For me it was their peak on stage. My previous live experiences were great but like you say, on a small cramped basic stage set up. Earls Court was from a different universe. Colossal PA system, dry ice, hundreds of spotlights, lasers , pyrotechnics and of course a huge mirror ball for “ Stairway”. The sight of Jimmy Page surrounded by green lasers and projecting them from the violin bow to the back of the building was unforgettable. Finally, as the left the stage , the words “ LED ZEPPELIN “ in bright white lights at the back of the stage to remind us all who we had just watched for an incredible 3 hours and 20 minutes. Just the best, end of.

I was privileged to be there 3 nights at Earls court includind the first and last show. The last night they played for over 4 HOURS by the final encoure many people had left , but not me and my mates Plant said " We never do this, we never do this" also he said any requests? This was the last time they played indoors in the UK. I was also a tKnebwotrh both weeks up at the front against the barrier. Ihave seen the stoes , pink floyd , the who etc live but believe me Any one too young to have seen them live, I can assure you Zeppelin were in in a class of their own! I remember all of these nights as if it was yesterday. But dont ask me what I did last week ,cos I havent got a bloody clue. 9

I was at two of the Earls court shows. Bought the Empress Valley Demand unprecedented box set...pure bliss. Recently obtained the blu ray of Earls Court, and the picture is superb.

I have that toy page doll and amp on a crescent moon with a stairway . Probably my favorite piece!

Some may say the best shows zepp performed saw them a couple of years earlier at the hardrock in Manchester and the difference when I saw them at Earl’s Court in 75 was like chalk and cheese,I would personally say the best concert I’ve ever attended

I dig how you insert commercials from the time period. Effective method for putting us there. Appreciate your work!

I can’t wait for this JCM!!!!

You never disappoint us Jose… I’m sure this will be as amazing as all of your previous deep dives have been 👍

Great job Jose .... Zeppelin ruled the 70's I see some comparing Deep Purple to Zep but from everything I've seen and heard and of course my Dad who saw Zep in St Louis Missouri in 73 75 77 and almost in 70 he said Deep Purple popular yes ... But Zep was the biggest band and it was not close . Ritchie a great player yes BUT Jimmy is my Guitar hero and the absolute conducter of the 🚂 of the biggest band from really 69 to 77 and then again Ittod comes out and goes number 1 on the billboard right in the middle of what punk... that tried to take down Zeppelin .... If only BONZO lived ... America was Ready for their return to regain the 1 status again . 👍🏼✌🏼

I bought the Dave Lewis book about these five shows, I love it !! Must have been something to witness this bands greatness live and in person.

You are the man, Jose thank you for these

Another great doc. Thanks. I was 12 at the time, but I've got a couple of older mates who were at Earls Court and will testify what a massive event it was. Interesting statistic on the 'dragon suit' which for many of us is surely the definitive Jimmy Page look!

I’m excited!

I love the introduction! The Thereman was a nice touch. Great episode,Jose. Thank you ✌️❤️🇨🇦

Really looking forward to this! Cheers ✌️

This is utterly brilliant. Thanks pal

This is gonna be great

Awesome episode Jose!! Thank you!!!! Hard work put into this!!!! Well done sir!!!❤❤❤❤❤

I was there. One of the highlights was the acoustic set. But there were many highlights.

🌠JCM...Duuude ..u always make Amazing Video's ....Always...this is really Good !!!

Great work bro love your documentaries!!🤘

Also, the work you put into these is awesome.

Great work J. Absolutely fascinating,. It just gets deeper and deeper

Yessss!!!!

JCM, I’m only a few minutes in and the intro is brilliant! The teases of the theramin and intro footage, to then be treated to the heavy reverb piano jam from No Quarter on 5/18/75, which in my opinion was hands, down the best version from that run, arguably for all of 1975 even. In my opinion, that night held onto that energy from the west coast US dates of March 1975. I don’t know why but I always felt like the shows a week later had lost some of that energy. I’ll say it again, these episodes really fill the void of official releases left by the band for Led Zeppelin students. Thank you.

