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.

The very first Led Zeppelin bootleg in its original vinyl form: Pure Blues

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.

Trademark Of Quality's original vinyl issue of the Vancouver show, Mudslide

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 with Blueberry 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.

The best CD version of the show, Flying Disc's Mudslide	A CD issue of Vancouver 1970, Zoso's Back To Rock & Roll, on the Oh Boy label

The source has widely been credited as a radio broadcast, and recently a tape has even surfaced with DJ voiceovers that supposedly represents the original broadcast. In his book Bootleg: The Secret History of The Other Recording Industry (St. Martin's Press 1994), however, author Clinton Heylin asserts that the tape was not from a broadcast, but rather was a "rare one-off example of private enterprise in British Columbia" taped directly from the soundboard. The raw, unmixed quality of the recording-with vocals and drums up front and the guitar buried-would seem to lend credence to this theory.

Despite this the sound quality is very good, and the show's inclusion of the then-unfamiliar "We're Gonna Groove" as well as an odd "Communication Breakdown" medley including bits of "Ramble On" have made it a very popular and well-loved Zeppelin title over the years.

Now with the benefit of hindsight it's pretty evident that this was far from one of Zeppelin's best nights. While Luis Rey's assertion that it's "a date to forget" is a bit harsh, the fact remains that Robert's voice is weak due to a sore throat and while the band plays adequately there is a relative lack of energy evident, perhaps due to the fact that it was the first night of the tour.

Obviously the enthusiastic journalists from the Richmond Review and the 18,000 frenzied fans who almost stopped the show by rushing the stage felt otherwise-and I guess you just had to be there! Either way, we're lucky to have the recorded evidence of this show, now enriched by the visual images presented exclusively here in Proximity.

Write Hugh Jones, Proximity Editor:

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