“America was my dream,” says singer Robert Plant in Becoming Led Zeppelin, a ruthlessly efficient, largely enjoyable reflection on the origins of the British fourpiece that, for a time, were the world’s biggest band. It was a dream set to come true, the States proving to be the catalyst for Zep as the group relentlessly gigged across the country before their self-titled debut album had even come out in the U.K. A band forged through the sheer tenacity of guitarist Jimmy Page, born from the ashes of his previous outfit The Yardbirds, they were set for lift-off.
Directed by Irish-British filmmaker Bernard MacMahon (American Epic), Becoming Led Zeppelin is the first official documentary about Zep (the closest we’ve had previously was 1976’s concert movie The Song Remains The Same). Premiered as a work-in-progress back in 2021 at the Venice Film Festival, it’s taken another three-and-a-half years to get over the line, but here it is. Plant, Page and bass player John Paul Jones are all interviewed, while previously unheard musings from late drummer John Bonham ensures his voice is present.
Like the title suggests, this is Zeppelin: The Early Years. Covering just the band’s inception across its two hours, the film is forensic when it comes to the pre-Zeppelin moments, as the lads grow up in postwar Britain, gathering musical influences from – where else? – the States, such as Little Richard and Sonny Boy Williamson II. While Page and Jones are working as session musicians – even playing on Shirley Bassey’s iconic James Bond theme ‘Goldfinger’ – Plant and Bonham bounce between bands, honing their craft.
By the time Page and fearsome manager Peter Grant were introduced to Plant, the die was cast. With Bonham and Jones lured in, that first rehearsal in the summer of ’68 – in a basement space in Gerrard Street, in London’s Chinatown – saw four musicians come together already perfectly in tune with each other. “The room just exploded,” remarks Jones, as they watched agog at “screaming maniac” Plant, a man whose deep guttural wails were ideally suited to helping realise Page’s vision for a new, bone-shaking sound.
For those who never saw Led Zeppelin live, the early concert footage alone is worth coming to see. No fast cuts here; MacMahon lets songs like ‘Dazed And Confused’ and ‘Communication Breakdown’ unfold on screen in their entirety. Less successful are the attempts to contextualise the late ’60s – archival clips of the Vietnam War, a Barbarella poster and Black Power protests don’t particularly add a great deal. But it’s a small gripe in a film that does a bang-up job in planting you back in the era.
True, Becoming Led Zeppelin is never going to do anything but celebrate, given it’s an authorised take on the band. But there’s warmth and good humour here (“Planty”, as Bonham’s wife Pat called the singer, was “a complete disaster” in his youth). Naturally, it’s frustrating that the action stops after detailing the creation of second album Led Zeppelin II and opening track ‘Whole Lotta Love’, but the film delivers what is advertised. If you wanna know about ‘Stairway To Heaven’, you better start praying there’s gonna be a sequel.
Details
- Director:Bernard MacMahon
- Release date: February 7 (in cinemas)
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