The unearthing of Stuart Clugston's terrific photographs from Zep's visit to Vancouver BC in March 1970 is exciting in and of itself, however it is made even more significant by the fact that these photos document a concert immortalized on one of the most famous Zeppelin bootlegs of all time-Pb, a.k.a. Pure Blues, more widely known as Mudslide.
Most would argue that the classic Live On Blueberry Hill is superior, however for years the Vancouver show was the only soundboard recording in circulation (excepting the BBC concert) and most interestingly, its original vinyl release as Pb was the very first Zeppelin bootleg to come out, preceding Blueberry Hill by at least a few months.Packaged in a plain brown cardboard cover with the legend Pb (the chemical symbol for lead, by the way) hand-stamped on the front cover with a rubber stamp, the record made no mention of Led Zeppelin anywhere on it. Except for the stamped image the cover was completely blank, and the label on the record-which incidentally is an exceptionally good pressing, especially for a bootleg-is bright yellow and bears only the words P.B. Live [side 1] Recorded Live - Pure Blues.
The album was something of a homegrown Northwest production, pressed in limited quantities in Seattle and distributed largely in the Pacific Northwest, away from the rest of the bootleg production industry, which was mainly centered in Los Angeles at the time.Pure Blues achieved wider exposure when a boot collector from Seattle moved to L.A. in early 1971 and ran into the man behind Trademark Of Quality, currently riding high withBlueberry Hill. The Vancouver recording quickly became TMQ's second Zeppelin title as Mudslide, and enjoyed a long run of success under that name, being reissued again and again in gradually decreasing sound quality as the years went by.
As with all of Zep's bootlegs, the early 90's CD boom revived this classic title and it has enjoyed life as a number of different releases in the CD era-though few of the CD releases, unfortunately, seem to have been mastered from the original tape. Classics Off The Air Volume 1 (Neutral Zone) is one of earliest appearances of the show on disc, taken from a very clean (probably original) vinyl pressing; Zoso's Back To Rock & Roll (Oh Boy) is a worthwhile compilation of material including the 'Mudslide' show in excellent quality, and the Flying Duck's Mudslide is reportedly the best CD version of the show, mastered from a clean original Pb album and digitally enhanced.
enjoy the 7daylink, HQ vinyl rip of above @320
LA Forum thing, I am hoping to finish it this coming week
but may take longer. I'm really only pleased with about 3 or
4 of them (Nobodys Fault, Time Of Dying, Bron-Y-R, Stairway,
all the rest have to be redone. Busy weekend and week ahead as
I'm also finishing a new Tommy Ross album for worldwide
distribution and launch on Apple's new service.
Have a great one!
T
The Horror!!
