The new (and long awaited) documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin finally lands this week and the film makers have released a wee clip onto Instagram in which they describe what it was like meeting Jimmy Page for the first time.
“That very first meeting we had was quite intense,” Alison McGourty says.
Her creative partner Bernard McMahon suggests: “He just wanted to know how thoroughly we knew the subject.”
“We got a phone call from him out of the blue, (saying) it’s up to you to get the other guys on board,” remembers McGourty, before McMahon adds: “That’s really the Zeppelin way.”
Becoming Led Zeppelin is the first officially sanctioned documentary about the group, which seems mad considering they broke up 45 years ago, but there you go. It tells the story of Zep’s early years, but interestingly cuts the tale in 1970, just before they emerged as arguably the biggest, baddest rock band on Planet Earth.
It’s also significant in that there are no other talking heads, except the three surviving members of the group, plus archive footage of the late John Bonham. The filmmakers apparently tried – as much as was possible – to allot equal time to each member, in the same way that Page tried to bring balance to Zep’s music, with every instrument (and Robert Plant’s voice) as important as each other.
In addition to this, McMahon and McGourty have used footage from the band’s many iconic performances from the late 60s, from gigs at Fillmore West, and festivals such as Newport Jazz, Atlanta Pop and the Bath Blues festival in 1969. They’ve even unearthed footage from a French TV show in 1969 in which the band launch into Communication Breakdown only for the audience to cover their ears and recoil in horror.
Becoming Led Zeppelin is on release at IMAX screens from this Wednesday and at cinemas nationwide from Friday. Tickets are available here.
“When I came up with the guitar part, Krist looked at me and said, ‘That is so ridiculous’. I made the band play it for an hour and a half”: It defined the '90s, yet Nirvana’s biggest anthem started out as a self-confessed rip-off
“I just love the music so much that I just can’t give up”: Meet the conductor still working at 97
