I was born in 1960. We always had a radio on at the house growing up. I decided I loved the Stones when I heard "Get of My Cloud" the first time. We had lots of access to records as my dad ran a Woolworths store in Milwaukee. He actually ordered records through the distributor. We had a promo copy of Out of our Heads. A few years later me and my 10 year old buddies shot holes in it with bb guns. (I didn't say I was a smart child)

In high school I was neck deep into the Stones. I had a magazine put out by Rolling Stone in 1974 that listed some unusual albums in the back of this magazine. They were BOOTLEGS. I didn't know what they were but knew I needed them! My dad couldn't find any catalog number for these unusual records. He suggested I should do some phone calling and maybe I would get lucky.

My friend and fellow Stones fan Jeff D. did just that. It seemed hopeless for a while. We finally we hit gold. Record Head on 68th & Lincoln in West Allis, WI. had some of these strange records.

We ran to the bus stop and within an hour we were there. This was not like my dad's Woolworth. Pipes, bongs, strange art, used guitars, records with paper covers. We found it!!

We pretty much just grab two lps that were within out budget. Bedspring Symphony is $3.98 and Nicaraguan Benefit Concert is $5.98. We buy them both and hop the bus home.

We did good. At first the music on Bedspring Symphony is some old 1920's stuff and the announcer talking about old music, then they blend in live 1973 Gimme Shelter. It comes blaring out! We were blown away. The Nicaraguan benefit is also a great catch for the artwork and setlist/performance. I am hooked.

Over the next 8 years I amass over 200 vinyl boots, mostly from Record Head until they were busted in 1982.Most of the vinyl is gone, replaced by CD or digital. What a time it was. The sheer surprise of what might be sitting in Rolling Stones slot at Record Head.

I you could go back in time and pick a few things that you could do once again. A trip to Record Head in 1976 would be high on my list.

Revolver Records in NYC late 80s onwards. I once bought so many bootlegs that the time it took the guys to get the sleeves and records made me miss my plane back to England. Awesome.

Quote
timmyj3
I was born in 1960. We always had a radio on at the house growing up. I decided I loved the Stones when I heard "Get of My Cloud" the first time. We had lots of access to records as my dad ran a Woolworths store in Milwaukee. He actually ordered records through the distributor. We had a promo copy of Out of our Heads. A few years later me and my 10 year old buddies shot holes in it with bb guns. (I didn't say I was a smart child)

In high school I was neck deep into the Stones. I had a magazine put out by Rolling Stone in 1974 that listed some unusual albums in the back of this magazine. They were BOOTLEGS. I didn't know what they were but knew I needed them! My dad couldn't find any catalog number for these unusual records. He suggested I should do some phone calling and maybe I would get lucky.

My friend and fellow Stones fan Jeff D. did just that. It seemed hopeless for a while. We finally we hit gold. Record Head on 68th & Lincoln in West Allis, WI. had some of these strange records.

We ran to the bus stop and within an hour we were there. This was not like my dad's Woolworth. Pipes, bongs, strange art, used guitars, records with paper covers. We found it!!

We pretty much just grab two lps that were within out budget. Bedspring Symphony is $3.98 and Nicaraguan Benefit Concert is $5.98. We buy them both and hop the bus home.

We did good. At first the music on Bedspring Symphony is some old 1920's stuff and the announcer talking about old music, then they blend in live 1973 Gimme Shelter. It comes blaring out! We were blown away. The Nicaraguan benefit is also a great catch for the artwork and setlist/performance. I am hooked.

Over the next 8 years I amass over 200 vinyl boots, mostly from Record Head until they were busted in 1982.Most of the vinyl is gone, replaced by CD or digital. What a time it was. The sheer surprise of what might be sitting in Rolling Stones slot at Record Head.

I you could go back in time and pick a few things that you could do once again. A trip to Record Head in 1976 would be high on my list.

Awesome story.

My bootleg store was called Second Coming Records in Boston, well actually it was located in Harvard Square in Cambridge. As a 16 year old kid in 1986 I would tell my mom I had to borrow her car and my friends and I would drive 2 hours to the store.

My first bootleg was "Welcome to New York" with that wild cover drawing on the front cover of the lp. Second Coming Records was still in business in 1999, the year I mived to Boston, but a few years later it was gone, don't know why, suspect the internet took its toll . . .

mail ordered some boots in the late '70s from an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine..."Get Your Leeds Lungs Out" from 1971 with the cross-dressing photo on the cover.."Around In A Roundhouse" from 1971..."Mick Taylor, We Miss You" from 1972..."Welcome To New York" 1972 partial soundboard..."Rock Out, C-ck Out" from the 1973 King Bisquit Radio Broadcast..."Out On Bail" from the Passaic, New Jersey 1978 Show..."Summer Romance" from the 1978 King Bisquit Radio Broadcast...I can't remember the rest

a place in Boston. I was 13 and my brother picked up WHO WENT TO CHURCH this SUNDAY which were just selections from LA FORUM 1975. We had a Brussells from a year earlier which my brother taped off the Kingbiscuit Flower Hour.

