{"id":347570,"date":"2026-01-02T05:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T05:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/347570\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T05:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T05:11:10","slug":"heres-the-inside-story-of-how-much-video-and-audio-exists-from-led-zeppelins-bath-festival-1970-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/347570\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s the inside story of how much video and audio exists from Led Zeppelin\u2019s Bath Festival 1970 performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Whitehead\u2019s footage of Led Zeppelin performing at Bath Festival on June 28, 1970 is one of the holy grails of Led Zeppelin footage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The material, shot for a planned Led Zeppelin documentary that was later abandoned as LedZepNews detailed in a 2023 article using documents from Whitehead\u2019s archives<\/a>, remains largely unreleased. For decades, it was thought by the members of Led Zeppelin and most of the band\u2019s fans that Whitehead\u2019s footage was unusable.<\/p>\n

It was only on May 27, 2017 when it was revealed that between 20 and 30 minutes of the Bath Festival film survives<\/a>. Then on September 29, 2022, British film licensing company Kinolibrary published parts of the film on YouTube without fanfare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The emergence of the film, which comprises colour and close-up footage of Led Zeppelin, shocked fans<\/a>. \u201cThis footage is mind blowing! Thank you so much for sharing. I\u2019m speechless,\u201d wrote one user on Led Zeppelin\u2019s official forum<\/a>. \u201cHoly fucking fuck,\u201d wrote another person on the Royal Orleans forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the deletion of the footage from YouTube in 2024<\/a> has led to speculation regarding how much of Whitehead\u2019s film exists and whether it will be officially released.<\/p>\n

Hathor Publishing UK, a clip licensing agency run by Whitehead\u2019s estate, is now seeking to license the Bath Festival film and quietly published a new trailer featuring previously unheard professionally recorded audio from the show.<\/p>\n

Robert Chilcott, an archivist at the business who also edited the trailer, tells LedZepNews that eight reels of footage from Bath Festival 1970 have been found. With each reel containing roughly 11 minutes of footage give or take a few minutes, that means more than an hour\u2019s worth of unreleased film exists.<\/p>\n

The rediscovery of Whitehead\u2019s film was an \u201caccident\u201d, Chilcott says. \u201cA number of cans were not clearly labelled. [Network Distributing] transferred a random batch of materials which they thought related to \u2018Tonite Let\u2019s All Make Love in London\u2019 and showed it to [De Montfort University] to identify it. Mixed in with this was the 30+ minutes of the Bath 1970 Festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A film label originating from Peter Whitehead\u2019s archives that was shown at an event at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 27, 2017 (LedZepNews)<\/p>\n

The 2017 announcement by Steve Chibnall, a professor at De Montfort University, of the rediscovery of around 30 minutes of Bath Festival 1970 footage<\/a> was both \u201cbittersweet\u201d and \u201coxymoronic\u201d, Chilcott says, as more video from Led Zeppelin\u2019s performance at the festival was discovered shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther research not long after revealed that Contemporary Films had a Beta SP transfer of the entire eight reels telecined some 15 years earlier, tucked away on their shelves in Crouch End,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese Mini DVs were subsequently digitised for Contemporary [Films] during the lockdown and they are the BITC versions that Kinolibrary, a then client of Contemporary\u2019s, put on YouTube. So your earlier article, impressively in-depth, cites eight reels, approx 11 minutes per reel, give or take a few minutes at the head and tail of the reel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitehead\u2019s archives were scattered between several businesses and organisations, meaning it\u2019s only since his death in 2019 that the full extent of his surviving footage has re-emerged.<\/p>\n

Whitehead donated his papers to De Montfort University, while his video footage was stored at Network Distributing and Contemporary Films, the latter of which sought to license it via Kinolibrary, resulting in the publication in 2022 of parts of the Bath Festival film on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\"\"John Paul Jones (left), Robert Plant (centre) and Jimmy Page (right) of Led Zeppelin performing \u201cThat\u2019s The Way\u201d at Bath Festival 1970 in Shepton Mallet on June 28, 1970 (Hathor Publishing UK)<\/p>\n

When work on \u201cBecoming Led Zeppelin\u201d began, the filmmakers approached the companies managing Whitehead\u2019s archives in search of the Bath Festival 1970 footage for possible use in the project, Chilcott explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetwork [Distributing], anticipating a good payday for clip licensing, did a full 4K transfer of all eight reels, though I\u2019m not sure it went to 4K as it was originally 16mm and if you blow that up too much it can look worse than SD,\u201d the archivist says.<\/p>\n

Whitehead\u2019s more than an hour of footage is \u201cunlikely\u201d to contain full videos of Led Zeppelin songs, Chilcott says: \u201cIt was only supposed to be B-roll for a proposed documentary on the band by Whitehead until he abandoned it.<\/p>\n

But as the footage was transferred for possible inclusion in \u201cBecoming Led Zeppelin\u201d, synchronised stage-recorded audio of \u201cImmigrant Song\u201d was discovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the telecine, one of the reels had some sync sound mag stock that married up to the beginnings of a cutting copy, so you have the start of the first song,\u201d Chilcott says. \u201cAfter that, you have the film reel rushes stopping and starting, so it\u2019s a big job to sync it all up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A portion of Douglas Macintosh\u2019s 2003 letter to Peter Whitehead (Reproduced with permission from The Peter Whitehead Archive at the Cinema and Television History Institute at De Montfort University)<\/p>\n

Whitehead\u2019s film crew recorded six reels of quarter-inch tape of their own audio of Led Zeppelin\u2019s Bath Festival 1970 performance using a Nagra III reel-to-reel tape recorder manned by Douglas Macintosh, which Macintosh referred to in a handwritten letter dated August 8, 2003 that he sent to Whitehead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was sync by the traditional pulse cable from the camera motor to the Nagra\u2019s Neopilot head until we got on the stage, but Ernie [Vincze] soon found his movements being restricted and unplugged it, so after that there was no sync pulse on the tapes,\u201d Macintosh wrote.<\/p>\n

Without having access to a synchronised version of the film that marries the video and audio, Whitehead\u2019s family are left with the task of reuniting both components.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil someone \u2013 a patient editor and a Led Zeppelin fan (or both) \u2013 sits down in front of an Avid and painstakingly syncs it up, then we don\u2019t know [which songs were filmed]. The footage goes into dusk and then night-time, pretty dark, difficult to see which song they are singing\/playing,\u201d Chilcott says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin performing \u201cThank You\u201d at Bath Festival 1970 in Shepton Mallet on June 28, 1970 (Hathor Publishing UK)<\/p>\n

The synchronised \u201cImmigrant Song\u201d footage did allow Chilcott to create the new trailer, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhitehead\u2019s restless zooms have their own energy, just let them play out,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s more of a taster, obviously as a sizzler for the Peter Whitehead archive and clip sales. [I] kept it simple: key shots of each of the four guys, plus backstage flashes of Donovan, Julie Felix and even Penny Slinger (Whitehead\u2019s then girlfriend), all leading into the start of the gig. The crowd are great \u2013 spoilt for choice with that footage!\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the interest from the filmmakers behind \u201cBecoming Led Zeppelin\u201d, the film\u2019s narrative ends with footage also overseen by Whitehead of the band\u2019s January 9, 1970 performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. No footage of Led Zeppelin\u2019s Bath Festival 1970 performance was included in the documentary.<\/p>\n

According to Chilcott, a potential sequel to the film might be the best chance fans have at seeing Whitehead\u2019s footage. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to wait for the sequel to \u2018Becoming Led Zeppelin\u2019 as the narrative there stops a few months before the gig,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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