In The Court Of King James (Empress Valley DVD 021-022)
Earls Court, London, England – May 24th, 1975
DVD1: Nicky Horne Introduction/Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Tangerine/Going To California/That’s The Way/Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
DVD2: Trampled Underfoot medley incl. Gallows Pole/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused medley incl. Woodstock/Stairway To Heaven/ Whole Lotta Love medley incl. The Crunge, Sex Machine, Turn On Your Lovelight/Out On The Tiles Intro/Black Dog
Great new DVD by Empress Valley. For the most part the picture is sharper and clearer than other releases including Heavy Metal Kids. This is not a re-make of Heavy Metal Kids….the two disc DVD is available in normal NTSC DVD and a non-pressed Blu Ray version. The most noticeable improvement is with Tangerine – complete and sharp – no cuts of any kind. Very nice to have a new DVD in what has been a rather boring year – this definetly will make some noise!
24 Comments
I like this release because it is more complete than the previous releases of this video
This release has better visuals than the other versions of this show I have, HMK’s and the Boogie Momma release. Some minor sound clips but overall I thought disc two was ok when I compared titles, at least visually. Islander
Cannot disagree with any of the commnents – I try to stay on the positive side especially in such a slow time. I enjoyed this DVD – always will. Bootlegs are never perfect – this is better than what I had before for this show…
Ledman, I totally agree. If EV are going to continue with their re-issues, I would love to see the 9 CD “Bonzo’s Birthday Party” set, as I also missed out on that one.
Hager thanks for the clarification. “Sputnik” I trust your observations and now in no hurry to watch the second disc.
“roertd7” I agree with you that EVSD should get credit for the soundboards that they uncover. I speculate that they are still trying to profit from the left over discs and hopefully to purchase other soundboards. While their repackaging left over discs how about a reissue of the “Bonzo’s Birthday Party” 9 CD box set that I missed out on???? Maybe packaged with a slip case like the “Deep Throat” Christmas Edition I do hope EVSD is taking the time to read our posts???
Glad I decided to stick with HMK after reading these reviews. It’s a shame EVSD now appear to be complacent, careless and sloppy with their releases. A few years back they were THE LZ label and their Soundboard Revolution was unlike anything ever matched by Tarantura, Scorpio and Godfather in terms of new material. I know Godafather has gone on to remaster some of EVSD’s soundboard releases, but credit has to be given to them for actually putting new titles out in the first place. Perhaps criticisms like these will prompt EVSD to re-evaluate what they’re doing if they want to protect their legacy. Separately, does anyone think all these TMOQ labelled re-releases marks an end to the soundboard revolution and does that mean expectation of Seattle ’75 SBs remains just a wish list?
I have the standard edition, and disc 2 SUCKS! It’s a F#%^ing mess with annoying errors all the way thru! The only thing EV is doing right is providing us with great 1975 soundboards…. which they need to continue doing. Maybe the “No Label” folks can take this 05/24/75 source and clean it up to give us a nice presentation of this show. They did a superb job with 08/04/79 and 12/10/07.
Dang! You guys are good.
Seriously.
Standard edition, LedMan. It’s apparent, from other posters here, that the “Bul Ray” version was also a hoax. Never thought I’d see reason in me being called nuts, but our webmaster’s unfortunately got a point on this one.
Hager, Are your comments directed towards the Blu-Ray or Standard Edition? I admit I’ve only watched disc #1 of the Standard Edition and haven’t really analyzed it too much. I also agree that most of EV’s reissues have been a disappointment for me and come in cheap packaging. My main focus today with the label is to collect all the original issues and other back catalouge releases.
Thanks for the comments on this release. EV have been doing almost nothing the past two years except reissue their back catalogue in inferior packaging. They stopped being a viable label several years ago and anyone who hypes them, or spends any money on them, are nuts.
Anyone who has not yet been ripped-off by this piece of garbage release should immediately crush any thought of getting this thing. Empress Valley are the lowest of the low labels, and this release firmly continues that ugly distinction. While the visuals from “Rock and Roll” through “Tangerine” are nice, there are countless annoying audio drops and spikes, worsened only by static crackle. This is a joke, given the excellent audio widely available for this show. But that’s not as bad as it gets. Starting with “Going to California”, a significantly inferior, grainy visual with blurred colors is used, reminiscent of the pirated, high generation lousy copies of this film that were circulated about 10 years ago. This poor quality visual continued through “That’s the Way”, which was as far as I could get before turning this off and removing the disc from the player, probably forever. Empress Valley arrogantly stamped its EV logo on the bottom right of the picture, too, as if you needed to see that reminder of who stuck you on this title. And it’s even worse – the audio starting in “Going to California” has no correlation to the film you’re watching, so you hear Robert singing one thing and see him singing (or saying) something entirely different. Atrocious. Empress Valley stick to this recipe with the packaging, which is an unimaginative use of recycled pictures we’ve seen over and over again. The people – or person – behind Empress Valley have repeatedly shown they have no respect for the devoted collectors who pay to enjoy Led Zeppelin and other artists’ underground material. They dance with other pirates, like Beelzebub, and it’d be perfectly fitting to see them run straight out of business. In sum, this release is yet another sham by Empress Valley, who have conclusively proved themselves to be a cadre of criminals who should never be trusted. Caveat emptor for anything “EV”.
Do you think they will issue such a disc? How does that happend? Thanks
Actually, after watching the Blu Ray completely, there are dropouts all the way through Stairway to Heaven and a number of other places, due to poor mastering. I am waiting for Empress Valley to issue a replacement disc and would advise everyone to avoid this release until this is corrected.
You are correct – with this release I feel Tangerine is a far better video and I think better audio. I am comparing to Heavy Metal Kids…I like it! Bul Ray may refer to why the Blu Ray is needed?
Just to clarify the original review, Tangerine has always been missing from the May 25 show, not this one. All versions of the May 24 show are missing the video for Going to California and the first few bars of That’s the Way, employing the audience recording for the audio and this one is no different.
However, this is by far the best version of this show out there and essential for any Zep fan.
By the way Empress Valley, what is a Bul Ray Disc?
Raymond – totally agree – a nice release and reasonably priced – one you would want to own for sure! EV did a good job one this one.
This is just awesome the picture Quality and the sound are very very good hardly any colour bleed just bits in the brighter reds, I have got or seen most of the different versions of this show since it came out and this is the best so far. Comes in clear clamshell case with artwork outside and inside nice 75 tour photo’s, If your a Zeppelin fan and the 75 period is one of your favourites you need this !
I second that but it also would be very nice if anyone of you, folks, can torrent this over any tracker. To admire I’d like to watch it before buying…
If anyone wants to see scans let me know.
Agree on the comment regarding cover art from EV. Hager I have e-mailed you some slightly crude pics I took at home – sorry about the size of the files. Basically it is a nice work – it is sideways on the front and rear – different but pleasing. Inside the clear case there is also more art that is on the reverse of the sleeve.
To the extent any cover art exists for this title, it will be provided for CMR viewing when available.
interesting! is there any cover art?
I do believe there are somewhere pure 1st gen dubs from the masters that were taken off somewhere in the 1990s and lent to few collectors. Since I did not watch it yet I am really curious what the upgrade they manage to improve quality, hard to believe they are from these dubs however.