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Becoming Led Zeppelin review – enjoyable retrospective will be met with a Whole Lotta Love

It’s hard not to head-bang along to the first authorised documentary about the heavy rock legends, but stopping the story in 1969 ignores the band’s more colourful years

Time to get your head in the speaker bin of pop-cultural history for this enjoyable if truncated film about the early days of heavy rock legends Led Zeppelin – the cheerfully ridiculous joke name invented for them by Keith Moon, a play on words that is now almost invisible, like the Beatles. With the help of their terrifying manager, Peter Grant, (affectionately remembered here as akin to a “mafia boss”), they secured a uniquely advantageous deal with Atlantic Records in the US, where their super-heavy sound and endless touring made them hugely popular stateside before they started playing in the UK. And it’s a reminder that the 1970s rock gods were war babies; all of these long-haired pagan deities have black-and-white photos of themselves in school uniforms and short trousers with mums and dads who did their best by them.

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