I first started mail ordering boots in '77, age 12, and the first couple were Elton John titles. First Stones was the 3-lp Tour of the Americas black box that I got my parents to buy me for my (14th, I think?) birthday. Then I discovered a store in town here in Victoria, Canada called Richard's that had tons of great boots at $4.99 a pop. Found Welcome to New York (have since had a t-shirt made of that Stout cover) and Bedspring Symphony on the same day and so it began. And continues to this day!

Cassette copy of Hyde Park, bought in 1986..Played it a million times. Paid $20 for it.

The son of my best friend's stepfather had these cassettes with SG outtakes and Stars in the Sky, I was blown away, unlike my friend who was unimpressed. I was 15 and had no idea how/where to buy other boots.

FF 5 years later to the European Urban Jungle tour and magazines started discussing the "dark side", I had to get a hold of that stuff! So I found cryptic ads in the classifieds and made calls. I hit gold, you know the kind of shady character who picks up the phone but doesn't talk until he knows who's on the other end of the line ;-)

Nice guy though, he had tons of CDs, Dirtiest Work, the 3 Atlantic PPV CDs, Trident, etc...I spent pretty much all my cash.

FF 35 years later and I'm still a sucker for outtakes ;-)

--------------
IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

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gotdablouse

FF 5 years later to the European Urban Jungle tour and magazines started discussing the "dark side", I had to get a hold of that stuff! So I found cryptic ads in the classifieds and made calls. I hit gold, you know the kind of shady character who picks up the phone but doesn't talk until he knows who's on the other end of the line

Same for me but we had it easy as boots were semi-legal in Europe : they were produced by the truckload in Eastern Europe. One major Paris retail outfit (Gibert) even sold them openly (until the French RIAA crushed them).

There's one instance where I felt the excitement (and fear) of the forbidden fruit as when I entered this very shady-looking shop rue Saint-Maur. You'd feel you were in "Scarface" during the "deal" sequence that ended with a chainsaw.
The two guys that ran the place could make you feel uneasy.

Think it was around '69-'70, a head shop in Orlando, Florida called, The Infinite Mushroom...think the first two were Live 'R Than You'll Ever Be and Dylan's Great White Wonder, the first Basement Tapes release. I remember TMOG, Rubber Dubber, the "covers" came off when I removed the shrink wrap...I found another head shop next to USF in Tampa, I lived in Orlando at the time, I used to drive over 100 miles roudtrip to buy them, I had around 200 in '90 when I sold my record collection.

The head shops were great bootleg outlets here in Wisconsin as well. As I got older I figured out college towns were great sources for bootlegs.

One of my early finds was a record called "Potboiler" It was one of the many 69 Liver than youll ever be copies. It was a crude brown cardboard sleeve with "Potboiler" written on it in black marker. Really heavy vinyl LP as I remember.

CLaudine and Some Other Girls on vinyl. I was about 18 and I died and went to heaven. My cousin took me to my first record convention in Houston, and I had only taken like $25! So this vendor had all these boots, and I had read about SG outtakes, and she took my address so I could buy them by mail. Turns out she lived near me and showed up at my parent's house and delivered them.
I don't think I left my room for the next 48 hours except to eat etc...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-07 23:39 by stupidguy2.

I bought my first boot right after my second stonesconcert here in Berlin in 1973. When I left the Deutschlandhalle there were members of the American community right at the exits, selling Rolling Again in quiet big numbers to the concertvisitors at the price of 10,- Deutschmark, which was pretty cheap at a time when we still paid up to 20,- Deutschmark for a regular disc. Still got the piece and still enjoy it!

1980 at a market in my hometown:
Clip And Save (Trident Demos 1969) double vinyl and Blind Date (New Barbarians and The Rolling Stones) double vinyl.

The next weeks I sold LP's from other artists I owned (KISS, Status Quo, Ramones etc.) to schoolfriends to have money to buy other STONES bootlegs:

Oakland '78 Live (double vinyl)
Mick Taylor, We Miss You (1972 live)
Bright Lights Big City (studiodemos 1963)

"Live'r than you will ever be"from the 69 tour,still have it...

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

Brussels Definitive Edition Cd (rattlesnake), I found this cd in my local record and got very confused, since I already knew the whole Stones official discography in my head and said to myself ''Wait, this one doesn't exist?''. So I paid the $45 it cost and was pleasantly surprised. Finally a Stones live album which felt real!!

Tour Of The Americas Parts 1&2, both on beautiful splatter wax. Bought directly from Vicky Vinyl at her record store. Went in every Saturday to see what was new. Ahhh, those were the days.

Some head shop in New Hope, NJ, they had a bunch of vinyl in the back w bootlegs. Probably around '81, I scored 2x double LPs:

-- Stray Cat Blues (mix live from late 60s early 70s, including Hyde Park)
-- Brussels '73 (can't remember bootleg title)

... and I also got a 10" vinyl single with CS Blues on one side and Fu&%ing Andrew/Andrew's Blues. I still have them all.

