The Heart of Markness Podcast
Episode One: Led Zeppelin – Copenhagen 1979
TETELESTAI!!
It is finished. The inaugural episode of the Heart of Markness podcast. It was fun. It was easy. It was deeply fulfilling. I definitely prefer podcasting to blogging. It’s 2017. Podcasts are where it’s at.
This being my first podcast there are some fuckups. The biggest one is forgetting to include the first song I reference, the 1978 rehearsal track “Fire”, from the Clearwell Castle session. Well, relax, friends. Here is the missing song. Rejoice.
The Triumphant Return Of Led Zeppelin
After the tragic death of Robert Plant’s son in July 1977, the band were on an indefinite hiatus. Robert wasn’t really itching to go back on the road, and the band itself was mired in deep addiction, both among the musicians, and the management. In short, Robert Plant wasn’t feeling incredibly pulled to go back.
However his buddy John Bonham talked him into going to a rehearsal, just to kick the tires and see if there was any magic left. There was. The band recorded In Through The Out Door, and then played a couple of warmup gigs in Denmark, in preparation for the huge Knebworth festival gigs they had planned for August 1979.
The Copenhagen shows were first live appearances by Led Zeppelin for, exactly, two years. They were fucking brilliant, with the band on fire, and Jimmy seemingly off the junk, and playing like it was 1973. Truly amazing gigs with truly amazing quality live recordings made (not official recordings, but amateur)
Listen to the podcast to hear about it, and to hear two amazing tracks from their July 24, 1979 concert at the Falconer Theater, in Copenhagen. Dig it.
All pics are courtesy of Led Zeppelin.com
Excellent Podcast! Love the breakdown of the songs. I did have a question. You mentioned Geddy Lee from Rush using foot pedals. I know in the 70-80’s era he use the Taurus Bass Pedals. Do you happen to know the kind used by Led Zeppelin? Thanks much!
Thank you very much! John Paul Jones also used Taurus bass pedals. His went to 11. 😉
Hi Mark. Nice job. I do the Led Zeppelin podcast Ramble On Radio and just wanted to stop by and say I enjoyed it.
Don’t worry about the first show issues, it takes some time. My first show was, I think, awful, and it took five or six to really find my footing and stop saying things like “and that’s all I have to say about that,” which is something I never say in real life.
I’d love to chat with you privately. email me if you want, or if you have any questions regarding the technical challenges of podcasting, most of which I still haven’t solved after 130 episodes.
Thanks, Brian! I apologize for the late reply. Your message was flagged as spam, and I just noticed it now in the spam folder. Thank you very much for the kind words, and for the encouragement. I will absolutely get in touch. Your podcast is brilliant!
The 24th is such an anomaly: Page rediscovers his 1973 fluency and is the master of old for one last night.
The band are also tight and Plant is singing great.
Unfortunately Page was all over the place at Knebworth and by the Tour of Europe, he and Bonzo were both up and down.
I imagine there’s a good chance the band recorded a soundboard of these warm ups, so they could check out how stuff sounded before Knebworth.
A matrix of the soundboard, if it exists, and the audience recording would be one of the Zep holy grails.
Thanks, Strider! Yes, I would love a soundboard, or (even more unlikely but still plausible) a video. They were testing out some of the equipment they would use at Knebworth… wouldn’t it be lovely if they had a stationary cam recording video? That is surely too much to ask, but a soundboard would be sweet! Thanks for the comment and I hope you keep listening.
And i filmed it on my super-8 Camera. Without sound though.
Wow, that’s amazing! Do you still have that film? This show is a holy grail for me. Also, I apologize for the late reply. I found your comment buried among spam posts. 🙂