Led Zeppelin
The Forum
Inglewood, CA
June 27, 1977

Mike Millard Master Tapes via JEMS
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 214
dadgad Mastered Edition

Recording Gear: AKG 451E microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 cassette recorder

Transfer: Mike Millard Master Cassettes > Yamaha KX-W592 Cassette Deck > Sony R-500 DAT > Analog Master DAT Clone > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > iZotope RX9 Advanced and Ozone 9 > Dadgad Mastering > FLAC

01 Intro
02 The Song Remains The Same
03 The Rover > Sick Again
04 Nobody’s Fault But Mine
05 Over The Hills And Far Away
06 Since I’ve Been Loving You
07 No Quarter
08 Ten Years Gone
09 The Battle Of Evermore
10 Going To California
11 I Can’t Be Satisfied
12 Black Country Woman
13 Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
14 White Summer > Black Mountain Side
15 Kashmir
16 Trampled Underfoot
17 Out On The Tiles > Moby Dick
18 Guitar Solo
19 Achilles Last Stand
20 Stairway To Heaven
21 Whole Lotta Love
22 Rock And Roll

Known Faults: “Trampled Underfoot” was unintentionally omitted from Rob’s early 2000s master to DAT transfer. The version patched in here is from JEMS’ transfer of Millard-made first generation cassettes.

Introduction to the Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Series

Welcome to JEMSí Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone series presenting recordings made by legendary taper Mike Millard, AKA Mike The Mike, best known for his masters of Led Zeppelin done in and around Los Angeles circa 1975-77. For the complete details on how tapes in this series came to be lost and found again, as well as JEMS’ long history with Mike Millard, please refer to the notes in Vol. One: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=500680.

Until 2020, the Lost and Found series presented fresh transfers of previously unavailable first-generation copies made by Mike himself for friends like Stan Gutoski of JEMS, Jim R, Bill C. and Barry G. These sources were upgrades to circulating copies and in most instances marked the only time verified first generation Millard sources had been directly digitized in the torrent era.

That all changed with the discovery of many of Mike Millardís original master tapes.

Yes, you read that correctly, Mike Millardís master cassettes, long rumored to be destroyed or lost, have been found. Not all of them but many, and with them a much more complete picture has emerged of what Millard recorded between his first show in late 1973 and his last in early 1993.

The reason the rediscovery of his master tapes is such a revelation is that weíve been told for decades they were gone. Internet myths suggest Millard destroyed his master tapes before taking his own life, an imprudent detail likely concocted based on the assumption that because his master tapes never surfaced and Mikeís mental state was troubled he would do something rash WITH HIS LIFEíS WORK. Thereís also a version of the story where Mikeís family dumps the tapes after he dies. Why would they do that?

The truth is Mikeís masters remained in his bedroom for many years after his death in 1994. We know at least a few of Millardís friends and acquaintances contacted his mother Lia inquiring about the tapes at the time to no avail. But in the early 2000s, longtime Millard friend Rob S was the one she knew and trusted enough to preserve Mikeís work.

The full back story on how Mikeís master tapes were saved can be found in the notes for Vol. 18 Pink Floyd, which was the first release in our series transferred from Millardís original master tapes:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=667745&hit=1
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=667750&hit=1

Led Zeppelin, The Forum, Inglewood, CA, June 27, 1977

If there’s one band Mike “The Mike” Millard is synonymous with it is undoubtedly Led Zeppelin.

When his recordings of Zeppelin began to show up on websites, torrent hubs and YouTube, he became Internet famous for the quality of his work. This was also the time when many of the rumors and falsehoods about Mike began to propagate on message boards and fan sites. He was intentionally a man of mystery and his passing just before the dawn of the World Wide Web ensured he had no digital footprint or profile online. But that didn’t stop others from filling in the gaps largely based on assumptions.

While the primary goal of the Lost and Found series is to release Millard’s full body of audio work, we also want to set the record straight about the man himself. One question we’re frequently asked is if Mike always used his master tapes to make his first-generation copies, as many have presumed that in order to preserve his original cassettes, he would have made back-up safeties and dubbed the copies he shared from those to protect the actual masters.

