Possible future release of Led Zeppelin Fillmore West video? And inclusive of one of the most superb versions of Killing Floor? I have the audio bootlegs for these concerts but video would be heaven’s send. Hopefully the stash also includes As Long as I Have You. That would make me one very contented person. ^_^

Legendary promoter’s stash to be released and it ain’t only rock’n’roll

The full article can be found here

It’s been a very miserable 2 days for me: down with a nasty cough which resulted in a horrible tension headache; was feverish too. Today’s Saturday but I’m stuck at home nursing my throat and my irritated nose isn’t making matters easier :-(

Anyway since I’m bored out of my mind I decide to rip and share the 2 Led Zeppelin concert Stairway’s that I blogged about in the Earls Court post. In spite of my being medicated I found a way to increase my site’s php upload limit to something more than 8Mb which means that I can now put stereo versions of my mp3s (the Earls Court is in mono because at 128kbps, that would have meant a file of at least 10Mb; I will reupload the file in the near future — subject to my malfunctioning memory)

Just found another 2 interesting Led Zeppelin video clips. These form a complete pro-recorded Earls Court 1975 Stairway to Heaven that didn’t make into the official DVD:

Part I

Now that I’m on the Led Zeppelin train, I dig out an old Zep bootleg: “Geisha 芸者/Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” (1971年9月29日, 大阪フェスティバルホール, 日本). At the same time, I completed the semi-touched-up bootleg CD artwork. Boy, it does it brings back memories. I remember the days I used to spend improving/perfecting the artworks before printing them, and the many more hours listening/verifying/selecting CDs to trade. I don’t know if that fervour will ever return but it’s nice to reminiscence every now and then.

Now I’d just posted yesterday about the skiffle scene in the Yardbirds entry yesterday and what do I find today? A complete version of the performance + interview. I never knew about the second song. Pagey looked so sweet (I never thought I’d say that!) then! *___*

I’ve been glued to YouTube for the past few days since I registered with it and this is one of the gems I discovered today. A slightly (aged?) Japanese documentary on the Yardbirds. I’m thankful my Japanese is decent enough to understand some of the Japanese commentary but even if I didn’t, the rare footage is a plus. I’ve actually seen some of it before, for instance, the young Jimmy Page playing skiffle on a TV show. Actually, methinks I should dig out my bootleg Led Zeppelin related video (I have a decent amount of these, having been the fanatic) and post it on YouTube when I have the time.

FYI, the person interviewed at the beginning is Georgio Gomelsky (ジョルジオ・ゴメルスキー) who was The Yardbirds’ manager/producer and the owner of the Crawdaddy club.

To not know of a new CD released by an ex-Led-Zeppelin-bandmember until a review of it is published in the local newspapers is an extremely strange revelation. It only goes to prove how much attention I have been paying to the rock music world and to the band to whom I worshipped for several years of my life.

The CD in question is Robert Plant’s latest, Mighty Rearranger, which he has created in collaboration with his band Strange Sensation. The cover of the album is Dave-McKean-ish gorgeous and I had the pleasure of listening to a free (note: not illegal but officially free), albeit low quality, quicktime version of one of the songs on the album titled “Shine it All Around”. It is very reminiscent of Led Zeppelin but Robert owns this one. His voice may be older, rougher, but the music has evolved to complement these new vocal qualities.

I’m going to get a copy of the album this weekend. Judging by the ratings in Amazon, the album is probably not going to disappoint. This will be the first rock album I will have bought in ages and I’ve got high hopes about it.

Trying a different kind of Photoshop art. Sketched this on paper, scanned it, and then traced the outline. Filled the colour, added the words and there ya go.

23 Mar 2001, 3:10-3:30 PM

The Xenosaga album by Yasunori Mitsuda has been getting quite a bit of flak from fans expecting a followup to Xenogears. The following was a reply I made to a post in the Gamingforce.com forums titled “What is better Xenosaga OST or Xenogears OST?”.

Well in my opinon, I’ve been listening to the Xenosaga soundtrack for the past few days. And as an album, I prefer Xenosaga to Xenogears because the tracks in Xenosaga have more flow than Xenogears. I can say that this is partly due to the fact that Xenosaga was composed for the PS2 which allows for more performed instrumentation rather than sequenced music.

The Xenogears OST had some really fantastic tunes, the opening track, for instance, surpasses the opening track in Xenosaga. The bulk of the standout tunes were in the end of second album in the Id and final boss themes. But the soundtrack on the overall was uneven. In terms of game background music, some of the tracks are perfect, but when it comes down to the purpose of cd music, they are merely filler. However, the reason why I think people love the Xenogears OST (which I do btw) is because the music at the end covers up the deficiencies scattered in the rest of the album. I’m sure a lot of Xenogears fans put the last tracks (“Alpha and Omega”, “One Who Bares Fangs at God” et al.) on repeat mode far more often than the earlier songs in the CD. There could be exceptions I guess, but that’s what I think anyway.

This picture I made for the CD cover of one of my Led Zeppelin concert bootlegs. I used a picture of the Graf Zeppelin (if I recall correctly) and merged it with a photograph of the sky. I altered the colours, and used some difference effects to get the result shown in the right.