But then I found out about the shops near the village in NYC, someone mentioned Revolver Records, I made regular trips there - there were some real 'underground' basement shops near 4th St. that I went to as well.


I really miss making those bootleg trips. Internet killed it for me ... in the beginning, I was able to buy anything without making the road trips, and then later I was able to download everything!

** Edit ... I forgot about Trident Demos! I saw that in someone else's post above. I think I may have bought that one too, on my first trip. If I recall correctly, those double LPs were $30 ... for me at the time, that was an extremely expensive trip!!

On my first NYC trip, I do remember I got a single LP, Black & Blue Sessions, which I also still have.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-08 02:53 by LeonidP.

"Stoned Concerts"(69 tour) from my favorite record store( Music Man) here in Royal Oak...after that I'd do the mail order thing with Wayne rogers Rock'n Roll University in North Carolina.....man those were the days....Stone Relics & Beautiful Delila were 1st boots I got from him....

Sorry to ask a stupid question but how did all those music stores press all these boots or was the pressing equipment easy to get?

"Charlie Watts and his fabulous Rolling Stones" which was a boot of a 75 concert.
Maybe NYC.

Early '80s. Great little record store/head shop in Salina,KS called the House of Sight and Sound. First boots I got there were Marquee Club, Diverse Harmonics, and Baltimore '69. Until the day I got those I'd only seen ads for boots in Rolling Stone and Trouser Press. Was so cool to finally get my hands on a few.

Live'r on Lurch, 1970. Bought at a head shop in Pearl Alley just off OSU campus. Always loved the instrumental break during Live With Me - Mick singing "I think we got a problem".

That was followed a few years later by Battle, purchased at the same headshop.
Side one unreleased Stones songs
Brian's Blues
High-Healed Sneakers
Looking Tired
How Many Times
In The Bottom
Side two Beatles Ed Sullivan performances..
I Feel Fine
I'm Down
Act Naturally
Ticket to Ride
Yesterday
Help!

Sometime during that timeframe and at the same head shop I picked up a toilet cover slick for Beggar's Banquet, London records. It was pretty expensive, but I splurged anyway. Figured it was a counterfiet, but no matter. It was cool so I bought it. Took it home and pasted it over an RSVP sleeve. It was a little cropped vertically. Several years ago I read that some of the toilet sleeves survived and were cropped and distributed inside some of the original releases. Over the years, I've become convinced that this was one of the cropped originals. Unfortuantely, it did not survive the passage of time.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-08 07:16 by josepi.

Got my first vinyl in 1986 - a used copy of "Mick Taylor we miss you".Still love that Boot.It has a great atmosphere and some powerhouse versions!That's the one I will keep for sure!

My brother had loads of them...

He introduced me to Stones and then all the Bootlegs, in the beginning mainly from the 1972 tour and forward. My first ones were Rock out Cock out and

Quote
shattered
Sorry to ask a stupid question but how did all those music stores press all these boots or was the pressing equipment easy to get?

Record stores didn't press them, they purchased them from the bootleggers.

Check out this blog by one of the "Liver than you'll ever be" bootleggers.
There are several links to different stories he has to tell, including how they got them pressed. Fascinating stuff...

[www.kendouglas.org]

My first was LIVE-R Than You'll Ever Be ..I still have it. Over the years I have collected quite a few. I have Rock Out, Cock Out also. They put out a very cool, odd-shaped record for She Was Hot with the picture of a woman and a candle...does anyone have that one?

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mickschix
My first was LIVE-R Than You'll Ever Be ..I still have it. Over the years I have collected quite a few. I have Rock Out, Cock Out also. They put out a very cool, odd-shaped record for She Was Hot with the picture of a woman and a candle...does anyone have that one?

Yes I have that single, as you say 'very cool' (that an official release of course)........I did have a picture disc of 'LIVE-R Than You'll Ever Be'......great picture but unplayable, (skips, sticks jumps....argghhh) I took it back and got my money (£50 - $85 or so in 2001) back......

My fisrt proper boot (I'd had tapes of the radio and other people's boots) was the 3 LP One more time - Gothenburg 19.6.1982 - [dbboots.com] - scroll down to the bottom for a great picture of Mick if you're a chix..........



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-08 18:21 by EddieByword.

Quote
shattered
Sorry to ask a stupid question but how did all those music stores press all these boots or was the pressing equipment easy to get?

No, a complete pressing equipment wasn't easy to get....there were dozens of small record companies who love to make illegal records to make some extra money

__________________________




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-08 18:20 by NICOS.

First heard Brussels 73 King Biscuit Flour Hour on WMMS in Cleveland in the mid seventies. I used to tape these broadcasts on cassette. I remember getting the LZ '71 show the same way.

First bootleg purchase Golden State '78 in 1979 Freshman year of college Athens Ohio, still have it along with a million others.