I acquired BBC sessions long before was released along with a lot of other shows from bootleg sales just like that. At the beach too in Wildwood NJ in early 90s,as well as street vendors in NYC. It was so much fun. However, some of these ranged from 35(1cd,or tape),to up to and including 130$ for 3cd Listen to this Eddie etc…..still loved it.

Great video series! Im always impressed by the attention to details in your work. Rock on!

Right on

Great show as always brother. 👏🎸🙌

Another great documentary Jose👍

Outstanding episode! 🤙🔥

Amazing as usual Jose

I got live in Dallas 1975 and Earl's Court on DVD as well.

May 1975 I was there twice, had tickets for 24th May for me and my mate Dave, then when when they added 2 more dates I travelled up to sit outside Earls Court with my mate just to hear them, when a security guy thought we where trying to get in, they were playing there acoustic set by then, I asked him where the seats were I had tickets for an he said ask the guy on the door so l did and he let me in for a sneak view to have a look, oh boy I couldn't believe it, so a return on 24th May to see them twice at Earls Court, then I saw thm again at Knebworth, but Led Zeppelin were at there prime in1975.

Very good!! Enjoyed that...

New fan. Started with the Making of Physical Graffiti. Love your work. Thank you!

Ooo, I like it when you put photos of the exterior of the venues! So much attention is focused on what goes on inside them but so little about what each looks like from outside.

First night in Dallas and second night in Seattle. Nothing touches them.

What’s crazy is I was huge zep fan worked at huge record store dc area in 70s. . Never heard of bootleg. Till late 80s. Saw ads in the back of music. Mags. Got ripped off. Not til KZfaq did I get to enjoy them

Beautifully done.

What a great docu and narration!

Great! My first ever rare gig. I got was dallas 1975 too. It's probably my favourite gig, because I learnt a new lead guitar style from. The different ways Jimmy played them live. They were perfect in this.era...well tight but loose. Thanks Jose, say hi to pagey for me.., 👍

JCM !!!!!!! Great segment on these legendary concerts. I too looked out bootlegs never found the full show just a few clips on VHS boots in 1985 that I got. I was bias when it was blurry or audio not the best it was the image as never seeing them on stage outside of TSRTS. I liked the Earl's Court history I did not know about that much. Interesting they choose to do 5 nights there. I am surprised they didn't use the Earl's Court footage for the "still in progress" TSRTS. I mean just think of this, what if they started with 1973 footage then when Jimmy is the Druid and goes through aging then boomr the 1975 footage came in like a time warp. That could of been cool. Jose great job man !!!!! Looking forward to the next one !!!

You make the best videos.

Another great documentary!

cool!!

I was listening to a free Robert plant audiobook on KZfaq and they pronounced bron-yr-aur ‘bron-er-ry-er’

I haven’t chimed in yet, but I’ve seen and enjoyed every episode of every series. I must say, they keep getting better and better along every metric. Kudos!

This should be interesting 👍

Strider sighting (well played) I remember when the Earl’s Court video first broke I actually held up a sign from the 2nd row at a Page Plant show in 98 “Surrender Earl’s Court Video” Like “Surrender Dorothy” in The Wizard of Oz - Robert laughed and pointed at the sign The bootleg complete video came out a couple years later. Then the Zeppelin video featured a few songs in all their glory Why the Zeppelin camp never released this is well beyond me (just put black bars around the 4:3 camera format (not crop the image) It is the most visually stunning Zeppelin run. Jimmy in Dragon Suit looking healthy, Robert’s maximum charisma, Physical songs, The No Quarter improv’s were fantastic

Epic!

