January 8th was the second of eight shows played during Led Zeppelin's short
UK tour at the start of 1970. It is one of two documented performances from this string of dates with the other being the famous Royal Albert Hall performance finally released officially on DVD by the band in 2003. This show in
Bristol is one day before the RAH show and offers a glimpse at a few tracks not featured in the DVD.
Out Of The Bristol Tale features a fair to very good audience source that is distant but clear enough to be enjoyed. The quieter portions can be very clear while some detail does get lost in the heavier parts. A new year brings a new set list and the show cuts in during the beginning of "We're Gonna Groove". This would prove to be just as effective an opener as "Communication Breakdown" or "Train Kept A Rollin" but would only serve this slot (with the one exception of
Dusseldorf on March 12th) until the Bath Festival on June 28th, being replaced by "Immigrant Song".
"Heartbreaker" is a killer version and contains a piece of "Bouree" in Page's solo. Jimmy receives incredible applause for "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" and rightfully so as he achieves a very fluent performance. We also have the first documented versions of "Since I've Been Loving You" and "Thank You" and get to hear how they would have sounded at the RAH the following night. "Since I've Been Loving You" has not been recorded yet but has the same basic structure with some different lyrics and hasn't fully developed into its final form. A short organ solo precedes "Thank You" taking full advantage of the
Hammond organ used on stage now.
"Moby Dick" gets cut off at just over two minutes eliminating the lengthy drum solo.
"How Many More Times" has Plant's band introductions including Jimmy "Hoochie Coochie" Page and includes "The Hunter", "Boogie Chillun", "Move On Down The Line", "High Flying Mama", and "The Lemon Song" in the medley. "Whole Lotta Love" is now a regular part of the set and the band does their best to duplicate its studio counterpart. No Theremin is used but Page plays around with de-tuning his low string to some effect. The final encore "Communication Breakdown" has a really cool reference to "Good Times, Bad Times" that would be expanded upon in the future.
This show has previously been issued as a no label release titled Bristol Stomp. In comparison, Bristol Stomp runs about 6% too fast and is slightly less complete than TCOLZ. Out Of The Bristol Tale is also much better sounding being clearer and brighter without the low end hum that Bristol Stomp suffers from. Tarantura also recently issued this as A Day Before The Hoochie Coochie Man's B'Day and is reported to have sold out the first day. Out Of The Bristol Tale is very similar to Tarantura's version (both presumably using a lower generation tape than Bristol Stomp) but TCOLZ will be much easier to find.
Overall, this is a very good show that would serve as a great warm up for the following night's spectacular event. Considering there are so few tapes from this tour, this is certainly an acceptable sounding document from one of Led Zeppelin's greatest eras. It is packaged in a slimline jewel case and uses excellent black and white photos from the era.
