Check Out This Newly Unearthed Footage From Led Zeppelin’s Legendary 1970 Madison Square Garden Gig

A new clip is being described as "the holy grail" by Zeppelin fans

Led Zeppelin performs onstage at the Forum on September 4, 1970 in Los Angeles, California.
Led Zeppelin performs onstage at the Forum on September 4, 1970 in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Ochs Archives

On Sept. 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix passed away at the age of 27, and the following night, Led Zeppelin paid tribute to the late guitar god at a rousing Madison Square Garden set widely regarded as one of the band’s best ever. Now, thanks to some newly unearthed 8mm footage from the show, those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be in attendance have a new glimpse of the legendary gig.

On Monday, YouTube user user ikhnaton uploaded some rare 8mm footage from Led Zeppelin’s second Sept. 19, 1970 show at the Garden. (The band played two sets that day — one at 2 p.m., and another at 8 p.m.) The clip includes portions of “Immigrant Song” and “Heartbreaker,” synced to bootlegged audio from the concert.

Naturally, Led Zeppelin fans are thrilled by the new 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,” one user commented on the video. “Thanks for sharing this.”

“Incredible find, thanks a lot for sharing!” another wrote. “Listening to the bootleg it is sometimes hard to believe that this legendary concert actually took place, but with this video the conclusion that it did becomes just inevitable.”

You can check out the new footage below.

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