Led Zeppelin - For The Benefit Of Anyone Who Was Making A Bootleg (1975) @192
Live at Long Beach Arena, California, USA, March 11, 1975.
The fan recording of a concert is really an extension of taking snapshots of your heroes. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s recordable media was just making its way into households as a consumer electronic device, either an expensive reel-to-reel deck or a convenient cassette recording deck. Just imagine sneaking one of those into a concert these days. More likely, the stealth recorder of choice today would be a mini-disc recorder or your handphone. Small enough to fit your pocket.
But Michael Millard was different. He arrived early at concerts near his home, pulled out a wheelchair from the boot of his car and proceeded to wheel himself into the arena as an invalid. He managed to secure front row "seats", almost always front and centre. Hidden underneath his wheelchair was a Nakamichi stereo cassette deck hooked up to two high-quality AKG mics. Security guards in those days were probably unaware of such goings on.
His recordings were much sought after for their quality - capturing the expanse of the stage plus the great ambience of the halls. His close proximity eliminated any echo from his recordings. All the instruments recorded right off the front speakers. Plant’s voice is crystal clear. But Millard had a habit of marking his tapes when he copied them for another collector or fan. He would, for instance, lower the levels when transferring the audio to a VHS tape or lower the volume in mid-song when making a cassette copy. It has been said he detested bootleggers who pressed up his recordings onto vinyls or CDs to sell. To that end, he kept a log of all the trades he made with clear indications of what markings he did to the tapes. That way, he knew which of his trades were sent to bootleggers.
He worked as a custodian in a public school. In a fit of depression, he committed suicide in 1990. His friends say he destroyed all copies of his Led Zeppelin recordings. What has survived are the first generation copies he made and shared freely with other Zep fans. These are what are now being traded back and forth.
Millard was active from 1974 to the ‘80s and was said to have taped shows by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Yes, The
Rolling Stones, The Who, Jethro Tull and even Kansas. To date, we have never found a copy of his Who or Tull recordings. The non-Zeppelin masters are known to be in possession of Millard’s family. Hopefully, someday they will be shared again.
This particular March 11 show has appeared many times before on the following bootlegs:
California Graffiti (Masterport),
California Sunshine (Badgeholders),
Long Beach Arena Complete (Confusion),
Long Beach 1975 (Flying Disc & LSD),
kittycat & **** (Tarantura),
Standing In the Shadow of Midnight (
Empress Valley), &
Zeppelin L (Akashic)
Of all the boots, probably the best and most complete is Masterport’s California Graffiti which is at the proper speed with the complete introduction and all onstage banter by Robert Plant. Millard also recorded the shows on March 12 and March 14. But that’s another story.
Thanks go out to zeptrade who shared his first generation copy of this show.
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Disc 1
11 Announcement
12 Rock 'n' Roll
13 Sick Again
14 Over The Hills & Far Away
15 In My Time Of Dying
16 The Song Remains The Same
17 The Rain Song
Disc 2
21 Kashmir
22 No Quarter
23 Trampled Underfoot
24 Moby Dick
Disc 3
31 Dazed And Confused
32 Stairway To Heaven
33 Whole Lotta Love
34 Black Dog
Artwork included
http://rapidshare.de/files/26226517/lzlb.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/26231238/lzlb.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/26232539/lzlb.part3.rar
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