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Led Zeppelin * 1977-06-23 * The Forum * Inglewood, CA * Millard/Goldstein Master Tapes via JEMS Vol. 227 * Raw and Dadgad Mastered Editions

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#1 ·
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Led Zeppelin

The Forum
Inglewood, CA
June 23, 1977
Mike Millard and Barry Goldstein Master Tapes via JEMS and dadgad
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 227
Raw and Mastered Editions



Recording Gear: AKG 451E Microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 Cassette Recorder

JEMS Transfer:

Mike Millard Master Cassettes > Yamaha KX-W592 Cassette Deck > Sony R-500 DAT > Analog Master DAT Clone > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > FLAC

Barry Goldstein Master Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > Audacity > FLAC

01 Intro
02 The Song Remains The Same
03 The Rover > Sick Again
04 Nobody's Fault But Mine
05 Over The Hills And Far Away
06 Since I've Been Loving You
07 No Quarter
08 Ten Years Gone
09 Battle Of Evermore
10 Going To California
11 Black Country Woman
12 Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
13 White Summer > Black Mountain Side
14 Kashmir
15 Trampled Underfoot
16 Out On The Tiles > Moby Dick (with Keith Moon)
17 Guitar Solo
18 Achilles Last Stand
19 Stairway To Heaven
20 Whole Lotta Love (With Keith Moon)
21 Rock And Roll (With Keith Moon)

Known Faults: First four songs recorded by Barry Goldstein; rest of the show recorded by Mike Millard. Occasional dropouts in the first half of the show and a fidelity drop during "Stairway To Heaven" through the end of the encore.

Introduction to the Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Series

Welcome to JEMS’ Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone series presenting recordings made by legendary taper Mike Millard, AKA Mike the MICrophone, best known for his masters of Led Zeppelin done in and around Los Angeles circa 1975-77. For the complete details on how tapes in this series came to be lost and found again, as well as JEMS' long history with Mike Millard, please refer to the notes in Vol. One

Until 2020, the Lost and Found series presented fresh transfers of previously unavailable first-generation copies made by Mike himself for friends like Stan Gutoski of JEMS, Jim R, Bill C. and Barry G. These sources were upgrades to circulating copies and in most instances marked the only time verified first generation Millard sources had been directly digitized in the torrent era.

That all changed with the discovery of many of Mike Millard’s original master tapes.

Yes, you read that correctly, Mike Millard’s master cassettes, long rumored to be destroyed or lost, have been found. Not all of them but many, and with them a much more complete picture has emerged of what Millard recorded between his first show in late 1973 and his last in early 1992.

The reason the rediscovery of his master tapes is such a revelation is that we’ve been told for decades they were gone. Internet myths suggest Millard destroyed his master tapes before taking his own life, an imprudent detail likely concocted based on the assumption that because his master tapes never surfaced and Mike’s mental state was troubled he would do something rash WITH HIS LIFE’S WORK. There’s also a version of the story where Mike’s family dumps the tapes after he dies. Why would they do that?

The truth is Mike’s masters remained in his bedroom for many years after his death in 1994. We know at least a few of Millard’s friends and acquaintances contacted his mother Lia inquiring about the tapes at the time to no avail. But in the early 2000s, longtime Millard friend Rob S was the one she knew and trusted enough to preserve Mike’s work.

The full back story on how Mike’s master tapes were saved can be found in the notes for Vol. 18 Pink Floyd, which was the first release in our series transferred from Millard’s original master tapes

Led Zeppelin, The Forum, Inglewood, CA, June 23, 1977

The primary phase of the Lost and Found series on DIME comes to a close after 227 volumes with the last of Mike "The Mike" Millard's Led Zeppelin master tapes. The June 23, 1977 concert is known as the Badgeholders show, a word taken from Robert Plant's comments to the crowd, and memorialized on the famous bootleg vinyl set For Badgeholders Only, recorded by John Wizardo. The performance is also notable for a guest appearance by The Who's Keith Moon, more memorable for his antics than his playing.

Among Millard tapes, the June 23 master always carried an asterisk as his recording misses the first four songs of the night. But as luck would have it, our recent partnership with Mike's good friend Barry Goldstein has yielded his master tape of the first 45 minutes of the Badgeholders show, including the four songs Mike missed. In a strange stroke of fate, Goldstein's recording itself is incomplete, covering only the first 45 minutes of the set. You can hear his batteries failing at the start of "No Quarter" (not included here; BG's full 45 minute master will be posted down the road).

