- Format: MP3
http://www.uuweb.led-zeppelin.us/1970.htm#07-Mar-70%20Montreux
Intimidator (Empress Valley Supreme Disc)
Discs 1 & 2 (audience/soundboard recordings combined)
Disc 1: We're Gonna Groove / I Can't Quit You / Dazed And Confused / Heartbreaker / White Summer - Black Mountain Side / Since I've Been Loving YouDisc 2: Organ Solo/ Thank You / What Is And What Should Never Be / Moby Dick / How Many More Times / Whole Lotta Love (incomplete)Disc 3 (soundboard recording)We're Gonna Groove / I Can't Quit You / Dazed And Confused / White Summer- Black Mountain Side / How Many More Times / Whole Lotta LoveEmpress Valley have come up trumps with this release. The sound quality is simply stunning and it is hard to tell the difference between the audience and the soundboard tapes. In fact the audience tape is so good that it seems better than the SBD! As much of the show as exists has been assembled, and the editing between the two recordings is seamless. It was however a bit of an overindulgence to release the soundboard tape by itself as the third disc, this really should have been a two disc composite. Having said that it is still the best version ever of this great show. (Jules McTrainspotter Nov 01).
Intimidator Empress Valley - EVSD 72/73/74 - 3CD
March 7, 1970 Le Grand Casino De Montreux - Montreux, Switzerland
DISC ONE: We're Gonna Groove, I Can't Quit You, Dazed And Confused, Heartbreaker, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Since I've Been Loving You
DISC TWO: Organ Solo, Thank You, What Is And What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times, Whole Lotta Love
DISC THREE: We're Gonna Groove, I Can't Quit You, Dazed And Confused, White Summer, How Many More Times, Whole Lotta Love
This set comes packaged in Empress Valley's unique "long box" design case. The outer sleeve is open-ended on both sides and a heavy cardboard "tray" slides in/out. The tray has an opening carved out of the middle that the 3 discs rest in. Each disc is housed in a cream-colored paper sleeve with the Empress Valley logo printed in gold in the lower right corner. The first two discs of this three CD set contains the complete show taken from an excellent audience source. The last disc contains fragments from the soundboard. Disc one starts out at the end of the band introductions. A quick sound check follows and the boys plow right into We're Gonna Groove. The audience tape perfectly captures the atmosphere of the event and displays a stunning feeling of depth. The instruments and vocals are very well balanced with Bonzo perhaps a teenie bit low in the overall. There's a 4 second gap in the tape during We're Gonna Groove that Empress Valley plugged in with an inferior quality tape. The next tape swap is during the final minutes of White Summer. About 80 seconds of the alternate tape is used to plug the hole. When the tape swaps to the alternate source, the depth and atmosphere of the main source becomes painfully obvious. Empress Valley's way of moving from one disc to the other is as follows - Disc one fades out during the intro to the organ solo. Disc two starts off replaying several seconds of the end of disc one. I know some guys don't care for this, but I don't mind. If someone wanted to transfer the set to, say, DAT, a seamless link from disc one to disc two could be achieved. The twenty five minute version of How Many More Times is fabulous. At around the 9 minute mark as see the first appearance of the soundboard tape. It's damn near seamlessly spliced into the audience tape. The board tape is excellent quality, but pales in comparison to the audience tape as it lacks the atmosphere and feeling of depth that the audience tape has. I'm not complaining though as it fills in the remainder of the otherwise incomplete How Many More Times. This is crucial as the medley section of HMMT is fantastic! Whole Lotta Love is just a three minute fragment from the soundboard. The last disc is from the soundboard and, as previously noted, pales in comparison to the stunning audience tape. It is overpowered at times, has dropouts, muddied audio and so on. A rather pitiful soundboard tape. Either Empress Valley wanted to milk every last dime out of their customers or they simply wanted to present all available material in one package. It's not my call. This is an essential addition to any collection and I can't recommend it enough! (Steve Prendergast February 03)
Intimidator Empress Valley - EVSD 72/73/74 - 3CD
March 7, 1970 Le Grand Casino De Montreux - Montreux, Switzerland
DISC 1: We're Gonna Groove, I Can't Quit You, Dazed And Confused, Heartbreaker, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Since I've Been Loving You
DISC 2: Organ Solo, Thank You, What Is And What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times, Whole Lotta Love
DISC 3: We're Gonna Groove, I Can't Quit You, Dazed And Confused, White Summer, How Many More Times, Whole Lotta Love
I finally got a hold of the Intimidator set. Fantastic set, and it is wonderful to finally have a 'close to' complete boot of this amazing show. Reinforces the fact that this audience tape is one of the best I have heard, literally makes you feel you are in the tiny arena, as has been noted several times before the atmosphere is fantastic. Although I am surprised no reviewers haven't mentioned 2 pieces to the show. The first is Robert's use of the 'n' word in HMMT- definitely shocked me a bit on the first listen, maybe things were different back then, but definitely shocking. And secondly (and more enjoyably) it seems the theramin goes kaput on Whole Lotta Love, and Jonsey hops on the Hammond organ for some pretty psychedelic effects. Worth getting almost for that fact alone. (Tim Behrens July 03)
Le Grand Casino De Montreux
Montreux, Switzerland
audience/soundboard matrix
Empress Valley