Hopefully with the new AI technology we can get an officially released complete Earl's Court show. Great review as always always Jose! Look forward to part 2 and PLAY LOUD🎸💥

Thanks from Florida, USA Jose! I love your documentaries on Zeppelin. Yea, by 1975, Jimmy began using heroin. However, they still sounded tight. I've watched the Earls Court concert on KZfaq, at least twice!

Great stuff Jose, I was at the Sunday show the last night May 25th, I was 16 years old. Still the best concert I have witnessed. Getting a ticket for these shows was impossible. My mates slept outside over night at one of the ticket boxes but it was only one ticket each. They went on the 17th. My mate at college had two tickets his sister had bought, both restricted view. Block 66 Gallery row A seat 15. My mates sister bought the ticket for £1. Luckily for me she did not want to go. I paid her £5 for the ticket. When we got to our seats, we were directly over the stage. When the gig started we climbed upon the barrier over looking the stage, we stood for the whole gig. We were directly over the stage, Robert looked up several times in case we fell on him. We were told to get down several times, but the place was going nuts. The sound was deafening as we were on top of the speaker cabinets. Zeppelin never played like this again, it was there hiatus. Jimmy was on fire, the sound, the colour, the energy. Knebworth was good but nothing like Earls Court. Outside the venue fans were mesmerised, in May 1975 Led Zeppelin were the greatest rock band there has ever been. What a great series, can’t believe it was 48 years ago. PS, I actually had the Trampled Underfoot single for a few months. I stupidly took it to a party (we did that back in the day) a girl I liked asked me to play it so she could dance to it. Later The girl disappeared and so did my record! 😂

Strong series opener with all the usual JCM hallmarks that set you apart. Your own personal memories of an event far across the ocean from you and in the past once more illustrate the mystery of Zep. And of course the history not only of the arena itself but the borough of Earls Court. As for Robert Plant being wanted by Slade, who knew? Just imagine that somewhere on an alternative planet earth people like us are watching JCM Slade Stories! I can’t wait for the next episode, their season at Earls Court is amongst their most celebrated gigs, seasons and tours. While the huge arenas in the United States facilitated the growth in the audio and visual aspects of their shows here in the UK, they were predominantly still playing small theatres with just an occasional excursion into larger arenas namely the Bath ‘70 festival and Wembley (not the stadium but its smaller sibling the Empire Pool with its 9000 capacity) in ‘71. Earls Court enabled them to satisfy those who (understandably) criticised them for putting on a bigger show Stateside. A huge cavernous building that could seat 17,000 fans on each night (though when Zeppelin came on the actual usage of seats was minimal), Earls Court the only venue that could allow them to ship over the entire US show lock, stock and barrel. Of course though this resulted in their critics accusing them of bringing the people to the music rather than the music to the people. Not even Zeppelin could win them all.

Get the Led out !!!

I was there at the 2nd night ! Remember it like yesterday

Absolutely fantastic work. These shows show Bonhams evolvement as a drummer. NOT as flamboyant , yes, but compact and tight as EVER.

These were very good shows but I think they were playing better earlier in the year when they toured the States. Some excellent soundboards available. Great video, mate. Led Zeppelin were the best band in the world and always will be. 🎸

Love the Earl's Court shows. One encore of Communication Breakdown had the only live snippet of D'yer Mak'er. Also, the correct pronunciation of Bron-y-Aur is Bron-Rahr. Can't wait for episode 2.

Thank you for all your great videos! But if I compare Led Zeppelin in 1973 in Tsrts and these concerts in 1975, there is a great difference: the voice of Robert Plant and also the playing of Jimmy Page, compare the solo of No Quarter. What I like most, is the piano improvisation of John Paul Jones in No Quarter. And also Kashmir at 5-24-1975!

Nice job, JCM. I love the vintage commercials from, presumably, 1975. Side note, the show where Jimmy used the strat is a cut above all the others in terms of his technical proficiency, fluidity and the overall band performance, imho.

