Selon le professeur Steve Chibnall de l'université de De Montfort, il existerait 20 à 30 mn d'une vidéo enregistrée le 28 juin 1970 au festival de Bath :
Posted By: ledzepnews 27th May 2017
Between 20 and 30 minutes of official colour footage of Led Zeppelin performing at Bath Festival on June 28, 1970 exists, according to Professor Steve Chibnall from De Montfort University.
Professor Chibnall spoke at an event at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 27 which covered the films of director Peter Whitehead. Professor Chibnall has access to Whitehead’s archive, and spoke about its contents.
After a screening of Led Zeppelin performing at the Royal Albert Hall on January 9, 1970, Professor Chibnall mentioned that footage of the band performing at Bath Festival exists. “It exists, I’ve seen it,” he said.
During a panel discussion with Julie Felix and the Royal Albert Hall’s Richard Dacre, Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis asked Professor Chibnall about the Bath Festival footage.
Professor Chibnall explained that Whitehead originally planned to combine his footage of Led Zeppelin performing at the Royal Albert Hall with footage from Bath Festival and interviews to form a documentary on the band.
“A lot of the footage is backstage,” Professor Chibnall said of the Bath Festival footage. Whitehead originally planned to film the band arriving by helicopter, but he got there too late to capture that on film. The professor also said that he thinks it’s unlikely that Whitehead ever filmed interviews with the band.
Professor Chibnall said that Whitehead thought the footage was unusable due to insufficient lighting, but “it is usable” and it’s now possible to restore the footage, the professor said.
A display case at the event included a label from Whitehead’s archive which referenced black and white footage of the event. But Professor Chibnall confirmed that the footage he has seen is in colour.
Here’s LedZepNews’ full photo of the label:
Lewis asked who owns the footage, and Professor Chibnall said it’s owned by Whitehead. There’s no music with the film, the professor added.
The existence of usable footage of Led Zeppelin performing at Bath Festival has been a much-debated topic for years. Here’s an extract from the 1997 book “Led Zeppelin: The Concert File” on the rumoured footage:
The performance was filmed on instruction from Peter Grant for potential future use, with no less than four different film crews in attendance. Peter Whitehead, who worked with them at Albert Hall, filmed the entire Zeppelin set for Grant but the film had incorrect exposure and was unusable. No Footage from this is believed to have survived
British Lions films were in charge of the Eidaphor TV projector screen at the festival and also recorded some acts on two inch tape. They were refused permission to shoot Zeppelin. Another team Paradise/TVX recored in black and white on one inch video tape. Again they did not shoot Zeppelin. Finally Gentle Giant Films recorded on colour 16 mm. It is believed this source produced the sole footage of Zeppelin and still exists though as yet it has not surfaced.
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