We have it on good authority that in fact Mike did dub directly from his masters, so much so that his Led Zeppelin tapes in particular often needed “surgery,” code for moving the tape reels themselves into new, fresh cassette shells so they would run smoother. According to one Millard friend, his heavy playback of the masters would eventually wear out their housing, pressure pad and/or require splicing the tape and leader back onto the hub.

Given quality was Millard’s highest brand attribute, it makes sense that he would do transfers from his masters. However, that wear and tear may have had a bearing on this week’s release of Led Zeppelin’s final LA performance on June 27, 1977. As Jim notes below it is the final night of a six-show stand at the Fabulous Forum, Zep’s home court if there ever was one.

As is the case with all of Millard’s Led Zeppelin recordings, our source transfer was made by Rob S in the early 2000s directly from Mike’s cassette masters to DAT. Unfortunately, this time “Trampled Underfoot” went missing in action during the transfer and didn’t make it to Rob’s DAT. Rather than leave the show incomplete, we’ve gone back to cassette transfers JEMS made many years ago from Millard-made, first-generation cassettes and included “Trampled” from that source.

A rip of Rob’s master cassettes to DAT and “Trampled Underfoot” from the first-generation cassette transfers were provided as .flac files to esteemed LZ mastering engineer dadgad to again assist on this release. He prepared both a flat transfer edition (fixing only levels, pitch and phase issues, with no EQ or other mastering applied) and a second, “respectfully mastered” edition as he puts it, that fine tunes the sound for what we feel is optimum listening pleasure.

Because Rob’s LZ transfers were done cassette to DAT 20+ years ago, we don’t have the opportunity to fine tune playback azimuth as we do when we’re working from Mike’s actual master tapes. The 6/27/77 recording is the first Zep transfer where the azimuth misalignment is particularly noticeable, perhaps due to the aforementioned wear and tear contributing tape alignment issues. Most of the show sounds excellent, but there patches where it slightly degrades, the most pronounced of which is the section of “White Summer, “Black Mountain Side” and “Kashmir” which strongly suggestions an azimuth issue. Dadgad has done his best to mitigate the problem in his mastered edition. Samples provided.

Here’s what Jim R recalled about seeing the final night of Led Zeppelin at the Forum in 1977:

I attended the Led Zeppelin concert with Mike Millard on June 27, 1977. The band had played the previous two nights, so they were a bit tired for this one. It was also the end of the second leg of the tour; I think they had England on their minds.

The June 27 show was the final night of a six show in seven nights stand. Mike sat third row center if I remember correctly, or thereabouts, i.e. in our Sweet Spot. A great position capable of picking up the guitar amps, stage monitors and the huge PA as well.

The last night of the Forum stand was added after the first five shows went on sale and were then postponed from March to June. The first On Sale for the initial shows was a grueling seven-day camp out at the box office. The sale for June 27 was much shorter, only a couple of days. Mike and I had great spots in line. When they let the first wave of us up to the Box Office windows, I was the first one to my window and I got the old grumpy guy that we all knew about from previous On Sales. But as luck would have it, the first six tickets off his stack were Section B Row 1. Yep front row dead center. There was no way Mike was going to try to record from the front row, so we sat separately that night. I had to sit in the front row, darn the luck!

In hindsight, this would turn out to be the last time we were to see the Mighty Zep. Ever.

The June 27 set was a three hour and 40 minute marathon that left us drained afterward. Longer than the standard show, there were many extended solos and extra tidbits thrown in. “Over the Hills and Far Away” was played instead of “In My Time of Dying.”

Summer 1977 was at the tail end of the wheelchair era, but I pushed Mike in for this one. Security was getting wise to Mike’s covert recording, so he passed each completed cassette to me for safe keeping in case he got busted during the show. The corrupt security guards had been instructed to confiscate Mike’s tapes after the show in order to sell them to bootleggers themselves, but we were a step ahead. By the time the house lights came up, I had all the tapes, and would swiftly squirm my way out of the packed humanity near the stage and meet Mike at his car. Mike had a set of cheap blanks on him to give to security if needed. We were always thinking ahead.