JCM.. First.. I enjoy what you're doing with these documentaries, great work! IMHO, TSRTS was Zepp at the height of their powers. Page's playing and presence, Plant's voice... Jones & Bonham were always consistent. I've yet to hear Jimmy play better live on bootlegs, or even the BBC sessions, or How the West was Won than he did on TSRTS. The '75 Earl's Court shows were very good... but the decline was starting to show, especially in Page and Plant. Not on the studio albums, but live... and it continued to diminish.

They should digital remaster this dvd and make a cd digital remaster of this show.

This is a big one. Getting this bootleg was a seminal experience for me too. I got a 3 CD bootleg of May 24, called "To Be a Rock and Not to Roll", in really fancy packaging. First I recorded it on casettes to listen to on the go. Then later when I upgraded to a discman I used to caryy the old-school chunky multi CD case around in the cargo pocket of my pants so I could change CD! Yeah the show leaves a bit to be desired, a good Rain Song ruined somewhat by RP overdoing it, some serious slop on In My Time of Dying... but No Quarter literally blew my mind wide open, and continues to reverberate around my life 20 years later. Love the vids, thanks

Hi just subscribed ive been watching a few of these for a bit now & yea WoW you are something else & an **ExtraordinaryGift** to me at least as someone who fell madly in luv with **MyCosmicSpiritSoulmateGeniusWizardBabeJimmyPage** when i was 8 yrs old heh not sure how ya do it but am so very grateful that you are doing it must be a lot of hard work so WoW big UPS to **YOU** you are greatly appreciated **MindBlown** **Thank YOU** **ManyPixieHugz&Luvz** **RockOn!!!**✨🎸✨

Visually speaking and as composers, the Led Zeppelin of 1974 & ‘5 were never better! Physically speaking, it was another story. The fun factory that was early Led Zeppelin was getting farther and farther away from them. It’s only natural though. The lifespan of a successful band is in and or around the ten year period and Zeppelin personified this mould perfectly. It’s bittersweet on account of all the tragedies which befell them at the halfway point. It was like a real-life fairy tale. These Earls Ct. shows saw a somewhat tired band still firing pretty well and at times trying to reach back and capture previous years’ glory. You can just feel it. It was the nature of the beast of that particular moment in time. We’re lucky to have gotten what we did from them. I’m grateful. The Lake Placid Blue Strat is a ‘60 slab-board model by the way.

13:50-13:57 hahahahaha. Not sure why that made me laugh so hard, but it sure did. Dug the theremin and piano stuff in the intro. Cool to hear that stuff by itself. Gotta say, totally agree with your assessment of D&C and Moby Dick in this period. I think they were done with D&C at the end of the 73 tour. I can't recall hearing a particularly inspired version of that song on the 75 tour. It sounded like they were playing it out of obligation, not because they had anything to prove. To me, the earlier years always sounded like they were trying to prove to themselves and the world that they were the best band ever. Also, the audio of the narration sounds a little different in most of this video and I like it. Looking forward to pt2. Keep up the good work.

cool stuff jcm

Great…and characteristically wonderfully subtle and subversive humor!

Hope you picked up a few royalties for the ad’s😅nice one Jose💪🏻

I love Earl’s Court. Fortunately I saw them in Oakland, July 24th, 1977…Unfortunately, it was their last American show.

Er Noddy joining Slade as lead singer was quite a good decision tbh!

That intro story hits home. I paid $40 for an unwatchable VHS of 8/11/79 and was very disappointed with my first bootleg purchase. I remember watching the EC shows on KZfaq and was also a little let down. The band seemed to be only half of what they were in the TSRTS film, but I've learned to appreciate it.

Lololo, the Bron y aur bit was hilarious, and spot on. I'm certain I've pronounced all of those way,and maybe a couple more

Killer!

