The Triumph Rehearsals: Guitar On Version (Tarantura TCD2007-REH-A-1, 2)
Shepperton Studios, London, England – December 5th, 2007
Disc 1 (46:45): Intro, Good Times Bad Times, Ramble On, Black Dog, In My Time Of Dying, For Your Life, Trampled Underfoot, Nobody’s Fault But Mine, No Quarter (start only)
Disc 2 (53:21): Since I’ve Been Loving You, Dazed And Confused, Stairway To Heaven, The Song Remains The Same, Misty Mountain Hop (end missing), Kashmir, Whole Lotta love, Rock And Roll
Several months ago four songs, “Good Times Bad Times,” “For Your Life,” “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and “Rock And Roll” from Led Zeppelin’s rehearsal for the O2 reunion surfaced in very good sound quality. They were pressed, along with other interesting outtakes, on Countdown (Boogie Mama). The soundboard recording was excellent, but Jimmy Page’s guitar was buried down in the mix.
Soon afterwards Tarantura released The Triumph Rehearsals: Guitar On Version. It features almost the entire two hour rehearsal. It misses significant portions of “No Quarter” and “Misty Mountain Hop,” both cutting out after two and a half minutes. The sound is excellent and Page’s guitar, buried on the four tracks, sounds much louder.
It is known they had a soundcheck in the arena the day of the show, but this is a full dress rehearsal five days before the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute concert at the O2 Arena in London on December 10th, 2007.
The tape starts off with the newscast about the 1973 Tampa show found on the bonus disc of The Song Remains The Same and also played as an introduction at the reunion gig before “Good Times Bad Times.”
The band proceed through the entire setlist for the reunion gig and all of it sounds very tight. “For Your Life” sounds more tentative than the others with noticeable hesitation in one of the transitions. It sounds really nice, however, and remains one of the strangest songs ever written by Zeppelin.
With as good as the sound is, it’s a shame that only two minutes of “No Quarter” and the ending of “Misty Mountain Hop” are missing. A complete tape surfaced several days after this one. The sound on Tarantura is simply mind blowing and comes so close to being the definitive version of the tape. The packaging is excellent with nice use of photographs.
7 Comments
I know jabs. You can’t fault Tarantura though, he did his best. But the funny thing is….
I was in the Phoenix library today and I ready the latest Rolling Stone (the one with George Cloony on the cover). And the magazine actually reviewed this release (not by name though).
Finally received this yesterday! Listened to it tonight and was BLOWN AWAY! Excellent sound quality, to say the very least. Every track sounds so beautiful…NO QUARTER sounds like it’s going to be stellar…but then at 2:07…I knew what was going to happen, but it didn’t quell the urge to murder. That has to be the biggest injustice in recent ROIO history! What a rotten, rotten shame. Otherwise, a stunning release in all aspects.
I have this TARANTURA release currently on the way…I CAN’T WAIT!!
…nevertheless…it’s complete. Of course the Tarantura release sounds really brilliant. I like both releases very much.
but sourced from shitty mp3 lossy source LOL
“Swan Songs” 4 CD set from Empress Valley includes the complete rehearsals without any cuts.
Thank you for the review, Gerard.
I sent you a double shot. Thanks for the tip about a “A complete tape…”
I also want to hear the complete “No Quarter” and “MMH” as well.