I took some good pictures at the show, taking advantage of our awesome seats. I hope you enjoy the sights and sounds from this memorable performance.

Cheers to my buddy Mike. RIP.

#

JEMS is proud to partner with Rob, Jim R, Ed F, Barry G, Jim Ri and many others to release Millard’s historic recordings and to help set the record straight about the man himself.

We canít thank Rob enough for reconnecting with Jim and putting his trust in our Millard reissue campaign. He kept Mikeís precious tapes under wraps for two decades, but once Rob learned of our methods and stewardship, he agreed to contribute the Millard DATs and cassettes to the program. Our releases would not be nearly as compelling without Jimís memories, photos and other background contributions. As many of you have noted, the stories offer an entertaining complement to Mikeís incredible audio documents.

Huge ups this week to Rob S for his original transfer and DAT rip; dadgad for partnering on another LZ collab and working with a more challenging source; Professor Goody for confirming proper pitch; Jim R for his show photos; and mjk5510 for taking care of post production and artwork.

Finally, cheers to the late, great Mike the MICrophone. His work never ceases to impress. May he rest in peace.

BK for JEMS

Led Zeppelin
The Forum
Inglewood, CA
June 23, 1977

Mike Millard and Barry Goldstein Master Tapes via JEMS and dadgad
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 227
Mastered Edition

Recording Gear: AKG 451E Microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 Cassette Recorder

JEMS Transfer:
Mike Millard Master Cassettes > Yamaha KX-W592 Cassette Deck > Sony R-500 DAT > Analog Master DAT Clone > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > iZotope RX10 Advanced and Ozone 9 > FLAC

Barry Goldstein Master Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > iZotope RX9 Advanced and Ozone 9 > MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > Audacity > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

01 Intro
02 The Song Remains The Same
03 The Rover > Sick Again
04 Nobody’s Fault But Mine
05 Over The Hills And Far Away
06 Since I’ve Been Loving You
07 No Quarter
08 Ten Years Gone
09 Battle Of Evermore
10 Going To California
11 Black Country Woman
12 Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
13 White Summer > Black Mountain Side
14 Kashmir
15 Trampled Underfoot
16 Out On The Tiles > Moby Dick (with Keith Moon)
17 Guitar Solo
18 Achilles Last Stand
19 Stairway To Heaven
20 Whole Lotta Love (With Keith Moon)
21 Rock And Roll (With Keith Moon)

Known Faults: First four songs recorded by Barry Goldstein; rest of the show recorded by Mike Millard. Occasional dropouts in the first half of the show and a fidelity drop during “Stairway To Heaven” through the end of the encore.

Introduction to the Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Series

Welcome to JEMSí Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone series presenting recordings made by legendary taper Mike Millard, AKA Mike the MICrophone, best known for his masters of Led Zeppelin done in and around Los Angeles circa 1975-77. For the complete details on how tapes in this series came to be lost and found again, as well as JEMS’ long history with Mike Millard, please refer to the notes in Vol. One: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=500680.

Until 2020, the Lost and Found series presented fresh transfers of previously unavailable first-generation copies made by Mike himself for friends like Stan Gutoski of JEMS, Jim R, Bill C. and Barry G. These sources were upgrades to circulating copies and in most instances marked the only time verified first generation Millard sources had been directly digitized in the torrent era.

That all changed with the discovery of many of Mike Millardís original master tapes.

Yes, you read that correctly, Mike Millardís master cassettes, long rumored to be destroyed or lost, have been found. Not all of them but many, and with them a much more complete picture has emerged of what Millard recorded between his first show in late 1973 and his last in early 1992.