Thanks for another great video! I love live Zeppelin, but I always find it strange that there are a number of songs that were never played live, or some that were played for a short time and then dropped permanently. For example, The Rover is a classic song, but it was never played live. They often used The Rover intro to go into Sick Again, but I think The Rover is a way better song than Sick Again (just finish The Rover and forget about Sick Again!). Overall, I think Zeppelin would have been a better live band had they mixed it up more. I also come from the perspective of The Grateful Dead, who played completely different setlist every night (for the vast majority of their career), not repeating a song two shows in a row. I'm not saying that Zeppelin should have done that necessarily. They could have had some songs every night, but it would have been more interesting had they mixed it up more. Thoughts??

It is impressive the way No Quarter changed through the improvisations of the 75' North American tour. If you listen to the new Bootleg in Bloomington on January 18, which is supposed to be the first concert in the USA, after playing two warm-up shows in Rotterdam and Brussels, the presentation would be called their third warm-up since they did not play Dazed and Confused, apparently due to Page's finger injury. (I understand that the first show of the tour where Dazed and Confused played was February 3rd at MSG), but if you listen to that record, it sounds very similar to 73 MSG No Quarter. During the presentation in San Diego on March 14 of that year they decided to change the tempo and rhythm of it in the jam zone, so in Seattle on March 17 they would make a more extended version of it (A guess regarding that version). The No Quarter of the five nights at Earls Court are very different from the North American tour. Excellent video. Amazing

Page used the strat on NQ on the 23rd

On my boot (forgot which night), the version of Dazed is probably...well, one of the greatest (and longest) versions I've ever heard. The length is over 1/2 hour but WELL worth it....and it's better than version on Song Remains soundtrack. Purely just my opinion.

Great doc as always. You brought up a really good point about Jimmy's live tone. I could never figure out why as the years went by, the gain knob got turned down a little more each tour. The only thing I could ever come up with is that it could have possibly been one of the side effects from Jimmy's drug use. Thats at least one thing that im aware of which changes about him during the last half of zep. Over the years it has been pretty well documented about Jimmy's issues with heroin, in particular. So I'm thinking that to Jimmy, it was the perfect amount of gain. I guess that's obvious, right, otherwise he would have changed it....duh..lol. His tone in 77 is about the same as 75 I guess, but in 79 it gets even less crunchy.. The HTWWW DVD really highlights this during the knebworth footage, Jimmy's "heavy" tone sounds very anemic to my ears particularly on "Achillies" for example. Obviously, in all cases 75-79 it's even worse on the couple of tunes where he played the danelectro or the strat because of their single coil pickups. It's funny though because to my ears anyway, the only song that doesn't seem to suffer from this gainless problem is "ten years gone", which, i believe he always played on that brown tele. I mean I know that a large part of it is meant to be clean but we all know the heavier part and the beautiful solo, both need some crunch. For the final shows in 80, his sound has more distortion than the press couple of years and if i remember correctly, i had read that sometime in late 1979/early 1980, Jimmy had started to back of the smack( i think it was after someone else ODd in his house) . He was still drinking and doing coke so my theory may be kinda reasonable. So in conclusion the equation for my theory is as follows: 1975-1979 Jimmy Page + 1975-1979 quality heroin = lower gain settings on amplifier for conerts only. 😊

Firstly, i love this body of work . I, like many others, can not get enough of the Mighty Led Zeppelin. Having said that, can you please inform us about Bonham's acrylic drum set? When he acquired the set, where did he get them? Are they better than standard drums? And do they carry a better quality sound?

I was there for the May 18th show. Jimmy Page has said that the Earl's Court shows were the best Zep ever did, and I have read that May 18th was the best of the Earl's Court shows, so, does that mean I saw the best show Zep ever did?!?!?! 😱🤯 Love your videos JCM !! Outstanding !!!

As for me personally I think the 79 Knebworth show was the best, is there anyway you can do an expose on that show and dude please put your guitar work in the background as you speak, we would love it. Thanks bro keep up the good work.

