‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ director reveals the secret “test” he was given by Jimmy Page
Bernard MacMahon, the director behind the new Led Zeppelin documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, has discussed how he convinced the legendary rock band to bring their story to the screen.
The film combines interviews recorded in 2018 with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones, as well as historic clips of John Bonham speaking. It focuses on the band’s early chapters rather than their full story and their meteoric rise within 12 months to become the most popular group on the planet upon cracking America.
Becoming Led Zeppelin exclusively airs in IMAX theatres across the United Kingdom on February 5th and February 6th, before being released nationwide in cinemas on February 7th.
Now, in an interview with The Guardian, MacMahon, who previously directed the blues documentary, American Epic, has detailed the long journey it took to convince the band to agree to Becoming Led Zeppelin. “It was incredibly likely that once I put in a phone call, the group might say they were not interested,” he shared. “There was every chance we would not even get a meeting.”
The first band member he met was Page at a London hotel in late 2017. During the lengthy meeting, MacMahon went through his storyboards that contained “pictures but no words”, and Page ensured that the director knew his history. At one stage, when they arrived at the part of the tale when Page first met Plant, the guitarist asked him what band he was in at this point. When MacMahon correctly said Hobbstweedly, Page responded, “Very good. Carry on.”
At this meeting, Page was accompanied by Waitrose shopping bags, which he later opened “to show he had brought his old diaries, dating back to the 60s.” Once the seven-hour conversation concluded, Page said, “I’m in – but you have to get the others on board.”
The guitarist then tested the director by asking him to go to Pangbourne, which is where he used to live and where Led Zeppelin rehearsed. “Later, he revealed it had been a test. ‘If you had said no to Pangbourne we wouldn’t have done the film’,” Allison McGourty revealed.
Jones was initially “not interested in a documentary”, but after MacMahon persuaded him to watch their documentary, American Epic, the bassist was convinced by the project, and the duo shared a four-hour conversation down the phone.
In a review of Becoming Led Zeppelin, Far Out wrote: “Across the film, Bonham’s absence is felt in the most beautiful way. Interview clips from a rare chat are shared for the first time with the audience and the band. The surviving members are hearing these vox pops along with the audience, creating some moving moments that celebrate their friendship as a humanising force amidst a pretty matter-of-fact film.”
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter
All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.