A newly discovered audience recording of Led Zeppelin performing in Tokyo, Japan on October 2, 1972 was recently released by Japanese bootleg label Empress Valley.
The bootleg business released the recording on a new bootleg release titled Live At Budokan 1972, online posts show. It appears the release may also be called “Jet Stream” perhaps due to the covers having images of Led Zeppelin arriving in Japan on a plane.
There are already multiple audience recordings in circulation for this show and it’s unclear whether this new audience source is an upgrade on those tapes.
The packaging for this four-disc CD release describes the newly emerged audience recording as a “new discovery”. The bootleg is limited to 100 numbered copies.
Here’s our rough Google Translate of a Japanese description of the new bootleg release:
“The master has been carefully stored for about 42 years since 1972 and has never been copied! The sound quality recorded on those two cassette tapes was excellent. The sound quality of this master provided by the people involved at the time is excellent, but there is almost no chatting, clapping, or even applause, and it is so well balanced that it makes you think, ‘Hmm!? A sound board!?’ It also includes applause and cheers. He is an amazing master. I can definitely say that this is the decisive album for the first day of the second performance in Japan.”
Here’s the tracklist for this new audience source:
Disc 1
- Introduction
- Rock And Roll
- Over The Hills And Far Away
- Black Dog
- Misty Mountain Hop
- Since I’ve Been Loving You
- Dancing Days
- Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
- The Song Remains The Same
- The Rain Song
- Dazed And Confused
Disc 2
- Stairway To Heaven
- Whole Lotta Love
- Heartbreaker
- Immigrant Song
- Communication Breakdown
- End announcement
As well as the newly emerged audience recording of the October 2, 1972 Tokyo performance, the release also includes a “stereo enhanced” version of an audience recording of the October 3, 1972 Tokyo show that was previously released in October 2023. That bootleg included six songs from the first night, potentially a preview of this new release.
Empress Valley is best known for releasing a series of soundboard recordings of Led Zeppelin performances as part of its “Soundboard Revolution” series from 2002 to 2021.
However, since then the bootleg label seems to have focused on releasing audience recordings of Led Zeppelin such as releasing a previously unheard fourth audience source of Led Zeppelin’s October 10, 1972 show in Kyoto, Japan under the title Last Ballad in 2022.
im sure if page had is way stuff like this would come out as a offical release he did say a threw years ago that there would be some live stuff comeing out but we all know why it never happened as a certain ex lead singer vetos it
I had a bootleg from Japan from around that time. But it was cut too slow! It was interesting from the point of view that Bonham hadn’t appeared on stage, Plant tells the auience h was having tea with a Geisha or some such – they proceed to play some acoustic numbers from Zep 3, that’s The way Tangerines etc. then a very loud Bonzo makes his appearance (too much tea?!) I gave it to a mate in the end. the best one I had back then was Mudslide on marbled vinyl!