When Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty were setting out to make Becoming Led Zeppelin they didn’t realise that surviving band members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones had all seen their TV series American Epic, about roots music in the US, and were big fans. So it came as more than a surprise to them when Page, Plant and Jones readily agreed to take part in a documentary about the crucial early days of one of the most famous rock bands of all time. They’d expected the sort of blank refusal this notoriously publicity shy band generally dished out to would-be suitors.
The result is in many ways a traditional documentary, with lots of archive footage, photographs and memorabilia of an era long gone, but with the crucial addition of Page, Plant and Jones adding lively commentary, fond reminiscence and, now and again, a shake of the head almost in disbelief.
This is not a soup to nuts trawl. Instead MacMahon and McGourty focus on the making of the band and leave it there. Page the precocious schoolboy who became a session guitarist in his mid-teens. Jones the church organist at 14 who also wound up in Soho playing bass for whoever would employ him (both, for example, can be heard backing Shirley Bassey on Goldfinger). Plant the would-be chartered accountant who had his head turned by Little Richard. Bonham, inspired by Gene Krupa to take up the drums. All shared a work ethic, all would take any job and work all the hours. All had talent. If Page and Jones had a jump on Bonham and Plant, because they had access to the London scene, Plant and Bonham had the advantage of the hothouse effect of a tight, smaller circuit in the Midlands. They were in a band playing together already aged 16.
I’m not going to do chapter and verse on how Led Zeppelin became Led Zeppelin – watch the film – but two things are notable. One is Page’s exposure to FM radio when touring with the Yardbirds in America. No singles was American FM radio’s big thing. Page decided it would also be the calling card of any future band he was part of. Second was the musical rapport the band had when they first started playing together. “You could tell it was going to be a good group,” says Bonham on recently discovered audio tape (he died in 1980). Cut to Jones, Plant and Page (they’re filmed separately, which is a slight loss) smiling wistfully as they hear their old bandmate’s voice.
Remarkably, shockingly, amazingly, the band went from nothing to being the biggest thing in rock in about a year. They started rehearsing in August 1968 and by the middle of 1969 they had cracked it. In spite of a sniffy review of their first (classic) album in the British music press, America welcomed them. Unusually for any band of the era, they owned their own music. “We could call the shots because we owned the album,” says Page of their record deal with Atlantic records. Atlantic “had no say in what we did whatsoever,” reiterates Jones. “To have that freedom, it was unheard of.”
The documentary is fiendishly well researched and there are some choice moments, like young audience members with fingers in their ears as the band crank out Communication Breakdown at volume. Or a female caller on a US radio station calling Plant a “fox”. The original rock god has no idea what she means.
Unusually, and against advice, MacMahon and McGourty have decided to play whole songs beginning to end. Which helps bring the era back to life. Thanks to really tight editing the rest of the time, the film still manages to have great pace.
Led Zeppelin didn’t really invent hard/heavy/progressive rock but they did focus it in the crucial year of 1968 and became its most high-status exponents. This documentary celebrates a massive band who have been relatively unexplored on film. As with most documentaries, Becoming Led Zeppelin’s success relies on access to the right people, deep research and an approach to the subject that is respectful without being too reverential. If you like the band, this is required viewing. If you don’t know who they are, you could do worse than take a look.
Becoming Led Zeppelin – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