It seemed only fitting that we present the last of Mike's iconic Led Zeppelin recordings with a patch from his longtime friend Barry. While Goldstein's master was recorded on lesser gear than Millard's and lacks that level of fidelity, it is still a very good, clear and close tape and makes an excellent complementary component. We should also note, as was the case with the last couple of Millard Zeppelin releases in the Lost and Found series, alignment issues from the early 2000s transfer of Mike's master cassettes to DAT do pop up here in "Stairway To Heaven" and on through the end of the encore, diminishing fidelity.

That transfer flaw noted, the majority of Millard's recording is sublime as is the band's fine performance. Samples provided of both sources.

Here's what Jim R recalled about Led Zeppelin and their pal Keith Moon at The Forum in 1977:

I attended the Led Zeppelin concert with Mike Millard on June 23, 1977. The gig was at the familiar Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, Zeppelin's US home court if there ever was one.

June 23 was the third night out of six shows. Mike and I sat in the sixth row, dead center on the floor, perfect seats within our much discussed Sweet Spot i.e. rows 3-7 center on the floor. It was a great position capable of picking up stage amps, stage monitors and the huge PA as well. Sixth row is also slightly safer as far as not getting busted during the show, as the stage lights typically don't illuminate it as much as the first couple of rows.

In hindsight, this turned out to be one of the last times we were to see the Mighty Zep, the final time being the June 27 show, closing night of the run and their last SoCal appearance ever (see Vol. 214).

This was a "normal" length set, around three hours, and it includes some of the better performances by Jimmy Page on the tour. The rest of the band was spot on as well. June 23 is famous for Keith Moon joining the group on stage and "helping" Bonzo with the drumming. Though Moon was clearly drunk, the band was quite enamored with his antics. Moon was the quintessential party guy.

Some of you may be wondering why we didn't go to all six of Zeppelin's Forum shows, instead of "only" four. The answer is how the tickets were released to the public. They initially sold tickets for three concerts (the same number of Forum shows as they played in 1975) at 10am. These were quickly gone, then later the same day they released tickets for the fourth then fifth nights.

We heard about this as we were still in the parking lot and tried to trade some of our tickets for the extra nights, but no one would bite. Keep in mind, these Zep shows were the first $100 scalper tickets, an unheard of price at the time. When the shows were postponed to June, a sixth and final night (6/27) was added with its own on-sale date a couple months after the first five, where Mike and I both scored awesome seats. Plus we saw them in San Diego on June 19.

The Summer of 1977 was at the tail end of the wheelchair era, but I pushed Mike in for this one. Security was getting wise to Mike's covert recording, so he passed each completed cassette to me for safe keeping in case he got busted during the show. The corrupt security guards had been instructed to confiscate Mike's tapes after the show in order to sell them to bootleggers themselves, but we were a step ahead. At the end of the show, I had all the tapes, and would swiftly squirm my way out of the packed humanity near the stage and meet Mike at his car. I had my own set of keys so I could lock myself inside if it came down to it. Mike had a set of cheap blanks on him to give to security if needed. We were always thinking ahead.

I took some good pictures at the show, but the sixth row was our worst seat location out of the four nights we attended.

I hope you enjoy the sights and sounds from this wonderful performance.

Cheers to my buddy Mike. RIP Mike, John and Keith.


###

JEMS is proud to partner with Rob, Jim R, Ed F, Barry G and many others to release Millard's historic recordings and to help set the record straight about the man himself.

We can’t thank Rob enough for reconnecting with Jim and putting his trust in our Millard reissue campaign. He kept Mike’s precious tapes under wraps for two decades, but once Rob learned of our methods and stewardship, he agreed to contribute the Millard DATs and cassettes to the program. Our releases would not be nearly as compelling without Jim’s memories, photos and other background contributions. As many of you have noted, the stories offer an entertaining complement to Mike’s incredible audio documents.

Special thanks to dadgad for his work repairing and mastering both sources. As we have done with all Led Zeppelin titles in the series, we're releasing this in both mastered and unmastered/raw editions. It's been our pleasure to partner with dadgad throughout and we look forward to more Zep projects with him in the future. Rob S did the transfer of Mike's cassettes and the DAT he made at the time, and we're grateful for both. Jim R gave us his memories and his images, including a glimpse of Mr. Moon. Professor Goody made sure both sources were properly pitched. And last but not least, mjk5510 took care as always of post production and our CD cover art. We couldn't do this without them.

