Led Zeppelin fans are losing their minds over this new footage of a legendary 1970 gig

Zep 1970 — (Image credit: ikhnaton YouTube)

Newly-discovered footage capturing the second of two Led Zeppelin shows at New York's legendary Madison Square Garden on September 19, 1970 is generating much excitement among Zeppelin aficionados.

Zeppelin performed two shows at the Manhattan arena that day, at 2pm and 8pm, with frontman Robert Plant paying tribute to guitar god Jimi Hendrix at the latter show, in acknowledgement of his death the previous day. LedZeppelin.com states that "the evening's performance is widely considered one of their best ever."

Which helps explain why a newly-unearthed reel of 8mm film capturing the band in full flight on the night in question is generating much excitement among Zeppelin fans.

Posted on YouTube by user ikhnaton yesterday (May 25), the two minute 48 second clip features snippets of set opener Immigrant Song, which would emerge as the opening track on the band's third album, released three weeks later, on October 5, 1970, and the set's second track Heartbreaker.

And comments under the clip suggest that Zeppelin fans are digging it. "Holy grail stuff right here" reads one comment, while user Simon Perry writes "Wow. These three minutes are more enjoyable than the Albert Hall footage."

"It's amazing to me how just under 3 minutes of fragmented Zeppelin footage is still better than any other band on the planet," adds one 'Deadringer'.

Watch the footage below:

Zeppelin fans are still awaiting a release date for Becoming Led Zeppelin, the first fully-authorised documentary on the band, which premiered on September 4 last year at the Venice Film Festival.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.