The reason the rediscovery of his master tapes is such a revelation is that weíve been told for decades they were gone. Internet myths suggest Millard destroyed his master tapes before taking his own life, an imprudent detail likely concocted based on the assumption that because his master tapes never surfaced and Mikeís mental state was troubled he would do something rash WITH HIS LIFEíS WORK. Thereís also a version of the story where Mikeís family dumps the tapes after he dies. Why would they do that?

The truth is Mikeís masters remained in his bedroom for many years after his death in 1994. We know at least a few of Millardís friends and acquaintances contacted his mother Lia inquiring about the tapes at the time to no avail. But in the early 2000s, longtime Millard friend Rob S was the one she knew and trusted enough to preserve Mikeís work.

The full back story on how Mikeís master tapes were saved can be found in the notes for Vol. 18 Pink Floyd, which was the first release in our series transferred from Millardís original master tapes:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=667745&hit=1
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=667750&hit=1

Led Zeppelin, The Forum, Inglewood, CA, June 23, 1977

The primary phase of the Lost and Found series on DIME comes to close after 227 volumes with the last of Mike “The Mike” Millard’s Led Zeppelin master tapes. The June 23, 1977 concert is known as the Badgeholders show, a word taken from Robert Plant’s comments to the crowd, and memorialized on the famous bootleg vinyl set For Badgeholders Only, recorded by John Wizardo. The performance is also notable for a guest appearance by The Who’s Keith Moon, more memorable for his antics than his playing.

Among Millard tapes, the June 23 master always carried an asterisk as his recording misses the first four songs of the night. But as luck would have it, our recent partnership with Mike’s good friend Barry Goldstein has yielded his master tape of the first 45 minutes of the Badgeholders show, including the four songs Mike missed. In a strange stroke of fate, Goldstein’s recording itself is incomplete, covering only the first 45 minutes of the set. You can hear his batteries failing at the start of “No Quarter” (not included here; BG’s full 45 minute master will be posted down the road).

It seemed only fitting that we present the last of Mike’s iconic Led Zeppelin recordings with a patch from his longtime friend Barry. While Goldstein’s master was recorded on lesser gear than Millard’s and lacks that level of fidelity, it is still a very good, clear and close tape and makes an excellent complementary component. We should also note, as was the case with the last couple of Millard Zeppelin releases in the Lost and Found series, alignment issues from the early 2000s transfer of Mike’s master cassettes to DAT do pop up here in “Stairway To Heaven” and on through the end of the encore, diminishing fidelity.

That transfer flaw noted, the majority of Millard’s recording is sublime as is the band’s fine performance. Samples provided of both sources.

Here’s what Jim R recalled about Led Zeppelin and their pal Keith Moon at The Forum in 1977::

I attended the Led Zeppelin concert with Mike Millard on June 23, 1977. The gig was at the familiar Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, Zeppelin’s US home court if there ever was one.

June 23 was the third night out of six shows. Mike and I sat in the sixth row, dead center on the floor, perfect seats within our much discussed Sweet Spot i.e. rows 3-7 center on the floor. It was great position capable of picking up stage amps, stage monitors and the huge PA as well. Sixth row is also slightly safer as far as not getting busted during the show, as the stage lights typically don’t illuminate it as much as the first couple of rows.

In hindsight, this turned out to be one of the last times we were to see the Mighty Zep, the final time being the June 27 show, closing night of the run and their last SoCal appearance ever (see Vol. 214).

This was a “normal” length set, around three hours, and it includes some of the better performances by Jimmy Page on the tour. The rest of the band was spot on as well. June 23 is famous for Keith Moon joining the group on stage and “helping” Bonzo with the drumming. Though Moon was clearly drunk, the band was quite enamored with his antics. Moon was the quintessential party guy.

Some of you may be wondering why we didn’t go to all six of Zeppelin’s Forum shows, instead of “only” four. The answer is how the tickets were released to the public. They initially sold tickets for three concerts (the same number of Forum shows as they played in 1975) at 10am. These were quickly gone, then later the same day they released tickets for the fourth then fifth nights.

