A rare, unreleased Led Zeppelin record that the band wanted destroyed has emerged on Antiques Roadshow.
Formed in 1968, the English rock band rose to fame the following year with their self-titled album, which featured tracks including Good Times Bad Times, Dazed And Confused and Communication Breakdown. The band enforced a strict no-single rule in their home country and focused on releasing full albums.
Despite this, after the success of the song Whole Lotta Love in the US – where it was certified gold – Atlantic Records pressed around 500 copies of the single. The band’s manager Peter Grant ordered the batch to be recalled and destroyed.
Copy surfaces at Caerphilly Castle
However, on the latest episode of Antiques Roadshow – hosted at Caerphilly Castle in Wales – a man turned up with a copy of the 7-inch single. He told expert Marc Allum it was given to him in a record shop in the early 1970s.
“I was looking for records to start a disco and out of his bag came a couple of records and he went ‘you can have those’,” he said. Allum said the single was never officially released in the UK and “shouldn’t really exist”.
“There are a lot of myths and stories that build up around these things, and I heard that 500 were pressed and they went out,” he said. “This came about apparently because there was a kind of disparity between the relationship between the band, the management and the record company, and Led Zeppelin the band hadn’t agreed to have any singles released.”
Value and owner's reaction
The owner of the record replied: “Yes, they wanted all of their music on albums.” Allum said that despite the singles being immediately recalled, some people did not return them.
After inspecting the condition of the record – which had a finger mark and light scratching – Allum said it was “difficult to put a value on”, but added that at auction he estimated it would sell for about £1,000. Despite its price tag, the owner said he had played it about eight to 10 times at discos and people “weren’t impressed”. Allum: “It cleared the dance floor, didn’t it!”
After discovering the value of the item, the owner jokingly asked to keep the fact he owned it a secret. He added: “It’s been with me for 55 years and I will probably give it to my daughters to do what they want to do with it. I don’t think I will play it again as it will devalue it.”
Band legacy
Led Zeppelin featured vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bass guitarist and keyboard player John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. The band had eight consecutive UK number one albums and six number one albums on the US Billboard 200.
Rolling Stone described them as “the biggest band of the seventies” and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. They disbanded in 1980 after the death of Bonham.