Finally, cheers to the late, great Mike the MICrophone. His work never ceases to impress. May he rest in peace.

BK for JEMS

Samples:

FLAC:
Raw:


Cooked:
 
#3 · (Edited)
Thank you so much for responding to my request.(Will this version be the last ZEP in the "Millard Master Tapes via JEMS Vol" series?)
The "Jon Wizardo" version is my favorite, but I am very happy to get the complete "Millard/Goldstein" remaster.
I can't hide my surprise to see the close-up shots of Mr.JOHN MOON and Mr.KEITH BONHAM for the first time! Thank you very much.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for this one. The "For Badgeholders Only" bootleg was one of the first I ever bought. Back in 1981 I was at Disc Connection in Westwood. They had some oddball stuff in there mixed amongst the official releases. I picked up a few:

The Beatles at Vancouver, 1964, which was a double record set complete with press conferences, radio play-by-play, and soundboard recording;

The Beatles Black Album, a three record set of Get Back Sessions complete with poster. The disturbing thing was the records were all labeled with a doggie that has a gun to its head;

Led Zeppelin For Badgeholders Only, a four-record set from the Forum 6/23/1977. Four similar records with unmarked white labels. It starts with The Rover/Sick Again, so no TSRTS in this set. It's a bit boomy. But I came to realize, many years on, that it's an awesome capture of the night's show. Especially the acoustic numbers. Even if Kashmir, Battle Of Evermore, and Achilles Last Stand fade out.

These were my first bootleg purchases. Propelled me down that road of "Is that all there is?..."

The primary phase of Millard's collection has been awesome. I love to take a random trip down the rabbit hole, select a Millard show, crank it up, and imagine. Most of these primary offerings are simply superb. Clear, dynamic, with little audience distraction, just like a fine wine. Although I have trouble imagining how an audience might interfere with my DIY sommelier vibe. Clapping along while taking a sip... Singing along while pouring.... But I digress.

Goody, I thank you for taking this beyond DIME. I'm a member, too. But ratios kill it for me. Pretty much everything out there has been out there. So little that is new. There was a time, in the late 90's when I fancied myself as someone who would help with adjusting/correcting the pitch of various tapes playing at the wrong speed. I was doing that with my friends' bootleg tapes. So many bootlegs are just slightly off. So I had a program called PEAK, and I'd sit there with my keyboard, using my ears to assist in adjusting the recording speed to match, keeping in mind that bands like to tune down,...so then there's listening to the singer's voice, especially in the between-song banter. I am grateful that you have taken this art to a new plateau. Your archive must be in the petabytes at this point. The difference being that you have probably listened to all of it. Whereas I am in the acquisition phase. I could never hope to listen to everything I've got. But I also believe that the paradigm for music consumption is shifting under our feet. If you see something, save something. It's all Newspeak to the record companies. They are quick to pull stuff off the market, out of the streaming service, as if it never existed.

I look forward to the occasional Millard release as the moment comes up. No rush. No seriously, I don't think he was a Rush fan.

Peace, brah,
Z
 
#11 ·
Mike Millard Master Cassettes > Yamaha KX-W592 Cassette Deck > Sony R-500 DAT > Analog Master DAT Clone > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > FLAC
Barry Goldstein Master Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > Audacity > FLAC
Sorry for the rudimentary question.

Barry Goldstein Master Cassette" up to "Over The Hills And Far Away" and "Mike Millard Master Cassette" from "Since I've Been Loving You" to the end.

Is the above interpretation correct?

(Original Millard sources)

If so, I would like to hear the "Barry Goldstein Master Cassette" in general in the future.
 
#12 ·
Mr. dadgad gave us some behind-the-scenes stories about the production of the soundtrack for this project.

“BG's tape ends after NQ due to battery failure.
Around the 41-minute mark of the tape, approximately 2:33 into the song, it suddenly speeds up by almost 7 semitones before stabilizing at that unlistenable speed and with frequent fluctuations.
I did my best to fix that section, but it's a real mess.
For this reason, we decided with JEMS to keep MM's tape intact and only use the first four songs from BG's tape that are missing from MM's. ”

Thanks to Mr. dadgad and Mr. JEMS for the great job they did in presenting us with this legendary recording by the two tapers of the day.
 