We heard about this as we were still in the parking lot and tried to trade some of our tickets for the extra nights, but no one would bite. Keep in mind, these Zep shows were the first $100 scalper tickets, an unheard of price at the time. When the shows were postponed to June, a sixth and final night (6/27) was added with its own on-sale date a couple months after the first five, where Mike and I both scored awesome seats. Plus we saw them in San Diego on June 19.

The Summer of 1977 was at the tail end of the wheelchair era, but I pushed Mike in for this one. Security was getting wise to Mike’s covert recording, so he passed each completed cassette to me for safe keeping in case he got busted during the show. The corrupt security guards had been instructed to confiscate Mike’s tapes after the show in order to sell them to bootleggers themselves, but we were a step ahead. At the end of the show, I had all the tapes, and would swiftly squirm my way out of the packed humanity near the stage and meet Mike at his car. I had my own set of keys so I could lock myself inside if it came down to it. Mike had a set of cheap blanks on him to give to security if needed. We were always thinking ahead.

I took some good pictures at the show, but the sixth row was our worst seat location out of the four nights we attended.

I hope you enjoy the sights and sounds from this wonderful performance.

Cheers to my buddy Mike. RIP Mike, John and Keith.

#

JEMS is proud to partner with Rob, Jim R, Ed F, Barry G and many others to release Millard’s historic recordings and to help set the record straight about the man himself.

We canít thank Rob enough for reconnecting with Jim and putting his trust in our Millard reissue campaign. He kept Mikeís precious tapes under wraps for two decades, but once Rob learned of our methods and stewardship, he agreed to contribute the Millard DATs and cassettes to the program. Our releases would not be nearly as compelling without Jimís memories, photos and other background contributions. As many of you have noted, the stories offer an entertaining complement to Mikeís incredible audio documents.

Special thanks to dadgad for his work repairing and mastering both sources. As we have done with all Led Zeppelin titles in the series, we’re releasing this in both mastered and unmastered/raw editions. It’s been our pleasure to partner with dadgad throughout and we look forward to more Zep projects with him in the future. Rob S did the transfer of Mike’s cassettes and the DAT he made at the time, and we’re grateful for both. Jim R gave us his memories and his images, including a glimpse of Mr. Moon. Professor Goody made sure both sources were properly pitched. And last but not least, mjk5510 took care as always of post production and our CD cover art. We couldn’t do this without them.

LOST AND SERIES UPDATE: With Vol. 227, we have reached the end of DIME friendly shows in the Millard archive. While we hope to bring additional MIA Millard recordings to the platform down the road, the series will “change channels” starting with Vol. 228 to what could be described as “The Swapper’s Haven,” allowing us to release a large batch of recordings that aren’t DIME compliant. So if you turn up on a Saturday and there’s no new Millard release, check That Totally Different platform. Again, we hope to bring more missing Millards to you on DIME in the future, but for now we’re on indefinite hiatus here.

Finally, cheers to the late, great Mike the MICrophone. His work never ceases to impress. May he rest in peace.

BK for JEMS

Led Zeppelin
The Forum
Inglewood, CA
June 22, 1977 (Night Two of Six)

Barry G Master Tapes via JEMS and dadgad
Dadgad Mastered 16/44 Edition
Barry G Master Series Vol. Two

Contrast Clause: This is a direct transfer of Barry G’s audience master tapes, which are partially used in lesser quality on this:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=732506

Recording Gear: Sony TC-55 portable cassette recorder

JEMS 2023 Transfer: BG Master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.1 24/96 capture to .wav > dadgad mastering > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

01 Sick Again (joined in progress)
02 Nobody’s Fault But Mine
03 In My Time Of Dying
04 Since I’ve Been Loving You
05 No Quarter
06 The Battle Of Evermore
07 Going to California
08 Black Country Woman
09 Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
10 White Summer > Black Mountain Side
11 Kashmir
12 Out On The Tiles > Moby Dick
13 Over The Hills And Far Away
14 Guitar Solo
15 Achilles Last Stand (cut)

Known Faults: Missing “The Song Remains the Same,” “Ten Years Gone,”
“Stairway to Heaven,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Rock and Roll”

JEMS is thrilled to relaunch our partnership with longtime Southern California taper Barry G with his recording of Led Zeppelin at The Forum on night two of the band’s historic 1977 residency. Barry began taping in the early ‘70s and has been active ever since, though his later work focused more on video than audio. In his heyday, Barry was a dual threat, recording the shows he attended and photographing too with impressive results.

