Passport have secured neither the band's help nor their music rights, although they provide some irresistible highlights, specifically a TV appearance by the pre-pubescent Jimmy Page and excerpts from a John Bonham interview. Misty old chats with Zep members and Peter Grant are bolstered by the contemporary perceptions of Jeff Beck, Roy Harper, Terry Reid, Chris Dreja, Simon Kirke and Richard Cole.
Carol Clerk
Don't be deceived by the enticing claim that this "complete and unauthorised documentary" contains "exclusive and in-depth interviews". They're not with anybody who was ever actually in Zeppelin but with the likes of former Yardbird Jim McCarthy and even a tribute band called Letz Zep. This motley crew relate the familiar story well enough—but you can't help wondering what the point was. Approach with extreme caution.
Directed by Jimmy Page, it took a year of intensive research to assemble this five-and-a-half-hour digital re-tooling of the Zeppelin legend. Previously, the only officially-sanctioned live footage was the 1976 film The Song Remains The Same. Here, a trawl of the band's own unreleased archives combines with reclaimed bootleg material to tell the Zep story in chronological fashion, via 30 performances from four memorable concerts—the Albert Hall (1970), Madison Square Garden (1973), Earls Court (1975) and Knebworth (1979).