Love Slade everyone give their album Whatever Happened To Slade a listen, very Zep. I’ve long wondered what would of happened if Jimmy Page replaced H in Slade after Zep (Slade were in the toilet and the boost would of been incredible. Jimmy really compliments the other musicians in Slade too very competent and from the same school as Page in rock. Noddy had a great voice comes close to Robert

I went to Earls Court to a guitar show, before they knocked it down. Pretty huge.

In concert and beyond.

Is Earls court Arena still there or pull down like Olimpia Arena Both famous locations for live music Bowie Lizzy Zeppelin T Rex....

I have a poster that reads "summers evening with Led Zeppelin" with special guest earth wind and fire, Lynyrd Skynyrd, three dog night, and Sly & the family stone. Dated: August 15 1974 at 7pm Central Park, New York city, can you give a little more details on that show, set list and all that you can tell us more how that became about? But that must have been a great time to drop acid and enjoy the music and atmosphere. Unfortunately for me I was only 4years old...lol

EVSD's In The Court of King James (5.24.75) & Demand Unprecedented In The History Of Rock Music (5.25.75) are major upgrades on the bootleg videos compared to earlier versions. They can be found without much difficulty. I got the Cosmic Energy & Celebration versions when they first surfaced and they are not good.

20:23 Many of us are with you on this.😅

There wasnt a limited concert infrastruture in the Uk. The Who played stadium gigs at the Oval, Charlton (twice), Glasgow and Swansea all between 71 and 76.

I love the film of the last show. Plant and the others seemed so confident but not cocky. They just seemed comfortable in themselves and they played beautifully. But it is bittersweet knowing what followed and knocked them out of the game for over a year. The great thing about JCM's video is his idolatry maintains objectivity. A lot of times Led zeppelin's wounds were self-inflicted. But nobody can tell me they got a fair shake in the press.

great documentary, I Rember buying reproduction poster of Earls Court back in the 80's had it mounted and it still hangs on my wall, just wondering also, why do you blur your time period footage?

In one of the shows, the song Tangerine had a poor sound. On which show did that take place?

I have the Jimmy Page action figure 👍🏻

The music critics didn't like Zeppelin because they became gigantic *IN SPITE* of the media and without the need to be coddled by them which the media didn't like and resented. The band basically gave the media a giant middle finger. And rightfully so..

2:36 The chick with the "LED ZEPPLIN" banner🙄

Didn't know that the black dragon suit was only worn a few times. I've had a concert poster for close to 30 years and that's what he's wearing. Perhaps some visual clues could tell me the exact show. Any statistics on the white dragon suit?

Its been awhile. Another cool episode JCM. Hope you are well. And, Thank you for your hard work and dedication. The "Earls Court Run" is a mixed bag for me. Over the years I have learned to accept it for "what it is." While also acknowledging its a far cry from their fire-breathing peak of 71-73. While I know you are reticent to make certain assumptions, I don't have your journalistic and historian standards and integrity...I see all of the '75 shows as the beginning of their "epic descent." ...The drugs were no longer "working for them" but, against them. Their improvisations in 75, tho occasionally being stellar, were more routinely, played-out, predictable and lacking the urgency of their former tours. The "passion" was largely replaced with hubris and ( save for JPJ ) an increasingly poor upkeep of their musical abilities and personal well being. Page was undoubtedly "dabbling" at this point in "things" better left untouched. Plants voice was shot. Their "lifestyle choices" were exacting their toll. And yes, indeed, "PAGE's TONE." Dear sweet Jeeeziiizzz. Kids, Just say NO. Im going to say it: LAME. Weak. And Feeble. Also I agree the "pressure" and "expectations" were high. Perhaps ridiculously so...However their decision to NOT properly rehearse for these very highly anticipated gigs, was, pardon the "pun"...Nobodies Fault but THEIRS. I have watched the 24th and 25th shows MANY many times..(How many more times??) And I DO enjoy them, to a point. But I just cant help but see, hear and feel the approaching doom that loomed just over the encroaching horizon. Till next time...