Beyond his own captures, Barry was a close friend of the late Mike “The Mike” Millard, attending many concerts with him. Like Jim R, Barry shared Mike the Mic tapes with JEMS that are not in general circulation which will be released in our continuing Lost and Found Mike the Mic series.

But this Led Zeppelin show marks the start of a standalone series of Barry G’s own master recordings. In late 2019, JEMS put out Barry’s fine tape of Queen at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, March 11, 1976, a heretofore unheard and welcomed capture of Queen on tour in support of A Night at the Opera which is still active on the tracker here:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=659723

Following that initial foray, Barry has now agreed to release more of his master tapes circa 1973-83 which include previously uncirculated shows and recordings of David Bowie, Genesis, Roxy Music, Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, Supertramp, The Who and others.

On occasion, Barry and Mike Millard taped the same show and his tapes provide alternative sources to Millard’s work, including a few instances that fill in missing gaps (among them a major Yes ’74 show). Even more valuably, Barry taped gigs Millard didn’t attend, as is the case with his Led Zeppelin recording of the under appreciated second show of the band’s six-night stand at The Forum in 1977, one day later than the famous Listen To This Eddie recording of June 21.

All told, Millard recorded four nights in 1977 but not June 22 or June 24. This release features all two hours and thirty-five minutes Barry recorded on his Sony portable tape deck with a built-in microphone. While he didn’t have Millard-caliber gear, because he was also a photographer, Barry put a premium on getting seats close the stage, and he waited in lines and paid scalpers for the privilege.

On June 22 he was close to the band’s very loud PA, so close that his tape is distorted in the low end. But the fidelity of his recording is otherwise very good, impressively clear and suffers from little audience interference. Samples provided. With the help of dadgad’s fine mastering work, Barry’s June 22 master recording becomes a nice listen indeed, and to our ears an upgrade to circulating copies of the show, some of which compile lower-generation pieces of Barry’s source.

We believe this to be the first-ever release of Barry’s full 6/22/77 recording, and while he misses the first song and a half of the show, “Ten Years Gone” and the everything from the middle of “Achilles Last Stand” to the end, the large portion of the performance he does preserve is excellent.

A purported four-source recording of the 6/22/77 show was posted to YouTube last April, and in his notes, Led Zeppelin Boots writes: “This is an incredible show, one of the best of the year easily. Despite being less well known compared to the more famous Listen to this Eddie and For Badgeholders Only shows, this concert is just as good as either, if not even better. This show notably features the longest ever performance of “No Quarter,” clocking in at over 33 minutes, as well as the only time that “Over the Hills and Far Away” and “In My Time of Dying” were played in the same set for 1977 (and both are contenders for the best versions ever imho).”

After listening to Barry’s recording, especially the three songs LZB calls out specifically, I agree June 22 has been slept on. Hopefully the release of Barry’s master recording gives collectors the chance to reassess the performance.

As we have done in the past, we’re making Barry’s recording available in two editions: a 1644 file set with mastering by dadgad that we believe greatly improves the listenability; and a pitch-corrected, channel-aligned but otherwise raw transfer in high res 2496.

JEMS wants to thank Barry G for trusting us with his incredible work in audio, video and photographic forms (Barry’s photography of the show is featured on the included cover art), and for deciding now was the time to share that work widely with fans. Please let him know how much you appreciate it in the comments. Of course, these shows would all be stuck on hard drives if it wasn’t for the contributions of mjk5510. As always, we couldn’t do it without you. Shout outs as well to Professor Goody for his pitch advice and dadgad for his sonic enhancements.

We look forward to sharing more of Barry’s master recordings in 2024.

BK for JEMS