Led Zeppelin News

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I know. It was the '73 tour. I know it's not safe to assume things but I was young in high school when I saw the film in the theatre when it came out and assumed it was a quad performance during Dazed and Confused and JP was pointing to the locations of the sound with his violin bow.
That’s fair. I suppose that could be taken to imply they were using a quad system.
 
I don't think Zep ever played live with a quad set up. I don't recall anything like that in Minneapolis in 1975. I believe Page was just pointing his bow at different points in the auditorium when he was doing that and it was mainly just up for effect.

They did have lasers, however. And a large "LED ZEPPELIN" sign up behind them which lit up brightly. Oh, and the aforementioned color wheel which operated during "Trampled Underfoot". It reminded me of the color wheels sold to light up aluminum Christmas trees. My grandparents had one.

Doug
 
My curiosity is sourced the the new Bonham biography "Beast" by C. M. Kushins

Here is one of a couple of mentions in the book

1639757800952.png
 
I have since listened to a couple of 75 bootlegs and part way through Moby Dick you can definitely hear the timpani fading out of the front left...then a fade signal in the right front, then back to full right front, then full left front etc.

I dunna think the review be fluff

Another excerpt form the book

1639763695906.png
 
Those John Bonham drum solos are SO tedious, a quad setup in concert would be something that would make them almost tolerable. Almost. However, this thread is the first I've heard of a possible quad setup. There definitely was some heavy stereo panning during his tympani solo in 1977. The Destroyer bootleg features this.
 
The heavy stereo thing in 1977, is what I also remember at the Oakland 7-23-77 show. I agree drum solo’s can be a bit too much sometimes, but I personally loved hearing John Bonham’s drum solo. Like listening to Classical music, I was mesmerized by each note played on the drums. I never saw anyone hit the drum set harder than how John played. He had been a construction worker at one time, as I understand it.

I don’t recall anything Quad or surround about Led Zeppelin, except for a special showing back when for their movie TSRTS. It was shown in a modern Cinerama Dome theater, with a super large, curved screen. For this showing only, which stayed at the theater for about 4-5 months, 4 huge and loud speakers were attached to the roof, in typical Quad fashion, with stereo speakers behind the screen. I saw the movie 3 times over the months and sat in different sections of the theater. I could be wrong, but I can only conclude that it was a 70mm print, with a six channel mix, stereo in the front, and Quad effects and music flying through the Quad roof speakers. It was a very aggressive mix, that fit the music perfectly. There was always music going through all the speakers. It made you feel like you were actually there, seeing them live. There was a lot of crazy panning in the Quad speakers at times. I believe they recreated that experience decent enough, when it was remixed for 5.1 Blu-ray in late 2000’s. The Blu-ray mix seemed a little bit more tame, than how I experienced it at that theater in 1976.

The movie theater could hold about 950 people at one time. At one showing I saw, there was so much pot smoking by hundreds of teenagers like myself, that a thick blanket of smoke hung in the air. The smoke was so intense, just breathing got you into a mood. This theater also specialized in sensurround sound showings of movies like “Earthquake” and “Midway.”
 
I don't recall ever seeing Zep with a quad sound system. I DO remember their sound always pretty much sucked.
 


Thank you so much, goosebumps off of all that intensity.

I saw them in San Diego in 1977 and while the Dazed and Confused violin bow solo took place I do not recall the sound snippets moving to other speaker arrays. Home video? Yes. In the moment I don't think so.
Relatedly, the 1998 Page-Plant tour stop in Auburn Hills was pretty exhilarating. I got to hear them play so many earlier LZ tunes (from I,II, III, IV) live that I thought I'd never ever get to hear. ;)
 
I can't listen to it right now but isn't the closing credits audio track on the Blu-ray of TSRTS movie a 5.1 surround version of Stairway To Heaven? I don't remember.
 
I don’t recall a new 5.1 mix of STH. But the movie version was stereo, and nothing in the Quad speakers, to just chill everyone out after all the intense live music.
 
Back
Top