Were the New Yardbrids "old fashioned" and "unconvincing"

That was the opinion of one of the panel. Not the opinion of the BBC.

The material played at the audition may have been old fashioned and unconvincing. Only those present could pass an opinion.

However, the fact that Page felt it necessary to remix a live recording is obviously a indication that their live performances weren’t up to scratch.

According to the interview on The Today programme, one of the panel for the BBC disagreed, and thought they were excellent, although I think said probably for a niche market.

Must get my FM tuner* hooked up to the CDR deck in case there are any odd tracks I do not already have.

*Of limited life expectancy, now the government/BBC wish to phase out quality audio broadcasts in favour of low bit rate digital c***.

Saw The Yardbirds last year (McCarty and Dreja plus young(ish) guns). The R&B they played was excellent and they finished up with a blistering version of Dazed And Confused as The Yardbirds played it just before they broke up the first time. Totally blistering and different to the LZ version.

I used to have some of these session on cassette, but lost them - I remember hearing Stairway for the first time - John Peel introduced them on In Concert. I remember Plant saying they were going to do a version of Bridget the Midget, but it sounded more like Dazed and Confused that led into Mess of the Blues rather than a song about the world's only go-go tap dancer.