#13 ·
I'm getting an error message when trying to DL from the two links, Raw and Cooked. Is anyone else having a problem. I dl'd from others without any problem.

Error connecting to the database. Please try again shortly.
 
#18 · (Edited)
A little late here, but a question for JEMS and the other custodians of Mike's collection:

"Among Millard tapes, the June 23 master always carried an asterisk as his recording misses the first four songs of the night. "

On "Since I've Been Loving You" there sounds like a tape-flip at 5:08. If so, wouldn't that indicate that Mike recorded the first 30 minutes as well?

Seems odd that he would flip the tape during the first song he taped... :unsure:
 
#19 ·
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Date: 1977-06-23
Location: Inglewood, CA
Venue: The Forum
Source: Audience
Lineage: 1st gen cassettes(TDK SA 90)x3>Nakamichi 670 pitch & azimuth-adjusted playback deck>Nakamichi Outboard Dolby B Unit>Wavelab 96/24>Izotope 44.1/16>flac
Taping Gear: AKG mics, Nakamichi 550 cassette deck
Taped By: Mike Millard
Transferred By: JEMS


Setlist:
01. Since I've Been Loving You
02. No Quarter
03. Ten Years Gone
04. The Battle Of Evermore
05. Going To California
06. Black Country Woman
07. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
08. White Summer
09. Kashmir
10. Trampled Underfoot
11. Over The Top
12. Noise Solo
13. Achilles Last Stand
14. Stairway To Heaven
15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Rock And Roll

Length: 165:48

Notes:
UNcirculated set of unmarked tapes for this show transferred with Dolby B on as per Mike's notes on the tape labels using an adjustable outboard Dolby B unit. This is the 1st time (May 2010) these tapes have ever been digitized. The sound is completely unaltered except for pitch correction during playback. There are many dropouts in the recording due to Millard having problems with his tape deck. He also missed the first four songs due to having the pause button pressed in while recording. As it turns out there is has been an unmarked copy of this recording circulating for many years now on the Badgeholders (Balboa) label that no one has noticed except for the astute observations of Blackmikito. To paraphrase his analysis he did the a/b comparison of Balboa with other versions and discovered outside of the common dropouts in both channels from recorder problems Balboa is the only one without single channel manipulation issues. This low gen confirms his conclusion. Also of note is the tone you hear during the first dropout's during Since I've Been Loving You is actually a test tone. Here is some more of Blackmikito's research and conclusions on this.

"One significant piece of info that I can pass on to you that most people don't know is that Millard was likely having issues with the Nak on this night. This is why there are so many cuts and drops on the recording. Originally I had always thought that the drops and beeping noise in SIBLY were marks. But, a few years ago I did a little research and found out that the Nakamichi 550 has a 400hz "test tone" switch on the back of the deck: Nakamichi 550 Cassette Deck

Pushing that switch will cut-off your recording and insert the test tone. This is used so that you can match what you recorded on the Nak against the test tone on another deck. (Hence the phrase "Tones on Tail" - a studio note to let other engineers know that the test tone is on the tail of the reel of tape). It is this test tone switch on the Nak 550 which I believe caused all of the drops on the 6/23/77 recording. Go to this site: http://www.testsounds.com/ and listen to the sample for the 400hz test-tone. Now compare that one to the test tone that you can hear during "Since I've Been Loving You". The two tones match.

This error correlates with something that I had learned from a friend of Mike's who I went back and forth with a few years ago via email. When I brought up the errors on 6/23/77 to him, he said that he didn't attend that show with Mike, but that he believed that that show must've been one of the ones that Mike had told him about, where he ruined a recording by standing his deck up in the bag that he had it hidden in, and inadvertently activated the test-tone button. This happened to him a few times, so Mike later came up with a homemade plastic cover which he attached to the back of the deck so that it wouldn't happen anymore."

With all that said is this an upgrade to the Balboa release? The answer is yes, since Balboa used a higher gen analog copy(an eq'd 2nd gen). Also the root 1st gen for that release is not this tape.

Conclusion like it or not this is a clean unaltered transfer of Mike's recording that sounds as his master(which was recorded with Dolby B on) would with the transfer work and digitization done correctly and faithfully as possible to the masters.

LZ1977-06-23 Inglewood Millard    (7days)