSY FORMAT ****
**** DO NOT POST ON YOUTUBE OR ANY LOSSY SHARING MEDIA SITE ****

CD 1 (side A)
1. Good Times Bad Times [as an intro only]
2. Communication Breakdown
3. I Can't Quit You
4. Heartbreaker
5. Dazed And Confused
6. White Summer - Black Mountain Side

CD 2 (side B)
1. You Shook Me
2. Moby Dick
3. How Many More Times

**** DO NOT BUY / SELL ****
**** DO NOT ENCODE TO MP3 OR ANY OTHER LOSSY FORMAT ****
**** DO NOT POST ON YOUTUBE OR ANY LOSSY SHARING MEDIA SITE ****

Line-up:
Robert Plant: vocals
Jimmy Page: guitar
John Paul Jones: bass, organ
John Bonham: drums

Notes:
Over the years, there's been much speculation regarding the validity of Led Zeppelin's appearance at Ecole Centrale's Piston 70 - despite a review in the French magazine Best in February 1970 and a publication of the programme in the book Hexagonal Experiences. The first clue was the photographs of the gig taken by Gilles Château, which were published on the LedZeppelin.com website.

But now, more than 40 years later, there's no doubt that it really happened since this recording has been dig out! A 40 years old master tape that has never been circulated before.
It must have a few glitches from times to times, but it's a miracle that it was not completely gone after all this time.

I first heard about the Châtenay-Malabry show through the website of Jean-Claude Bellamy (a former Centrale student who operated as a lighting engineer that night). Having done an engineer school myself, I always remained curious to find a copy of the show, but quickly realized it was a controversial date. But I kept believing in it, and basically always asked about it when Led Zeppelin came into the discussion. I'm finally so glad that I managed to find it and was able to restore it. Nowadays, it'd likely have just been rubbishly ripped onto mp3 and shared onto a blog as if it was an evident download. A shame because such a new Led Zep find is a very big deal. I've spent many hours on the editing just for the sake of all the fans who hoped to hear it as well.

Big thanks to Gérard for digging out his tapes collection, and coming home with some of them,and of course for taping this show at the time!

So, a few words from Gérard the taper:
"The concert took place in the suburbs of Paris, it was very cold and snowing. I went there with four friends. One of them became famous later in the seventies, under the nickname of Ramon Pipin when he became the founding member of bands called Au Bonheur Des Dames and Odeurs. The musical press had announced this concert hosted by the École Centrale, and of course we bought our tickets and I kept mine, numbered 1111. We were sitting on a kind of balcony above the stage located in the main hall of the building.
"We had already seen Led Zeppelin in England and France. I must say that during the late sixties, we went very often to England and we saw many bands that would become successful and often in small venues. It's difficult to imagine now, for example, seeing Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett playing to an audience of just 40!
"We've seen Led Zeppelin many times and the most memorable concert was the one in a pub in London. We paid 10 shillings and Led Zeppelin played for more than two hours. We were standing in front of the stage. This was one of the best concerts I've attended!!"

Also attached with the recording are a scan of the original ticket, and an article by Christophe Le Pabic published in Tight But Loose #34, courtesy of Dave Lewis who also reviewed the recording.

Just a few last notes:

The very begining of the intro may be missing, but it really seems that 'Good Times Bad Times'
was not played as a song, but just as an intro:
a) This webpage: http://www.ledzepconcerts.com/concertda ... lz19691206 sates it was only the intro played
b) Another part of the song was played into 'How Many More Times'

Additionaly, 'How Many More Times' features another Led Zeppelin II song which, to my knowledge, had never been played as part of this song. I don't give the answer here, but it must be something unique to this show!

Lineage:
Audience->Philips EL-3302->Master Cassette
->Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adj.)->Thomson/Hama Scenium KD4112 cable->Roland Edirol R-09HR
->WAV 96000Hz 24bits->Adobe Audition:
* Automatic Click Remover (Threshold: 5, Complexity: 1)
* Manual clicks removal
* Hiss Reduction
* Volume: +7.60dB
* Conversion to 44100Hz 16bits
->split to CD WAV->FLAC->MP3Tag

**** DO NOT BUY / SELL ****
**** DO NOT ENCODE TO MP3 OR ANY OTHER LOSSY FORMAT ****
**** DO NOT POST ON YOUTUBE OR ANY LOSSY SHARING MEDIA SITE ****
********************copy & paste end********************

Here are my links for the show:

LINK
(1) 1969-12-06 Master

What an awesome recording to finally have surfaced just a little over 43 years later :-)

And something even cooler than a bunch of fans getting together (via web, in person, however) and confirming a date and setlist is the fact Led Zeppelin has the information bootleggers collect and organize on their official website (as seen in the link in the original uploader's posting).  Led Zeppelin has done what us collectors have been doing for years and years.  They list their full setlist from shows (in the same format bootleg collectors do), their dates, and they even provides stuff we have a hard time locating many times like ticket stubs, concert posters, and of course; photogrpahs from the shows.  It's like the band is saying "have a great time collectors...let us help you with your search for facts"!

It has long been a known fact (and I've got photographs to prove it) that Jimmy Page is a huge Led Zeppelin collector of the bootlegs of their performances.  And late drummer John Henry Bonham's son, Jason Bonham, who has played the drums in a few Led Zeppelin reunions including their last show on 2007-12-10 is a huge collector and may even be the source for many of these soundboards leaked out in recent years.  The band has made many 2012 press conference references to Jason Bonham being the collector of their shows and how he has helped them to remember exactly how they performed certain songs or setlists in 1969, 1971, 1972, etc, etc.  He's a collector too.  To me, this is a full-fledged indication that Led Zeppelin not only doesn't mind the trading and circulating of these unreleased shows, they want to assist the followers in adding special access to things like the setlists, photographs, etc to help us out!  What more could a collector ask for than the implied "permission" of the band by not trying to stop us from collecting, but instead, by aiding and assisting us in the passion and hobby!  Thank you Led Zeppelin!  Watch my posting a few entries back that is a YouTube video where the band members are being asked various questions.  Listen to what bassist John Paul Jones says about Jason Bonham being the one they go to in order to recall how they played certain songs in certain years.  Without out-and-out saying "we approve the free trading and sharing of our unreleased material", Led Zeppelin says it by helping us out on their official website with facts and memorabilia to aid us in verification of many things we might not know and by setting the record straight.  How cool is it of a band to do that?  Led Zeppelin are all right guys and I really appreciate their added extras and assistance!  The section on their site for a show by show detailed account is pretty much unprecedented in this day and age of greed by most artists (and/or the RIAA).

I honestly believe Led Zeppelin truly understands how the bootlegs (legitimate, unreleased material) have kept the band aloft through the years and I feel they are just showing their appreciation to us collectors by doing these things.  Heck, m minus the download links tp get their shows, their site looks like a collector's site when it comes to show details and information!

Enjoy this one...

Bootradr

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